Khalīl ibn Aḥmad, al-

▪ Arab philologist

in full  Al-khalīl Ibn Aḥmad Ibn ʿamr Ibn Tamīm Al-farāhīdī Al-azdī Al-yuḥmadī Al-baṣrī Abū ʿabd Al-raḥmān  

born c. 718, , Oman

died , between 776 and 791, Basra, Iraq

      Arab philologist who compiled the first Arabic dictionary and is credited with the formulation of the rules of Arabic prosody.

      When he moved to Basra, al-Khalīl left the Ibāḍī sect of Islām, which was popular in his native Oman, for Sunnism (the largest branch of Islām). He lived simply and piously in Basra, where he taught. The renowned Sībawayh was among his students. His dictionary, Kitāb al-ʿayn (“Book of the [Letter] ʿAyn”), may have been written in part by his student al-Layth ibn al-Muẓaffar of Khorāsān, who was at one time secretary to the Barmakid viziers of the ʿAbbāsid court. It is arranged according to a novel alphabetical order based on pronunciation, beginning with the letter ʿayn. His sample verses from his work on poetry, Kitāb al-ʿarūḍ (“Book of Prosody”), are known, although his book is lost.

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