Zain ad-Din al-Amidi

Zain ad-Din 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Amidi ( Arabic زين الدين علي بن أحمد الآمدي, DMG Zain ad-Dīn ʿAlī b. Aḥmad al-Āmidī ; born in Baghdad in the 13th century ; died in 1312 ibid) was a blind Arab scholar and university professor . He lived in what is now Iraq in the 13th and 14th centuries and, more than 600 years before the invention of Braille, was the first to develop a method that enabled him to read script by touch .

Life

Zain ad-Din al-Amidi grew up in Baghdad. It is not known who his parents were and in what year he was born. Blinded shortly after his birth, he developed a system to feel his books and to be able to communicate with others in writing. For his relief-like Braille , al-Amidi used the kernels of fruit to make the letters palpable. The method is not described in detail in the available sources, but al-Amidi is mentioned several times in contemporary writings from the 14th century.

Zain ad-Din al-Amidi mastered Arabic, Persian , Greek , Turkish and Mongolian languages. He belonged to the Islamic school of law of the Hanbalites and was a professor at the historical university in Baghdad founded in 1233, a forerunner of today's al-Mustansiriyya University . He made an additional income by trading books.

The Arabic scholar Salah ad-Din as-Safadi ( Arabic صلاح الدين الصفدي) (1297–1363) wrote in his book Nakt al-Himyān fī Nukat al-ʿUmyān (English: Emptying the pockets for anecdotes about blind people ) about al-Amidi, respectfully recognizing his originality:

“In addition to his knowledge, he used to trade in books. He could pick out the desired volume, touch the book and determine the number of its pages; he would touch the page and determine how many lines it had, the type of script and its color, and he knew the prices of the books. "

“In addition to his knowledge, he dealt in books. He could find the edition he wanted, touch the book, and determine the number of pages; he touched the page and determined the number of lines, the type of font and its color, and he knew the prices of the books. "

- Salah ad-Din as-Safadi :

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Vardit Rispler-Chaim: Disability in Islamic Law. University of Haifa, Springer Science & Business Media, Dordrecht 2006, ISBN 978-1-402-05052-7 , p. 134 ( limited preview in Google book search).
^ Wilson Casey: Firsts. Origins of Everyday Things That Changed the World. Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-1-101-15946-0 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
^ La Documentation Française: Notes et études documentaires in the Google book search. La Documentation Française . 1981 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

personal data
SURNAME	al-Amidi, Zain ad-Din
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	زين الدين علي بن أحمد الآمدي (full name, Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Arab scholar and university professor, inventor of Braille
DATE OF BIRTH	13th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Baghdad
DATE OF DEATH	1312
Place of death	Baghdad

[Rispler-Chaim-1] Vardit Rispler-Chaim: Disability in Islamic Law. University of Haifa, Springer Science & Business Media, Dordrecht 2006, ISBN 978-1-402-05052-7 , p. 134 ( limited preview in Google book search).

[Casey-2] Wilson Casey: Firsts. Origins of Everyday Things That Changed the World. Penguin, 2009, ISBN 978-1-101-15946-0 . ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[La_Doc-3] La Documentation Française: Notes et études documentaires in the Google book search. La Documentation Française . 1981 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).