A Critical Edition of Ibn Al-Haytham S on the Shape of the Eclipse: The First Experimental Study

of the Camera Obscura

Review by Tom Schulte

The main content here is a translation and thorough reconstruction of Ibn al-Haytham’s On the Shape of
the Eclipse, with Arabic text, from available manuscripts. More, in quantity of pages, and at least as
important is the examination of this work as the first known scientific analysis of the camera obscura.
That is, this a Tenth Century example of rigorous experiment with the camera obscura as the apparatus
and a partial eclipse as the opportunity to assay fundamental optics. Reading of this circa 990 A.D.
experiment stirred within me the same feelings of wonder at first-hand theoretical confirmation as
reading of the 1919 solar eclipse; Sir Arthur Eddington’s opportunity for the first experimental test of
relativity. Working a millennium before, al-Haytham did his own important work.

Three parts make up this work. Initially, the subject matter is stemmatological and codicological. That is,
the process of reconstructing the genealogy of the text based on relations between the various extant
versions to ascertain accuracy and derivation. The author discusses this approach generally, making for
an interesting overview of textual sleuthing. Introductory material also includes basic optics and the
geometry of the camera obscura with illustrative diagrams.

A reconstructed text, drawing on multiple sources, makes up the middle portion; English translation and
diagrams verso, Arabic recto. The final part is the bulk of this work. It places On the Shape of the Eclipse
in context historically and frames for the reader its significance as methodical experimentalism in an
antique era. As underscored here, al-Haytham confronted basic questions extant at his time, such as
“Why does the Sun penetrating through quadrilaterals forn not rectilinear shapes…” (This from some of
the source material available to al-Haytham.) al-Haytham assayed such questions in a pre-lens era with
the camera obscura as a ready laboratory for geometric optics and this is shown here to be an
experimental method impressive for the age. The role as analytical experimenter shown in this treatise
where “methodological character is resolutely upheld” is detailed in eight cases of willful and decided
experimentation singled out by the author. Again, this is the record of an experiment with a primitive
optical apparatus done at an opportune time:

Despite its title, On the Shape of the Eclipse is more an optical work than an astronomical
treatise. The choice of studying a solar partial eclipse arises here essentially from optical
considerations: The Sun provides a powerful light source; the partial eclipse breaks symmetry of
the solar disc.

The lead is buried in the subtitle about this “pioneering work.” The detailed geometric analysis and
Spirograph-recalling exploration of the overlapping images that confronted al-Haytham is a ready
undergraduate classroom capsule in geometry, optics, or astronomy. Despite emerging from the remote
past, the synergistic intertwining of geometric analysis of light and experimental reasoning is supported
by a systematic approach of varying all parameters: the topology of the aperture (considered with
barleycorns), focal length, and (thanks to Ptolemaic scales) the distance to and scale of the celestial
bodies. As the author summarizes, “al-Haytham freed himself from the context in which the camera
obscura was commonly used … to engage in a thorough understanding of its operating … through a
combination of mathematics and the experimental method, which was no less efficient in medieval
Islam than in the modern era.”
Reading the first parts, I became suspicious that no date for the heavenly event was clearly stated. As
explained, there is much more to ascertaining such a date, even within wide probability, and this is
necessarily kept until the final third. Since al-Haytham did not date the partial eclipse or even locate the
camera obscura for later readers, much consideration must be made to narrow down the possible dates.
As with the introduction to stemmatology, the author offers a very general explanation of the approach.
From the geography of candidate cities to the circularity of al-Haytham’s diagrams, the reader finds a
gentle yet detailed overview on “dating of past astronomical events” made more difficult due to the
frequency of partial eclipses compared to rarer totality. Finally, this study of al-Haytham and his
disquisition includes an Arabic-English glossary with a profusion of plates and illustrations along with the
more expected supplementary material.
For viewing the 2017 solar eclipse from Michigan, Tom Schulte built a box pinhole projector six-feet long for a
quarter-sized image on a white label sticker surface.