ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Futūḥ ibn Ibrahīm ibn Abū Bakr (; 1312–1359/62 CE), known as Ibn Durayhim al-Mawsilī () was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, cryptologist and

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

Cryptology

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". 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.

''The Book on the Usefulness of Animals''

In the year 1355 CE, Ibn al-Durayhim compiled the ''Book on the Usefulness of Animals'' (). The work draws largely on the work of Ibn Bakhtīshūʿ and

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

. The manuscript is now housed in the Escorial Library (Ar.898). The text contains 91 illustrations of various animals.

References

1312 births 14th-century deaths Medieval cryptographers Mathematicians of the medieval Islamic world 14th-century Arab people 14th-century mathematicians {{math-hist-stub