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The Light of the Stars—A Short Discourse by Ibn Al-Haytham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Abstract

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Type
Notes and Documents
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1971

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References

1 Loth, O., Catalogue of Arabic MSS. in the India Office Library, MS. 734, III, Ff. 10v.-12 (London, 1877), 212.Google Scholar

2 Bibliothecae Bodleianae Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium Catalogus a Joanne Uri confectus, MS. Selden. A32, Ff. 142–146. (Pars Prima, Oxford, 1787), 190.Google Scholar

3 Ahlwardt, W., Verzeichnis der arabischen Handschriften der Königl. Bibliothek zu Berlin (10 vols., Berlin, 18871899), v, MS. 5668.Google Scholar

4 Cami, Fatih, Defteri Fatih kūtüphanesi (n.d.), MS. 3439, dated 587 A.H. Atif Efendi, Defteri kütüphane'i Atif Efendi (1310 A.H.). MS. 1714, dated 1158 A.H.Google Scholar

5 Wiedemann, E., Über das Licht der Sterne, Wochenschrift fūr Astronomie, Meteorologie u. Geographie, xvii (1890), 129133.Google Scholar

6 Ibn al-Haitham, , Majmū ‘al-Rasā’ il. (Dā' iratu'l-Ma ‘ārif-il-Osmania, Hyderabad-Deccan, India, 1938.)Google Scholar

7 Schramm, M., Ibn al-Haythams Weg zur Physik (Wiesbaden, 1963), 274285.Google Scholar

8 Usaybi‘a, Ibn Abi, ‘Uyūn al-Anbī’ fi Tabaqāt al-Atibbā’, edited Müller, R. (Königsberg, 1884), ii, 97.Google Scholar

9 Wiedemann, E., al-Haitam, Ibn, ein arabischer Gelehrter, in Festschrift für J. Rosenthal (Leipzig, 1906), 149178.Google Scholar

10 See e.g. Winter, H. J. J. and ‘Arafat, W., “A discourse on the concave spherical mirror”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bengal (Science), xvi (1950), 116.Google Scholar

11 Kohl, K.. “Über das Licht des Mondes”, eine Untersuchung von Ibn al-Haytham, Sitzungsberichte der Physik.-med. Soz. Erlangen, lvi–lvii (19241925), 305398.Google Scholar

12 al-kawākib.

13 al-qamar.

See Ibn al-Haytham's work entitled On the Light of the Moon (K. Kohl, op. cit.).

More recently it has been critically examined by Schramm, M., op. cit., 6987Google Scholar; and was listed by Winter, H. J. J., The Arabic Optical MSS. in the British Isles (Mathematical and Physical Optics), Centaurus, v (1956), 7388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 lit. the meaning or significance, al-ma‘nā.

15 hijāly, crescent-shaped.

16 al-kawākib al-thābitah.

17 al-mutahayyirah.

18 Jawhar.

19 mumāssah.

20 dā'irat al-burūj. The Bodleian MS. has “al-burj”.

21 lit. when it opposes a “quarter” to the sun.

22 qit'ah.pl. qita‘.

23 lit. near to it, before and after it.

24 mustatīl.

25 In the Bodleian MS. the word “al-kawākib” is found—a scribe's error.

26 lit. eyesight.

27 Zuhara.

28 ‘Utārid.

29 See ref. 14.

30 See ref. 14.

31 See ref. 29.

32 See e.g. Winter, H. J. J. and ‘Arafat, W., “A Statement on Optical Reflection and ‘Refraction’ attributed to Nasir al-Dīn al-Tũsī”, Isis, xlii (1951), 138142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 See e.g. Winter, H. J. J. and ‘Arafat, W., “Ibn al-Haytham on the paraboloidal focusing mirror”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bengal (Science), xv (1949), 2540.Google Scholar

34 M. Schramm, op. cit. Summary, facing p. 1. Winter, H. J. J., “The optical researches of Ibn al-Haytham”, Centaurus, iii (1954), 190210.Google Scholar