As Europe was nearing the end of the dark ages, science flourished in the Arab world. From Baghdad to Cairo, scholars studied the science of the ancient Greeks and expanded on it with new investigations. Ibn al-Haitham Al Hazan, often referred to as Alhazen or Alhazan, was one of the great Arab experimentalists and a pioneer of optical science.

Al Hazan, who was born in 965, was commonly called al-Basri, indicating that he was from Basra, Iraq. He also was known as al-Misri, meaning "of Egypt." Although his earliest studies were of a religious nature, he soon turned to mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the works of Aristotle. The details of Al Hazan's life are unclear. According to one source, the caliph al-Hakim, who had founded the "House of Science" in Cairo, summoned Al Hazan to Fatimid, Egypt, after hearing of his plan to control the periodic flooding of the...