Abraham Mitrie Rihbany

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Abraham Mitrie Rihbany
Shweir, Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate
Died July 5, 1944(1944-07-05) (aged 74)
Stamford, Connecticut
Occupationpreacher
Literary movementMahjar[1]
Notable worksThe Syrian Christ

Abraham Dimitri Rihbany known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany (

Greek Orthodox Lebanese
descent.

"In debt and nearly penniless on his arrival in New York, he went on to become a respected clergyman and nationally recognized community leader."

Biblical Studies[4] and Sociolinguistics.[5]

Life and Works

Rihbany was born in

Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
.

In 1891 Rihbany emigrated to the United States, in the first instance to New York City, where he briefly edited

Congregationalist minister in Morenci, Michigan. Thereafter he served as minister for two years in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and for nine in Toledo, Ohio, ending up at the Church of the Disciples, a Unitarian
church in Boston, Massachusetts.

His first book, A Far Journey (1913), was an account of his life in Syria and America. His publisher promoted it as a "bridging of the thousands of years that separate Turkey and the United States".[6]

His ideas about the importance of

The Atlantic Monthly, and in 1916 published in book form as The Syrian Christ. This went through numerous American and British editions up to 1937, was translated into German, and has more recently been translated into Arabic and reissued in English.[7]

During the

French Mandate of Syria was imposed in 1920. Rihbany's account of the peace conference, Wise Men from the East and Wise Men from the West, was in part published in Harper's Magazine (Dec. 1921) before being issued as a book.[9]

While promoting

Anti-Zionist ideas, Rihbany did not stop writing religious pamphlets for the American Unitarian Association, as well as more substantial works of spiritual reflection. One British reviewer of his Seven Days with God commented on his "keen spiritual insight and considerable vigour of thought".[10]

Rihbany died in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1944.

List of his books

  • A Far Journey. London: Constable; Boston and New York:
    Houghton Mifflin
    , 1914.
  • The Syrian Christ. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916.
  • Militant America and Jesus Christ. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1917.
  • America Save the Near East. Boston: Beacon Press, 1918.
  • The Hidden Treasure of Rasmola. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
  • Wise Men from the East and from the West. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1922.
  • The Christ Story for Boys and Girls, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.
  • Seven Days With God. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1926.
  • The Five Interpretations of Jesus. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940.

See also

  • List of Arab American writers

References

  1. ^ Hout, Syrine (2012). Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction. Edinburgh University Press. p. 205.
  2. MELUS
    15:4 (1988), p. 41.
  3. ^ See e.g. J. Allen Easley, "Appreciation of the Bible as Literature and Religion", Journal of Bible and Religion 18:2 (1950), pp. 96-98.
  4. ^ Kenneth E. Bailey, The Cross & the Prodigal: Luke 15 Through the Eyes of Middle Eastern Peasants, 2nd edition. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005.
  5. ^ Anna Wierzbicka, English: Meaning and Culture. Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 25-29, 44-56.
  6. ^ "The Most Interesting Presents to Give or Receive are Books". The Independent. Dec 14, 1914. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  7. ^ Apamea Consulting's The Syrian Christ website
  8. ^ Wheeler, Edward J., ed. (April 1918). "Jesus no "peace-at-any-price" man". Current Opinion. Vol. 64, no. 4. Current Literature Publishing Company. pp. 271–272.
  9. ^ Harpers Archive
  10. Times Literary Supplement
    , July 7, 1927, p. 475.

Other sources

Waïl S. Hassan, "The Emergence of Autobiography." Chapter 3 of Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab American and Arab British Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. pp. 78–99.

External links

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