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209-667: Ameen Rihani was born on November 24, 1876, in Freike, in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate , Rihani was one of six children and the oldest son of a Lebanese Maronite raw silk manufacturer, Fares Rihani. In 1888, his father sent his brother and Ameen to New York City ; he followed them a year later. Ameen, then eleven years old, was placed in a school where he learned the rudiments of the English language. His father and uncle, having established themselves as merchants in

418-464: A "profound impression" on Gibran. Another influence on Gibran was American poet Walt Whitman , whom Gibran followed "by pointing up the universality of all men and by delighting in nature. According to El-Hage, the influence of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche "did not appear in Gibran's writings until The Tempests ." Nevertheless, although Nietzsche's style "no doubt fascinated" him, Gibran

627-484: A Druze Qa’im-Maqam, both of whom are chosen by the notables, and are subject to the Governor of Beirut, this system was later known as the double Qa’im-Maqamate system. The defects of the double Qa’im-Maqamate system became clear when sectarian strife continued under it, the reason for this is that this system not only failed to eliminate the causes of discord among the inhabitants of the mountain, but also added to it

836-463: A Druze. Usually, in these types of incidents, the sheikhs and the 'Uqalā' (" Those of Good-Will ") would have intervened to solve it, and if they were not successful, they would raise the matter to the emir, who would issue his ruling and restore things to normal, but anxiety and tension among the population and the emir being unable to impose his will on a party that does not recognize him prevented such solutions. The conflict moved to some areas in

1045-638: A French teacher at Haskell's school, aged 19. Both Teller and Micheline agreed to pose for Gibran as models and became close friends of his. The same year, Gibran published Spirits Rebellious in Arabic, a novel deeply critical of secular and spiritual authority. According to Barbara Young , a late acquaintance of Gibran, "in an incredibly short time it was burned in the market place in Beirut by priestly zealots who pronounced it 'dangerous, revolutionary, and poisonous to youth. ' " The Maronite Patriarchate would let

1254-512: A Maronite-run institute in Beirut , also learning French. In his final year at the school, Gibran created a student magazine with other students, including Youssef Howayek (who would remain a lifelong friend of his), and he was made the "college poet". Gibran graduated from the school at eighteen with high honors, then went to Paris to learn painting, visiting Greece, Italy, and Spain on his way there from Beirut. On April 2, 1902, Sultana died at

1463-523: A book of allegories and a few short stories and plays. Rihani, who was influenced by the American poet Walt Whitman, introduced prose poetry to Arab literature. His new style of poetry was published as early as 1905. This new concept flourished in the Arab world and continued to lead modern Arab poetry after Rihani's death in 1940 and throughout the second half of the 20th century. Additionally, he lectured at

1672-587: A citadel, he also took advantage of his influence in Beirut to protect them, Muslim clerics and a number of Beirut notables opened their homes to the afflicted Maronites, as did the Shiite leaders in Jabal Amel . When Sultan Abd al-Majid I feared that this sedition would lead to the military intervention of foreign countries in the Ottoman affairs, he instructed the Ottoman officials in Beirut and Damascus to put

1881-553: A country like Lebanon, which is the paradise of the East. I saw a yellow face like the peel of a sweet lemon, eyes that lost the light, swollen and puffy feet, worn and filthy clothes on the body, and weakness in the body is a harbinger of death. I watched boys, biting their mothers' breasts, whose milk dried up, sucking and sucking, without their mothers' breasts producing a drop of milk for them. I watched mothers begging for food for their children, so they were blessed with sustenance...Wheat

2090-557: A decision was issued to appoint him as administrator of Mount Lebanon for a period of three years. He was welcomed by leading Roman Catholic clergy as well as by Greek Orthodox clergy. However, the Maronite community did not welcome him during his tenure. Youssef Karam was the last Maronite mayor to aspire to become the mutasarrif. As soon that Daoud Pasha assumed his position in Deir al-Qamar, several feudal lords and clerics opposed him, he

2299-580: A farm near Baalbek , later moving to Bash'elah in 1672. Another story places the origin of the Gibran family in Acre before migrating to Bash'elah in the year 1300. Gibran parents, Khalil Sa'ad Gibran and Kamila Rahmeh, the daughter of a priest, were Maronite Christian. As written by Bushrui and Jenkins, they would set for Gibran an example of tolerance by "refusing to perpetuate religious prejudice and bigotry in their daily lives." Kamila's paternal grandfather had converted from Islam to Christianity. She

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2508-546: A few. Ameen had a natural talent in eloquent speaking, and in 1895, the teenager got 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

2717-460: A heavy guest in every family. And the ghost of Azrael hovered over every house. The dead were buried wholesale. The poor among them, and o' were they many, are piled up in the drums, and they are buried one on top of the other in the pits, not coffins, nor shrouds, nor mourners, nor those for whom the death prayer is offered." Mumtaz Bey assumed the position of Mutasarrif on 31 July 1918, after Ismail Haqqi, however, as soon as he took over his duties,

2926-653: A new factor of discrimination and conflict, the factor being the class struggle between the feudal lords and the common people, after taking away from the Druze and Christian feudal leaders their judicial and financial powers, and making them the prerogative of the Qaimaqam and the Qaimaqam Council. In the year 1856, Sultan Abd al-Majid I issued his famous edict , in which he equalized all Ottoman subjects, regardless of their different religious beliefs, and abolished

3135-666: A novel in English, and (rewritten) in Arabic, describing the oppression of the woman (represented by Mariam) during the Ottoman Empire, Jihan , a novel in English about the role of Levantine women during World War I, The Luzumiyat , translation of the Arabic poetry of Al-Ma’arri into English with Rihani's introduction highlighting the significance of this poet to the Western mind, The Path of Vision , essays in English on East and West, A Chant of Mystics , poetry in English, The Descent of Bolchevism , political analysis in English on

3344-588: A number of immigrants achieved great success that weren't possible to achieve in their homeland, and many of these immigrants contributed to the revival of the Arabic Language and Arabic literature after a stalemate that lasted for many years, and contributed to raising the Arab national spirit and political awareness in the period of Al-Nahda among Arabs, whether in Lebanon or in neighboring countries. The autonomy of Mount Lebanon (Mutasarrifate) ended with

3553-742: A number of its members, most notably Petro Trad , Who later became President of the Republic under the French Mandate, he and a few other Christian members had signed a secret memorandum under the title " The Situation of Christians in Syria ," which they handed over to the French Consul in Beirut, in which they talked about the situation and the persecution the Christians are subjected to, the secret memorandum ended with France calling for

3762-536: A paradigm". Haskell (in her private journal entry of May 29, 1924) and Howayek also provided hints at an enmity that began between Gibran and Rihani sometime after May 1912. Gibran sailed back to New York City from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the Nieuw Amsterdam on October 22, 1910, and was back in Boston by November 11. By February 1911, Gibran had joined the Boston branch of a Syrian international organization,

3971-424: A period of three years, at the end of which he would report on the validity and success of this system. When Dawud Pasha's experimental mandate ended in 1864, he carried to Constantinople a report requesting the amendment of some texts of the statute. The Sublime Porte agreed to a part of his proposals, and his mandate was renewed for another five years. The Basic Law of Mount Lebanon, after being amended and signed by

4180-732: A regular education for a professional career. They agreed that he should study law. To that end, he attended night school for a year, passed the Regents Exam, and in 1897 entered the New York Law School . A lung infection interrupted his studies, and at the end of his first year, his father had to send him back to Lebanon to recover. Once back in his homeland, he began teaching English in a clerical school in return for being taught formal Classical Arabic . Rihani had first become familiar with Arab poets in 1897. Among these poets were Abul-Ala Al-Ma’arri , whom Ameen discovered to be

4389-670: A severe dispute occurred between him and Archbishop Pierre al-Bustani , the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Sidon and Tyre, he was expelled to Jerusalem. However, the intense protests sent by the people and the intervention of the French government forced the Sublime Porte to return him to the seat of his diocese. Rustem Pasha became angry with the Lebanese population, and took revenge on them by canceling schools, and persecuting

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4598-426: A shop. Gibran also enrolled in an art school at Denison House , a nearby settlement house . Through his teachers there, he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer and publisher F. Holland Day , who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. In March 1898, Gibran met Josephine Preston Peabody , eight years his senior, at an exhibition of Day's photographs "in which Gibran's face

4807-436: A simple dispute, possibly over a game of marble (although some sources believe that the cause of the dispute isn't known) between a Druze and a Maronite kid in the town of Beit Meri , the parents of each of the kids participated in the dispute, and it turned into a bloody quarrel in which the people of the two sects from Beit Meri, then from all the villages of Matn, participated. The fighting got reignited on 22 May 1860, when

5016-487: A small cellar in lower Manhattan, soon felt the need for an assistant who could read and write in English. Therefore, the boy was taken away from school to become the chief clerk, interpreter and bookkeeper of the business. During this time, Ameen made the acquaintance of American and European writers. He eventually became familiar with the writings of Shakespeare , Hugo , Darwin , Huxley , Spencer , Whitman , Tolstoy , Voltaire , Thoreau , Emerson and Byron , to name

5225-405: A small group of Maronites fired on a group of Druze at the entrance to Beirut, killing one and wounding two. This sparked a torrent of violence which swept through Lebanon. In a mere three days, from 29 to 31 May 60 villages were destroyed in the vicinity of Beirut. 33 Christians and 48 Druze were killed. By June, the disturbances had spread to the "mixed" neighbourhoods of southern Lebanon and

5434-483: A strong emotional attachment to Miss Ziadeh till his death. Gibran and Ziadeh never met. According to Shlomit C. Schuster , "whatever the relationship between Kahlil and May might have been, the letters in A Self-Portrait mainly reveal their literary ties. Ziadeh reviewed all of Gibran's books and Gibran replies to these reviews elegantly." Poet, who has heard thee but the spirits that follow thy solitary path? Prophet, who has known thee but those who are driven by

5643-528: A time [...], staying either with friends in the countryside or with Marianna in Boston or on the Massachusetts coast." His friendships with Teller and Micheline would wane; the last encounter between Gibran and Teller would occur in September 1912, and Gibran would tell Haskell in 1914 that he now found Micheline "repellent." In 1912, the poetic novella Broken Wings was published in Arabic by

5852-482: A visionary. As a result of Ar-Rihaniyyaat , the Egyptian media hailed him as "The Philosopher of Freike". During this same period of mountain solitude The Book of Khalid was written and was later published in 1911 after he returned to New York. The illustrations for this book, which was the first English novel ever written by a Lebanese/Arab, were provided by Khalil Gibran . A reception was held in honor of Rihani for

6061-399: Is sold by rationing in the most unfair form... A kilo of rice or sugar, if available, costs thirty Syrian pounds. Meat was eaten by the rich only, coffee was absent from the markets... People, however they went and wherever they came, spoke only about bread... There was only one cheap thing in Lebanon at that time, and that thing was death... Typhus was killing the old and the young. Malaria was

6270-731: Is the child of a sort of marriage. There's nothing in any other tongue to correspond to the English Bible. And the Chaldo-Syriac is the most beautiful language that man has made—though it is no longer used. As worded by Waterfield, "the parables of the New Testament" affected "his parables and homilies" while "the poetry of some of the Old Testament books" affected "his devotional language and incantational rhythms." Annie Salem Otto notes that Gibran avowedly imitated

6479-400: Is the first Arab to write English essays, poetry, novels, short stories, art critiques, and travel chronicles. He published his works in the U.S. during the first four decades of the twentieth century. In this sense, he is the forerunner of American literature written by well known Middle Eastern writers. Rihani is also considered to be the founder of "Adab Al-Mahjar" (Immigrant Literature). He

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6688-537: Is the first Arab who wrote complete literary works, either in Arabic or in English, and published in the U. S. (New York). His writings pioneered the movement of modern Arabic literature that played a leading role in the Arab Renaissance and contemporary Arab thought. Rihani's Arabic book of essays entitled Ar-Rihaniyyaat (1910), endorsed his major philosophic and social beliefs and values that were reflected in his future works. These beliefs were addressed in

6897-763: The Arab Revolt led by Sharif Hussein bin Ali in the Hijaz against the Ottomans, it was the only Arab force that existed at the time, and a team of the Lebanese joined the Arab army led by Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein , and this army was fighting with the Allied States in return for their promise of Arab independence. Other Lebanese were dependent on France, and a large number of Lebanese expatriates volunteered in

7106-629: The Authors’ Club , and the New York Pen League . On the political front, he advocated several causes and worked tirelessly towards these goals: the rapprochement between East and West as a major step towards global cultural dialogue, the liberation of Lebanon from the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the advocating for Arab nationalism and promoting what he called “The United States of Arabia”. In 1922 Rihani traveled throughout Arabia, meeting and getting better acquainted with its rulers. He

7315-464: The Bekaa , Marjayoun and Jabal Amel, and to be governed by a non-Lebanese and non-Turkish Ottoman Christian administrator appointed by the Sublime Porte with the approval of the five countries. The members of the international commission researched many names for the new administrative division and its governor. Many titles were considered; Emir (أمير) was quickly refuted because it was offensive to

7524-549: The Beqaa , and it reached its climax when some Druze besieged the emir in the Deir al-Qamar Palace and then stormed him and arrested the emir and mistreated him. The Ottomans seized this opportunity and dealt their final blow. On 13 December 1842, that is, three months after the start of the unrest, the governor of Beirut summoned Prince Bashir III from Deir al-Qamar to Beirut, from which an Ottoman ship took him to Constantinople. After

7733-755: The Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and the Harvard Art Museums . A possible Gibran painting was the subject of a September 2008 episode of the PBS TV series History Detectives . According to Bushrui and Jenkins, Although brought up as a Maronite Christian (see § Childhood ) , Gibran, as an Arab, was influenced not only by his own religion but also by Islam, especially by

7942-565: The Court of cassation , and considered this an attempt to weaken the independence of the Lebanese judiciary, and as a burden on the Lebanese, who had to return to Constantinople in their cases, when in the past they all ended in Lebanon. In the last years of his tenure, chaos prevailed alongside corruption, bribery spread, and European interference in the affairs of the Mutasarrifate increased more than before, positions and ranks were sold to

8151-494: The Ottoman Empire met to investigate the causes of the events of 1860 and to recommend a new administrative and judicial system for Lebanon that would prevent the recurrence of such events. The mission of the committee included three fields: establishing security, punishing the guilty, providing relief and compensation to the afflicted, and establishing a new system of government in Lebanon. However, Fuad Pasha did not leave

8360-591: The Ottoman Porte ( Emir being a title of the Ottoman Sultan ) and was reminiscent of the Emirate system that the Ottomans fought to abolish. Vali (والي) also fell from consideration because the commission members wanted to convey the importance of the rank of the new title which was above that of the Ottoman governors of nearby vilayets ; "Governor" (حاكم) was also abandoned because they thought

8569-687: The Poetry Society of America and the Pleiades Club , and also became a regular contributor to an Arabic daily newspaper, Al-Huda , published in New York. He wrote about social traditions, religion, national politics and philosophy. Thus, he began his extensive literary career, bridging two worlds. He published his first two books in Arabic in 1902 and 1903. In 1905 he returned to his native mountains. During an ensuing six-year period of solitude, he published, in Arabic, two volumes of essays,

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8778-619: The Poetry Society of America , after which Corinne Roosevelt Robinson , the younger sister of Theodore Roosevelt , stood up and called them "destructive and diabolical stuff"; nevertheless, beginning in 1918 Gibran would become a frequent visitor at Robinson's, also meeting her brother. Gibran acted as a secretary of the Syrian–Mount Lebanon Relief Committee , which was formed in June 1916. The same year, Gibran met Lebanese author Mikhail Naimy after Naimy had moved from

8987-732: The Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia . Haskell had been thinking of placing her collection at the Telfair as early as 1914. Her gift to the Telfair is the largest public collection of Gibran's visual art in the country. Gibran explored literary forms as diverse as "poetry, parables , fragments of conversation, short stories , fables , political essays , letters, and aphorisms ." Two plays in English and five plays in Arabic were also published posthumously between 1973 and 1993; three unfinished plays written in English towards

9196-776: The University of Washington to New York. Naimy, whom Gibran would nickname "Mischa," had previously made a review of Broken Wings in his article "The Dawn of Hope After the Night of Despair", published in Al-Funoon , and he would become "a close friend and confidant, and later one of Gibran's biographers." In 1917, an exhibition of forty wash drawings was held at Knoedler in New York from January 29 to February 19 and another of thirty such drawings at Doll & Richards, Boston, April 16–28. While most of Gibran's early writings had been in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918

9405-563: The Wilayah of Beirut , compulsory conscription was imposed on young people, while in the Mutasarrifate, Jamal Pasha carried out several actions that violated the Mutasarrifate system, Jamal Pasha considered all the Lebanese to be enemies of the Sultanate, and he persecuted the intellectuals. He closed newspapers, dissolved associations, put everyone under the watch of spies, imposed forced labor and disrupted transportation., he also feared that

9614-503: The Young Turk Revolution ; some of Gibran's writings, voicing the same ideas as well as anti-clericalism , would eventually be banned by the Ottoman authorities. In 1911, Gibran settled in New York, where his first book in English, The Madman , was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1918, with writing of The Prophet or The Earth Gods also underway. His visual artwork was shown at Montross Gallery in 1914, and at

9823-524: The mutasarrifiyah of Mount Lebanon. In the 1861 "Règlement Organique" , Mount Lebanon was preliminarily separated from Syria and reunited under a non-Lebanese Christian mutasarrıf (governor) appointed by the Ottoman sultan, with the approval of the European powers. Mount Lebanon became a semi-autonomous mutasarrifate. In September 1864, the statute became permanent. The mutasarrıf was to be assisted by an administrative council of twelve members from

10032-520: The Académie Julian altogether." In December 1909, Gibran started a series of pencil portraits that he would later call "The Temple of Art", featuring "famous men and women artists of the day" and "a few of Gibran's heroes from past times." While in Paris, Gibran also entered into contact with Syrian political dissidents, in whose activities he would attempt to be more involved upon his return to

10241-520: The Allied armies, especially in the French army. In May 1917, Ali Munif was appointed governor of the Wilayat of Beirut, leaving the position of the Mutasarrifate to his successor, Ismail Haqi. The Ottoman rule in Lebanon continued during the reign of Ismail Haqqi with the political rules that had been established during the reign of his predecessor. However, the treatment of the new administrator towards

10450-552: The American Zionist movement and published numerous articles critical of political Zionism. During the last eight years of his life, Ameen Rihani wrote the remainder of his books, continued to be active in his political, literary and philosophical endeavors, and maintained close contacts with several political leaders, poets, writers, scholars and artists. Samir Kassir points to Rihani's role in bringing Beirut into intellectual contact with its "cultural environment as well as

10659-461: The Anti Lebanon, to Sidon, Hasbaya , Rashaya , Deir el Qamar , and Zahlé . The Druze peasants laid siege to Catholic monasteries and missions, burnt them, and killed the monks. France intervened on behalf of the local Christian population and Britain on behalf of the Druze after the massacres , in which over 10,000 Christians were killed. The number of dead reached twelve thousand, and

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10868-717: 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.S. officials in this regard and, during the 1920s and 1930s, was active on behalf of the Arab American, Palestine Anti-Zionism Society (later renamed the Arab National League). Rihani publicly debated leading figures in

11077-695: The Arab World, attended the funeral ceremony. He was laid to rest in the Rihani Family Mausoleum in Freike. Thirteen years after his death, in 1953, his 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

11286-569: The Arab origins of the socialist movements, New Volumes of Ar-Rihaniyyaat , philosophic and social essays in Arabic. In 1916 Ameen married Bertha Case, an American artist, who was part of the Matisse , Picasso , Cézanne and Derain group in Paris, and the Midi, and joined them in exhibiting her work at the Salon de Mai. Bertha visited Lebanon in 1953 (thirteen years after Ameen's death), staying with

11495-412: The Basic Law of Mount Lebanon, or to prevent it from interfering in its internal affairs. In addition, the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the central axis countries, made all the lands belonging to the state in a state of war with the Allies, and since Mount Lebanon was part of this state, it became subject to the conditions of the war and exposed to its woes and disasters. Due to

11704-419: The British and French would invade Mount Lebanon from the sea to strike the rear of the Ottoman army and cut off its communications, so he decided to occupy Lebanese lands, effectively turning the Mutasarrifate into a Vilayet (Wilayah). On 22 November, the first Ottoman regiment arrived from Damascus to Zahlé, and from there it set off westward, climbing the mountain to Dhour al-Shwer , the regiment reached it in

11913-419: The British delegate, unlike the French delegate, he sought to reduce the provisions and narrow the area of Lebanon for fear of the expansion of French influence in the Levant. After several sessions that lasted a few months, the six countries participating in the committee agreed to make Mount Lebanon a "Mutasarrifate" and to narrow its borders by removing the cities of Beirut, Tripoli , Sidon , Tyre , Akkar ,

12122-434: The Christians exists and that they could not be trusted, and urged them to support their leaders and rally around them to defend their followers of their faith. Foreign countries played a major role in worsening sectarian hatreds. The British, after their Protestant missionaries were unable to win a large audience of native Lebanese Christians, supported and encouraged the Druze and supplied them with money and weapons, as did

12331-406: The Christians. He reduced their influence and confiscated the weapons they needed to defend themselves, for these reasons, tensions rose up between the Druze and the Christians. The Egyptians remained in Lebanon and the rest of the Levant for 9 years, and eventually the Egyptian army was defeated by an international alliance consisting of Britain , Austria , Russia and the Ottoman Empire, after

12540-414: The Druze and Maronites in particular; the European countries exploited the sectarian tensions to pressure the Sultan in a way that achieved their economic and ideological interests in the Arab East. The Mutasarrifate era is characterized by the spread of national consciousness, science and culture among the Lebanese, for many reasons, including: the spread of schools in numerous villages, towns and cities, and

12749-474: The Druze were the fiercest fighters, it was said that out of the 12,000 dead, 10,000 of them were Christians. Property losses were estimated at four million golden pound sterlings , and the strife occurred during the silk season, which was the mainstay of the Levantine economy in general and the Lebanese mountainous economy in particular, the war destroyed it and eliminated it, and many Christian craftsmen emigrated from Damascus, fearing for their lives, leading to

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12958-421: The Druze-majority side, and the other on the north of the mountain, that is, on the Christian-majority side, with the rulers being the subject of the Governor of Beirut, but the Europeans stood in the way of the Ottoman plan, as it entailed strengthening the Ottoman Islamic grip on Mount Lebanon, and since the influence of the Ottoman Empire was weakening at the time and unable to compete with the European influence,

13167-441: The French and British interference, had intensified since the era of Egyptian rule in the Levant, which made the Ottomans suffer greatly in preserving Arab lands from European ambitions. The situation worsened matters for Bashir III, as the nine years of Egyptian rule had left an atmosphere of suspicion between the Druze and the Maronites that was not easy to forget, furthermore, the Druze, led by their feudal lords, had been demanding

13376-403: The French for the Maronites, with most of Britain and France's agents being Orientalists who spent many years in the Levant. For all of these reasons, the atmosphere in Mount Lebanon had become filled with tensions between the Maronites and the Druze, and was liable to explode at any moment for the most trivial of reasons. The events of this civil war began in the summer of 30 August 1859, with

13585-427: The Golden Links Society. He lectured there for several months "in order to promote radicalism in independence and liberty" from Ottoman Syria. At the end of April, Gibran was staying in Teller's vacant flat at 164 Waverly Place in New York City. "Gibran settled in, made himself known to his Syrian friends—especially Amin Rihani, who was now living in New York—and began both to look for a suitable studio and to sample

13794-414: The Great Tempest to thy lonely grove? To Albert Pinkham Ryder (1915), first two verses In 1913, Gibran started contributing to Al-Funoon , an Arabic-language magazine that had been recently established by Nasib Arida and Abd al-Masih Haddad . A Tear and a Smile was published in Arabic in 1914. In December of the same year, visual artworks by Gibran were shown at the Montross Gallery, catching

14003-470: The International Committee sought to make the decisions of the Committee serve the interests of their country in Lebanon. Fuad Pasha tried to narrow the scope of European intervention and remove all solutions that weaken the Ottoman sovereignty over Lebanon. The delegate of France was asking for tougher penalties, an increase in the value of compensation for Christians, and an expansion of Lebanon's borders to attract Maronites and their support for France. As for

14212-403: The Levant in 1516. The Unionists went even further in undermining the autonomy of Mount Lebanon when they disrupted the work of the Basic System and made it practically nullified, although Ohannes Pasha tried to preserve the privileges of Mount Lebanon and resisted the interference of the military authority in its affairs as much as possible, but he did not succeed, and he had lost the confidence of

14421-445: The Maronite Patriarch Youssef Boutros Hobeish , who announced that he refused to cooperate with any non-Lebanese ruler or any ruler not chosen by the Lebanese themselves. The Pasha had hired agents to edit petitions that showed the people's support for him and their refusal to return to the Chehab rule. A number of people signed these petitions in exchange for a bribe, a promise or a threat, and some of them signed them with consent, when

14630-450: The Minister of the Ottoman Navy, Ahmed Jamal Pasha (one of the " Three Pashas " of the World War I -era Ottoman leadership, he is also known as " As-Saffāḥ "; lit.   ' the Blood-Shedder ' ), to the Levant at the head of the Fourth Army , to attack the British, drive them out of Egypt, and seize the Suez Canal , through which most of the war supplies to the allies from Australia, Asia, and eastern and southern Africa passed. In

14839-409: The Mutasarrif. The principles reached by the delegates were written in an official form known as the " Protocol of 1861 " (also known as the Beyoglu Protocol ) and signed on 9 June of the same year. It was also agreed that the system stipulated in the protocol would be put to trial until 1864, and Dawud Pasha , an Ottoman career diplomat of Armenian origin, would be appointed as administrator for

15048-429: The Mutasarrifate board of directors, counted the population and surveyed land, and took over the collection of Bekaa revenue for the Lebanese treasury, as well as supervising its management. Daoud Pasha composed a national force of a thousand Lebanese soldiers, and contracted with French officers to organize and train its personnel. He also obtained from the Ottoman government a warship that he called "Lubnān" (Lebanon). In

15257-740: The Organic Statute, the most important of which were the following: First, the election of the members of the Administrative Council was not limited to elders as before, and the people’s participation in this election through delegates representing one hundred delegates each. Second, allowing the construction of three ports in Lebanon, the first in Jounieh, the second in Nabi Younis, and the third in Chekka . Ohannes Pasha had

15466-644: The Orientalist movement by giving the world, for the first time, an objective and analytical description of Arabia from an Arab point of view. These are Maker of Modern Arabia (1928), Around the Coasts of Arabia (1930), and Arabian Peak and Desert (1931). This Arab Trilogy was considered by the publishers in the United States and Europe as best sellers at the time. The author wrote accounts of his travels to Arabia, in Arabic first, and were published under

15675-591: The Ottoman Empire. These associations used to cover up for scientific, literary, and religious goals to escape the monitoring and persecution of the authorities. In terms of their goals, the patriots were divided into two parts: a section demanding autonomy within the Ottoman League, and the advocates of this view were generally known as the Decentralization Party, and another section that wanted complete independence and complete separation from

15884-659: The Ottoman Ministry of Interior, as administrator of Mount Lebanon, Ali Munif arrived in Beirut (where he took residence in Zuqaq al-Blat ) on 20 September of the same year and began his work as an administrator on Mount Lebanon under the command of the Wali of Beirut. Ali Munif devoted his works to the abolition of the Mount Lebanon regime and its privileges. He reorganized the districts of the Mutasarrifate, following

16093-572: The Ottoman Sultan, the Pasha also practiced several pressures on the Maronite clergy. Bishop Boutros Shebli was exiled to Adana , where he died, and the seventy-two years old Patriarch Elias Howayek was forced to visit him in Sofar in which he was threatened with exile. Thus, Jamal Pasha has eliminated the old privilege granted by Sultan Selim I to the Maronite community during his conquest of

16302-597: The Ottoman army began to retreat, defeated by the allied armies advancing from Egypt and Palestine. On 30 September, he left his work station in Baabda, fleeing to Zahle, and from there he went to the railway station in Rayak , where he joined the remnants of the Ottoman army retreating to the north. With the withdrawal of Mumtaz Bey, the era of the Turkish Mutasarrif ended, as did the Ottoman rule in Mount Lebanon and

16511-557: The Ottoman army entered Mount Lebanon, which led to what is considered as the end of the era of the legitimate administrators, and the beginning of the era of the Turkish administrators. The First World War created a new political situation in Mount Lebanon fraught with danger to its security, stability and internal independence. The international guarantee that was available to it under the Protocol of 1861 lost its practical value with

16720-412: The Ottoman government opposed him in that, so when he insisted on his opinion, Fuad Pasha deluded him that if he wanted to achieve his demand, he had only to wave his resignation from the Mutasarrifate, and then the government is forced to implement what he demanded. Daoud Pasha fell into the trap set by Fouad Pasha and submitted his demands accompanied by his resignation, but the Ottoman government rejected

16929-498: The Ottoman occupation at the beginning of World War I . The Ottomans started an organized famine (known as Kafno ). The defeat of the Ottoman Empire led to a French military invasion in 1918, this initiated the French Mandate . Prince Bashir Shihab II had been ruling since 1788, and he consolidated his authority over the country by eliminating his rivals from the feudal lords. His political cunning always managed to absorb

17138-502: The Ottomans. The unionists hated both sides, and persecuted them and anyone they suspected of belonging to them. Among the associations that were established during this era was the " Beirut Reform Society ," which consisted equally of Muslims and Christians, and also included two Jewish members. This association was a reformist association that aimed to preserve the unity of the Ottoman Empire while carrying out some administrative and social reforms in it, but some documents revealed that

17347-565: The Saray of Zahle , and began constructing a Saray in Jounieh , he also built roads and bridges, and was the first ruler to excavate antiquities. During his reign, the Ottoman government adopted a modern system of the judiciary, this system was ordered for application in Lebanon, in violation of the Basic Law. The Lebanese objected to the new system, because it made Constantinople a center for

17556-611: The Science of America. According to several scholars, The Book of Khalid is the foundation of a new literary trend towards wisdom and prophecy that seeks to reconcile matter and soul, reason and faith, together with the Orient and the Occident in an attempt to explicate the unity of religions and represent the unity of the universe. His books on Arabia, written originally in Arabic and in English, represent an alternative perspective to

17765-467: The Sultan accepted the proposals of representatives of the great powers to divide the mountain into a Christian and a Druze side and on 1 December 1843, the Sultan agreed to the proposal of Prince Metternich , Chancellor of Austria, and asked Asaad Pasha, the governor of Beirut, to divide Mount Lebanon into two provinces: a northern province ruled by a Christian Qa’im-Maqam and a southern province governed by

17974-425: The Sultan and urged him to accept the formation of an international committee entrusted with restoring stability to Mount Lebanon, liquidating the sedition, and setting up a new system of governance. Thus, the reign of the double Qa’im-Maqamate ended in the year 1861, after it lasted for nineteen years. On 5 September 1860, an international commission composed of France , Britain , Austria , Prussia , Russia and

18183-557: The Syrian Protestant College (later The American University of Beirut ) and in a few other institutions in Lebanon and the Arab World , as well as in the cities of Aleppo , Cairo , Damascus , Jerusalem , and others. He also worked, along with other national leaders, for the liberation of his country from Turkish rule. In 1910 he published Ar-Rihaniyyaat , the book that established him as a forward thinker and

18392-578: The United States in 1895. As his mother worked as a seamstress, he was enrolled at a school in Boston , where his creative abilities were quickly noticed by a teacher who presented him to photographer and publisher F. Holland Day . Gibran was sent back to his native land by his family at the age of fifteen to enroll at the Collège de la Sagesse in Beirut . Returning to Boston upon his youngest sister's death in 1902, he lost his older half-brother and his mother

18601-469: The United States. In June 1910, Gibran visited London with Howayek and Ameen Rihani , whom Gibran had met in Paris. Rihani, who was six years older than Gibran, would be Gibran's role model for a while, and a friend until at least May 1912. Gibran biographer Robin Waterfield argues that, by 1918, "as Gibran's role changed from that of angry young man to that of prophet, Rihani could no longer act as

18810-470: The abolition of foreign privileges, and transformed some Lebanese facilities into military barracks and government departments. Jamal Pasha interfered in the internal affairs of the religious sects, he led an abolition of the privileges of the Maronite clergy, during which he forced the patriarch of the Maronite community and its metropolitans, to request a firman for the appointment of the Patriarch from

19019-422: The age of 14, from what is believed to have been tuberculosis . Upon learning about it, Gibran returned to Boston, arriving two weeks after Sultana's death. The following year, on March 12, Boutros died of the same disease, with his mother passing from cancer on June 28. Two days later, Peabody "left him without explanation." Marianna supported Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker's shop. Gibran held

19228-571: The attention of American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder . Gibran wrote him a prose poem in January and would become one of the aged man's last visitors. After Ryder's death in 1917, Gibran's poem would be quoted first by Henry McBride in the latter's posthumous tribute to Ryder, then by newspapers across the country, from which would come the first widespread mention of Gibran's name in America. By March 1915, two of Gibran's poems had also been read at

19437-464: The battles that he fought, subsequently, Ibrahim Pasha rewarded Bashir for the assistance provided to him by his supporters. He restored to him his previous position and left him free to dispose of his emirate, subsequently, Bashir continued to pursue his opponents from the feudal lords and eliminated their influence, confiscated their property and displaced them, and established on their fiefs some of his supporters and relatives, Ibrahim Pasha improved

19646-544: The big number of French, British and Russian orientalists who were residing in the Levant, including Mount Lebanon, and due to the presence of a significant number of missionaries and dispatches affiliated with the Allied Powers, the Ottomans decided to invoke military necessities to enter Mount Lebanon, due to the fear of what these foreigners could do to incite the public against the Ottomans. The Federal Government sent

19855-540: The burden on those who were beset by misfortunes during the war, and encouraged the affluent to establish associations to aid the needy. Therefore, the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon had a positive outlook towards Ismail Haqqi, and were saddened by decision of the Ottoman government to transfer him as governor of Beirut in July 1918 after only a year and a few months before he assumed the position of Mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon. Despite Ismail Haqqi's tolerance and understanding of

20064-889: The canvas [...] instead of killing them first on the palette" in what would become the painting Rose Sleeves (1911, Telfair Museums ). Gibran created more than seven hundred visual artworks, including the Temple of Art portrait series. His works may be seen at the Gibran Museum in Bsharri; the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia; the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha;

20273-532: The cirrhosis was contracted through excessive drinking of alcohol and was the only real cause of Gibran's death. "The epitaph I wish to be written on my tomb: 'I am alive, like you. And I now stand beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you'. Gibran" Epitaph at the Gibran Museum Gibran had expressed the wish that he be buried in Lebanon. His body lay temporarily at Mount Benedict Cemetery in Boston before it

20482-644: The city center, and seven notables of Damascus in Marjeh Square , and these became known as the martyrs of the sixth of May, and the Syrian and Lebanese governments commemorate their memory every year. As a result of these executions and the propaganda against the Lebanese political assosiations and the policy of Turkification, the saw that there was no way for their movement to succeed except by relying on an external support. The nationalists opinions differed in alliances, as some of them considered cooperating with

20691-576: The civil war down immediately, and at the same time he dispatched the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fuad Pasha , who was known for his cunning and firmness, and who gave him absolute powers, to deal with the situation. With his mission succeeding, he executed most of those who caused the massacres, imprisoned the rest, exiled some of them, returned some of the war booty to their afflicted Christian owners, and collected many donations, which he spent on restoring villages. The major European countries pressured

20900-426: The clergy. When his term expired, the Lebanese and the French objected to renewing it, so he was replaced by his vice president. Vaso Pashë Shkodrani , a writer of Catholic Albanian Shkodran origin, ruled as Mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon in the early years of his tenure firmly, impartially and justly, he was a passionate reformer and was willing to improve the conditions of Mount Lebanon, preserving its autonomy and

21109-437: The committee much room to work in the first two fields, because he had established security, punished the guilty and provided some relief to the afflicted before the arrival of the international delegates to Beirut. Therefore, the committee spent little time on these matters, before moving on to the issue of the system of government, the preparation of which accounted for most of the delegates' efforts and time. Each delegate in

21318-435: The conditions of the locals, his reign was marked by the suffering of the inhabitants, a severe suffering they had never experienced before. As soon as the year 1917 came, the economic crisis had reached its climax, and the Lebanese economic life had completely changed. Many of the Lebanese were forced to wear rags to cover their bodies and ward off the cold, and they returned to using pottery saddles lit with olive oil , due to

21527-677: The contents of his studio to Haskell. Going through his papers, Young and Haskell discovered that Gibran had kept all of Mary's love letters to him. Young admitted to being stunned at the depth of the relationship, which was all but unknown to her. In her own biography of Gibran, she minimized the relationship and begged Mary Haskell to burn the letters. Mary agreed initially but then reneged, and eventually they were published, along with her journal and Gibran's some three hundred letters to her, in [Virginia] Hilu's Beloved Prophet . In 1950, Haskell donated her personal collection of nearly one hundred original works of art by Gibran (including five oils) to

21736-405: The contradictions within a philosophy ... that called for individual liberty and freedom while at the same time permitting slavery ... So too do Rihani’s writings on the questions of whether democratic principles are evenly projected onto both societies – American and Middle Eastern – where he lived and worked, continue to challenge our most cherished assumptions about ourselves”. Geoffrey P. Nash, on

21945-522: The country such as setting up schools, planting barren lands, and sending a team of young men to Europe to complete their high studies. However, he is also blamed for giving up the Bekaa tax to the Ottoman government, depriving the Lebanese treasury of the important financial resource, and he was forced to reduce employees’ salaries by 10% to find a balance in the budget which led to the spread of bribery among employees. When he died, as demanded on his will, he

22154-450: The country's emir. He was known as Bashir III, and his first weakness was that the Ottomans chose him, and he was not elected by native Muslim and Christian notables, as was the case in choosing most of the previous princes, The Ottomans chose him because he was weak-willed, therefore making it easy for them to direct him to implement their policy without objection, especially since foreign interference in Lebanese and Syrian affairs, especially

22363-558: The demands and accepted the resignation immediately, thus ending Daoud Pasha's rule in the Mutasarrifate. The Sublime Porte appointed Nasrallah (Nasri) Franco Coussa , a Melkite Greek Catholic of Aleppine origin, to succeed Daoud Pasha in agreement with the Six Nations, for a period of ten years, but he died before completing it. During his reign, calm and stability prevailed, and the Lebanese appreciated him for his justice, integrity, and humility, and because he did numerous works for

22572-561: The dignity of its population, preventing the consuls of countries from interfering in its affairs, and was sincere in loyalty to the Sultan and the Ottoman government at the same time. He carried out several construction works, established a hospital in Beiteddine, built the Saray in Baabda and made it the permanent winter-lodging place for the districts of the Mutasarrifate, he also built

22781-598: The division of the signatory states into two warring divisions: the Allied Powers , which included the signatory states of Britain, France and Russia, and the side of the Central Powers countries, which included the signatory state of Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. There was nothing left after the outbreak of the war to deter the newly established federal government in Constantinople from violating

22990-517: The dramatic decline of the famous Damascene steel industry. The violence of the sedition was mitigated by inter-religious support, with the Druze Banu Talhouq defending Christian monks and sheltering them in their homes, and some Christians remained in the protection of the Druze sheikhs, safe from any harm that might befall on them. In Damascus, Emir Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri protected the Christians, sheltering them in his house and in

23199-482: The end of Daoud Pasha's term, the rebel was taken by Foreign Minister Fuad Pasha to be exiled to Turkey. In the year 1864, when some articles of the Basic Law were amended, and the mandate of Daoud Pasha was renewed for five years, contrary to what Youssef Bey Karam expected, he left Turkey for Ehden and declared his opposition to the Mutasarrifate government and allied himself with Prince Salman ibn Melhem Al-Harfushi  [ ar ] , he gathered around him men for

23408-570: The end of Gibran's life remain unpublished ( The Banshee , The Last Unction , and The Hunchback or the Man Unseen ). Gibran discussed "such themes as religion, justice, free will, science, love, happiness, the soul, the body, and death" in his writings, which were "characterized by innovation breaking with forms of the past, by symbolism , an undying love for his native land, and a sentimental, melancholic yet often oratorical style." According to Salma Jayyusi , Roger Allen and others, Gibran as

23617-557: The end of the war. At the beginning of the reign of Ali Munif, a natural disaster befell on Mount Lebanon, dense locust swarms appeared in the skies of the Levant during the beginning of April 1915 , since the Ottoman Empire did not work to combat it in the past, it multiplied after the authorities' attention was diverted from this problem. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, the locusts hatched, and multiplied without hindrance, then crawled north, and when they appeared in

23826-616: The energy of New York." As Teller returned on May 15, he moved to Rihani's small room at 28 West 9th Street. Gibran then moved to one of the Tenth Street Studio Building 's studios for the summer, before changing to another of its studios (number 30, which had a balcony, on the third story) in fall. Gibran would live there until his death, referring to it as "The Hermitage." Over time, however, and "ostensibly often for reasons of health," he would spend "longer and longer periods away from New York, sometimes months at

24035-601: The era of the Mutasarrif was the introduction of the first modern car into Beirut from Alexandria on 24 June 1908, it crossed the Beirut-Sidon road in two and a third hours, which astonished the population of Lebanon at the time. Ohannes Kouyoumdjian , a high ranking Ottoman Armenian Catholic official, was appointed governor of Mount Lebanon in 1912, and was an advisor in the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Firman of his appointment included some amendments to

24244-529: The era of the Turkish administrators, the resistance of the Lebanese to the Turkification policy pursued by the federalists intensified, and the Lebanese, like most Arabs before the war and since the Unionists declared their desire to Turkify all non-Turkish Ottomans, resisted this policy with all possible means. Some educated youth formed secret societies that called for political and social reform in

24453-526: The essays of this work such as: Who Am I, Religious Tolerance, From Brooklyn Bridge, The Great City, The Spirit of Our Time, The Spirit of Language, In the Spring of Despair, The Valley of Freike, On Solitude, Ethics, The Value of Life, Conducts of Life, Optimism, The Scattered Truth, Trilateral Wisdom, The Most Exalted Prophet, The State of the Future ... This book consecrate Rihani as a controversial writer paving

24662-476: The example of what was happening in the other Ottoman provinces. And he made many changes between employees, in coordination with the Ministry of Interior. He also began appointing secondary jobs to individuals who were not from Mount Lebanon whom he brought from the Wilayat of Beirut, with some of them being Lebanese or Turks. To complete the nullification of the Basic Law and the elimination of Lebanese autonomy,

24871-462: The family of Rihani's brother, Albert, in Freike. On July 29, 1970, Bertha died in New York at the age of 91. She had requested that her body be cremated and that her ashes be sent to Freike to be buried next to her husband's. Bertha's niece, Sally Storch also became a professional artist. Ameen and his wife Bertha visited Pope Benedict XV in 1917. The Pope was heartedly interested in ending World War I and in establishing an equitable peace between

25080-415: The federal government due to his Armenian origin, so the rulers and soldiers harassed him until he submitted his resignation in the month of June 1915. After the departure of Ohannes Pasha, Three Turkish Muslim administrators were appointed to succeed him: Ali Munif Bey , Ismail Haqqi Bey, and Mumtaz Bey. In September 1915, a royal decree was issued appointing Ali Münif Bey , one of the senior officials of

25289-451: The field of culture, he established the official "Lubnān" newspaper, in both Arabic and French, and established the Lebanese printing press in Deir al-Qamar, and established several free schools, the most famous of which was a school in the town of Aabey , known as the " Al-Madrasah al-Dāwūdiyyah. " Daoud Pasha wanted to conclude his work by expanding the boundaries of the Mutasarrifate, to include Beirut, Sidon, Bekaa and Wadi al-Taym , but

25498-691: The fighting armies. During that same year, Ameen met with Theodore Roosevelt , former President of the United States concerning the Palestinian case. In 1919 Rihani was asked to represent Arab interests at the Hague Peace Conference . In 1921 he served as the only Near Eastern member of the Reduction of Armaments Conference in Washington, D.C. During those years he joined another number of literary circles in New York, among which are

25707-470: The first art exhibition of his drawings in January 1904 in Boston at Day's studio. During this exhibition, Gibran met Mary Haskell , the headmistress of a girls' school in the city, nine years his senior. The two formed a friendship that lasted the rest of Gibran's life. Haskell would spend large sums of money to support Gibran and would also edit all of his English writings. The nature of their romantic relationship remains obscure; while some biographers assert

25916-509: The first half of [the twentieth] century," and he is still celebrated as a literary hero in Lebanon. At the same time, "most of Gibran's paintings expressed his personal vision, incorporating spiritual and mythological symbolism," with art critic Alice Raphael recognizing in the painter a classicist , whose work owed "more to the findings of Da Vinci than it [did] to any modern insurgent." His "prodigious body of work" has been described as "an artistic legacy to people of all nations". Gibran

26125-695: The following year, seemingly relying afterwards on his remaining sister's income from her work at a dressmaker's shop for some time. In 1904, Gibran's drawings were displayed for the first time at Day's studio in Boston, and his first book in Arabic was published in 1905 in New York City . With the financial help of a newly met benefactress, Mary Haskell , Gibran studied art in Paris from 1908 to 1910. While there, he came in contact with Syrian political thinkers promoting rebellion in Ottoman Syria after

26334-477: The forerunner of Omar Khayyam . In 1899 he returned to New York, having decided to translate some of the quatrains of Al-Ma’arri into English. The first version of the translation was published in 1903. He began writing in English, becoming, according to Lebanese historian Samir Kassir , "the first Arab to publish in English without at the same time renouncing his own language." During this period, he joined several literary and artistic societies in New York, such as

26543-500: The founding of the periodical The New East . Sand and Foam was published in 1926, and Jesus, the Son of Man in 1928. At the beginning of 1929, Gibran was diagnosed with an enlarged liver . In a letter dated March 26, he wrote to Naimy that "the rheumatic pains are gone, and the swelling has turned to something opposite". In a telegram dated the same day, he reported being told by the doctors that he "must not work for full year," which

26752-567: The galleries of M. Knoedler & Co. in 1917. He had also been corresponding remarkably with May Ziadeh since 1912. In 1920, Gibran re-founded the Pen League with fellow Mahjari poets. By the time of his death at the age of 48 from cirrhosis and incipient tuberculosis in one lung, he had achieved literary fame on "both sides of the Atlantic Ocean", and The Prophet had already been translated into German and French. His body

26961-494: The government decided that Mount Lebanon, like all other states, would be represented in the Council of Representatives in Constantinople, and due to the difficulty of holding general elections in times of war, the administrator Ali Munif took the initiative to appoint Prince Haris Shehab, Prince Adel Arslan and Rashid Al-Rami appointed deputies to represent Lebanon in the aforementioned council, and they carried out this task until

27170-417: The great powers, was published on the sixth of September 1864 in eighteen articles, which included the organization of the administration in the Mutasarrifate, and the most important of which was stated: After the adoption of the Basic Law of Mount Lebanon, the Mutasarrifate became legally and effectively existent, and it was ruled by eight legitimate Mutasarrifs, with their legitimacy being ruled according to

27379-514: The greatest priority on the spread of nationalist and pro-unity feeling among the masses, and argued that rulers would have to follow. During that time, he also published another four books in Arabic, and delivered numerous speeches in Lebanon, the Arab world, the East and West Coasts of the United States, and in Canada ranging in topics from social reform to politics, Pan-Arabism, East and West cohesion, poetry and philosophy. Rihani also participated in

27588-403: The health of the Ottoman army, and medicines were not available to the general public. Because of starvation and disease, people were dying by the hundreds and thousands, so that many of them did not have the opportunity to pray for them or bury them. The bodies were collected from the streets and roads in special vehicles and thrown into large pits that were made graves for the homeless. As soon as

27797-587: The hero of the novel, descends from Baalbek, from the roots of the Cedars in Lebanon and immigrates all the way to New York where he faces all the contradictions of his Oriental soft background and the harshness of the Occidental severe reality. He dreams of the virtual Great City, thinks of the ideal Empire, and looks for the Superman who combines within himself the spirituality of the East, the art of Europe, and

28006-450: The inability to obtain fuel, they roasted barley and made it into qahwah instead of using coffea . Anxiety dominated people's thoughts, visits were cut off, parties were neglected, holidays lost their significance, and life became harsh and monotonous, causing fear and anxiety. Because of the disappearance of foodstuffs and the inability to obtain them, many Lebanese did not find anything to eat. So they abandoned their homes and villages in

28215-460: The laws stated in the Protocol of 1861. The mnemonic word "DaFRuWNaMYO" (in Arabic, دفرونميا) helped school children memorize the name of the mutasarrifs, and these rulers are: He is Garabet Artin Davoudian , better known as Daoud Pasha. Armenian in origin, and Catholic in faith, he was highly educated and was holding the position of post and telegraph director in Constantinople when, in 1861,

28424-522: The leading poet of the Mahjar school belongs to Romantic ( neo-romantic ) movement. About his language in general (both in Arabic and English), Salma Khadra Jayyusi remarks that "because of the spiritual and universal aspect of his general themes, he seems to have chosen a vocabulary less idiomatic than would normally have been chosen by a modern poet conscious of modernism in language." According to Jean Gibran and Kahlil G. Gibran , Ignoring much of

28633-453: The local population was characterized by understanding of their position and their circumstances, leniency and tolerance with them, and a tendency towards improving Lebanon's conditions and advancing it in various respects. Ismael Haqqi was religious, was known for being committed to generous morals, and he turned a blind eye to the food-smuggling to the inhabitants of Mount Lebanon who were ravaged by famine during his reign, and tried to lighten

28842-518: The matter of the petitions was exposed in Constantinople and the Porte got determined to dismiss the Austrian, the Pasha tried to lure the Druze to him and persuade them to fight the Christians population, but the Druze, feeling that the Pasha had taken advantage of them, led forces against him and almost stormed his palace, had it not been for a battalion of the Ottoman soldiers had rescued him, then he

29051-427: The maturation of his personal identity. Though he was quick to develop an intellectually critical attitude toward all forms of intolerance rooted in traditional cultures, Rihani did not stop with the celebration of free thinking and the espousal of forms of national unity that renounce religious confessionalism”. Terri DeYoung compares Rihani with Walt Whitman and highlights the fact that: “Walt Whitman attempted to expose

29260-526: The midst of a severe snow storm. It did not take long after that, until the whole of Mount Lebanon came under the control of the Ottoman army and martial law. On 28 November, Jamal Pasha broadcast from his command center in Damascus a statement addressed to the people of Mount Lebanon telling them to implement martial law on their mountain and recommending that they be loyal to their state, remain calm, and go about their business. Jamal Pasha assumed power, and

29469-506: The most part originally written in English, cannot be comfortably accommodated within the Western literary tradition." According to El-Hage, critics have also "generally failed to understand the poet's conception of imagination and his fluctuating tendencies towards nature." According to Waterfield, "Gibran was confirmed in his aspiration to be a Symbolist painter " after working in Marcel-Béronneau's studio in Paris. Oil paint

29678-406: The mountain to take an Ottoman identity card. But the strong opposition that stood in his face forced him to make it optional for whoever wanted. When the Ottoman constitution was published in 1908, some groups in Lebanon demanded that the Mutasarrifate be included in the Wilayah of Syria and that two members would be sent to represent it in the " Chamber of Deputies " (the Ottoman parliament that

29887-779: The mountain, and scattered in various parts, some of them reached the Bedouin ranches in the Syrian Desert , and some of them took refuge in Hauran , and most of them went to coastal cities such as Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, and set out on its streets searching the dumps and piles of waste near the palaces of the rich for leftovers. Some of them went hunting for stray cats and dogs, or even ate dead ones. With reports going as far as recording stories of starving inhabitants kidnapping children, slaughtering them, and eating them, these types of incidents of this kind occurred in Mount Lebanon and

30096-475: The movement of revolution spread to the south of Mount Lebanon, where the farmers were a mixture of Druze and Christians, however, at that time, confidence was already lost between the two parties, making it impossible to unite the word of the peasants of the two communities for their common interest against their feudal leaders. The Druze feudal leaders took advantage of religious ties, and they convinced their peasants of their own sect that conflict between them and

30305-522: The mutasarrif Ohannes Pasha and all the employees of the Government of Mount Lebanon became subject to his orders, acting on his instructions. Jamal Pasha established the " customary court " in Aley , which is a supreme military court, to try those accused of being disloyal to the Ottoman Empire, and confiscate the property of foreign nationals of hostile countries after the federal government had announced

30514-505: The nearby areas. In addition to famine, epidemics and diseases struck the inhabitants. The lack of food and clothing weakened the body's immunity, and the lack of attention to hygiene helped spread epidemics and diseases that utterly killed the population, the poor and the rich alike. Flies transmitted typhoid fever , lice transmitted typhus , rats transmitted the plague , and contaminated drinking water spread dysentery . Doctors were not available because they were conscripted to look after

30723-403: The necessity of occupying Lebanon and the rest of the Syrian states in order to save the Christians of the East, despite this going against the will of the association. When the war broke out and the nationals of the enemy countries were expelled, the French consul withdrew from Beirut without burning the important political papers before leaving, rather, he deposited it in a secret hiding place in

30932-517: The new prince to return to the old regime during the days of the former emir, that is, that system that ensured that their weapons would remain in their hands and the return of their lands to them, while the Maronites demanded to maintain the new system established by the Egyptians, which is to reduce the authority of the feudal lords and disarm them and not to submit the peasant to the authority of

31141-408: The opening of two large universities that are still among the oldest and most prestigious universities in the Middle East, namely the Syrian Evangelical College, which became the American University of Beirut , and the Saint Joseph University . The Mutasarrifate era is also characterized by the beginning of the Lebanese emigration to Egypt, Western European countries, North and South America, where

31350-607: The other hand, emphasizes the spirit of modernity in the works of Rihani where his writings: “prompt a diachronic shift to the early twentieth century, the epoch in which Rihani, who has also been designated a prophet, was composing his first essays on cross-cultural literary and political subjects". Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, Arabic : مُتَصَرِّفِيَّة جَبَل لُبْنَان , romanized :  Mutaṣarrifiyyat Jabal Lubnān ; Ottoman Turkish : جَبَلِ لُبْنَان مُتَصَرِّفلِيغى , romanized :  Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı )

31559-518: The owner of the land, and since most of the farmers were Maronite Christians, this seemed to be a challenge to the entire Druze community. Bashir III did not care about the demands of the Druze, as he refused to extract the land from the new owners who bought it from the previous emir, and he was not satisfied with that, but stripped a number of other feudal lords of their remaining privileges in collecting taxes, maintaining security in their areas, and exercising judicial authority . And since this prince

31768-404: The person who increased the price the most to the son-in-law of the Mutasarrif and his wife. This situation prompted the Lebanese to demand the punishment of those responsible of corruption, however, Wassa Pasha died in 1892, eleven months before the end of his term, and was buried in Hazmieh. Of Aleppine origins, and Melkite in faith, Na'oum Coussa Basha was the nephew of Franco Nasri Pasha. He

31977-401: The political and social privileges enjoyed by a group or a sect. The Christians were at the forefront of those adhering to the provisions of this decree, as they constituted most of the peasants and the majority of the working class consisted of them. The peasants in the Christian areas, led by Tanyus Shahin , revolted against the feudal lords and burned their palaces and robbed their crops. Then

32186-405: The power to appoint and dismiss employees according to the willingness of these employees to pay the money. Fearing the renewal of his mandate, his opponents tried to send a delegation to Constantinople to prevent this, but he died three months before its expiry. Of Aleppine origins and Melkite in faith, Yusuf Pasha was the son of second mutasarrif Nasri Franco Coussa (Franko Pasha), his reputation

32395-451: The pregnancy was ectopic , and she had to have an abortion, probably in France." Micheline had returned to the United States by late October. Gibran would pay her a visit upon her return to Paris in July 1910, but there would be no hint of intimacy left between them. By early February 1909, Gibran had "been working for a few weeks in the studio of Pierre Marcel-Béronneau ", and he "used his sympathy towards Béronneau as an excuse to leave

32604-415: The printing house of the periodical Meraat-ul-Gharb in New York. Gibran presented a copy of his book to Lebanese writer May Ziadeh , who lived in Egypt, and asked her to criticize it. As worded by Ghougassian, Her reply on May 12, 1912, did not totally approve of Gibran's philosophy of love. Rather she remained in all her correspondence quite critical of a few of Gibran's Westernized ideas. Still he had

32813-589: The profoundest things done in English—and his vision, putting aside his drawings and poems, is the most godly." According to George Nicolas El-Hage, There is evidence that Gibran knew some of Blake's poetry and was familiar with his drawings during his early years in Boston. However, this knowledge of Blake was neither deep nor complete. Kahlil Gibran was reintroduced to William Blake's poetry and art in Paris, most likely in Auguste Rodin 's studio and by Rodin himself [on one of their two encounters in Paris after Gibran had begun his Temple of Art portrait series ]. Gibran

33022-439: The release of The Book of Khalid and the president of the New York Pleiades Club crowned him with a laurel garland. During the period between 1910 and 1922 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. Among the books that he published during that period were: The Lily of A-Ghor ,

33231-421: The removal of Prince Bashir III, the Lebanese Chehab emirate, which had been the ruling entity of the country and its population for many years, collapsed. The Ottomans appointed one of the most senior officials as direct ruler on the mountain, with the ruler being a Sunni Muslim of Austrian origins named Omar Pasha , the Druze welcomed him and the Christians rejected him, and the majority of the Christians stood by

33440-411: The reputation of being just, generous and polite, and working for the improvement of the conditions of Lebanon, but he was unable to achieve any important work because he was not able to take over the tasks of the Mutasarrifate until the international conditions worsened, when the First World War soon broke out. And with the participation of the Ottoman empire in the war, it violated the Basic system, and

33649-425: The resentment, and the Druze and Christians alike continued to willingly submit to him. At the end of the reign of Bashir II, the Egyptian army entered modern-day Lebanon after May 1832, expelling the Ottomans from it, and Bashir had allied with the governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha before the Egyptian occupation, and his supporters enthusiastically assisted the Egyptian army and fought under its banner and fought

33858-549: The resistance, and many battles took place between him and the soldiers of the Mutasarrif. Finally, he went at the head of a force to Beiteddine to overthrow the Mutasarrifate government, and while he was on his way to Beiteddine, the Consul of France intervened and convinced him that he should stop resisting, otherwise the signatory states would have to help the Mutasarrifate. At that time, Youssef Bey Karam decided to leave Lebanon, he traveled to France and Belgium, and finally settled in Italy, where he died in 1889, his embalmed body

34067-417: The rest of the Levant, after it lasted a little more than four centuries, and the French and British mandate over the countries of the region began. Khalil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran , was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ; he was also considered a philosopher, although he himself rejected

34276-422: The rights of the council. The members of the council resisted him with the help of the clergy, until they forced him to cancel his measures. Here a violent struggle arose between him and the Christian clergy, and he worked to establish non-religious associations to weaken their influence. What increased the corruption of his reign was the interference of his son and his wife in the affairs of the state until they had

34485-462: The ruling and social system known as the "Maronite-Druze dualism" in Mount Lebanon. This system came during the era of Tanzimat reforms initiated by Sultan Abdulmejid I in an attempt to extricate the Ottoman State from its internal problems, and it was approved after the major sectarian strife of 1860 and the numerous massacres that occurred in Mount Lebanon, Damascus , the Beqaa Valley and Jabal Amil among Muslims and Christians in general, and

34694-522: The rumor of his excommunication wander, but would never officially pronounce it. In July 1908, with Haskell's financial support, Gibran went to study art in Paris at the Académie Julian where he joined the atelier of Jean-Paul Laurens . Gibran had accepted Haskell's offer partly so as to distance himself from Micheline, "for he knew that this love was contrary to his sense of gratefulness toward Miss Haskell"; however, "to his surprise Micheline came unexpectedly to him in Paris." "She became pregnant, but

34903-413: The situation of Christians and brought them closer to him and helped them in his work and included them in his entourage. He also confiscated the feudal lords’ weapons and contributed to reducing their power, and since most of the feudal lords were from the Druze, and they were originally fewer in number than Christians, they hated and resented the Egyptian rule, since they believed it distinguished them from

35112-419: The sky of Mount Lebanon, the sun was blocked from the population for several days. And when the swarms landed on the ground, they destroyed the plants and crops, leaving the trees barren, without leaves or fruit. A large part of these trees soon withered or stopped producing for a long time. Because of the locusts, Mount Lebanon was deprived of most of its agricultural production throughout the war years. During

35321-430: The style of the Bible, whereas other Arabic authors from his time like Rihani unconsciously imitated the Quran . According to Ghougassian, the works of English poet William Blake "played a special role in Gibran's life", and in particular "Gibran agreed with Blake's apocalyptic vision of the world as the latter expressed it in his poetry and art." Gibran wrote of Blake as "the God-man," and of his drawings as "so far

35530-428: The summer and for the winter, and he did several construction projects such as opening schools, building roads, and building bridges and establishing outposts to consolidate security, which necessitated an increase in expenditures. Since the budget was in a state of deficit , he reduced his salary and the salaries of employees and proceeded to increase taxes. Because of the increase in taxes, and several other factors,

35739-499: 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

35948-446: The time the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community in the United States. Gibran entered the Josiah Quincy School on September 30, 1895. School officials placed him in a special class for immigrants to learn English. His name was registered using the anglicized spelling 'Ka h lil Gibran'. His mother began working as a seamstress peddler, selling lace and linens that she carried from door-to-door. His half-brother Boutros opened

36157-419: The title was commonplace and widespread. The commission members also ruminated over the title of " President " (رئيس جمهورية) but the designation was not approved by the Ottoman government. After two weeks of deliberation, the French term plénipotentiaire was agreed upon and its Turkish translation mutasarrıf was adopted as the new title for the governor and for the division, which was dubbed in Arabic as

36366-411: The title. He is best known as the author of The Prophet , which was first published in the United States in 1923 and has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages . Born in Bsharri , a village of the Ottoman-ruled Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate to a Maronite Christian family, young Gibran immigrated with his mother and siblings to

36575-458: The titles of Muluk-ul Arab (Kings of the Arabs), Tareekh Najd Al-Hadeeth (History of Modern Najd), Qalb-ul Iraq (The Heart of Iraq) and other works on Arabia that were considered to be a remarkably critical and public success. Scholars, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, recognize the role of Rihani in the discourse of civilizations: Nathan C. Funk argues that “Rihani’s approach to intercultural reconciliation emerged gradually, reflecting

36784-422: The traditional vocabulary and form of classical Arabic , he began to develop a style which reflected the ordinary language he had heard as a child in Besharri and to which he was still exposed in the South End [of Boston]. This use of the colloquial was more a product of his isolation than of a specific intent, but it appealed to thousands of Arab immigrants. The poem "You Have Your Language and I Have Mine" (1924)

36993-644: The two were lovers but never married because Haskell's family objected, other evidence suggests that their relationship was never physically consummated. Gibran and Haskell were engaged briefly between 1910 and 1911. According to Joseph P. Ghougassian, Gibran had proposed to her "not knowing how to repay back in gratitude to Miss Haskell," but Haskell called it off, making it "clear to him that she preferred his friendship to any burdensome tie of marriage." Haskell would later marry Jacob Florance Minis in 1926, while remaining Gibran's close friend, patroness and benefactress, and using her influence to advance his career. It

37202-402: The various religious communities in Lebanon. Each of the six religious groups inhabiting the Lebanon ( Maronites , Druzes , Sunni , Shi’a , Greek Orthodox and Melkite Catholic ) elected two members to the council. Young men in the Mutasarrifate were exempted from military service. The Ottoman army was not allowed to station itself in the lands of the Mutasarrifate except at the request of

37411-606: The wall of one of the rooms, when inspecting the place, the Ottoman soldiers discovered these papers bearing the signatures of 40 Lebanese and Syrians. All the signatories to the memorandum in Syria and Lebanon were arrested and referred to the Customary Court in Aley, where they were accused of high treason, and a large number of them were sentenced to death. The number of death sentences reached fifty-eight, in addition to other sentences of exile or life imprisonment. The largest execution convoy took place on 6 May 1916, when Jamal Pasha executed fourteen Beirut notables in Al-Burj Square in

37620-454: The war ended, death had claimed a hundred thousand people and afflicted Lebanon with nearly a quarter of its population. Dr. George Hanna, a doctor from the town of Choueifat, who served in the Fourth Army during the First World War, describes the misery he found in the mountain upon his return in December 1917 on a short vacation to see his family, saying: "In the three days I spent in Lebanon... I saw what I did not imagine that I would see, in

37829-550: The way for modernity in Arabic literature and contemporary Arab thought. Rihani's first major novel (in English), The Book of Khalid (1911), was considered a pioneering literary work that paved the way for Arab-American literature. It combined reality and fiction, East and West, spiritualism and materialism, the Arabs and the Americans, philosophy and literature, in a style of language where Arabic metaphors and English language structures go together in an attempt to create an abstract line where both languages can almost touch. Khalid,

38038-540: The wider world". Ameen Rihani died at age 64 on September 13, 1940, at 1:00 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

38247-401: The withdrawal of the Egyptian army, Emir Bashir II was exiled to Malta and then to Constantinople when he died in 1850, thus, those who had emigrated from the Druze leaders and their fiefs, fleeing from the oppression of the previous Emir and the Egyptians, returned to Lebanon. At that time, the Ottomans appointed Prince Bashir bin Qasim bin Melhem al-Shihabi ( r.  1840–1842 ) as

38456-422: Was "not the least under his spell": The teachings of Almustafa are decisively different from Zarathustra 's philosophy and they betray a striking imitation of Jesus, the way Gibran pictured Him. Gibran was neglected by scholars and critics for a long time. Bushrui and John M. Munro have argued that "the failure of serious Western critics to respond to Gibran" resulted from the fact that "his works, though for

38665-455: Was Gibran's "preferred medium between 1908 and 1914, but before and after this time he worked primarily with pencil, ink, watercolor and gouache ." In a letter to Haskell, Gibran wrote that "among all the English artists Turner is the very greatest." In her diary entry of March 17, 1911, Haskell recorded that Gibran told her he was inspired by J. M. W. Turner's painting The Slave Ship (1840) to utilize "raw colors [...] one over another on

38874-421: Was a major subject." Gibran would develop a romantic attachment to her. The same year, a publisher used some of Gibran's drawings for book covers. Kamila and Boutros wanted Gibran to absorb more of his own heritage rather than just the Western aesthetic culture he was attracted to. Thus, at the age of 15, Gibran returned to his homeland to study Arabic literature for three years at the Collège de la Sagesse ,

39083-685: Was a refreshing time, during which he wrote some of "the best Arabic poems" he had ever written. In 1923, The New and the Marvelous was published in Arabic in Cairo, whereas The Prophet was published in New York. The Prophet sold well despite a cool critical reception. At a reading of The Prophet organized by rector William Norman Guthrie in St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery , Gibran met poet Barbara Young , who would occasionally work as his secretary from 1925 until Gibran's death; Young did this work without remuneration. In 1924, Gibran told Haskell that he had been contracted to write ten pieces for Al-Hilal in Cairo. In 1925, Gibran participated in

39292-488: Was able to satisfy them by appointing them to senior positions in the government of Mount Lebanon. But Youssef Karam, one of the young sheikhs of the town of Ehden and one of the national leaders, who was calling for the restoration of national rule, stood in the face of Daoud Pasha stubbornly and resisted him vehemently, and refused the positions he was offered. The members of the International Committee promised him to reconsider his demands, and persuaded him to calm down until

39501-496: Was also a great admirer of Syrian poet and writer Francis Marrash , whose works Gibran had studied at the Collège de la Sagesse. According to Shmuel Moreh , Gibran's own works echo Marrash's style, including the structure of some of his works and "many of [his] ideas on enslavement, education, women's liberation, truth, the natural goodness of man, and the corrupted morals of society." Bushrui and Jenkins have mentioned Marrash's concept of universal love, in particular, in having left

39710-451: Was among the Shehab princes who converted to Christianity at an earlier time, the Druze considered him an apostate, a traitor to Islam and the Druze community in particular, before others, and the mutual hatred between them and Christians increased, until it turned in the year 1841 into a bloody conflict between Druze and Maronite peasants because of a dispute over the eligibility of a Maronite crossing and hunting partridge on land owned by

39919-400: Was born January 6, 1883, in the village of Bsharri in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate , (modern-day Lebanon ). The few records mentioning the Gibrans indicate that they arrived at Bsharri towards the end of the 17th-century. While a family myth links them to Chaldean sources, a more plausible story relates that the Gibran family came from Damascus , Syria in the 16th-century, and settled on

40128-515: Was buried in the locality of Hazmieh, where his grave is still known today as the Pasha's grave. After the death of Franco Nasri Pasha, Rüstem Mariani Pasha , who was the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire in Moscow, was appointed in his place, he was of Roman Catholic Florentine Italian roots, and a naturalized Ottoman citizen, and was known for his firmness and severity in applying the law, establishing justice, and fighting bribery. He made Mount Lebanon and Beirut respectively his place of stay during

40337-487: Was characterized by security, calm, and stability, and during this period, migration from Mount Lebanon to abroad began on a large scale. He was known for treating both Christians and Muslims equally, he returned to Constantinople after the end of his mandate in 1902. Władysław Czajkowski , known as Muzaffar Basha, was a Roman Catholic Polish count who was appointed to succeed Naoum Pasha, despite his good start, he soon dismissed employees, imposed new taxes, and tampered with

40546-440: Was established under the new constitution). However, the strong resistance that arose against this idea did not allow it to come into being, despite the encouragement of Yusuf Franco Pasha. His constant conflict with members of the Administrative Council was the cause of the public's resentment against him, and this resentment did not subside until the end of his term of office in 1912. One of the prominent events that occurred during

40755-525: Was in 1904 also that Gibran met Amin al-Ghurayyib, editor of Al-Mohajer ('The Emigrant'), where Gibran started to publish articles. In 1905, Gibran's first published written work was A Profile of the Art of Music , in Arabic, by Al-Mohajer ' s printing department in New York City. His next work, Nymphs of the Valley , was published the following year, also in Arabic. On January 27, 1908, Haskell introduced Gibran to her friend writer Charlotte Teller , aged 31, and in February, to Émilie Michel (Micheline),

40964-400: Was in English. Such was The Madman , Gibran's first book published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1918. The Processions (in Arabic) and Twenty Drawings were published the following year. In 1920, Gibran re-created the Arabic-language New York Pen League with Arida and Haddad (its original founders), Rihani, Naimy, and other Mahjari writers such as Elia Abu Madi . The same year, The Tempests

41173-401: Was known as honest, and firm. He began his tenure by reforming the administration, dismissing employees who were accused of bribery. And he organized the mutasarrifate's finances. Naoum Pasha launched several construction works, repairing bridges, constructing more than 480 kilometers of roads, and erecting several Sarayah in Baakleen , Jezzine, Jounieh, Batroun, Amioun and Bhannes . His reign

41382-411: Was not better than that of his predecessor, although he had a good start, and was thoughtful about his relations with various parties and trends, with the clergy helping him, this situation did not last long, as he violated the Basic system, interfered in judicial affairs, assaulted the powers of the Administrative Council, abolished some opposition newspapers, and tried to force every Lebanese resident of

41591-435: Was one of the Ottoman Empire 's subdivisions following the 19-century Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had been created as a homeland for the Maronites under European diplomatic pressure following the 1860 Druze–Maronite conflict . The Maronite Catholics and the Druze founded modern Lebanon in the early eighteenth century, through

41800-516: Was published in Arabic in Cairo, and The Forerunner in New York. In a letter of 1921 to Naimy, Gibran reported that doctors had told him to "give up all kinds of work and exertion for six months, and do nothing but eat, drink and rest"; in 1922, Gibran was ordered to "stay away from cities and city life" and had rented a cottage near the sea, planning to move there with Marianna and to remain until "this heart [regained] its orderly course"; this three-month summer in Scituate , he later told Haskell,

42009-401: Was published in response to criticism of his Arabic language and style. According to Bushrui and Jenkins, an "inexhaustible" source of influence on Gibran was the Bible , especially the King James Version . Gibran's literary oeuvre is also steeped in the Syriac tradition. According to Haskell, Gibran once told her that The [King James] Bible is Syriac literature in English words. It

42218-412: Was sent to Beirut, where he was dismissed from his position, on the same day, the Porte and representatives of European countries reached in Constantinople a new project to govern Mount Lebanon, and to be implemented in early 1843. After dismissing Omar Pasha of his position, the Ottoman government tried to appoint two non-Lebanese Ottoman rulers in his place, one on the south of the mountain, that is, on

42427-439: Was something he found "more painful than illness." The last book published during Gibran's life was The Earth Gods , on March 14, 1931. Gibran was admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital, Manhattan , on April 10, 1931, where he died the same day, aged forty-eight, after refusing the last rites . The cause of death was reported to be cirrhosis of the liver with incipient tuberculosis in one of his lungs. Waterfield argues that

42636-431: Was taken on July 23 to Providence, Rhode Island , and from there to Lebanon on the liner Sinaia . Gibran's body reached Bsharri in August and was deposited in a church near-by until a cousin of Gibran finalized the purchase of the Mar Sarkis Monastery, now the Gibran Museum . All future American royalties to his books were willed to his hometown of Bsharri , to be used for "civic betterment." Gibran had also willed

42845-480: Was taken to the town of Ehden, where it is still preserved in its church in a glass box. In addition to achieving security and stability in the country, Daoud Pasha had to organize the organs of the government according to the text of the Basic Law, and he carried out these tasks efficiently and quickly. He appointed officials in the various departments, conducted elections for Sheikhs who solved disputes in villages and mayors in cities, gathered them to elect members of

43054-426: 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. He developed a friendship with Ibn Saud , ruler of the desert kingdom that would soon become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . Between 1924 and 1932 he wrote and published six books in English and Arabic related to

43263-488: Was thirty when Gibran was born, and Gibran's father, Khalil, was her third husband. Gibran had two younger sisters, Marianna and Sultana, and an older half-brother, Boutros, from one of Kamila's previous marriages. Gibran's family lived in poverty. In 1888, Gibran entered Bsharri's one-class school, which was run by a priest, and there he learnt the rudiments of Arabic, Syriac , and arithmetic. Gibran's father initially worked in an apothecary , but he had gambling debts he

43472-563: Was transferred to his birth village of Bsharri (in present-day Lebanon), to which he had bequeathed all future royalties on his books, and where a museum dedicated to his works now stands. In the words of Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins, Gibran's life was "often caught between Nietzschean rebellion, Blakean pantheism and Sufi mysticism ." Gibran discussed different themes in his writings and explored diverse literary forms. Salma Khadra Jayyusi has called him "the single most important influence on Arabic poetry and literature during

43681-554: Was unable to pay. He went to work for a local Ottoman-appointed administrator. In 1891, while acting as a tax collector, he was removed and his staff was investigated. Khalil was imprisoned for embezzlement, and his family's property was confiscated by the authorities. Kamila decided to follow her brother to the United States. Although Khalil was released in 1894, Kamila remained resolved and left for New York on June 25, 1895, taking Boutros, Gibran, Marianna and Sultana with her. Kamila and her children settled in Boston's South End , at

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