On Monday, millions of Americans looked skyward to observe the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the United States in almost one century.

Many used a pin-hole camera to safely view the astronomical event - which, it turns out, is credited to a Muslim physicist from the Arab world.

With anti-Muslim sentiment on the rise in the West, here's a reminder of one of many often-disregarded contributions Muslims have presented to the world:

As Huffington Post's social media editor, Rowaida Abdelaziz, pointed out on Twitter, the camera obscura - commonly known as the pinhole camera - was invented by Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040), also known by his Latinized first name "Alhazen".

The scientist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, was born in Iraq and spent most of his life in Egypt.

Often dubbed "the father of optics," Al-Haytham is considered one of history's most prominent Muslim scientists and among the top researchers of optics of all time.

Among his many contributions to the world of optics is his invention of the camera obscura.

Al-Haytham made a tiny hole on the side of an opaque box, allowing light rays to be projected through that hole into the box, then falling on the latter's back wall. 

With that mechanism, he managed to build devices that capture accurate images after noting that "the smaller the pinhole, the sharper the image quality," according to Lost Islamic History.

According to the BBC, Al-Haytham was the first scientist to correctly explain how humans perceive light and see objects. He is also credited with discovering the laws of refraction.

He established the idea that we see objects because the light that shines upon them enters our eyes, experimentally proving what is known as the emission theory.

He was actually the first scientist to use mathematics to demonstrate that process.

Through his research on how light travels through apertures, he played a major role in the development of the world's first cameras, having provided the basis for the mechanisms used in modern-day cameras.

Since personalized and inclusive emojis are all the rage now, we have found the ultimate emoji app for Muslims.

Created by Ohio-based realtor, publisher, and app developer, Sakeena Rashid, the app will give you the ultimate Muslim text-messaging experience. 

The custom emoji keyboard, which is available in the App Store, features over 200 emojis and GIFs that relate to the various aspects of Islamic life. It includes emojis for many occasions and situations such as fasting during Ramadan, making du'aa, eating halal foods, etc.

Rashid explains the inspiration behind the application by noting that the tech world is "not helping us (Muslims) express who we really are," adding that she is "disheartened with the constant negative portrayals of Muslims in media".

Here are some of the emojis found in the app:  

Islamoji is only available for Apple products and cost around $1.99.

You can get the app here.

Earlier this year, Unicode Consortium - the organization responsible for the evolution of emoji - announced that its latest update will include a hijabi emoji.

This came a year after then-15-year-old Rayouf Alhumedhi sent a proposal to the organization, asking for a hijabi emoji.

Alhumedhi came up with the idea after chatting with her friends in a WhatsApp group - where each person was asked to choose an emoji that represented them. 

"My friends, who don’t wear the headscarf, they found something. For me? I had to opt to not use an image of a woman wearing a headscarf. Because there isn’t one," Alhumedhi said at the time, according to The Washington Post.