Sunday, March 14, 2010

Al-Kindi and a Brief History of Cryptanalysis

Today I was doing a quick recap of some cryptography methods in order to prepare my exam and I discovered an astonishing fact about the history of the frequency analysis method.

It turns out that the first inventor of cryptanalysis was Al-Kindi, an Arab Muslim scientist (c. 801–873 CE). According to Wikipedia he is :

Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī (Arabic: أبو يوسف يعقوب إبن إسحاق الكندي‎) (c. 801–873 CE), also known to the West by the Latinized version of his name Alkindus, was an Arab Iraqi polymath:[1] an Islamic philosopher, scientist, astrologer, astronomer, cosmologist, chemist, logician,mathematician, musician, physician, physicist, psychologist, and meteorologist.[2] Al-Kindi was the first of the Muslim Peripatetic philosophers, and is known for his efforts to introduce Greek and Hellenistic philosophy to the Arab world,[3] and as a pioneer in chemistry, cryptography,medicine, music theory, physics, psychology, and the philosophy of science.

Al-Kindi was a descendant of the Kinda tribe which is a well known Arabic tribe native of Najd (present day Saudi Arabia). He was born and educated in Kufa, before pursuing further studies in Baghdad. Al-Kindi became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom, and a number ofAbbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language. This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Greek and Hellenistic philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on his intellectual development, and led him to write original treatises on subjects ranging from Islamic ethics and metaphysics to Islamic mathematics and pharmacology.[4][5]

In mathematics, al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Indian numerals to the Islamic and Christian world.[6] He was a pioneer incryptanalysis and cryptology, and devised new methods of breaking ciphers, including the frequency analysis method.[7] Using his mathematical and medical expertise, he developed a scale to allow doctors to quantify the potency of their medication.[8] He also experimented with music therapy.[9]

His invention was one of the most creative ever, because every monoalphabetic substitution cipher was vulnerable to his method, it was the most fundamental cryptanalytic advance until WWII.

He even described methods to break -cryptanalysis- some polyalphabetic ciphers;

The Arab mathematician, Al-Kindi, wrote a book on cryptography entitled Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma (Manuscript for the Deciphering Cryptographic Messages), circa AD 800. He described the first cryptanalysis techniques, including some for polyalphabetic ciphers, cipher classification, Arabic Phonetics and Syntax, and, most importantly, described the use of several techniques for cryptanalysis, and gave the first descriptions on frequency analysis.[4] He also covered methods of encipherments, cryptanalysis of certain encipherments, and statistical analysis of letters and letter combinations in Arabic.[5]

al-Kindi wrote at least two hundred and sixty books, contributing heavily to geometry (thirty-two books), medicine and philosophy (twenty-two books each), logic (nine books), and physics (twelve books). His influence in the fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and music were far-reaching and lasted for several centuries. He is considered one of the twelve greatest minds of the Middle Ages by the Italian Renaissance scholar Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1575).

I highly recommend that you read his biography and achievement as well as the history of the cryptography methods and techniques he invented :

-- This post is part of the series The Dark Ages or The Golden Ages?, Till When?

Monday, March 8, 2010

PICs from the Louvre museum

Today I discovered a lot of the humanity aspects that I’ve never thought about before, and from what I discovered I can conclude that humanity didn’t progress that much after all.
Walking (almost lost in the time/history) in the Louvre museum today, it was a great opportunity to discover the ancient civilizations and especially: ancient Egypt.
For example, before 4000 years from now, the ancient Egyptians had games like dames and dices, the writing on the stones, paper etc etc.. I was not so impressed by the new pieces of art, the Mona Lisa for instance, as I was by the old ones, and by old I mean Thousands of years B.C.
Actually I touched some of the sarcophagus in there, I wanted to see how it feels to touch something which was made 4000 years from now (and actually touched by someone from that era), I can’t tell how it feels, but let’s hope no mummies will attack me tonight :).
Here are some shots I took while I was there:


Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Dark Ages or The Golden Ages?

In a previous post entitled Till When, I talked about how the Muslim civilization had a great impact on the the world and science as we know it today.
And because a picture is worth a thousand words, I invite you to watch the following video about few of the great Muslim savants who had a big impact on the modern science.

"Take a look... if you dare!"



I invite you also to check the 1001 Inventions website, it has priceless resources about the subject : http://www.1001inventions.com/ .
Thanks to @cyounes for mentioning the video first on his blog http://www.cyounes.com/.

Friday, February 26, 2010

The Other Face of Algiers | الوجه الآخر للجزائر (العاصمة)

I saw this video on the M6 French channel some time ago, and I was totally shocked by the fact that such (inappropriate) places exist in Algeria. Other than the drugs and alcohol that was also the subject of the documentary, I wanted to focus on the point where teenagers are getting the *WRONG* way to enjoy their time.
Watch the video, and if you see this just fine in the traditions, please enlighten me, because it seems that I still live with ideas from the 12th century. What shocked me more, is that parents just take their children there and leave to come back and take them in the afternoon.
I have a question, why such clubs are so damn isolated? And just listen to that girl saying : “each girl dream about passing her driving license, having her car, house.. that’s what we want, we live for this…”, please allow me to say WTF!!! is that the future in the vision of the next (or my) generation?
The video has content that might be not suited to be viewed with/by anyone, so enjoy, and tell me what do you think. And if you live in Algiers, have you ever heard about such parks/clubs?

Saturday, February 6, 2010

#Gaza freedom march today in Paris [PICS]

As planned, the march was supposed to start at 14h from La Place De La République to Israel’s Embassy, but of course it was not allowed, so it stopped just in Opéra.
Here are some pictures of the event, mainly it was successful because a lot of Parisian / foreign tourists assisted and saw the slogans that were hold during the march.



Monday, February 1, 2010

Israel’s plan to take over Jerusalem (al-Quds)

A documentary from BBC that shows the plan to take over Jerusalem : BBC Panorama - A Walk In The Park.
Let the Arab – Muslim leaders just sleep more and more, the holy land and racism have never been an issue for them.

Part 1

Part 2