ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Futūḥ ibn Ibrahīm ibn Abū Bakr (Arabic: علي بن محمد بن عبد العزيز بن فتوح بن ابراهيم بن أبي بكر; 1312–1359/62 CE)[1], known as Ibn Durayhim al-Mawsilī (Arabic: ابن الدريهم الموصلي) was a writer, mathmetician, cryptologist and scribe.[2]

Cryptology edit

Ibn al-Durayhim gave detailed descriptions of eight cipher systems that discussed substitution ciphers, leading to the earliest suggestion of a "tableau" of the kind that two centuries later became known as the "Vigenère table".[2]

His book entitled Clear Chapters Goals and Solving Ciphers (مقاصد الفصول المترجمة عن حل الترجمة) was recently discovered, but has yet to be published. It includes the use of the statistical techniques pioneered by Al-Kindi and Ibn 'Adlan.[3]

The Book on the Usefulness of Animals edit

In the year 1355 CE, Ibn al-Durayhim compiled the Book on the Usefulness of Animals (Arabic: كتاب منافع الحيوان).[2] The work draws largely on the work of Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ and Aristotle. The manuscript is now housed in the Escorial Library (Ar.898).[4] The text contains 91 illustrations of various animals.[4]

References edit

  1. ^ al-Ṣafādī, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl b. Aybak (1998). Abū Zayd, ʿAlī (ed.). Aʿyan al-ʿaṣr wa aʿwān al-naṣr (in Arabic). Vol. 3. Damascus. pp. 521–528.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ a b c Leeuw, ed. by Karl de; Bergstra, Jan (2007). The History of Information Security: A Comprehensive Handbook (1. ed.). Elsevier. p. 279. ISBN 978-0444516084. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ Broemeling, Lyle D. (1 November 2011). "An Account of Early Statistical Inference in Arab Cryptology". The American Statistician. 65 (4): 255–257. doi:10.1198/tas.2011.10191. S2CID 123537702.
  4. ^ a b Contadini, Anna (1989). "The Kitāb Manāfiʿ al-Ḥayawān in the Escorial Library". Islamic Art. 3: 33–57.