Zayn al-Din al-Amidi
Zayn al-Din 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Amidi was a blind Arab 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.
Salah al-Din al-Safadi in his book Nakt al-Himyan fi Nukat al-'Umyan 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".
He lived in what is now Iraq in the fourteenth century.
