22 Facts About Said Akl

Said Akl was a Lebanese poet, linguist, philosopher, writer, playwright and language reformer.

Said Akl is considered one of the most important Lebanese poets of the modern era.

Said Akl is most famous for his advocacy on behalf of codifying the spoken Lebanese Arabic language as competency distinct from Standard Arabic, to be written in a modern modified Roman script consisting of 36 symbols that he deemed an evolution of the Phoenician alphabet.

Said Akl's views found support within the Guardians of the Cedars movement.

Said Akl's writings include poetry and prose both in Lebanese Arabic and in Classical Arabic.

Said Akl was born in 1911 to a Maronite family in the city of Zahle, then under the administration of the Beirut Vilayet in the Ottoman Lebanon.

Said Akl then studied theology, literature and Islamic history, becoming a university instructor and subsequently lecturing in a number of Lebanese universities, educational and policy institutes.

Said Akl died in Beirut, Lebanon at the age of 103.

Said Akl adopted a powerful doctrine of the authentic millennial character of Lebanon resonating with an exalted sense of Lebanese dignity.

Said Akl is known for his radical Lebanese nationalist sentiments; in 1972, he helped found the Lebanese Renewal Party, which was proposed by May Murr, a well known writer and researcher of ancient Lebanese history and a staunch supporter of Akl.

For Said Akl Lebanon was the cradle of culture and the inheritor of the Oriental civilization, well before the arrival of the Arabs on the historical stage.

Said Akl emphasized the Phoenician legacy of the Lebanese people, aligning with Phoenicianism.

Said Akl was an ideologue for promotion of the Lebanese language as independent of Arabic language.

Said Akl designed an alphabet for the Lebanese language using the Latin alphabet in addition to a few newly designed letters and some accented Latin letters to suit the Lebanese phonology.

The proposed Lebanese alphabet designed by Said Akl contained 36 letters.

Since then the Said Akl awards have been granted to many Lebanese intellectuals and artists.

Said Akl published his poetry book Yara completely using his proposed Lebanese alphabet, thus becoming the first book ever to be published in this form.

Said Akl published the tabloid newspaper Lebnaan using the Lebanese language.

Said Akl has numerous writings ranging from theatrical plays, epics, poetry and song lyrics.

Said Akl's first published work was released in 1935, a theatrical play written in Arabic.

Said Akl's works are written in either Lebanese, literary Arabic, or French.

Said Akl wrote as a journalist in a number of publications, notably the Lebanese Al-Jarida newspaper and the weekly Al-Sayyad magazine.