Vision and Light. Closely related to mathematics and physics, the field of optics attempts to answer questions of what and how people see. By reflecting on what people see, Muslim scientists delved into the realm of philosophy and religion. People in several faith traditions have questioned whether the physical world is actual reality or some sort of unreal entity that veils the reality of God. While Muslims joined other traditions in that debate, they also made enormous strides in discovering how vision works. Optics also looks at the physical properties of light, examining questions about what makes a rainbow or why images look distorted when reflected on a convex or concave surface as opposed to a flat one. Mathematics and physics were the tools needed to answer these questions.

The Father of Modern Optics. While earlier Muslim scholars also studied modern...