Amin al rihani biography sample

B orn in Freike, Lebanon, on November 24,Ameen Rihani was one of six children and the oldest son of a Lebanese Maronite raw silk manufacturer, then a flourishing local industry. His father had commercial ambitions which beckoned him to America. In the summer ofFerris Rihani, the father, sent his brother and eldest son, Ameen, to the United States and followed a year later.

T he young immigrant, then twelve years old, was placed in a school outside the city of New York, a few months after his arrival. There, he learned the rudiments of English. His father and uncle, having established themselves as merchants in a small cellar in lower Manhattan, soon felt the need for an assistant who could read and write English.

Therefore, the boy was taken away from school to become the chief clerk, interpreter and bookkeeper of the business. The family continued in this trade for four years. Family portrait of Ameen Rihani standing far left with his parents and siblings D uring this period of time, Ameen made the acquaintance of two poets, William Shakespeare and Victor Hugo whose writings became his first readings in the cellar.

He developed a genuine love for reading and, in time, became familiar with the writings of Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Whitman, Tolstoy, Voltaire, Thoreau, Emerson and Byron, to name a few. Ameen had a natural talent in eloquent speaking, and inthe teenager became carried away by stage fever and joined a touring stock company headed by Henry Jewet who later had his theatre in Boston.

During the summer of the same year, the troupe became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri and so the prodigal son returned to his father. However, he returned not to rejoin the business, but to insist that his father give him a regular education for a professional career. They agreed that he should study law. To that end, he attended night amin al rihani biography sample for a year, passed the Regents Exam, and in entered the New York Law School.

Once back in Lebanon, he began teaching English in a clerical school in return for being taught his native Arabic language. Rihani had started reading Middle Eastern poets in The first version of the translation was published in He began writing in English, becoming the first Arab to publish in English without renouncing his own Arabic language.

During this period, he started writing poetry in English, essays and short stories in Arabic. He wrote about social traditions, religious tolerance, national politics and philosophy. Thus, he began his extensive literary career, bridging two worlds. He was the only Arab American member joining this association. The major themes of this poetry collection are: emotional reflections, love, pain, and nature.

It is the first collection of English poetry published by an Arab poet in the early twentieth century. In he returned to his native mountains. The Philosophy of the book could be summarized in the following statement: The Great City is based on tolerance, ethics, truth, freedom, optimism, and the spirit of our times. Also, during this period, he published a book of allegories What is the title of the book?

From till Rihani worked on writing his philosophical novel in English entitled The Book of Khalidthe first English novel to be written by an Arab author. Rihani, who was influenced by the American poet Walt Whitman, has introduced free verse to Arab poetry. His new style of poetry was published as early as This new concept flourished in the Arab world and continued to lead modern Arab poetry after Rihani's death in and throughout the second half of the 20th century.

He also worked, along with other national leaders, for the liberation of his country from the Turkish rule. Rihani in Cairo, Egypt, During the period between and Rihani became remarkably involved in the literary life while continuing to pursue productive political engagements. On the literary level, he continued writing and publishing in English and Arabic.

Bertha visited Lebanon in thirteen years after Ameen's deathstaying with the family of Rihani's brother, Albert, in Freike. On July 29,Bertha died in New York at the age of She had requested that her body be cremated and that her ashes be sent to Freike to be buried next to her husband's. The Pope was heartedly interested in ending World War I and in establishing an equitable peace between the fighting armies.

In Rihani traveled throughout Arabia, meeting and getting better acquainted with its rulers. He was the only traveler at that time, European or Arab, to have covered that whole territory in one trip. He acquired an invaluable and first-hand account of the character, vision and belief of each of these rulers.

Amin al rihani biography sample

He developed a friendship with Ibn Saudruler of the desert kingdom that would soon become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Between and he wrote and published six books in English and Arabic related to the three trips he made to Arabia. These accounts were a considerable critical and public success. London publishers released a circular on Rihani's travel books as having been best sellers.

He is considered by some scholars as a major figure in the intellectual development of Arab nationalism. In his writings on national issues, he emphasized the importance of a secular state and a secular education pointing that there must be no minorities or majorities, but only equal citizens. Rihani placed the greatest priority on the spread of nationalist and pro-unity feeling among the masses, and argued that rulers would have to follow.

Rihani also participated in the Arab American movement championing the Arab Palestinian cause. Much of this activity focused on countering the rising influence of the American Zionist lobby, which supported a separate Jewish state in Palestine. He met with various U. Rihani publicly debated leading figures in the American Zionist movement [ 6 ] and published numerous articles critical of political Zionism.

Samir Kassir points to Rihani's role in bringing Beirut into intellectual contact with its "cultural environment as well as the wider world". Ameen Rihani died at age 64 on September 13,at pm, in his hometown of Freike, Lebanon. The cause of his death was a bicycle accident which resulted in infectious injuries from multiple fractures of the skull.

The news of his death was broadcast to many parts of the world. It caused great emotion not only in Lebanon but throughout the Arab world. Representatives of Arab kings and rulers and of foreign diplomatic missions, together with leading poets, writers, and other intellectuals from Lebanon and the Arab World, attended the funeral ceremony. He was laid to rest in the Rihani Family Mausoleum in Freike.

Thirteen years after his death, inhis brother Albert established the Ameen Rihani Museum in Freike to honor his legacy. Rihani is the founding father of Arab American literature. His early English writings mark the beginning of a school of literature that is Arab in its concern, culture and characteristic, English in language, and American in spirit and platform.

He is the first Arab to write English essays, poetry, novels, short stories, art critiques, and travel chronicles. He published his works in the U. In this sense, he is the forerunner of American literature written by well known Middle Eastern writers. He is the first Arab who wrote complete literary works, either in Arabic or in English, and published in the U.

New York. His writings pioneered the movement of modern Arabic literature that played a leading role in the Arab Renaissance and contemporary Arab thought. And if the storm should uproot my hut like a tree, and bear it to the mouth of the river, There among the rocks is a cave, an impenetrable haven from the storm, There, too, the light of the sun and the stars.

And if the skies become dark, and the stars and the planets are seen no more, Yet is there light everlasting within this human heart. May light shine in our hearts, no matter how gloomy the horizons. Kahlil Gibran was the first to recognize the debt owed to Rihani by his successors, indeed, Rihani and Gibran were the inspiration for every Arab writing in English after them.

It is no exaggeration to say that these two men made the most important intellectual and literary contribution to the revitalization of Arab intellectual life in the first quarter of the 20th century. Had his voice been listened to more attentively, the political and social tragedies in the region over the past 50 years would have been diminished and might even have been averted altogether.

Indeed, it is my contention that the Middle East of today, and students of its problems worldwide, still have much to learn from Ameen Rihani. In English he was able to reach a vaster readership, and in his writings he constantly defended the right of the Arab world to live with dignity, freedom and independence. He never tired of explaining the historical contribution of the Arab people, and constantly proclaimed their desire to reach an understanding with the Western democratic world in order to build a global society and a better future.

He warned his brethren in the West of the cancerous materialistic tendencies threatening the dedication to freedom and peace on which everything else of value in Western society depends, and invited them to discover that spirituality which is the great tradition inherent in Eastern civilizations. And as an advocate without rancor. Like few men in history, he was able to view the East and the West in parallel.

Never seeing the one to the disadvantage of the other, he endeavored always to bring the virtues of both into consonance. Not only was he the first Arab ever to write a novel in English, he was also the first Arab to write English verse. It is a philosophical and largely autobiographical work which represents a passionate plea for the reconciliation of the material and the spiritual, of East and West, of Christianity and Islam.

Like many a pioneering endeavor it achieved little success in itself, having perhaps as many defects as virtues. Yet this extraordinary book remains possibly the most complete account in English of the modern liberated Arab. Can you imagine mankind living in a huge cellar of a amin al rihani biography sample and you and I pumping the water out of its bottom?

The soul, I tell you, still occupies the basement, even the sub-cellar. The soul, Shakib, is kept below, although the high places are vacant. Though his critique of the country is undoubtedly devastating, he nevertheless sees great possibilities in America. And is it not natural that the Demiurgic Dollar should be the national Deity of America?

Change the needs and aspirations of the Americans, therefore, and you will have changed their worship, their national Deity, and even their Government. And, believe me, this change is coming; people get tired of their gods as of everything else. Ay, the time will come, when a man in this America shall not suffer for not being a seeker and lover and defender of the Dollar And as strong, too, perhaps, is my faith in the future world-ruling destiny of America.

To these United States shall the Nations of the World turn one day for the best model of good Government; in these United States the well-springs of the higher amins al rihani biography sample of the soul shall quench the thirst of every race-traveler on the highway of emancipation; and from these United States the sun and moon of a great Faith and a great Art shall rise upon mankind.

Ay, in this New World, the higher Superman shall rise From his transcendental height, the Superman of America shall ray forth in every direction the divine light, which shall mellow and purify the spirit of Nations and strengthen and sweeten the spirit of men. In this New World, I tell you, he shall be born, but he shall not be an American in the Democratic sense.

He shall be nor of the Old World nor of the New; he shall be, my Brothers, of both. The Book of Khalidfor all its flaws, remains an unjustly neglected work, having a message of continuing relevance as we move closer to the 21st century. The influence it exercised on other Arabs is more important than its success or otherwise as a novel, a literary form with which Rihani did not feel fully at ease.

He was, nonetheless, a master of several other forms, and of all his works, his three travel books perhaps best encapsulate his special talent as a writer and communicator. Ibn Saoud of Arabia: His People and His Landthe first book in the trilogy, is an impression rather than a biography of the great Arab leader, Sultan, King and Imam of Najd in the first few decades of this century.

Published init is an account- of a journey made by the author through Najd, now Saudi Arabia, the first part of which was spent in the company of Ibn Saud. Rihani was there to act as mediator between Ibn Saud and the British in a boundary dispute and negotiations for an oil concession. As the second part of the title implies, the book is not solely biographical, though it does contain some illuminating insights into the larger-than-life character of the eponymous King.

It is more a study of Arab life, an account of sights and people encountered on the journey, including many characteristically pithy observations on the Arab adjusting to 20th-century ways. As in the previous book, the author visits these lands and records his adventures and his impressions of each; he also supplies the reader with copious historical background information on these countries, each of which proves to have its own distinct religious, political and social set-up.

Only one country is not visited in the course of the first and second books, and the trilogy is duly completed by Arabian Peak and Desert: Travels in al-Yaman. An entire book is devoted to the country now known as North Yemen, chiefly because access was harder to gain there than anywhere else in Arabia. The author was detained at some length in the capital, San'a, a detailed description of which consequently occupies most of the book.

In al-Yaman, as in other parts of the Arabian peninsula, Rihani found respect and acceptance as no non-Muslim had done before him. InRihani published two works which demonstrate his prowess as an essayist and poet in English. The first of these was The Path of Visiona collection of essays illustrating basic differences, especially in philosophy and way of life, between East and West and between Christianity and Islam.

Its central message is a heartfelt plea for each to be willing to learn from the other, and for a harmonious relationship between the two. What avails it to know that I am free, if I can not realize this freedom in a definite, specific existence? But can it be realized wholly by a revolt only against a hierarchy or a state? It depends upon the nature and scope of the revolt.

If we are concerned in breaking the fetters that are fastened upon our bodies and souls by external agencies only, we are doomed to failure. But if we become aware of the fetters, which we, in the sub-consciousness of centuries of submission, have fastened upon the spirit within us and strive to free ourselves of them first, then we are certain to triumph.

For freedom of the spirit is the cornerstone of all freedom. And this can be attained only by realizing its human limitations and recognizing its divine claim. It might be said too that freedom is to spirit what gravity is to matter. It is inherent in it and limited, yea, fettered by it. To know and recognize this truth, is to rise to the highest form of freedom.