[whoisburbansky]

Does the cover say Al-Khawarizmi, rotated 90 degrees and stamped four times?

[gfaure]

It does indeed, with the dot on خ being the central dot (repeated once per rotation).

[gladuz]

Can you please explain it in detail. I don't know Arabic and can't figure out the pattern. He is born in my country and it would be cool to show the cover to my peers.

[jazzyjackson]

The pattern is the script called "Square Kufic" (a google image search +mosaic reveals many wondrous examples) and the arabic form of al-Khwarizmi is الخوارزمي

The kufic letters are fairly abstract but look for the verticals, there are 9 letters (last 2 are joined, I think, I cannot read it either just looking closely)

ا A

ل l

خ kh

و w

ا a

ر r

ز z

م m

ي i

[ignoramous]

> ...Square Kufic

Its superset, "Geometric Kufic", is a more interesting rabbit hole. In general, Arabesque patterns are almost exclusively floral / geometric.

See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12049316

[matsemann]

A discussion about it from earlier here that might be of interest: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805877