Alhazen, the father of optics, feigned madness to escape from the wrath of Egypt Ruler

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965 in Basra - c. 1039 in Cairo), is regarded as the "father of modern optics” and was a great scientist. Over-confident about practical application of his mathematical knowledge, he assumed that he could regulate the floods of the Nile, a task requiring an early attempt at building a dam at the present site of the Aswan Dam. After being ordered by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the sixth ruler of the Fatimid caliphate, to carry out this operation, he quickly perceived the impossibility of what he was attempting to do, and retired from engineering. Fearing for his life, he feigned madness. He was kept under house arrest from 1011 until al-Hakim's death in 1021. During this time, he wrote his influential Book of Optics and devoted himself to his scientific work until his death.

Although there are stories that Ibn al-Haytham fled to Syria, ventured into Baghdad later in his life, or was even in Basra when he pretended to be insane, it is certain that he was in Egypt by 1038 at the latest. During his time in Cairo, he became associated with Al-Azhar University, as well the city's "House of Wisdom", known as Dar Al-Hekma (House of Knowledge), which was a library "second in importance" to Baghdad's House of Wisdom. After his house arrest ended, he wrote scores of other treatises on physics, astronomy and mathematics. He later traveled to Islamic Spain. During this period, he had ample time for his scientific pursuits, which included optics, mathematics, physics, medicine, and the development of scientific methods; he left several outstanding books on these subjects.