Alhazen, the father of modern optics, feigned madness

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) regarded as the "father of modern optics” assumed that he could regulate the floods of the Nile. After being ordered by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, 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 and was placed under house arrest.