Zayn al-Din al-Amidi
Kurdish scholar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zayn al-Din 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Amidi (زين الدين علي بن أحمد الآمدي; died 712 H/1312 AD) was a blind Kurdish scholar most known for inventing a system before Braille that allowed him to study and recognize his books. His method involved the use of fruit stones as a reading means for the blind.[1]
13th century
Zayn al-Din al-Amidi | |
|---|---|
زين الدين علي بن أحمد الآمدي | |
| Born | Zayn al-Din 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Amidi 13th century |
| Died | 1312 Iraq |
| Occupations | Scholar, Inventor |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Known for | Inventing a reading system for the blind |
| Notable work | System for the blind using fruit stones |
Salah al-Din al-Safadi (d. 1362) in his book Nakt al-Himyan fi Nukat al-'Umyan (Emptying the pockets for anecdotes about blind people) said in respect to the originality of al-Amidi: "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".[1]
He lived in what is now Iraq in the fourteenth century.
