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Gibran Khalil Gibran Gibran's Voice Chronology and Works Gibran and the National idea (article by Dr. Adel Bshara) Back to Library Contents
Gibran's Voice (Pity the Nation)
Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion. Pity the nation that wears
a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows
not from its own wine-press. Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that
deems the glittering conqueror bountiful. Pity a nation that despises a passion in its
dream, yet submits in its awakening. Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when
it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its
neck is laid between the sword and the block. Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity
the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with
years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation.
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Chronology and Works
1883
Gubran Kahlil Gubran was born to a Maronite family, in Bsharri, a town at the foot of
Mount Fam al-MIzab, near the Cedar grove in North Lebanon. He was the first born to his
mother from her second marriage, her having previously been a widow with only one son,
Butros.
1885
Birth of his sister Marianna.
1887
Birth of his second sister, Sultana. 1888 Entered a one-class village school where he
learnt the rudiments of Arabic, Syriac, and Arithmetic.
1894
Emigrated with his two sisters and half-brother to Boston, U.S.A. settling in Chinatown.
The father, Khalil Gubran, a tax collector and drunkard stayed behind.
1895
Butros opened a small shop, the family's only source of income, while Gubran joined a
local school where his name was anglicized to Kahlil Gibran.
1897
Showed particular promise in his classes of drawing and painting. Was introduced to the
esoteric Bostonian artist- photographer Fred Holland Day, who was experimenting with
photography as art and in whose studies Gibran was photographed in various postures, some
in the nude. Was sent back to Lebanon, where he joined al-Hikma high school in Beirut. The
program of study laid special stress on Arabic and French language and literature.
1901
Returned to Boston.
1902
Came back to the Lebanon as an interpreter to an American family touring Europe and the
eastern Mediterranean countries. Hurried back to
Boston upon hearing of the death of his youngest sister, Sultana of tuberculosis.
1903
Struck by two losses: the death of his half-brother Butros from tuberculosis and that of
his
mother from cancer.
1904
Held in spring a picture exhibition at Fred Holland Day's Studio.
1905
Published in New York, al-Musiqa (Music), a pamphlet in which he eulogizes music, in
particular Arabic music with its various intonations.
1906
Published in New York 'Ara'is al-Muruj (Nymphs of the Valley), a collection of three short
stories, expressive of his anti-feudal and anti-clerical convictions.
1908
Published in New York, al-Arwah al-Mutamclrrida (Spirits Rebellious), a collection of four
short stories much in the spirit of 'Ara is al-Muruj. Left for Paris to study art through
the generosity of Mary Haskell .
1910
Met in Paris Ameen Rihani who was on his way to New York. The two visited London together
for a few weeks to orient themselves with the art life in the city; they then departed,
Gibran to Paris and Rihani to America. Returned to Boston after having spent in Paris two
years and four months.
1911
Started to spend long intervals in New York City, sometimes staying with the Rihanis,
trying to get introduced to the art and life of the big city and to draw distinguished
personalities for income. He completed the illustrations and cover picture for Rihani's
Book of Khalid. Rented for $20 in New York a small studio at 51 West 10th Street in a
building said to be the first in America to be built exclusively for the use of painters
and sculptors.
1912
Became a resident of New York City. Published in New York, al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira -
Broken Wings), a novelette, dedicated to Mary Haskell. His father died in Lebanon.
1913
Moved to a larger studio, Room 40, in the same building, double the size of the first,
with more windows and light.
1914
Published in New York Dam a wa Ibtisaima (a Tear and a Smile), a collection of poetic
prose pieces verging on the aphoristic . Held an exhibition at the Montross Galleries on
December 14.
1916
Met for the first time, in the offices of al-Funun. Mikhail Naimy, his life long friend
and biographer, who had newly arrived that Autumn from the State of Washington, to join
the young Arabic literary movement in New York.
1918
Published in New York, The Madman, his first work in English, a collection of parables.
1919
Published in New York, Twenty Drawings, a selected collection of his drawings with an
introduction by Alice Raphael. Published in New York, al-Mawakib (The Processions), a long
Arabic poem in the form of a dialogue between two voices, one that of a spiritually
liberated man and the other of a man in bondage.
1920
Published in Cairo, al-'AuasiJ (The Tempests), a collection of poetico-fictional pieces
and essays characterized by revolt against man the self-enslaved in the name of man the
self- emancipated. Published in New York his second English work The Forerunner, another
collection of parables and sayings. Founded with other Syrian co-writers and poets in New
York a literary society al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya (The Pen So-ciety), consisting of Gubran as
president, Naimy as secretary, W. Katsiflis as treasurer, and N. 'Arlda, 1. Abu Madl, A.h.
Haddad, R. Ayyub, and N. Haddad as members.
1923
Published in Cairo, al-Bada'i' waal-Tara'if (The New and the Marvellous) a number of
narratives and essays in the style of al-'AuasiJ; collected and named by a publisher in
Egypt with the blessing of Gibran. Published in New York his chef-d'ceuvre The Prophet.
Began to show real signs of ill-health.
1926
Published in New York, Sand and Foam, a collection of parables and aphorisms.
1928
Published in New York, Jesus, The Son of Man, an attempt at portraying Jesus through a
synthesis of different views on Him offered by a number of His contemporaries, making Him
in essence almost a duplicate of Almustapha.
1931
Published in New York, The Earth Gods, a long prose poem consisting of a dialogue between
three Earth-Gods on the destiny of man. Died on April 10, at St. Vincent Hospital, New
York. In the autopsy he is said to have suffered of "Cirrhosis of the liver with
incipient tuberculosis in one of the lungs." His body. after sometime in Boston, was
returned to Lebanon and laid in the chapel of Mar Sarkis, an old monastery carved in a
rock near
Bsharrl. Gibran has two works that were published in New York posthumously: The Wanderer,
a collection of parables published in 1932 and The Garden of The Prophet in
1933.
This latter work, started by Gibran, was continued and concluded after his death by
another pen and should not, therefore, be taken seriously. Al-Majmu'a al-Kamila li
Mu'allafat Gubran Khalil Gubran (The Complete Arabic Works of Kahlil Gibran), organized
and introduced by Mikhail Naimy appeared in Beirut, 1961.
Works translated from the Arabic and published posthumously
1947 Tears and Laughter (Dam'a wa Ibtisama), translated by A.R. Ferris, New York.
l948 Nymphs of the Valley ('Ara'isal-Muruj), translated by H.M. Nahmad, New York. Spirits
Rebellious (al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida), translated by H.M. Nahmad, New York.
1950 A Tear and a Smile (Dam'a wa Ibtisama), translated by H.M. Nahmad, New York.
1958 The Processions (al-Mawakib), translated by George Khairal-lah, New York.
1959 The Broken Wings (al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira) translated by A.R. Ferris New York
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Gibran and the
National Idea
By Adel Beshara
Introduction
ln attempting a critical appraisal of Kahlil Gibran's political thought one must be
careful to distinguish between facts and fiction. As Professor Khalil Hawi had once
remarked: ".
..Gibran is one of those figures in the history of literature who, for one reason or
another, invite more comments on their life than on their achievements. Legends often grow
up around such people, and fact and fiction become interwoven in their lives."l
Indeed, so many "sacred images" have been constructed around Gibran over the
years that, in the words of another writer, "it was impossible for his readers to
know him seeking the pleasures of this life."2 Most of us know Gibran either as a
poet, or painter, or artist, or a great man of letters, or any one combination of them.
But there is another equally interesting side to Gibran which is often and unjustly
overlooked. Gibran was a social reformer who carried the national banner undauntedly and
was not afraid to speak out in defense of radical reforms often at his own personal risks.
Throughout his life, he showed particular concern in his country through various
charitable organizations and societies. he either founded or joined. Of significance to us
is the question to which country did Gibran show his greatest loyalty? Once again we must
stress that in searching for facts in Gibran's life we should treat with suspicion any
statement or com- ment made about him. This is particularly true in the endeavour to
establish where his national loyalty lay. Therefore, our answer will depend almost
entirely on Gibran's writings ,in particular his letters to Mary Haskell.
The Formative Years
Kahlil Gibran was born in Bsharri, North Lebanon,onDecember6, 1883. At the age of eleven
he emigrated to the United States with his mother and sib- lings escaping, in the process,
his cruel and drunkard father. Three years later, he returned to Beirut so that he could
receive a good education in Arabic. During that time, he displayed a talent for drawing
and in 1908 was sent to Paris to study art among the masters of the time. From there,
Gibran sailed b ack to the United States to begin a new and chequered career. At the time,
national emancipation from the Ottoman yoke was the occupying issue in Syria (including
Lebanon). In Syrian centres of immigration, especially in Boston where Gibran had settled,
the mood was equally corresponding. In addition to the religious and charitable
organizations, the Syrian community in the US began a series of clubs which aimed to
integrate the immigrants in their new found life and train them into respon-sible
citizens. 3 One of the earliest was organized in 1891 and was called the Syrian Scientific
and Ethical Society (1891). Another was the Syrian American Club. Indeed, many of the
clubs which were formed usually included the name "Syrian" in their title and,
however imperfectly, attempted to unite all the Syrians in a single purpose: integration
into American life.4
The Golden Circles
The first literary society attempted in the United States was begun by Kahlil Gibranin
1911. He called it Al-Halaqat al-Dhahabiyah (The Golden Circles). In his inaugural speech
for the society, Gibran expressed his disappointment with the 1909 Ottoman Statute, claim-
ing that the Turks had not abandoned their to retain "absolute rule over the Arabs
and the Arabic speaking peoples." Hawi here remarkes: "We observe the
distinction he [i.e., Gibran] makes between the Arabs as a race and the Arabic speaking
peoples, which enables him to speak of Syria as a nation, dissociating it from the world
of Arab nationalism."5 Gibran's loyalty to Syria (i. e., 'Geographical or Greater
Syria?) is further highlighted in a political state- ment drafted in the same year by his
pen. It contained nine basic ideas:
1- The safeguarding of Syria's natio- territorial integrity.
2- The security of Syria' s political and civil unity.
3- Awarding regional representation to worthy patriots.
4- Patrolling Syria' s natural resources.
5- The adoption of Arabic as the na- tional language.
6- The application of Arabic in all schools.
7- The introduction of compulsory and equal education.
8- Freedom of Religion.
9- Freedom of speech and thought.
By 1912 Gibran was thoroughly committed to his national ideals and his passion for Syria
is captured in a private letter to Mary Haskell: "Poor Syria. Her children are
nothing but poets. And though we sang as angels in her ear, she would not hear. Poor
Syria!"6 A sick friend in a Brooklyn hospital, sensing Gibran's infatuation for
Syria, took his hand and tenderly said: "Gibran, go to Syria - go to your Old Mother
- she loves you much - go to Syria, Gibran."7 Unfortunately, Gibran's ideas went
unheeded. His affirmative ac- tions and vocal revolutionary tone was to prove the main
undoing of al- Halaqat al-Dhahabiya and a source of great discomfort in his private life.8
Another, according to Professor Hawi, was "explicitly expressed in the form of
introducing members, which was to be held in an atmosphere of secrecy and symbolical
mystery meant to con- vey the grave responsibility of the undertaking and the grave conse-
quences of betraying the society."9 As far as Gibran was concerned, al- Halaqat's
disintegration was the net result of Syrian naivety and their blind subordination to an
inferior people: "Seven times have I cursed the cruel Fate which made Syria a Turkish
prov- ince! The influence of the Sultans follows the poor Syrians over the seven seas to
the New World. The dark shadows of those human vultures are seen even here in New York.
" 10 Again in a private letter to Mary on Saturday May 19, l 91 1, Gibran asserted:
"Here I am trying to preach ' Self Reliance to the Syrians who rely on the new Re-
gime in Turkey. I want these poor people to understand that a beautiful lie is as bad as
an ugly one. The throne of the mighty Sultan is built on wet sand. Why kneel before a
tarnished idol when there is an immeasurable space to gaze at?" The al-Halaqat s
disintegra- tion convinced Gibran that his compatriots were "more interested in
making a living than in developing an idealistic literary theory."l1 He spoke of them
as "Those who have been "dead since their birth, but not buried."
The Syrian Arab Congress of 1913
Not to be deterred, Gibran relocated to New York and set up his own studio. He also issued
Al-Funun (The Arts) with Nasib Aridah. But the vision of a united Syria remained a thorn
in his side: "The real truth is this . . . that I am a liKle chaotic inside. l have a
notebook filled with things that came to me those days when I was doing the drawings . . .
They are waiting to be worked on. My Mad- man is on my brain - I wantto have him
published- [But] the Syrian question, as you know, is always with me..."l2 By now the
centre of agitation for Syrian nationalism had shifted to Paris where "the young
founders of al-Fatat had entertained the thought of bringing the Arab (sic) question to a
head by a public ventilation of it in some neutral and free atmosphere."13 Tlle
result was a Syrian Arab Con-gress held in 1913 and attended by various political
organizations from all over the Syrian diaspora. 14 In his capacity as a distin-guished
and outspokell leader, Gibran was asked to represent the Syrian com-muniity in North
America. But he flatly turned down the offer because 'after talking things over with a
committee of Syrians I found that we do not agree on any point .. I was to speak their
minds - not mine!''l5 Gibran's position vis-a-vis his moderate compatriots indicated two
separate patterns of thinking. Suffice to say that Gibran disliked their politi-cal
loyalty to foreigners 'so that the Druze adhered to England, the Ortho-dox to Russia, and
the Maronite to France, and regarded as "foolish-ness itself" their dependence
on local governments. Instead. he felt that under the existing circumstances, there was
only one thing for the individual Syrian to do, and that was to rely on himself. 16 The
Paris Conference was widely applauded and there was talk of hosting a second conference in
New York. But Gibran would have none of that. By now his mind was firmly set on
revolution. "Khalil," wrote Mary, wants Revolution. Arab military strength is
enough for revolution. It need not be planned. Revolution even failing will be met with
Home Rule, succeeding, will free Syria and Ara-bia."17 It was his distrust of
Turkey's dreadful record which aroused in him this liking for revolution as a way out of
the diplomatic stalemate. Gibran plotted his revolution with a certain Damascene Eresi.
His heart was filled with excitement and his mind with honesty. Gibran was so se-rious
about the revolution that when Guiseppe Garibaldi (1879-1950)18 turned up in New York, he
took the extraordinary step of enticing him to carry it out. 19 The revolution to which
Gibran aspired never eventuated. The most important reason for this was the lack of
community support for the idea. In the words of Mary: "He [i.e.,Gibran] seems
entirely alone among the Syr-ians who have influence. The Oriental poison of Safety, of
patience, paralyzes their eye. They cannot see themselves fighting, starting a
revolution."20 Gibran, it seemed, wrote a great deal in the matter but was met with
"storms of abuse "21
The Syrian Mount Lebanon Committee
The outbreak of the First World War had a profound impact on Gibran. The deprivation and
famine which swept Syria, particularly Mount Lebanon, left in their wake
"indescribable" scenes.22 Since the United States was not technically at war
with Turkey, American residents were allowed un-molested in Syria and it was through them
that vivid descriptions of the devastation reached America. One report in 1917 stated:
"It is conserva-tively estimated that no less than 120,000 persons have died of
actual starvation during the last two years in the Lebanon alone." These reports
touched the to hearts and minds of all American Syrians. A Syrian Relief Committee formed
to address the crisis had its work cut out by a myopic organization called the Society of
Lebanese Renaissance which agitated for the allocation of the entire relief funds to Mount
Lebanon. Bewildered by such childish acts in time of widespread suffering, Gibran jumped
to the rescue aided by Amin Rihani and Mikhail Naimy. His efforts were rewarded in 1916
with the amalgamation of the two groups into The Syrian Mount Lebanon Relief Com-mittee.
Gibran would serve as secretary on this Committee. In the beginning, the Syrian Mount
Lebanon Relief Committee be-haved in a truly responsible way. It collected a vast amount
of money which it donated to the worst hit areas through American missions in Syria. But
as the war dragged on, the organi-zation began to reproduce many of the same political and
personal tenden-cies that had already begun to surface in the community. The mood in the
Committee was described by Gibran him-self in a private letter to Amin Rihani, then
Assistant Chairman of the same committee: "As for the Syrians, they are even stranger
than they used to be. The bosses are getting bossier and the gossips more gossipy. All
these things make me hate life ... and if it had not been for the cries of the starving
which fill my heart, I would not have stayed in this office for one second."
Consequently, the Syrian Mount Lebanon Relief Committee be-came an arena for a variety of
personal disputes. Nonetheless, the fact the Gibran had played an active part in this
committee, participating and promot-ing its interests, shows "that he was not a
sentimental egoist who satisfies his conscience by expressing humani-tarian sentiments
without trying to put them into practice."23 It also shows a side to his life far
different to the one we are accustomed.
The Syrian Mount Lebanon Liberation Committee
Another new tendency was manifested in Gibran toward the end of the war. In the Spring of
1917, a public notice appeared in the New York-based al- Fatat calling for the creation of
a "Syrian liberation Committee" (lijnat tahrir Surya) for the purpose of
bringing the Syrian national cause to the forefront of the international political scene.
The idea belonged to Amin Rihani but it soon won the approval of other lead-ing figures in
the community, including Gibran. While serving as secretary on this committee, Gibran
produced an elaborate statement of his political ideas. But it was his pride in the
com-mittee that stole the show, so to speak. Gibran wrote: "It is a great
responsibil-ity but I must shoulder it. Great tragedies enlarge the heart. I have never
been given the chance to serve my people in a work of this sort." But like its
predecessor, the Syrian Liberation Committee fell vic-tim to the political differences and
personal disputes that had ripped the community apart. The Comminee did not achieve
anything tangible aside from lobbying certain international fig-ures and skinning the
outside surface of the political world. Gibran was dis-appointed but his remained intact.
Gibran's Last Stand
Like most in his community, Gibran was jubilant and excited at the news of Turkey's
defeat. The war was won, and for the first time in modern history, the Syrian national
movement stood abreast of its destiny. Syria was at last rid of the alien yoke that had
lain it for four stifling centuries. Gibran's exhila-ration was manifested in a delightful
sketch called "Free Syria" which ap-peared on the front page of al-Sa'ih's
special "victory" edition. Moreover, in a draft of a play, still kept among his
papers, Gibran expressed great hope for national independence and progress. This play,
according to Hawi, "defines Gibran's belief in Syrian na-tionalism with great
clarity, distinguishing it from both Lebanese and Arab nationalism, and showmg us that
na-tionalism lived in his mmd, even at this late stage, side with side with interna-
tionalism."24 But his jubilations soon turned into disappointment. As the main terms
of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration began to surface and post-war
diplomacy took its natural course, it became clear to everyone, including Gibran, that
Turkey's defeat was more a sweet victory to the Allies than a triumph for Syrian
nationhood. The relief from the long strain and anxiety of the war was to prove ephemeral.
In the face of this hapless de-velopment Gibran grew increasingly idealistic and began to
address a new public. Although he never completely gave up writing in Arabic, his major
works after 1918 were almost all in English. Was this a Gibranic revolt against the West
or a mere re-orienta-tion in his thought? Some writers think it is the former: "He
declared his revolt against the West by means of the spirit of the East, just as before he
had declared his revolt against the backwardness of the East, drawing his inspiration from
what is pure in the spirit of the Western renaissance."25 Whether or not a revolt
had- occurred in Gibran is not important for our purpose. What matters is that although
Gibran was absorbed in a busy literary life for most of his later years, he never lost
sight of Syria. His love for it remained rock solid but his enthusiasm for action slowly
tapered off. As Professor Hawi has succinctly put it: "It might be fairer in thinking
of Gibran's last years to observe the gen-eral pattern of his behaviour rather than the
exceptions. We prefer to think of him as one who was gradually ad-vancing towards the
realisation of his idea of perfection."26
1. Hawi, Kahhl Gibran: His Background, Character and Works, 1972, p67.
2.Karam M. Karam, Sha'ir yatwi AJnihatah, Jibran Hayyan, p454.
3.Douglas L. Ewmg, Ermgration from Greater Syria to the United States, Unpubl. MA Thess,
AUB, 1970, p90.
4.Ibid, p91.
5.Hawi K, Ibid, pl55.
6.Letter to Mary Haskell dated Wednesday, May 3, 1911.
7.Letter to Mary Haskell dated Friday, May 12, 1911.
8.See Jan Daya, Aqidat Gibran (Gibran's Doctrine) for an elaborate exposition of this .
9.Hawi K, Ibid, pl57.
10.Letter to Mary dated Tuesday, May 2, 1 91 1.
11.Ewmg D, Ibid.
12. See the Introduction to Kahhl Gibran: Dramas of Life, The Westminster Press,
Philadelphia, 1973.
13.Antonuis G, The Arab Awakening, p114.
14. See Adel Beshara, "Syrian Nationahsm: An Inquiry Into The Pohtical Philosophy of
Antun Sa'adeh," (Chapter one) Unpub. MA Thess, Melboume Universty, 1992.
15.Letter to Mary Haskell dated Tuesday, June 10, 1913.
16.Hawi K, Ibid, p155
17.Ibid,p. 28.
18.Garbaldi is the grandson of the popular Italian patriot and general, served as general
of a brigade in the Greek army during the Balkan Wars (1913) and was with the Italian army
in 1915.
19.See Mary Haskell, pl29.
20.Ibid. See also Daya J, op.cit, pp36-39.
21.1bid.
22.From a report written by an Amencan resident of standmg.
23.Hawi K, Ibid, pl06.
24.Hawi K, Ibid, p219.
25.Felix Faris, Risalat al-minbar, p94.
26.Hawi K, Ibid, p118.
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