Ibn Adlan was involved in literature and poetry, and taught on the Arabic language at the Al-Salihiyya Mosque of Cairo.
10 Facts About Ibn Adlan
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2.
Ibn Adlan was in contact with various rulers of his time, and in this capacity he gained practical experience in cryptanalysis or the science of breaking encoded messages.
3.
Ibn Adlan dedicated On Cryptanalysis, his only surviving work on the topic, to Al-Ashraf Musa, the Ayyubid Emir of Damascus.
4.
Ibn Adlan wrote three other books, including Al-Mu'lam, on cryptanalysis, but it is lost.
5.
Ibn Adlan was of an Arab origin and received education in Baghdad, including lessons on syntax by the grammarian Abu al-Baqa al-Ukbari.
6.
Ibn Adlan was in contact with various rulers, and in this capacity he gained practical experience in cryptanalysis, which he calls hall al-mutarjam.
7.
Ibn Adlan was known by his multiple nisbas : al-Mawsili, al-Nahwi and al-Mutarjim.
8.
Ibn Adlan wrote on the analysis of ciphers in which the space is represented by variable symbols.
9.
Ibn Adlan adds special principles for analysing encrypted poetry, including the knowledge of prosody, rhymes and meters.
10.
Ibn Adlan then explains his cryptanalysis steps, moving from the ciphertext to possible solutions, then to the suspected, the probable, and eventually the confirmed solution.