Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi

Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi was a pioneering Arab scholar from the 8th century, renowned for his contributions to linguistics and phonetics. He is often credited with inventing Arabic prosody— the study of poetic meter— and developing one of the earliest dictionaries of the Arabic language. His work laid the foundation for modern phonetics, analyzing sounds and pronunciation systematically. Al-Farahidi's insights significantly advanced understanding of language structure, making him a key figure in both linguistic and literary history within the Islamic Golden Age.