History according to the vanquished

The common view of science in the West is that the world discovered science only with the advent of Newton, Descartes, Copernicus, Kepler, etc. The truth, however, is somewhat more murky. This article by Jim Al-Khalili discusses the contributions of al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham, an Iraqi scholar who lived in the 10th century AD, who had experimentally proven many of the findings about light and celestial bodies that Newton later describes in his works. He even invents a pin-hole camera. What the article fails to discuss is whether these ideas influenced Newton. They may well have, even if it was in oblique ways. Newton was an avid reader and his reading included ideas by many foreign authors. Ideas are memes. They percolate and survive, often skipping cultural barriers in unexpected ways.