A Study of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī's Role in Optics

Some scholars, among them Hossein Nasr, hold that Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī has important achievements in Optics. The current study that is based on Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s three main books in Hay’a known as Nihāyat al-Idrāk, Ikhtīyārāt Muẓaffarī and al-Tuḥfa al-Shāhīya shows that Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī has nothing assigned to the rainbows in his works. Although Shīrāzī brought up new outlooks in the science of Hay’a, he has no achievement in Optics. What is observable in Shīrāzī's studies, not only, is not new, but also belongs to the Greek scientists before Ibn a-Haytham and Ibn Sahl.