1-3 of 3 Results  for:

  • Before 1400: The Ancient and Medieval Worlds x
Clear all

Article

Ibn al-Haytham  

Abdelhamid I. Sabra

Egyptian scientist, was known in his lifetime as al-Basri, where he was first in Basra, Iraq, and as al-Misri, since he ended his life in Cairo, having escaped from the “widespread plagues” described in some detail by the Christian physician Ibn Butlan (d. AH 458/1066 CE). Ibn Butlan witnessed the plagues while he traveled to Aleppo, al-Fustat, and al-Qustantiniyya, and he lists Ibn al-Haytham among “the men of science” who fell victim to the plague.

Ibn al-Haytham’s education is known mainly from his extant writings, which luckily are many, most of them original and impressive, with continuous interest in astronomy, and especially a new significant emphasis on the study of light as a clear branch of “physics”: “light,” he noted, in his Optics book 5 does not behave in the way it does for the sake of the eye He was not an atomist but he accepted ...

Article

Ibn Bajjah  

Allen J. Fromherz

early Moroccan scientist, was born near the Spanish city of Saragossa toward the end of the eleventh century. His full name was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yayha hin al-Sa’igh al Tujibi al Andalusi al Sarakusti ibn Bajja, and he is known as Avempace in medieval Latin. According to some accounts, Ibn Bajjah’s ancestors were Andalusi or Safardic Jews. Ibn Bajjah’s connection to Africa began in 1110 when the city of Saragossa fell to the Almoravids of the Saharan Desert. As a wazir or minister to various Almoravid governers Ibn Bajjah traveled frequently between North Africa and Al Andalus Muslim Spain Indeed it was the Almoravid capture of al Andalus that united the Sahara North Africa and al Andalus as one political unit He is known primarily for his deeply philosophical works on the nature of the divine and the individual soul works that would became widely popular in translation ...

Article

Ibn Rushd  

Allen J. Fromherz

philosopher, scientist, and theologian, was born Abu al Walid Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Rushd. Known in the Medieval Latin West as Averroes, he was one of the most influential commentators on Aristotle and on Plato’s Republic. A philosopher, scientist, and theologian of remarkable ability, Ibn Rushd famously stated that there was no inherent inconsistency between Greek rational thought and Islam. Born in 1120 in Cordoba Ibn Rushd wrote and studied in North Africa as well as in Muslim Spain al Andalus Although his life has often been portrayed as a struggle between rational thought and the tyranny of the African Almohad rulers who reigned in al Andalus Ibn Rushd s thinking was influenced as much by his time in Africa as his time in Spain Popular depictions of Ibn Rushd as an oppressed liberal thinker and as a European stifled by the close mindedness of the ...