Al-Amidi's System of Writing for the Blind

clipped from www.muslimheritage.com It is interesting to note that 600 years before Braille ALI IBN AHMED IBN YUSUF IBN AL-KHIZR AL-AMIDI, a Syrian Muslim, who died in 1314 CE was an expert in reading such a system. He too was blind from childhood. It is a well known fact that the finger tactile receptors of blind people are exceptionally well developed and Al-Amidi was also gifted in this super-sense. It allowed him not only to locate books on shelves by the sense of touch but also enabled him to determine the number of pages of the book. He was also able to ascertain the value of the books by t he spacing of the lines. It is commonly known that in 1824 a Frenchman by the name of Louis Braille (1809-1852) invented a system of writing for the blind in which he used a pattern of "6 dots". It was initially called the "cell" system for the blind. Louis Braille was himself blind. His system of writing became very popular and just two years after his death was widely used all over France.