Edna Parker, 114, of Shelbyville, Indiana, may soon lose her spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living person in the world. Mariam Amash, 120 of Israel, has revealed that she is the world's oldest, after having shown her birth certificate when applying recently for an ID card.

According to her birth certificate, which was issued by the now defunct Ottoman Empire, Amash was born in 1888 near her current home in the village of Jisr az-Zarka.

Amash, a devout Muslim, has 10 children, 120 grandchildren, 250 great-grandchildren, and 30 great-great-grandchildren. She has made the haj pilgrimate to Mecca five times in her life, most recently in 1990 at the age of 102.

Her age was only realized by authorities last week, when Amash applied to a local branch of the Israeli Interior Ministry to renew her identity card. Moshe Hazut, a local ministry official, said that her Ottoman-issued birth certificate appeared genuine, but may not be correct.

"The woman was born during the Ottoman period, a time when the population registry was very inaccurate. It is quite possible that she is younger than reported, or even older," said Hazut.

Amash lives in the Arab village of Jisr az-Zarka near Hadera in northern Israel. She credits her longevity to a diet high in vegetables. Offering the younger generations a bit of advice, she says, "They drink too much Arak." (Arak is an Arabic alcoholic drink forbidden to devout Muslims.)