Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad was an influential Arab scholar and linguist born in the 8th century in Oman. He is best known for his pioneering work in Arabic grammar and lexicography, particularly for creating the first Arabic dictionary, called Kitab al-Ayn. His contributions laid the foundation for the study of the Arabic language. In addition to his work in linguistics, Al-Khalil was also a notable poet and a scholar of prosody, the study of poetic meter. He founded the science of prosody and developed the Arabic poetic system, which greatly influenced later poets and scholars in the Arab world.