Khalil ibn Ahmad

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Khalīl ibn Ahmad Al Farāhīdi (أبو عبد الرحمن ، الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي) (More commonly known as Al Farāhīdi) (c. 718–c. 791) was a philologist from southern Arabia (modern day Oman). His best known contributions are Kitab al-'Ayn (Arabic: كتاب العين‎(considered the first dictionary of the Arabic language), the current standard for Harakat (vowel marks in Arabic script), and the invention al-'arud (the study of Arabic prosody). He moved to Basra,Iraq. He died in Basra some time between 777 and 791. Sibawayh and Al-Asma'i were among his students.

[edit] Kitab al-'Ayn

Kitab al-Ayn (Ayn is the deepest letter in arabic, al-Ayn also means a water source in the desert), while started by Khalil ibn Ahmad was probably completed by one of his students, Al-Layth ibn Al-Muzaffar. It was titled "The source" because the goal of its author was to clarify those words which were composed the original or source Arabic vocabulary. The dictionary was not arranged alphabetically but rather by phonetics, following the pattern of pronunciation of the Arabic alphabet from the deepest letter of the throat ﻉ (ayn) to the last letter pronounced by the lips, that being م (mìm).

The book was printed by Maktabah Al Hilal, having been reviewed by Dr. Mahdi al Makhzūmi and Dr. Ibrāhim Al Samirā'ì in eight volumes; there is however some reservations whether or not the book in its modern form is the original as authored by Al Khalil or is a work based on his original work.

Furthermore, Khalil ibn Ahmad collected all the 15 scales of poetry, and compared them with the Qur'an. He didn't find a single similarity.