Said Akl

Said Akl (; 4 July 1911 – 28 November 2014) was a Lebanese poet, linguist, philosopher, writer, playwright and language reformer. He is considered one of the most important Lebanese poets of the modern era. He 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. Despite this, he contributed to several literary movements (primarily, symbolism)

His writings include poetry and prose both in Lebanese Arabic and in Classical Arabic. He has also written theatre pieces and authored lyrics for many popular songs, such as "Meshwar" ("Trip"), and the classical "Shal" ("Scarf"), the latter of which was composed by the Rahbani brothers and sung by Fairuz, and which Egyptian composer and singer Abdel Wahab described as "the most beautiful poem composed into a song in Arabic music".

Personal life Akl was born in 1911 (although some sources say 1912) to a Maronite family in the city of Zahlé, then under the administration of the Beirut Vilayet in the Ottoman Lebanon. After losing his father at the age of 15, he had to drop out of school to support his family and later worked as a teacher and then as a journalist. He then studied theology, literature and Islamic history, becoming a university instructor and subsequently lecturing in a number of Lebanese universities, educational and policy institutes.

He died in Beirut, Lebanon at the age of 103.

Ideology

During his early years, Akl was an adherent of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party led by Antun Saadeh, eventually being expelled by Saadeh due to irreconcilable ideological disputes.

Akl adopted a powerful doctrine of the authentic millennial character of Lebanon resonating with an exalted sense of Lebanese dignity. His admiration to the Lebanese history and culture was marked by strong enmity towards an Arab identity of Lebanon. He was quoted saying, “I would cut off my right hand just not to be an Arab”.

In a 1996 interview, he mentioned: "The Arab–Israeli conflict should have been called the Palestinian–Foreign conflict, not Palestinian–Jewish conflict, since there are Jews in Palestine, and those are welcome, but you foreign Jew, you should go back to Poland, Germany, France, go back to your home, and any Jew who wants to live with us Palestinians is welcome, and we are not Arabs, we are only Palestinians [...] and know that Said Akl will fight Israel, while other Arabs will make peace with Israel."

For 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.

He 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 Akl contained 36 letters. The proposed alphabet was as follows:

Note: and are not part of the Standard Arabic alphabet and they are only optionally used when transcribing foreign words.

Starting in the 1970s Akl offered a prize to whoever authored the best essay in Lebanese. Since then the Said Akl awards have been granted to many Lebanese intellectuals and artists. He published his poetry book Yara completely using his proposed Lebanese alphabet, thus becoming the first book ever to be published in this form. In later years, he also published his poetry book Khumasiyyat in the same alphabet.

Akl published the tabloid newspaper Lebnaan using the Lebanese language. It was published in two versions, لبنان (transliteration and pronunciation Lubnan which means Lebanon in Arabic language) using Lebanese written in traditional Arabic alphabet, the other Lebnaan (Lebanese for Lebanon) in his proposed Lebanese Latin-based alphabet.

Works

Akl has numerous writings ranging from theatrical plays, epics, poetry and song lyrics. His first published work was released in 1935, a theatrical play written in Arabic. His works are written in either Lebanese, literary Arabic, or French.

Poems and plays 1935: Bint Yiftah (, titled after Jephthah's daughter)theatrical play 1937: Al Majdaliyyah epic 1944: Qadmos theatrical play 1950: "Rindalah" poem 1954: "Mushkilat al Nukhba" poem 1960: "Ajmal minik...? La!" poem 1960: "Lubnaan in haka" poem 1961: "Ka's el Khamr" poem 1961: "Yara" (using his designed Lebanese alphabet; Arabic script: )poem 1961: "Ajraas al Yasmeen" poem 1972: Kitab al Ward poetry collection 1979: Qasaed min Daftari poetry collection 1974: Kama al A'mida poetry collection 1978: Khumasiyyat (using his designed Lebanese alphabet; Arabic script: )poetry collection 1981: poems in French.

Songwriting Akl proposed the lyrics for an anthem for the pan-Syrian Syrian Social Nationalist Party, but this was rejected by its founder Antun Saadeh, who proposed another anthem for the party that he had written in prison. When asked about what he wrote, Akl denied writing it, and said that it was a certain Wadih Khalil Nasrallah (a relative of Akl by marriage) who wrote the lyrics. Akl wrote the anthem of another pan-Arab movement, the "Association of the Firmest Bond" . Akl has also written poems that were turned into pan-Arab anthem songs with music by the Rahbani brothers and sung by the Lebanese diva Fairuz. These include "Zahrat al-Mada'en" about Jerusalem, "Ghannaytou Makkah" about Mecca (written upon Fairuz's request) and "Saailiini ya Sham" about Damascus, as well as "Ruddani ila biladi" about Lebanon and "Ummi ya malaki" about his mother.

Media Said Akl wrote as a journalist in a number of publications, notably the Lebanese Al-Jarida newspaper and the weekly Al-Sayyad magazine. In the 1990s, Akl also wrote a front-page personal column in the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper.