Fragments of what could be the world’s oldest Koran.
Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham
Cryptic Codes Yet to Be Cracked: Photos
View Caption + #1: Oct. 31, 2011 --
Known as the Copiale Cipher, the mysterious text seen here was the work of a secretive 18th-century society. Discovered in East Germany and first examined in the 1970s, the 75,000-character cipher details the operations and rituals of this 300-year-old group. The cipher was cracked by a team of U.S. and Swedish researchers led by University of Southern California computer scientist Kevin Knight. Interestingly enough, the code revealed the political leanings of the organization and its curious fascination with eye surgery. Although a combination of human ingenuity and computing power solved this centuries-old text, there are still other codes, both modern and ancient, whose meanings have eluded even the most skilled cryptographers. Explore other texts whose meanings are still hidden to history. BLOG: FINALLY! MYSTERIOUS CIPHER CODE CRACKED
Kevin Knight
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The Voynich manuscript, a 15th-century parchment containing both a coded script and mysterious drawings, was discovered in 1912 in the Villa Mondragone near Rome. Even since its discovery, it has confounded cryptographers. Only this year did researchers even determine how old the text is. Even the true author of the text is something of a mystery. Theories range from a 13th-century friar named Roger Bacon to a religious sect hiding their customs and rituals in the pages of the manuscript. Although the book contains nearly a quarter of a million characters, they are of such variety as to further complicate deciphering the text. Some resemble Latin letters and Roman numerals, while others are completely unique. The drawings only serve to further confuse anyone looking to see through to the meaning of the text. NEWS: MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT'S AGE DETERMINED
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale
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Discovered in 1908 in Crete, the Phaistos Disk is a Bronze-Age relic containing a script that dates back about 4,000 years. Measuring around 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) in diameter and containing some 45 symbols repeated throughout the artifact, the pottery disk contains a mix of figures resembling humans, plants, weapons and animals. Since its discovery, the authenticity of the Phaistos Disk has been questioned by some archaeologists who argue it's a forgery. But most scholars accept it as a genuine product of its time.
Corbis
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Thousands of artifacts bearing Indus Script, a more than 4,000-year-old writing form tied to the prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, have been discovered over the past century. However, the meaning of these ancient hieroglyphics has remained a mystery to anyone looking to decipher them. Although a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identified patterns in the symbols taken from different artifacts bearing this text, the language remains a mystery. In fact, some archaeologists have questioned whether the script represents a language at all, or "merely pictograms of political or religious icons," as reported in a related release from Science Daily. With the discovery of sequences and patterns in the script, however, those looking to decode these ancient texts are more confident that the codes reflect an underlying logic of a verbal system.
J. M. Kenoyer / harappa.com via ScienceDaily.
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Discovered on Easter Island in the 19th century, Rongorongo is a text found only on fragments of wooden objects. It consists of glyphs resembling human, animal and plant figures as well as abstract, geometric symbols. Dating the text has proven tricky, since researchers can only radiocarbon-date the wood, not necessarily the text itself. Evidence suggests, however, that the text couldn't date much further back than around 700 years ago.
Corbis
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During the 1960s and 1970s, the San Francisco area was terrorized by a serial killer who called himself "The Zodiac." He sent many letters to the San Francisco Chronicle documenting his crimes over the years. The letters the Zodiac killer sent also included a code in the form a cipher, only one of which has ever been deciphered. However, rather than providing any insight into the identity of the killer, the solution to the cryptogram is instead a vulgar statement about what motivates the killer. PHOTOS: MOST INFAMOUS COLD CASES
Corbis
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You'd think it would take a world-class cryptographer to create the four hidden messages embedded in Kryptos, a sculpture that resides on the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. Generations of codebreakers haven't been able to crack the full message concealed within this artwork. In fact, the message is the creation of artist Jim Sanborn, who is allegedly the only one who knows the final solution. The sculpture is made up of four sections, three of which have been solved. (To view the original text of the puzzle, click here.) The fourth section of the piece has confounded both professional and amateur cryptographers. Since the sculpture's dedication, Sanborn has released a few clues about the pieces, including that the first three sections contain the keys to solving the fourth.
Central Intelligence Agency
Fragments of what could be the world’s oldest Koran have been found in an English library after laying unrecognized for nearly a century.
The finding “is news to rejoice Muslim hearts,” Muhammad Isa Waley, lead curator for Persian and Turkish manuscripts at the British Library, said.
Written with ink in a surprisingly clear early form of Arabic script known as Hijazi, the manuscript consists of two parchment leaves and is part of the Mingana Collection, held in the University of Birmingham’s Cadbury Research Library.
The collection is made up of over 3,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts in over 20 languages and was the property of Alphonse Mingana (1878-1937), a Chaldean priest and historian. He built up his collection in the 1920s, when he embarked on three trips to the Middle East to purchase manuscripts.
The collection was later acquired “to raise the status of Birmingham as a center for religious studies and attract prominent theological scholars,” the University of Birmingham said in a statement.
For years the manuscript had been bound with leaves of a similar Koran manuscript, which is datable to the late seventh century.
The importance of the two parchment leaves was first noticed by Alba Fedeli during her Ph.D. research, prompting a radiocarbon dating test.
The results were “exciting,” said Susan Worrall, the university’s director of special collections.
The tests, carried out by the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, dated the parchment on which the text is written to between 568 and 645 A.D. with 95.4 percent accuracy. The dating places the leaves close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between 570 and 632 A.D.
“They could well take us back to within a few years of the actual founding of Islam,” David Thomas, professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, said in a statement.
He noted that, according to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad received the revelations that form the Koran between 610 and 632 A.D., the year of his death.
“At this time, the divine message was not compiled into the book form in which it appears today. Instead, the revelations were preserved in ‘the memories of men.’ Parts of it had also been written down on parchment, stone, palm leaves and the shoulder blades of camels,” Thomas said.
It was Caliph Abu Bakr, the first leader of the Muslim community after Muhammad, that ordered the collection of all Koranic material in the form of a book. The final written form was completed under the direction of the third leader, Caliph Uthman, in about 650 A.D.
According to Thomas, there is a strong probability that the sheep or goat from which the parchment was made was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterwards.
“This means that the parts of the Koran that are written on this parchment can, with a degree of confidence, be dated to less than two decades after Muhammad’s death,” Thomas said.
The manuscript contains parts of Suras (chapters) 18 to 20, written in a form that is very close to how the Koran reads today.
It will be on public display at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, from October 2-25.