Front: Abu Ali al Hassan ibn al Haitham (965-1040), Arab mathematician and physicist

He wrote the first important book on optics since the time of Ptolemy. His Treasury of Optics, first published in Latin in 1572, discusses lenses, plane and curved mirrors, and colors. He was the first to advance the notion that the eye refracted the light rather than emitting it, a view commonly held in his time.

Back: Hadba minaret at the Great Nurid Mosque in Mosul