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) 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 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 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.The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz) By Mordechai Nisan
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 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 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.
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 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.
Lebanese language and alphabet
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.The Middle East: From Transition to Development By Sami G. Hajjar
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:Kadmous.org: اللغة اللبنانية بالحرف اللاتيني بين رسائل الهاتف والعقل الالكتروني…وسعيد عقل (in Arabic)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-dictionary read online
position Arabic graph Akl graph Classical name AklLevantine name Akl Hijā'ī 1 1 ا C with lower-left diagonal stroke ’alif c*aleef 2 2 ب B bā’ be 3 2 پ* P (pā’) pe4 3 ت capital T, lower-case t without left stroke tā’ t*e4 4 ث [merges with te] thā’ t*e5 16 ط capital T with left stroke, lower-case t ṭā’ taah 6 5 ج J jīm jiin 7 6 ح X ḥā’ xe 8 7 خ K khā’ ke9 8 د D dāl daal9 9 ذ [merges with daal] dhāl daal10 15 ض D with gap at top (lower-case like joined at bottom) ḍād d*aad 11 10 ر R rā’ re 12 11 ز Z zāyy zayn 13 17 ظ Z with left stroke ẓā’ z*aah 14 12 س S sīn siin15 14 ص S with top removed ṣād s*aad16 13 ش C shīn ciin17 18 ع Y with left arm curved clockwise ‘ayn y*ayn18 19 غ G ghayn gayn19 21 ق G with gap at top qāf g*e20 20 ف F fā’ fe21 20 ڤ* V (vā’) ve22 22 ك Q kāf qaaf23 23 ل L lām laam24 24 م M mīm miim25 25 ن N nūn nuun26 26 ه H hā’ he27 27 و W wāw waaw28 30 ـَ A fatḥah a29 33 ـَا A with left stroke fatḥah ’alif a*30 31 ـِ I kasrah i30 34 ـِي I with left stroke kasrah yā’ i*, i (word finally)31 36 ـَي E fatḥah yā’ e32 29 ـَ E with truncation fatḥah e*33 37 ـَو O fatḥah wāw o34 32 ـُ U ḍammah u35 35 ـُو U with left stroke ḍammah wāw u*, u (word finally)36 28 ي Y yā’ ye
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.
See also Phoenicianism Guardians of the Cedars Lebanese Arabic
Notes
References
Further reading Hind Adeeb, شعرية سعيد عقل, Dar Al Farabi Editions (Arabic) Plonka Arkadiusz, L’idée de langue libanaise d’après Sa‘īd ‘Aql, Paris, Geuthner, 2004, . (French) Plonka Arkadiusz, "Le nationalisme linguistique au Liban autour de Sa‘īd ‘Aql et l’idée de langue libanaise dans la revue «Lebnaan» en nouvel alphabet", Arabica, 53 (4), 2006, pp. 423–471. (French) Jean Durtal, Saïd Akl: Un grand poète libanais, Nouvelles Editions Latine, 1970 (French) Elie Kallas e Anna Montanari, Akl Said, Yaara – Inno alla donna, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 1997. (Italian) (English) Franck Salameh, "Language Memory and Identity in the Middle East; The Case for Lebanon", (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), (English)
External links Poet Said Akl- All Poems Said Akl's biography