Ameen Rihani Honored: 100th Anniversary of the First Arab-American Novel

Ameen Rihani Honored: 100th Anniversary of the first Arab-american novel By BARBARA FERGUSON AND TIM KENNEDY, LIFE.STYLE@ARABNEWS.COM Published: Apr 27, 2011 When there is any mention of Arab-American writers, people usually think of Khalil Gibran,” said Professor Saad A. Albazei, Saudi author and scholar. “But, in my opinion, it’s high time that the literary world finally recognizes the accomplishments of Ameen Rihani, a man of multiple talents. Not only was he a writer who laid the foundations for Arab-American literature with his iconic novel, “The Book of Khalid,” but he was also a prolific poet, Arab historian and influential essayist who spread a form of spiritual enlightenment whose influence, to this day, is being felt throughout the world.” Albazei, a member of the Saudi Majlis Al-Shura, was the closing speaker at a day-long conference hosted in Washington last month by the Library of Congress, entitled, “100th Anniversary of the First Arab-American Novel: Ameen Rihani’s The Book of Khalid.” “This conference is intended to rectify what I consider to be a great cultural tragedy: The lack of awareness — even among well-informed literary scholars — of this great writer,” said Todd Fine, organizer of the event and director of Project Khalid (www.project Khalid.org), a Washington-based literary think tank that is using the centennial of Rihani’s seminal book to encourage teachers, students and readers to explore the philosophical and spiritual themes of this underappreciated author. Speakers at the day-long event included literary scholars, sociologists, historians and diplomats. One presenter, Stephen Sheehi, an associate professor of Arabic and Arab culture at the University of South Carolina effectively summarized the overarching themes in Rihani’s work by saying: “He believed that the space where civilizations meet — particularly the West and the Arab world — is far more important than each of the civilizations taken alone… Rihani understood that there really is no space between our two cultures. Only a bridge.” The book that provokes such profound thoughts, “The Book of Khalid,” is a relatively simple story about two young men from Lebanon who immigrate to the United States to work as peddlers in New York City. The reader vicariously experiences the travails of these two naïve immigrants as they travel to America by ship, pass through New York’s Ellis Island, endure the rough life in a Manhattan neighborhood simplistically known as “Little Syria,” and immerse themselves in Arab-American political, cultural and ethnic environments. The second half of the novel deals with the eventual return of young men back to their homeland. One

of the prodigals, Khalid, transmutes his New York experiences into a plea for political and economic progress and religious unity in the Arab world. Khalid believes that despite America’s arguable flaws, the United States offers a superior model for a liberated Arab political order. “This section of the book has enormous pedagogical value,” noted Todd Fine. “Readers are introduced to a world, circa 1911, still struggling — and clashing — with issues of religion and culture.” A century ago, Ameen’s writings — particularly the “Book of Khalid” — had a profound effect on many literate Arabs. At the peak of his career, the author traveled and wrote extensively about the Middle East, forming close friendships with many regional political leaders — notably Ibn Saud, the first monarch of Saudi Arabia. Ameen and the future Saudi King, said Albazei, deeply admired each other for their shared belief that it is possible “to see the world through both Western and Arab eyes at one and the same time.” The two men also had a mutual admiration for the religious writings of Muhammad ibn Abd AlWahhab, the 18th Century theologian for which Wahhabism is named. “As Martin Luther is to Christianity, Wahhab is to Arabia,” said Albazei who has recently translated Gerald Dirks’ groundbreaking book, “Muslims in American History,” into Arabic. “In Wahhabism, they saw a genuine movement that aimed at reinvigorating the Arab world, thereby enabling it to cast off Ottoman rule so that it could begin a kind of renaissance.”

New York Library celebrates Rihani International Year November 01, 2011 12:40 AM NEW YORK: As part of the Rihani International Year, Rihani Week was inaugurated by the New York Public Library Tuesday with a public panel discussion on the writer’s lasting literary impact. Ambassador of Lebanon to the U.S. Antoine Chedid, director of the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute Rami Khouri, the University of North Carolina’s Akram Khater, and the American writers Raymond Pun and Todd Fine attended the event. The audience included American, Lebanese and Arab scholars. The second day of the conference saw the University of Pennsylvania’s Roger Allan present his lecture “Rihani and Arab Renaissance.” Allan, who is also the president of the Middle Eastern Studies Association, is considered one of the leading Arabist scholars today in the U.S. today. The third day was busy with the City University of New York’s conference “Rihani and The Book of Khalid.” In the opening session, CUNY’s Anny Bakalian spoke on “Rihani and New York,” while Alecso’s Rita Awad discussed “Rihani and the Arab World Today.” Christopher Stone spoke on “Why do we Celebrate Rihani Today?” and the University of Illinois’ Wael Hasan presented a paper entitled “The Image of the Arab-American Intellect: Ameen Rihani and Edward Said,” while the University of Waterloo’s Nathan Funk discussed “A Bridge between Two Worlds: Ameen Rihani and the Multicultural Journey.” Rita Awad returned to the floor to present “Rihani and Comparative Perspectives” and Professor Ameen Albert Rihani, from Lebanon’s Notre Dame University spoke on “The Book of Khalid between Modernism and Postmodernism.” Later, CUNY’s Roger Sadarat spoke on “The Metaphorical Displacement in The Book of Khalid.” The Third Session saw Roger Allan return to the podium with his paper “Rihani and Intellectual Approaches.” Nijmeh Hajjar, from the University of Sydney, Australia, spoke on “Rihani’s Feminist Vision between Fiction and Reality.” The University of Michigan’s Hani Bawardi spoke on “Reading Rihani: Rethinking Arab American History.” Finally, Todd Fine, Director of Project Khalid, spoke about “The Centennial Anniversary of The Book of Khalid in New York.” The fourth and final day of the conference included a tour to Rihani’s residences and places of acquaintance. It commenced with the family home of Farris Rihani, the father of Ameen, on Washington Street in Lower Manhattan. It ended with the last apartment in which Ameen Rihani lived, on 57th Street in Upper Manhattan. The tour also included the literary clubs and associations in which he was a member, and the hotels that have witnessed ceremonies honoring Rihani.

Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) explored themes of Arab democracy and social reform in a lecture on the first Arab-American novel ever written, The Book of Khalid by Ameen Rihani, published a century ago in 1911 and out of print for a long time.

The lecture was led by Todd Fine, the director of Project Khalid - which he founded to advance Rihani’s book and its message of reconciliation. Todd Fine giving a lecture Fine described the uncanny relevance of the novel to our contemporary time, particularly in light of recent events in the Arab world and strains in ArabAmerican relations since September 11, 2001.

“As US rhetoric was on a march towards apocalyptic disaster, especially since the start of the Iraq War, I instantly grasped that Rihani, as an advocate of cohesion and understanding between the Arab world and the West, could encourage greater critical engagement and needed to be more widely read,” said Fine, who is producing a new critical edition of the novel in an effort to promote its reading in high schools and colleges in the US.

NU-Q dean and CEO, Everette E Dennis commented on the historic connections between Northwestern and the Arab-American writer: “Rihani lectured at Northwestern University nearly 100 years ago in the US, and a discussion of his work at an American branch university in 21st-century Qatar speaks to his vision of dialogue and unity between East and West.”

The Book of Khalid centres on the story of two Arab boys who immigrate to the “Little Syria” community of Lower Manhattan. While peddling the streets of New York, one of the boys, Khalid is drawn into the city’s intellectual and bohemian scene and becomes a political activist among the Arab community there. Ultimately, Khalid makes a decision to return to his home country of Lebanon and incorporate what he’s learned in America to address the cultural and political dilemmas of the Arab world.

Rihani’s work is attributed to the launch of the great Arab-American literary tradition, best known in the writings of Khalil Gibran, and which has become enormously influential internationally.

“Unlike most immigrant literary works, Rihani does not problematise assimilation …he writes extensively about the importance of cultural interface and dialogue, and provides an alternate perception of America’s role in the Arab world,” said Fine, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard University who also holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Syracuse University. Students at NU-Q are studying similar themes in their “Modern Middle Eastern Literature” and “Immigration, Migration and Mobility in American Literature” classes, according to Dr Tracy Vaughn, senior lecturer in the liberal arts programme at NU-Q.

“Yet The Book of Khalid appears to be distinct among immigrant literature of its time,” says Vaughn, “because it diverges from the more popular realist narrative and instead presents a philosophical tale of reverse migration.”

Rihani, who himself immigrated to New York City in 1888 at age 11, became an American citizen in 1901 and authored a diverse array of novels, travelogues, non-fiction books, poems, and articles in both English and Arabic.

Through his many articles and speeches, he dedicated his life to educating Americans about the Arab world, and enlightening Arabs and their leadership about the US.

According to Fine, Rihani’s incorporation of the American stance on freedom, democracy and revolution to Arab intellectual discourse makes his work especially relevant to the winds of change the Arab region is currently witnessing.

Fine is mirroring the novelist’s travels across the Arab world this year, promoting The Book of Khalid in talks at universities across the Middle East in a literary revival campaign that also includes events at the US Library of Congress and academic institutions around the US to celebrate the book’s centennial anniversary.