Ahmad Rida
Sheikh Ahmad Reda (1872 -1953 ) is one of the foremost scholars of Arab literature and linguistics. Born in Nabatiyeh, he was a main supporter Syrian Nationalism, following the Arab Revolt in the First World War. As a writer, a poet and a linguist, he was a member of the Arab Academy of Sciences in Damascus, and considered to be one of the greatest intellectuals to have emerged from Greater Syria, in the twentieth century. He was one of the three reformers to have started a scientific and social renaissance and movement in Jabal Amel, the other two being historian Mohammad Jaber al-Safa and sheikh Suleiman Daher. He and his companions had formed a prominent intellectual gathering, known as “the Ameli Three”, helping establish foundations and associations aiming at eradicating illiteracy in the region. He wrote “Matn al-lugha”, the first dictionary of Arab language since “Lisan al-Arab”, written in the 13th century. He was described by Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abduh as the “greatest writer in the Levant, and the greatest linguist in the Arab world”.
