http://ahmadiyya.org/WordPress/2012/11/02/ibn-al-haytham-the-first-true-scientist/ Sat, 18 May 2013 19:34:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://ahmadiyya.org/WordPress/2012/11/02/ibn-al-haytham-the-first-true-scientist/#comment-8063 Bradley Steffens Thu, 08 Nov 2012 08:00:11 +0000 http://ahmadiyya.org/WordPress/?p=2232#comment-8063 This is a great link. I have to admit that I take some personal satisfaction at the inclusion of Ibn al-Haytham, the subject of my 2007 biography Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, in this list. When my book was on press, I saw a Science Channel promo in which Stephen Hawking–the smartest guy in the world, right?–was saying that Galileo was the first true scientist because he was the first person to conduct experiments to test hypotheses. Long before Jim al-Khalili’s article, my book laid out the case for Ibn al-Haytham as the first true scientist. Did my little book change the way historians have begun to portray the Muslim contribution the scientific method and the Renaissance? When I wrote my book, no one in the West or in translation was calling Ibn al-Haytham the first modern scientist.

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