Muhammad Kurd Ali’s full name is Muhammad ibn Abd al-Razzaq ibn Muhammad Kurd Ali. He was born in Damascus in 1293 AH (1876 AD). He was a Kurdish-Syrian thinker, intellectual, literary figure, and advocate of the Arabic language. He was the first Minister of Education in Syria and served as president of the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus from its founding in 1919 until his death in 1953.