Other works[edit]

Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals[edit]

Alhazen also wrote a Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals, although
no copies have survived. It appears to have been concerned with the question of whether
animals could react to music, for example whether a camel would increase or decrease its
pace.

Engineering[edit]
In engineering, one account of his career as a civil engineer has him summoned to Egypt by
the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, to regulate the flooding of the Nile River. He carried
out a detailed scientific study of the annual inundation of the Nile River, and he drew plans for
building a dam, at the site of the modern-day Aswan Dam. His field work, however, later made
him aware of the impracticality of this scheme, and he soon feigned madness so he could
avoid punishment from the Caliph.[134]

Philosophy[edit]
In his Treatise on Place, Alhazen disagreed with Aristotle's view that nature abhors a void, and
he used geometry in an attempt to demonstrate that place (al-makan) is the imagined threedimensional void between the inner surfaces of a containing body.[135] Abd-el-latif, a supporter
of Aristotle's philosophical view of place, later criticized the work in Fi al-Radd ala Ibn alHaytham fi al-makan (A refutation of Ibn al-Haythams place) for its geometrization of place.[136]
Alhazen also discussed space perception and its epistemological implications in his Book of
Optics. In "tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen
unequivocally rejected the intuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of
vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size for correlation, sight can tell us next to
nothing about such things."[137]