Said Akl

Said Akl (سعيد عقل, ', also transliterated Saïd Akl, Said Aql and Saeed Akl'''; 4 July 1911 – 28 November 2014) was a Lebanese poet, 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) in Modern Standard Arabic, producing some of the masterpieces of modern Arabic belle lettres.

Akl was born in 1911 to a Maronite family in the city of Zahle, 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.

During his early years, Akl was an adherent of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (in Arabic الحزب السوري القومي الإجتماعي) 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”.

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.

He is also known for writing lyrics of many well-known songs, including Zahrat al-Mada'en (in Arabic زهرة المدائن) sung by Fairuz.

In 1968 he stated that literary Arabic would vanish from Lebanon.

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

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.

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

Akl aligned himself with Lebanese nationalism, and was one of the founding members of the Lebanese Renewal Party in 1972.

The party, characterized by its pro-Phoenicianism stance, aimed to distance Lebanon from Pan-Arabism.

His views found support within the Guardians of the Cedars movement.

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 sung by Fairouz and composed by the Rahbani Brothers, which Egyptian composer and singer Abdel Wahab described as "the most beautiful poem composed into a song in Arabic music."

He 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.

This party was based on Lebanese nationalism.

During the Lebanese Civil War, Akl served as the spiritual leader of the Lebanese Christian far-right ultranationalist movement Guardians of the Cedars, which was led by Étienne Saqr.

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

Although acknowledging the influence of Arabic, he argued that Lebanese language was equally if not more influenced by Phoenician languages and promoted the use of the Lebanese language written in a modified Latin alphabet, rather than the Arabic one.

His designed 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:

In 1981 he also published poems in French

Akl has also written poems that were turned into pan-Arab anthem songs with music from the Rahbani Brothers and sung by the Lebanese diva Feyrouz.