Ibn al-Haytham and Middle English lyric: Difference between pages

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'''Middle English Lyric''' is a [[genre]] of [[English Literature]], popular in the 14th Century, that is characterized by its brevity and emotional expression. Conventionally, the lyric expresses "a moment," usually spoken or performed in the first person. Although some lyrics have narratives, the plots are usually simple to emphasize an occasional, common experience. Even though Lyrics appear individual and personal, they are not "original;" instead, lyrics express a common state of mind.

'''Alhazen''' Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn Al-Haitham, ([[965]]-[[1040]]) was a [[Muslim]] [[mathematician]]; he is sometimes called al-Basri, after his birthplace.

== Audience ==

He was born at [[Basra]], now [[Iraq]] and probably died at [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]]. There is another Alhazen who translated [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Almagest]]'' in the 10th century.

Middle English Lyrics were meant to be heard, not read. Keeping in mind an [[aural]] [[audience]], the lyric is usually structured with an obvious rhyme scheme, [[refrain]], and sometimes musical effects. The rhyme scheme primarily functions as a [[mnemonic device]] for the audience. The Refrain, however, has several critical functions. The Refrain gives the lyric unity and provides commentary (this is not unlike the bob and wheel found in ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''). In addition to functioning thematically, the refrain encourages audience to participate in singing the lyric. Finally, Musical Effects also encourage audience participation, and they take the form of rhythms and sounds (for example, [[onomatopoeia]] is not an uncommon [[trope]] employed).

== Authorship ==

One version of his career has him summoned to [[Egypt]] by the mercurial [[caliph]] Hakim to regulate the [[flooding]] of the [[Nile]]. After his field work made him aware of the impracticability of his scheme, and fearing the caliph's anger, he [[feigned madness]]. He was kept under house arrest until Hakim's death in [[1021]]. During this time he wrote scores of important mathematical treatises.

Most Middle English Lyrics are anonymous. Because the lyrics reflect on a sort of "community property" of ideas, the concept of copyrighting a lyric to a particular author is usually inappropriate. Additionally, identifying authors is very difficult. Most lyrics are often un-dateable, and they appear in collections with no apparent organic unity. It is most likely many lyrics that survive today were widely recited in various forms before being written down. Evidence for this appears in [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]''. Many of Chaucer's lines bear an uncanny resemblance to Middle English Lyrics.

== Survival ==

Alhazen was a pioneer in optics, engineering and astronomy. According to [[Giambattista della Porta]], he first explained the apparent increase in size of the moon and sun near the horizon, although [[Roger Bacon]] gives the credit of this discovery to [[Ptolemy]]. He taught that vision does not result from the emission of rays from the eye, and wrote on the [[refraction]] of light, especially on atmospheric refraction, for example, the cause of morning and evening twilight. He solved the problem of finding the point on a convex mirror at which a ray coming from one point is reflected to another point.

Middle English Lyrics were not meant to be read or written down. Consequently, the few that survive are probably a very small sample of lyrics. Surviving Lyrics appear in [[Miscellanies]], notably the Harley 2253 manuscript. The lyrics often appear with many other types of works, including writings in other languages.

== External linksLinks ==

His seven volume treatise on optics ''Kitab al-Manazir'' was translated into Latin by [[Witelo]] in [[1270]]. It was published by [[Friedrich Risner]] in [[1572]], with the title ''Oticae thesaurus Alhazeni libri VII., cum ejusdem libro de crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus.'' This work enjoyed a great reputation during the middle ages. Works by Alhazen on geometrical subjects were found in the [[Bibliothèque nationale]] in Paris in [[1834]] by E. A. Sedillot. Other manuscripts are preserved in the [[Bodleian Library]] at [[Oxford]] and in the library of [[Leiden]].

[http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/lyrics.htm Middle English Lyrics]

== Bibliography ==

Alhazen's "Optics" is possibly the earliest work to use the [[scientific method]]. The ancient Greeks believed that truth was determined by the logic and beauty of reasoning, and that experiment was used as a demonstration. Alhazen used the results of experiments to test theories of how the eye worked. The "emission" theory of how the eye worked, had been supported by [[Euclid]] and Ptolemy. This theory postulated that sight worked through the eye emitting light.

Luria, Maxwell S. and Richard L. Hoffman. ''Middle English Lyrics.'' New York: Norton, 1974.<br>

<nowiki>(Large Selection of Lyrics with Selected Criticism)</nowiki>

Brown, Carleton Fairchild. ''English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century.'' Ed. Carleton Brown. Oxford: The Clarendon press, [1965, c1932].

The second or "intromission" theory, supported by [[Aristotle]] had light entering the eye. Alhazen applied the scientific method and performed experiments to determine that the "intromission" theory was the scientifically correct theory.

Gray, Douglas. ''Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric.'' London, Boston: Routledge and K. Paul, 1972.

Alhazen's influenced Westerners such as Bacon and [[Kepler]] through his extensive writings.

Manning, Stephen. ''Wisdom and Number; Toward a Critical Appraisal of the Middle English Religious Lyric.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962.

== Bibliography ==

Reiss, Edmund. ''The Art of the Middle English Lyric; Essays in Criticism.'' Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1972.

Speirs, John. ''Medieval English Poetry: the Non-Chaucerian Tradition.'' London: Faber and Faber, 1957.

''Ibn al-Haytham's Optics: A Study of the Origins of Experimental Science,'' by Saleh Beshara Omar (Bibliotheca Islamica, 1977)

Oliver, Raymond. ''Poems without Names; the English Lyric, 1200-1500.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.

==External links==

* [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Al-Haytham.html Biography of al-Hatham at MacTutor archive]

* [http://www.islamonline.net/english/Science/2001/08/article11.shtml Alhazen Master of Optics]

Woolf, Rosemary. ''The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages.'' Oxford: Clarendon P., 1968.

[[Category:Middle English literature|Middle English Lyric]]

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