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Ameen Rihani (1876-1940) was an influential Arab-American thinker, writer and political activist, and was one of the most prominent humanist intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was born in Freike, Lebanon, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He was recognized in his time as a leading figure in the world of Arab-American literature, a pioneer of the mahjar literary movement (Arabic Lebanese migration literature) and of contemporary Arabic prose poetry. A prolific writer, he published nearly 30 books in English alone. In his writing and political activism, Rihani's prime concern was engagement and mutual respect between the Arab world and the West - a concern which bears striking relevance to global affairs today. Undertaking a comprehensive reading of Rihani's Arabic and English published works, including his creative writings, essays, correspondence, and historical and travel books, Nijmeh Hajjar examines the dialectical link between Rihani's life experiences in the Arabworld, Europe and the USA with his ideas and activism. The book highlights Rihani's progressive secular humanist vision, his concerns about the need for Arab societies to achieve progress, liberal democracy and social justice, and his emphasis upon a mutual respect between the Arab world and the West - particularly the USA, Great Britain and France. This fascinating illustration of an Arab-American encounter contributes to post- and neo-colonial discourse and provides a balancing counterpoint to the predominant ideological 'clash of civilisations' paradigms. The Politics and Poetics of Ameen Rihani furthers our understanding of the Arab-Islamic world and its relationship with the West - which remains one of the most important issues of our times.
"Portrait of Jewish American philosopher and historian Hans Kohn"--
This book explores the formative correlations and inventive transmissions of Anglophone Arab representations ranging from early 20th century Mahjar writings to contemporary transnational Palestinian resistance art. Tracing multiple beginnings and seminal intertexts, the comparative study of dissonant truth-making presents critical readings in which the notion of cross-cultural translation gets displaced and strategic unreliability, representational opacity, or matters of act advance to essential qualities of the discussed works' aesthetic devices and ethical concerns. Questioning conventional interpretive approaches, Markus Schmitz shows what Anglophone Arab studies are and what they can become from a radically decentered relational point of view. Among the writers and artists discussed are such diverse figures as Rabih Alameddine, William Blatty, Kahlil Gibran, Ihab Hassan, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Emily Jacir, Walid Raad, Ameen Rihani, Edward Said, Larissa Sansour, and Raja Shehadeh.
Arab debates about the critical relationship between religion and modernity began in the early nineteenth century. Such debates are now integral to the struggle for power between a variety of political groups and their opponents, and are vital to understanding the modern Middle East. This unique volume introduces the writings of the Muslim and Arab Christian revisionist 'free-thinkers' who have tried to redefine the relationship. It challenges the deeply entrenched idea that the contemporary Islamic world has been impermeable to a critique of religious ideas and practices. Authors from the nineteenth century to the present are included. Some are avowed believers, even if they adopt positions many might regard as heretical; others are openly agnostic and atheistic. Despite their differences, all have been united in disputing the fundamentalist idea that life should conform to a system of values and law based on the Quran. They have also rejected the religious 'liberalism' that has been the chief opposition to traditionalism. The book's originality lies in its evaluation of the social and cultural impact of these radical thinkers.
Beginning with early Arab American playwright, poet and novelist Kahlil Gibran and concluding with contemporary playwright Yussef El Guindi, this book provides an historical overview and critical analysis of the plays, films and performances of self-identified Arab Americans. Playwrights, filmmakers and performers covered include Ameen Fares Rihani, Danny Thomas, Heather Raffo, Ahmed Ahmed, Mona Mansour and Cherien Dabis. These artists, traditionally underrepresented in entertainment, publishing and academia, have created works that exemplify the burgeoning Arab American arts movement. By addressing cinema, stand-up comedy and solo performance, the author introduces audiences to contemporary genres that are shaping Arab American culture in the United States.
Contributions by Allan Amanik, Kelly B. Arehart, Sue Fawn Chung, Kami Fletcher, Rosina Hassoun, James S. Pula, Jeffrey E. Smith, and Martina Will de Chaparro Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed explores the tendency among most Americans to separate their dead along communal lines rooted in race, faith, ethnicity, or social standing and asks what a deeper exploration of that phenomenon can tell us about American history more broadly. Comparative in scope, and regionally diverse, chapters look to immigrants, communities of color, the colonized, the enslaved, rich and poor, and religious minorities as they buried kith and kin in locales spanning the Northeast to the Spanish American Southwest. Whether African Americans, Muslim or Christian Arabs, Indians, mestizos, Chinese, Jews, Poles, Catholics, Protestants, or various whites of European descent, one thing that united these Americans was a drive to keep their dead apart. At times, they did so for internal preference. At others, it was a function of external prejudice. Invisible and institutional borders built around and into ethnic cemeteries also tell a powerful story of the ways in which Americans have negotiated race, culture, class, national origin, and religious difference in the United States during its formative centuries.
This book comprises a number of essays on travel-narratives which are somewhat unknown to the general reader. They include writing by people who travelled from the East to the West, as well as those going the usual way. The travellers include a seventeenth-century accountant, a Persian shah, an Indian rajah and a Hawaiian king, as well as an Irish doctor, an American journalist and a Japanese poet. The book presents these travellers in an informal manner, although there are discussions about identity, “otherness” and stereotyping as they are displayed in the narratives. The book will appeal to students and academics, as well as the general reader.
The semi autobiographical work chronicles the adventures of two young men, Khalid and Shakib, who leave Lebanon for the United States to find work as peddlers in Lower Manhattan. After mixed success at immersing themselves in American culture, the two return to the Middle East at a time of turmoil following the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Khalid attempts to integrate his Western experiences with Eastern spiritual values, becoming an absurd, yet all too serious, combination of political revolutionary and prophet. The Book of Khalid offers readers a heady mix of picaresque, philosophical dialogue, and immigrant story. In this critical edition, Fine includes the text of the original 1911 edition, a substantial glossary, and supplemental essays by leading Rihani scholars. Demonstrating the reach and significance of the work, these essays address a variety of themes, including Rihani’s creative influences, philosophical elements, and the historical context of the novel. Attracting a new generation of readers to Rihani’s innovative work, this edition reveals his continued resonance with contemporary Arab American literature.
The ‘Syria idea’ emerged in the nineteenth century as a concept of national awakening superseding both Arab nationalism and separatist currents. Looking at nationalist movements, ideas and individuals, this book traces the origin and development of the idea of Syrian nationhood from the perspective of some of its leading pioneers. Providing a highly original comparative insight into the struggle for independence and sovereignty in post-1850 Syria, it addresses some of the most persistent questions about the development of this nationalism. Chapters by eminent scholars from within and outside of the region offer a comprehensive study of individual Syrian writers and activists caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty, competing ideologies, foreign interference, and political suppression. A valuable addition to the present scholarship on nationalism in the Middle East, this book will be of interest to many professionals as well as to scholars of history, Middle East studies and political science.
The relationship between Islam and the West has frequently been subject to misunderstanding and mistrust and recent events in the international arena have only deepened this perceived divide, culturally and politically. The West often views the Islamic world - and the Islamic world the West - through a prism of mutual suspicion. In such conditions conspiracy, theories can flourish on both sides of the cultural fence, but these highly complex and important global phenomena have been the subject of surprisingly little investigation. "Orientalism and Conspiracy" explores fully for the first time the relationship between the sometimes controversial concept of Orientalism, as developed by Edward Said, and contemporary conspiracy theories, and includes Robert Irwin's fascinating survey of the role of secret societies in orientalist mythology. The authors offer a comprehensive and ground-breaking study of the conspiracy theory and Islam. It is essential reading for those seeking to understand historical and contemporary relationships between the East and West as well as the enduring and controversial legacy of the concept of Orientalism.