Saʿid Aql

1912 -

One of Lebanon's most prominent poets and intellectuals, whose career spans the 1930s to the twenty-first century.

Born in Zahla, Lebanon, Aql is the foremost representative of the symbolist movement in Arabic poetry. He once noted that poetry's power derives from its ability to hint at and allude to something. His poems indeed are rarely explicit; instead they are characterized by images and a gifted use of words to convey emotions. A prolific writer, he is the author of some thirty books, plays, and anthologies, several written in French. Early in his career, he became the leading proponent of "Lebanonism," according to which modern-day Lebanese are viewed as the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians and thus as having a separate Lebanese identity that has little to do with Islam or Arabism. Aql has argued that the distinctiveness of the Lebanese people is also reflected in a separate language, Lebanese, which he regards as being more than merely a dialect of Arabic. He even developed a version of the Latin alphabet that he thought was better suited to the Lebanese language, and he has repeatedly contended that Lebanon's children should be taught this language instead of standard classical or modern Arabic.

In the 1930s his ideas found a favorable reception among Maronites who were trying to build a Lebanese Christian brand of nationalism that emphasized distinguishing Lebanon from its Arab Muslim environment. Although the appeal of Lebanonism declined after Lebanon became independent in 1943, Aql's ideas were revived in the 1970s, when they served to inspire the Guardians of the Cedars, a quasi-fascistic, violently anti-Palestinian Maronite militia whose proclaimed mission was to fight for the survival of a Christian Lebanon. Aql also founded The World's Most Beautiful Books publishing house in 1968 and the weekly Lebnaan in 1975.

Bibliography

Allen, Roger, ed. Modern Arabic Literature. New York: Ungar, 1987.

Rabinovich, Itamar. The War for Lebanon, 1970 - 1985. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985.

— GUILAIN P. DENOEUX UPDATED BY MICHAEL R. FISCHBACH