4 moments

1. Birth in Basra

   0965-01-01 · Basra, Iraq

   

   Ibn al-Haytham was born in Basra, then a major city in southern Iraq. This is the earliest securely dated physical-presence event in the surviving biographical record.

2. House arrest and work on the Book of Optics

   1011-01-01 · Cairo, Egypt

   

   A later biographical tradition places Ibn al-Haytham under house arrest in Cairo from 1011 to 1021. It associates this confinement with his composition of the Book of Optics; the episode should be treated cautiously because medieval accounts of his life differ in detail. The exact site of confinement is not securely identified; coordinates represent central historic Cairo. The account is based on later biographical tradition.

3. Residence near al-Azhar after release

   1021-01-01 · Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt

   

   After al-Hakim's death and Ibn al-Haytham's release from confinement, he lived near al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, where he taught, wrote scientific texts, and copied manuscripts for income. Coordinates identify al-Azhar Mosque, near which the source places his residence; the exact Qubbah site is unknown.

4. Death in Cairo

   1040-01-01 · Cairo, Egypt

   

   Ibn al-Haytham died in Cairo after a long period of literary and scientific work there. Biographical sources differ somewhat on the exact year, so the conventional date is recorded with reduced confidence. The year of death is disputed in scholarly reference works; 1040 is a commonly used conventional date.