Bradley Steffens

Despite being one of the most brilliant mathematicians in the Abbasid caliphate, Alhasan Ibn al-Haytham makes a quiet living in Basra as a scholar and copyist. He's preparing to write a new treatise on vision and light when a strange man wearing unusual clothes kidnaps him and takes him to Cairo, for a meeting with the caliph, Al-Hakim. The "mad king" of the Fatimid caliphate wants Alhasan, to utilize his brilliance to dam the mighty Nile River. What...

An account of the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, during which fires began which raged unchecked over the city, virtually destroying it.