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 Lebanese Arabic ( ; autonym: ), or simply Lebanese ( ; autonym: ), is a Varieties of Arabic, variety of Levantine Arabic, indigenous to and primarily Languages of Lebanon, spoken in Lebanon, with significant linguistic influences borrowed from ...

language as competency distinct from

Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages also the variety of spoken Arabic that ...

, to be written in a modern modified Roman script consisting of 36 symbols that he deemed an evolution of the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BC. It was one of the first alphabets, attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions fo ...

. Despite this, he contributed to several

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

s (primarily,

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

) in Modern Standard Arabic, producing some of the masterpieces of modern Arabic belle lettres. Akl aligned himself with Lebanese nationalism, and was one of the founding members of the

Lebanese Renewal Party The Lebanese Renewal Party – LRP (Arabic: حزب التجدد اللبناني transliteration ''Hezb al-Tajaddud al-Lubnani'') or Parti de la Renovation Libanaise (PRL) in French, was a political party in Lebanon formed in 1972 by a number of ...

in 1972. The party, characterized by its pro-Phoenicianism stance, aimed to distance Lebanon from

Pan-Arabism Pan-Arabism () is a Pan-nationalism, pan-nationalist ideology that espouses the unification of all Arabs, Arab people in a single Nation state, nation-state, consisting of all Arab countries of West Asia and North Africa from the Atlantic O ...

. 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 Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...

. 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 Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...

family in the city of

Zahlé Zahlé () is a city in eastern Lebanon, and the capital and largest city of Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. With around 150,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon, Tripoli and the fourth-largest ...

, 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 The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP; ) is a Syrian nationalist party operating in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. It advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present-day Syria, Leb ...

led by Antun Saadeh, eventually being expelled by Saadeh due to irreconcilable ideological disputes.The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz) By Mordechai Nisan
/ref> 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 Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

”. In 1968 he stated that literary Arabic would vanish from Lebanon. He is known for his radical Lebanese nationalist sentiments; in 1972, he helped found the

, 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 The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, Akl served as the spiritual leader of the Lebanese Christian

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

ultranationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...

movement Guardians of the Cedars, which was led by Étienne Saqr. During the 1982 Lebanon War, He said in an interview about the Israeli army during the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon "there is only one step, that this hero (Israeli army) is to clean Lebanon from every last Palestinian...ever since the Israeli army entered Lebanon, all of Lebanon was supposed to fight with them, I would myself fight with the Israeli army" and "who ever says about the Israeli army that it's an invading army should have his head decapitated" In a 1996 interview, he mentioned: "The

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is a geopolitical phenomenon involving military conflicts and a variety of disputes between Israel and many Arab world, Arab countries. It is largely rooted in the historically supportive stance of the Arab League ...

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 emphasized the Phoenician legacy of the Lebanese people, aligning with

Phoenicianism Phoenicianism is a form of Lebanese nationalism that apprizes and presents Phoenicia, ancient Phoenicia as the chief ethno-cultural foundation of the Lebanese people. It is juxtaposed with Arab migrations to the Levant following the early Muslim ...

Lebanese language and alphabet

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

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. Although acknowledging the influence of Arabic, he argued that Lebanese language was equally if not more influenced by

Phoenician language Phoenician ( ; ) is an extinct language, extinct Canaanite languages, Canaanite Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance le ...

s and promoted the use of the Lebanese language written in a modified

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

, rather than the Arabic one. 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:The Olive Tree Dictionary A Transliterated Dictionary of Conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian) by J. Elihay Jerusalem: Minerva Instruction & Consultation, 2006. 767 pp. $102.50, paper. Reviewed by Franck Salameh Middle East Quarterly Spring 2007, pp. 85-86 http://www.meforum.org/1690/the-olive-tree-dictionar
read online
/ref> 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

) using Lebanese written in traditional

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

, 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

, 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 Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, "Ghannaytou Makkah" () about

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

(written upon Fairuz's request) and "Saailiini ya Sham" () about

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, 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 ''As-Safir'' () was a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon. The headquarters of the daily was in Beirut. It was in circulation from March 1974 until December 2016. The last issue of the paper was published on 31 December 2016. The o ...

'' newspaper.

Notes

References

External links

Poet Said Akl- All Poems

Said Akl's biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akl, Said 1911 births 2014 deaths Lebanese male poets Lebanese writers 20th-century Lebanese philosophers Lebanese Maronites People from Zahle Lebanese nationalists Guardians of the Cedars politicians Lebanese men centenarians Phoenicianists Lebanese Renewal Party politicians Critics of Arab nationalism 20th-century Lebanese poets 20th-century Lebanese male writers Romanization of Arabic