The position of Iranian scientists of the Ilkhanid era in reviving and advancing the science of landscapes (light science)

Muslim scientists have studied and investigated the series of topics that are referred to as physical science in two topics: “natural science” and “educational sciences”.  In the meantime, sciences such as the science of landscapes (optics), the science of statics (statics) and the science of tricks (mechanics) were under educational sciences and other parts of physical science such as the science of movement (dynamics) were under natural science or physics.  In the meantime, the science of landscapes (lighting) was one of the first sciences to be mathematical.  In its ancient and classical era, this science expanded and evolved and changed its form in the Mediterranean area and entered the Islamic civilization through the translation of the works of Greek and Alexandrian scientists.   From the point of view of Islamic scholars such as Farabi (259-339 AH) and Ibn Khaldun (723-808 AH), landscape science is a branch of mathematical sciences and an integral part of geometry, which causes errors and mistakes in visual perception.  It is revealed by knowing how it occurs through geometric proofs (Farabi, 84:1949-74; Ibn Khaldun, 2:1353/1019).  Many Muslim scholars such as Yaqub Ibn Ishaq Kundi (185-256 AH), Zakaria Razi (251-313 AH), Avicenna (370-428 AH), Abu Rihan Biruni (440-362 AH)  And others have studied the science of landscapes, but the one who was able to bring about a huge change in this science was Abu Ali Hasan Ibn Hasan Ibn Haytham (430-354 AH).  Although he used the works of Greek scholars such as Ptolemy in his light science, but by writing his great work, the Book of Comparisons, he built the science of landscapes on new foundations and made it scientifically coherent and organized it in a new way.  This book was translated into Latin and was one of the main scientific sources of this debate in Europe until the 17th century.  After Ibn-Haytham, the science of light knowledge was forgotten in the Islamic civilization to the extent that in some famous scientific centers of the Islamic world, such as Baghdad, with the change of the intellectual tradition ruling the Islamic society, Ibn Haytham’s scientific writings were considered one of the main causes of the society’s calamity, which should  be destroyed, but in Iran during the Ilkhanate era (736-654 A.H.), the institution of education, which was at the disposal of Iranian and Muslim scholar-loving statesmen and benefited from financial resources independent of the court, i.e. endowment income, by adopting different scientific policies,  Educational and cultural such as curbing the brutality of the Mongolian element, introducing the patriarchal sultans to the concept of justice and familiarizing them with science and knowledge, supporting various branches of intellectual sciences and training young scientists in this field, bringing back fugitive scientists and attracting active scientists in various fields.  Sciences from different Islamic lands and other than that and spiritual and material support for them, building scientific and educational collections active in the field of intellectual sciences such as the Maragheh Observatory, Rubab Rashidi, Shanb Ghazan, Abuab Albar Soltanieh and countless schools and other such policies could create a suitable environment and  Close to the scientific atmosphere of the Sama era  Nei and Al Boyeh provided for the resumption of scientific activities in Iran.  The result of applying the mentioned policies by the mentioned institution is the revival of rational and exact sciences in Iran, preserving and simplifying the achievements of the predecessors in this field and developing scientific innovations in various branches of these sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, physics and its components.  In such a situation, the science of landscapes was once again taken into consideration, and following the researches of active scientists in the scientific and educational centers of the Ilkhanate territory, a renewed interest in this science was achieved and led to new discoveries.  Khwaja Nasir al-Din Tusi (672-597 A.H.) was one of the first scholars of the Ilkhani era who, years after Ibn Haitham’s death, once again paid attention to the science of landscapes and vision and studied the activities and works of Ibn Haitham and wrote notes on them.  Khwaja Nasir Barkatab al-Manazir Euclid wrote an essay that seems to have an educational aspect like his other essays and provided knowledge for the use of the Taliban.  He also tried to explain the origin of the light of the zodiacal region, which is called “false morning” in the texts of the Islamic era, by means of a geometrical proof in a short treatise in Persian language and titled Treatise on False Morning.  Among other works of Khwaja Nasir in the field of landscape science, we can mention the treatises on ray reflection and flexures and the treatise on rainbow research.  Although these works of Khwaja Nasir did not lead to the discovery of new hypotheses and findings in landscape science, but he was able to become the source of renewed interest and interest in this scientific field and to motivate his contemporary scientists to research in landscape science.  A science that was neglected after Ibn Haitham.  Qutb al-Din Shirazi (710-633 AH) is another scientist of the Ilkhanid era who, following his teacher, Khwaja Nasir, studied natural phenomena and light science.  However, due to his many scientific activities, especially dealing with the general explanation of Avicenna’s law, he did not find the opportunity to do sufficient research in landscape science and create specific works in this field, despite his inner desire.  Therefore, the most important ideas of Shirazi in the field of optics and related sciences can be found in his works on astronomy.  He talks about the geometrical light and the nature of vision in the book Nahayeh al-Adrak fi Darayeh al-Aflaq, and at the end of the third chapter of the first article, he discusses the quality of vision.  Shirazi also mentions the property of reflection in the description of the phenomenon of vision.  In the twelfth chapter of the second article, the moonlight and eclipse phenomena are discussed.  Another important action of Qutbuddin Shirazi in the field of light science was guiding and guiding his student Kamaluddin Farsi in various light science topics and introducing Ibn Haitham’s Al-Manazir to him, encouraging and persuading him to study and research the topics of this book, which resulted in the survival of the theories.  And Ibn Haitham’s works in the science of light science and new findings in this science have been after centuries.  Kamal al-Din Farsi (718-665 A.H.) relying on experiments and experimental methods, unlike Khwaja Nasir and Qutb al-Din Shirazi, distanced himself from explanation and interpretation, and while reviewing and revising the opinions of the past, in the form of two books titled “Tanqih Al-Muhamad”  Lazvi al-Absaar wa al-Basaer” and “Al-Basaer in the Science of Views” to present their views on various topics of optics such as light reflection, light refraction, light movement, the structure of the sense of sight, how the sense of sight is, the relationship between the sense of sight and light, errors of vision, the emergence of color  Arc, halo of light, emergence of colors and other aspects.  In this way, while using scientific and accurate methods, he was able to add valuable points to the science of optics and revive, expand and advance it.  The study and analysis of Persian has been carried out with a scientific and completely serious method, and it is not surprising that it has led to the discovery and correction of some topics.  He conducts additional experiments and presents new ideas in various topics of landscape science that did not exist before him.  Also, Farsi is the first person who added another error to the vision errors mentioned by Ibn Haitham and called it “spreading the effect” and proposed simple experiments to check it.  He used the same procedure about the rainbow phenomenon, the most important optical topic in which he reached a conclusion.  In this matter, Farsi made a major change not only in the concept of the Aristotelian tradition (thinking of the function of clouds as a concave mirror) but also in the adoption of an experimental method (embedding a glass sphere containing water as an example of a raindrop in the sky).  In addition to the importance of Kamaluddin Farsi’s scientific findings in the field of light perception, what has doubled the importance of his works and activities in this field, the facilitation of scientific materials related to this science in the form of textbooks for a better understanding of science students in educational centers, which has attracted the attention of scientists  The Islamic realm has been effective in the science of light science and preserving the scientific achievements of previous scientists such as Ibn Haitham