Khalil Gibran

For the sculptor, see Kahlil Gibran (sculptor).

Khalil Gibran
Born	Gubran Kahlil Gubran January 6, 1883(1883-01-06) Bsharri, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Syria (modern day Lebanon)
Died	April 10, 1931(1931-04-10) (aged 48) New York City, United States
Occupation	Poet, Painter, Sculptor, Writer, Philosopher, Theologian, Visual Artist
Nationality	Lebanese-American
Genres	Poetry, Parable, Short Story
Literary movement	Mahjar, New York Pen League
Notable work(s)	The Prophet
Signature

Khalil Gibran (Arabic pronunciation: [xaˈliːl ʒiˈbrɑːn],^{[see note]}; born Gubran Khalil Gubran,^[1] in academic contexts often spelled Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān,^{[2]:217[3]:255} Jibrān Khalīl Jibrān,^{[2]:217[4]:559} or Jibrān Xalīl Jibrān;^[5]:189 Arabic جبران خليل جبران , January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) also known as Kahlil Gibran,^[6] was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer. Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Mount Lebanon mutasarrifate), as a young man he emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his literary career. He is chiefly known in the English speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical reception, and became extremely popular in the 1960s counterculture.^[7] Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.^[8]

In Lebanon

Gibran's home in Bsharri

Gibran was born to a Maronite Catholic family from the historical town of Bsharri in northern Lebanon.^[9] His mother Kamila, daughter of a priest, was thirty when he was born; his father Khalil was her third husband.^[10] As a result of his family's poverty, Gibran received no formal schooling during his youth. However, priests visited him regularly and taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages. Gibran's father initially worked in an apothecary but, with gambling debts he was unable to pay, he went to work for a local Ottoman-appointed administrator.^[11][12]

Around 1891, extensive complaints by angry subjects led to the administrator being removed and his staff being investigated.^[13] Gibran's father was imprisoned for embezzlement,^[7] and his family's property was confiscated by the authorities. Kamila Gibran decided to follow her brother to the United States. Although Gibran's father was released in 1894, Kamila remained resolved and left for New York on June 25, 1895, taking Khalil, his younger sisters Mariana and Sultana, and his elder half-brother Peter(/Bhutros/Butrus).^[11]

In the United States

Khalil Gibran, Photograph by Fred Holland Day, c. 1898

The Gibrans settled in Boston's South End, at the time the second largest Lebanese-American community^[14] in the United States. Due to a mistake at school, he was registered as Kahlil Gibran.^[6]

His mother began working as a seamstress^[13] peddler, selling lace and linens that she carried from door to door. Gibran started school on September 30, 1895. School officials placed him in a special class for immigrants to learn English. Gibran also enrolled in an art school at a nearby settlement house. Through his teachers there, he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day,^[7] who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. A publisher used some of Gibran's drawings for book covers in 1898.

Gibran's mother, along with his elder brother Peter, wanted him to absorb more of his own heritage rather than just the Western aesthetic culture he was attracted to,^[13] so at the age of fifteen, Gibran returned to his homeland to study at a Maronite-run preparatory school and higher-education institute in Beirut, called Al-Hikma (La Sagesse). He started a student literary magazine with a classmate and was elected "college poet". He stayed there for several years before returning to Boston in 1902, coming through Ellis Island (a second time) on May 10.^[15] Two weeks before he got back, his sister Sultana died of tuberculosis at the age of 14. The next year, Peter died of the same disease and his mother died of cancer. His sister Marianna supported Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker’s shop.^[7]

Art and poetry

Gibran held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's studio.^[7] During this exhibition, Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, a respected headmistress ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship that lasted the rest of Gibran’s life. Though publicly discreet, their correspondence reveals an exalted intimacy^[16]. Haskell influenced not only Gibran’s personal life, but also his career^[17]. She introduced him to Charlotte Teller, a journalist, and Emilie Michel (Micheline), a French teacher, who accepted to pose for him as a model and became close friends^[18]. In 1908, Gibran went to study art in Paris for two years. While there he met his art study partner and lifelong friend Youssef Howayek^[19]. While most of Gibran's early writings were in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. His first book for the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf, in 1918, was The Madman, a slim volume of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry and prose. Gibran also took part in the New York Pen League, also known as the "immigrant poets" (al-mahjar), alongside important Lebanese-American authors such as Ameen Rihani, Elia Abu Madi and Mikhail Naimy, a close friend and distinguished master of Arabic literature, whose descendants Gibran declared to be his own children, and whose nephew, Samir, is a godson of Gibran's.

Much of Gibran's writings deal with Christianity, especially on the topic of spiritual love. But his mysticism is a convergence of several different influences : Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Hinduism and theosophy. He wrote : "You are my brother and I love you. I love you when you prostrate yourself in your mosque, and kneel in your church and pray in your synagogue. You and I are sons of one faith - the Spirit." ^[20] Juliet Thompson, one of Gibran's acquaintances, reported several anecdotes relating to Gibran: She recalls Gibran met `Abdu'l-Bahá, the leader of the Bahá’í Faith at the time of his visit to the United States, circa 1911<sup>[11]</sup>–1912.<sup>[21]</sup> Barbara Young, in "This Man from Lebanon: A Study of Khalil Gibran", records Gibran was unable to sleep the night before meeting `Abdu'l-Bahá who sat for a pair of portraits. Thompson reports Gibran saying that all the way through writing of "Jesus, The Son of Man", he thought of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Years later, after the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, there was a viewing of the movie recording of `Abdu'l-Bahá – Gibran rose to talk and in tears, proclaimed an exalted station of `Abdu'l-Bahá and left the event weeping.^[21]

His poetry is notable for its use of formal language, as well as insights on topics of life using spiritual terms. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of twenty-six poetic essays. The book became especially popular during the 1960s with the American counterculture and New Age movements. Since it was first published in 1923, The Prophet has never been out of print. Having been translated into more than forty^[22] languages, it was one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century in the United States.

One of his most notable lines of poetry in the English-speaking world is from "Sand and Foam" (1926), which reads: "Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you". This line was used by John Lennon and placed, though in a slightly altered form, into the song "Julia" from The Beatles' 1968 album The Beatles (a.k.a. "The White Album").

Political thought

Gibran was by no means a politician. He used to say : "I am not a politician, nor do I wish to become one" and "Spare me the political events and power strugges, as the whole earth is my homeland and all men are my fellow countrymen"^[23]. Gibran called for the adoption of Arabic as a national language of Lebanon, considered from a geographic point of view, not as a political entity ^[24]. When Gibran met `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1911–12, who traveled to the United States partly to promote peace, Gibran admired the teachings on peace but argued that "young nations like his own" be freed from Ottoman control.^[11] Gibran also wrote the famous "Pity The Nation" poem during these years which was posthumously published in The Garden of the Prophet.^[25]

When the Ottomans were finally driven out of Lebanon during World War I, Gibran's exhilaration was manifested in a sketch called "Free Lebanon" which appeared on the front page of al-Sa'ih's special "victory" edition.^{[citation needed]} Moreover, in a draft of a play, still kept among his papers, Gibran expressed great hope for national independence and progress.^{[citation needed]}This play, according to Khalil Hawi, "defines Gibran's belief in Lebanese nationalism with great clarity, distinguishing it from Arab nationalism, and showing us that nationalism lived in his mind, even at this late stage, side by side with internationalism."^[26]

Death and legacy

Khalil Gibran memorial in Washington, D.C.

Khalil Gibran memorial in Boston, Massachusetts.

Khalil Gibran memorial in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Gibran Museum and Gibran's final resting place, in Bsharri, Lebanon.

Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931: the cause was determined to be cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis. Before his death, Gibran expressed the wish that he be buried in Lebanon. This wish was fulfilled in 1932, when Mary Haskell and his sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Lebanon, which has since become the Gibran Museum. The words written next to Gibran's grave are "a word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you ...."^{[citation needed]}

Gibran willed the contents of his studio to Mary Haskell. There she discovered her letters to him spanning twenty-three years. She initially agreed to burn them because of their intimacy, but recognizing their historical value she saved them. She gave them, along with his letters to her which she had also saved, to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library before she died in 1964. Excerpts of the over six hundred letters were published in "Beloved Prophet" in 1972.

Mary Haskell Minis (she wed Jacob Florance Minis in 1923) donated her personal collection of nearly one hundred original works of art by Gibran to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia in 1950. Haskell had been thinking of placing her collection at the Telfair as early as 1914. In a letter to Gibran, she wrote "I am thinking of other museums ... the unique little Telfair Gallery in Savannah, Ga., that Gari Melchers chooses pictures for. There when I was a visiting child, form burst upon my astonished little soul." Haskell's gift to the Telfair is the largest public collection of Gibran’s visual art in the country, consisting of five oils and numerous works on paper rendered in the artist’s lyrical style, which reflects the influence of symbolism. The future American royalties to his books were willed to his hometown of Bsharri, to be "used for good causes".

Works

In Arabic:

• Nubthah fi Fan Al-Musiqa (Music, 1905)
• Ara'is al-Muruj (Nymphs of the Valley, also translated as Spirit Brides and Brides of the Prairie, 1906)
• al-Arwah al-Mutamarrida (Spirits Rebellious, 1908)
• al-Ajniha al-Mutakassira (Broken Wings, 1912)
• Dam'a wa Ibtisama (A Tear and A Smile, 1914)
• al-Mawakib (The Processions, 1919)
• al-‘Awāsif (The Tempests, 1920)
• al-Bada'i' waal-Tara'if (The New and the Marvellous, 1923)

In English, prior to his death:

• The Madman (1918) (downloadable free version)
• Twenty Drawings (1919)
• The Forerunner (1920)
• The Prophet, (1923)
• Sand and Foam (1926)
• Kingdom of the Imagination (1927)
• Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
• The Earth Gods (1931)

Posthumous, in English:

• The Wanderer (1932)
• The Garden of the Prophet (1933, Completed by Barbara Young)
• Lazarus and his Beloved (Play, 1933)

Collections:

• Prose Poems (1934)
• Secrets of the Heart (1947)
• A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1951)
• A Self-Portrait (1959)
• Thoughts and Meditations (1960)
• A Second Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1962)
• Spiritual Sayings (1962)
• Voice of the Master (1963)
• Mirrors of the Soul (1965)
• Between Night & Morn (1972)
• A Third Treasury of Kahlil Gibran (1975)
• The Storm (1994)
• The Beloved (1994)
• The Vision (1994)
• Eye of the Prophet (1995)
• The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran (1995)

Other:

• Beloved Prophet, The love letters of Khalil Gibran and Mary Haskell, and her private journal (1972, edited by Virginia Hilu)

Memorials and honors

Statue of Gibran in Belo Horizonte.

• Lebanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications published a stamp in his honor in 1971.
• Gibran Museum in Bsharri, Lebanon
• Gibran Khalil Gibran Garden, Beirut, Lebanon
• Gibran Khalil Gibran collectin, Soumaya Museum, Mexico.
• Kahlil Gibran Street, Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada inaugurated on 27 Sept. 2008 on occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth.
• Gibran Kahlil Gibran Skiing Piste, The Cedars Ski Resort, Lebanon
• Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden in Washington, D.C.,^[27] dedicated in 1990^[28]
• Pavilion K. Gibran at École Pasteur in Montréal, Quebec, Canada
• Gibran Memorial Plaque in Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts
• Khalil Gibran International Academy, a public high school in Brooklyn, NY, opened in September 2007
• Khalil Gibran Park (Parcul Khalil Gibran) in Bucharest, Romania
• Gibran Kalil Gibran sculpture on a marble pedestal indoors at Arab Memorial building at Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
• Gibran Khalil Gibran Memorial, in front of Plaza de las Naciones. Buenos Aires.

Notes

• ^Note on name : The pronunciation of the leading sound of the first name can be [x] or [χ]; the leading sound of the last name may be [d͡ʒ], [ʒ] or [ɡ]; The open vowel in the first name can range from [æ] to [a]; the vowel following the initial consonant of the last name as may be pronounced as [u], [ʊ] or [o]; the last open vowel in the last name may be pronounced as [ɑ] or [a]. Listen to audio here or here

1. ^ Gibran 1998: 12
2. ^ ^{a b} Starkey, Paul (2006). Modern Arabic Literature. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0 7486 1291 2. 
3. ^ Allen, Roger (2000). An Introduction to Arabic Literature. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 77230 3. 
4. ^ Badawi, M. M., ed. (1992), Modern Arabic Literature, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-33197-5 
5. ^ Cachia, Pierre (2002). Arabic Literature—An Overview. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0–7007–1725–0. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Gibran 1998: 29
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} Acocella, Joan (January 7, 2008). "Prophet Motive". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
8. ^ Newyorker.com
9. ^ Jagadisan, S. "Called by Life", The Hindu, January 5, 2003, accessed July 11, 2007
10. ^ "Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)", biography at Cornell University library on-line site, retrieved February 4, 2008
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Cole, Juan. "Chronology of his Life". Juan Cole's Khalil Gibran Page - Writings, Paintings, Hotlinks, New Translations. Professor Juan R.I. Cole. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/gibran/chrono.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
12. ^ Walbridge, John. "Gibran, his Aesthetic, and his Moral Universe". Juan Cole's Khalil Gibran Page - Writings, Paintings, Hotlinks, New Translations. Professor Juan R.I. Cole. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/gibran/papers/gibwal1.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
13. ^ ^{a b c} Mcharek, Sana (2006-03-03) (pdf). Khalil Gibran and other Arab American Prophets. approved thesis. Florida State University. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04102006-114344/unrestricted/Mcharek2006.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
14. ^ Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) Cornell University Library
15. ^ "Passenger Record". Records of Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passRecord.asp?MID=19582761730245745888&LNM=GIBRAN&PLNM=GIBRAN&bSYR=1878&bEYR=1888&first_kind=1&last_kind=0&TOWN=null&SHIP=null&RF=8&pID=102754150222. Retrieved 2009-01-02. 
16. ^ Salem Otto, Annie, The Love letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell, Houston, 1964
17. ^ </Alexandre Najjar, Kahlil Gibran, a biography, Saqi, 2008, chapter 7 (p.79), "Beloved Mary"
18. ^ Najjar, op.cit, p.59
19. ^ Yusuf Huwayyik, Gibran in Paris, New York : Popular Library, 1976
20. ^ Alexandre Najjar, Kahlil Gibran, a biography, Saqi, 2008, p.150
21. ^ ^{a b} Thompson, Juliet (Summer 1978). "Juliet Remembers Gibran as told to Marzieh Gail". World Order, A Baha'i Magazine 12 (04): pp. 29–31. http://bahai-library.com/file.php?file=gail_thompson_remembers_gibran. 
22. ^ Alwehar.com
23. ^ Alexandre Najjar, Kahlil Gibran, a biography, Saqi, 2008, p.110.
24. ^ Najjar, op.cit., p.27, note 2
25. ^ "Pity The Nation..." by Khalil Gibran
26. ^ Hawi, Khalil Gibran: His Background, Character and Works, 1972, p219
27. ^ Gibran Memorial in Washington, DC
28. ^ Elmaz Abinader, Children of Al-Mahjar: Arab American Literature Spans a Century", U.S. Society & Values, February 2000

References

• Gibran, Jean; Kahlil Gibran (1998) [1981]. Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World. Salma Khadra Jayyusi (foreword). New York: Interlink Books. ISBN 156656249x. OCLC pj7826.i2z615. 
• Najjar, Alexandre, "Kahlil Gibran, a biography", Saqi, 2008.
• Khalil Gibran and Ameen Rihani: Prophets of Lebanese-American Literature. Ed. by Naji B. Oueijan, et al. Louaize: Notre Dame Press, 1999.
• Michael Corrigan mentions another writer's use of The Prophet in his grief memoir, A Year and a Day, published by the Idaho State University Press, 2008.
• Poeti arabi a New York. Il circolo di Gibran, introduzione e traduzione di F. Medici, prefazione di A. Salem, Palomar, Bari 2009. ISBN 978-88-7600-340-0.
• Daniel S. Larangé, Poétique de la fable chez Khalil Gibran (1883–1931): Les avatars d'un genre littéraire et musical: le maqam, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2005.
• Scott Peck quotes passages about Children and Marriage from the Prophet in his best seller 'The Road Less Traveled'.

External links

• Online copies of texts by Gibran
• Khalil Gibran --a retrospective on YouTube, documentary, May 31, 2007
• Works by Khalil Gibran
• Gibran paintings and love letters
• History page links Gibran to W.B Yeats
• The Prophet by Gibran Parts of the Prophet in English, French, Czech and Arabic
• Short commentary on The Prophet
• Google celebrated Khalil Gibran’s Birthday with special logotype

Persondata
Name	Gibran, Khalil
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 6, 1883
Place of birth	Bsharri, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Ottoman Syria (modern day Lebanon)
Date of death	April 10, 1931
Place of death	New York City, United States