Ameen Rihani (1876 - 1940)
Ameen Rihani was born in Freike, Lebanon in 1876. The eldest son of six children, he traveled to America with his uncle in 1888. His father, a raw silk manufacturer, followed his son and brother to New York a year later. Rihani's passion for literature and public speaking were realized early in his life as he enjoyed the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Hugo. As a teenager in 1895, Ameen became interested in performing on the stage. He joined a touring acting troupe for a while, and then decided to acquire a regular education for a professional career. In 1897, he entered the New York Law School. However, 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. There, he began teaching English in a clerical school in exchange for being taught his native Arabic language. Returning to New York in 1899, he decided to translate some of the quatrains of poet Abul-Ala into English, and that was published in 1903. At this time, he also became a regular contributor to an Arabic weekly publication, "Al-Huda" published in New York in which he wrote about politics, social traditions, religion, and philosophy. His first two books were published in Arabic in 1902 and 1903, and he went on to produce a large amount of written work, including a number of articles in several well known American magazines and newspapers.
Rihani was the first traveler to traverse the whole territory of Arabia in one trip,and he did this in 1922. Becoming very acquainted with various Arab rulers on this trip and others, he wrote of his experiences and published six books between 1924 and 1932 in Arabic and English. They were hailed best sellers by London publishers. In these books, one can discover a detailed political and historical account of the people and places of Arabia, written often with the musings and watchful eye of a poet.
