23 December 2010

BEIRUT: The Lebanese have a long history of migration. The migration story is longer than that of the country itself, in fact. This is why, historically, Brazil’s expat Lebanese community wasn’t termed “Lebanese” or “Arab” but “Turcos” – since they’d arrived in the country from the then-Ottoman Empire.

The Lebanese encounter with the rest of the world has left many economic traces. It has a cultural legacy as well, most notably in the writers of the Mahjar.

The Mahjar literary movement – usually dated from the late-19th to mid-20th centuries – consisted of Lebanese and other Arab emigrants in North America.

What distinguished the Mahjar authors was the fact they wrote in both English and Arabic. The main goal of the movement was to promote a bridge of dialogue between the East and the West, between tradition and modernity, and to find a point of convergence between the two.

The most famous Mahjar writer was Gibran Khalil Gibran, whose long prose poem “The Prophet” adorns the bookshelves of many curious college undergrads in North America. The movement sheltered several distinguished literary lights besides Gibran, however, including Ilya Abu Madi and Ameen Rihani.

A few weeks ago, the University of Sydney in Australia, organized the Ameen Rihani International Conference, to honor this pioneer of Arab-American literature.

Scholars from as far afield as the United States, the United Kingdom and Jordan attended the event with the objective of inaugurating a series of events to mark the 2011 centennial of Rihani’s masterpiece, the semi-autobiographical prose work “The Book of Khalid.”

One purpose of the Rihani conference, according to Adelaide University’s Samer Akkash, was to highlight the author’s role in the “Arab enlightenment.” Another, said Nijmeh Hajjar, Chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Sydney, was to explain, how and why Rihani was considered a “champion of revolutionary change.”

One delegate at the conference, the University of Manchester’s Youssef Choueiri, noted that, in addition to Rihani’s will to understand East and West, his writings did not trigger a clash of civilizations, but the “construction of a new civilization.”

According to Ameen Albert Rihani, the vice president of academic affairs at Notre Dame University in Louaize (and the grandson of the elder Rihani), Rihani’s writings led the Arab Renaissance, and his works were emulated by many of his contemporaries, including Gibran’s “The Prophet.”

It is striking that Rihani’s life and writings still inspire so much interest and attention a century after he lived. For the author’s grandson, contemporary awareness of his works stems from globalism.

Rihani was “the first Lebanese-Arab thinker and philosopher who wrote in English and Arabic,” says the younger Rihani. The issue of East and West was “voiced by Rihani” and revived the public’s awareness.

Because younger generations now learn more English (compared to the long-time prevalence of French education), Rihani’s writings and cultural background provide a source of inspiration.

When Rihani died in 1940, he left 18 unpublished English-language manuscripts. In 1998, said the younger Rihani, the Ameen Rihani Institute of Washington decided to “publish one manuscript per year, which helped [in] complimenting the legacy left by Rihani.”

It seems there was a gap between Rihani’s influence in the United States and in Lebanon. His importance came to be appreciated more recently in Lebanon, his grandson thinks, thanks to “cultural differences … It helped these interests and awareness to grow faster” because people are learning more about the English language and its literature.

This awareness is evident in several cultural events being held throughout 2011. Lectures on Rihani’s legacy are scheduled to be held at Yale, Princeton, Georgetown and Columbia universities, and the American University of Cairo will organize a workshop on Rihani’s “Book of Khalid.”

For its part, said Ameen Albert Rihani, “Notre Dame University will program lectures, which are all part of the rising awareness of Rihani’s influence and interest.”

Rihani was much criticized when he was alive, both in the US and in Lebanon. People tended to say he was not devout, because he saw no harm in reforming Islam and Christianity.

Rihani believed in God deeply, Rihani the younger avers. As a Christian, therefore, Rihani wrote about Christian reform. As a devoutly religious thinker, he also believed in a reformed Islam.

What mattered most, said his grandson, was Rihani’s personal touch. “He was a believer but in his own way.” Rihani, he added, was a “philosopher of reason and ethics. What prevailed in his great city were freedom, reason and ethics.”

Ameen Rihani, his grandson concluded, was both a “man of morality and an evolutionary thinker.”

Copyright The Daily Star 2010.