Gibran Chair 1998-2006 Report

INTERIM REPORT January 2006

   Prepared by the staff of the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project

Interim Report January 2006

Note on this Report This summary briefly describes the major activities undertaken by the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project since 1998. Professor Bushrui is the Director of the Gibran Project, which operates under the auspices of the Center for Heritage Resource Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.

DISTINGUISHED INTERNATIONAL HONORS AND AWARDS ................................................................ 1 HONORS PROGRAM COURSE ............................................................................................................ 2 CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BOOK....................................................................................................... 4 FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KAHLIL GIBRAN............................................................... 6 INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................ 7 EXHIBITIONS AND FESTIVALS .......................................................................................................... 9 SENATOR KENNEDY REQUESTS RESEARCH ON JFK’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS ................................ 10 PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 11 FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS ....................................................................................................... 13 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN .... 16

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DISTINGUISHED INTERNATIONAL HONORS AND AWARDS The following are descriptions of three recent awards received by Professor Suheil Bushrui, Director of the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project at the University of Maryland.

The establishment of the Gibran Project at the University of Maryland was an historic event in that it is the first academic forum in the world dedicated to the scholarly study of Gibran’s life and legacy. The books and articles published by the project have appeared in both Arabic and English, and many have been translated into other languages. Professor Bushrui’s biography of Gibran—entitled Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet—was reviewed in the pages of the New York Times Book Review, one of the most important literary periodicals in the United States. Furthermore, through the work of the Gibran project, Gibran’s great works were brought to the attention of Kathleen Raine, one of the great poets of the English language and perhaps the greatest woman poet in English to date.

The 2003 Juliet Hollister Award for Service to Interfaith Understanding A very distinguished award has been made which honors the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project and its outstanding supporters. Professor Bushrui was very humbled to have been selected to receive the Temple of Understanding’s annual Juliet Hollister Award for “exceptional service to interfaith understanding” and for “efforts to promote the work of one of the greatest artists ever known, Kahlil Gibran, and his belief in the ‘unity of being’.” Previous recipients of the prestigious Hollister Award include Queen Noor of Jordan, Her Excellency Mary Robinson (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and His Excellency President Nelson Mandela. The formal award ceremony took place in New York City on March 1, 2004.

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters In May 2004, Professor Bushrui received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Franklin & Marshall College in recognition of his “considerable contributions to the promotion of world peace…, [his] renown as a scholar without parallel in the work of Kahlil Gibran, [his] superior commitment to undergraduate education, and [his] distinguished career in service to all humankind.” It is very significant that the work of the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project is receiving such acknowledgment in wider academic circles.

Distinguished Achievement Award from AUB Alumni Association The American University of Beirut Alumni Association granted Professor Bushrui its 2003 Distinguished Achievement Award for his work on Kahlil Gibran, Anglo-Irish literature, Arabic studies, and East-West relations.

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HONORS PROGRAM COURSE One of the great achievements of the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project has been the establishment of a university-level course that examines his life and works. The course—offered by the University of Maryland’s prestigious Honors Program—is entitled “Kahlil Gibran and the Immigrant Traditions in America.” This course is, in fact, the first time that the academic and scholarly community has afforded Gibran’s canon the status that it deserves.

The course illustrates and defines the distinctive characteristics of ArabAmerican literature during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and focuses on the English-language works of Gibran. The texts assigned are studied both as works in their own right, and also as documents reflecting the author’s responses to the immediate artistic and cultural problems that he faced as an immigrant to America from the Arab world. Particularly relevant to the course, therefore, are the nature and value of the contact between creative writing and social, political, and intellectual movements in the Arab world and in America and Europe.

The course emphasizes Gibran’s Lebanese heritage and the extent to which it contributed to his artistic make-up. It considers the contribution he has made to American cultural life and examines his position in modern Arabic and English literature and his influence on other writers in Lebanon, the United States, and elsewhere. It also shows how he assimilated his experiences in Lebanon and America into his conception of himself as a human being and how he used this understanding to enrich his writings. Recent writings on Gibran and immigration are also covered.

One goal of the course is to place the experiences of immigrants such as Gibran within the wider context of America’s diverse immigrant heritage.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK The University of Maryland at College Park is one of America’s leading academic centers for scholarship, education and public service. Ranked in the top tier of the nation’s public research universities, the University of Maryland’s faculty is known nationally and internationally for their myriad contributions to the fields of science, engineering, mathematics, computer science, economics, government, politics, international relations, sociology and the humanities. Located adjacent to the nation’s capital, the University of Maryland at College Park draws to its campus a truly international student body, and contributes its faculty’s expertise to the development of national and international policy and public opinion through the major departments of national government and global institutions like the IMF and World Bank.

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THE COLLEGE OF BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences is the University of Maryland’s academic center for teaching and research in psychology, sociology, economics, government and politics, archeology, anthropology, geography, criminal justice, and African American studies. The College plays a significant role within the University in preparing the next generation of outstanding graduates by serving as the academic home for over 25% of the young men and women who receive their baccalaureate degrees each year. Through their scholarship, their teaching, and their offcampus collaborations with major national and international institutions, the College’s faculty contribute their knowledge and expertise to the most pressing social, economic, political and cultural questions of our time.

Central among these most pressing issues are the concerns for international relations, cross-cultural understanding, global development, conflict management, peace, terrorism, ethnic identity, social justice and the preservation of the great cultural traditions of the world. The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences supports its faculty in their disciplined work on these issues through a network of interdisciplinary research centers that include: the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, the Program on Global Security and Disarmament, the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism, the Cultural Systems Analysis Group, and the Center for Heritage Resource Studies.

THE CENTER FOR HERITAGE RESOURCE STUDIES The Center for Heritage Resource Studies in the Department of Anthropology was established in 2000 to bring scholars and practitioners together to support a comprehensive approach to the study of heritage. The Center's research and educational efforts are formulated in a way that can be readily applied by those who are responsible for the management of our historic, cultural, and environmental resources. In this manner, the activities of the Center will contribute substantially to an increased awareness of the need for responsible heritage development. Investigation of these issues crosses many disciplines, including cultural anthropology, archaeology, historic preservation, community development, environmental sciences, and others.

A little knowledge that acts is worth more than much knowledge that is idle.

Kahlil Gibran

Learning is the only wealth tyrants cannot despoil . . .

The true wealth of a nation lies not in its gold or silver but in its learning, and in the uprightness of its sons.

Kahlil Gibran

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CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BOOK Kahlil Gibran—Man and Poet: A New Biography. By Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1998.

Below are excerpts from a review that appeared in the New York Times Book Review print edition on 13 December 1998. The full text of the review is available on the World Wide Web from: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/13/reviews/981213. 13sKahlilt.html.

* * * December 13, 1998 Pioneer of the New Age Two new biographies of Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese poet and philosopher.

By LIESL SCHILLINGER

Ironically, Gibran’s character flaws were more thoroughly explored a quartercentury ago in “Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World,” a lucid, comprehensive biography written by a cousin, also named Kahlil Gibran, and his wife, Jean, who undertook the project because they could find no objective study of their illustrious relative. When they began their book, the chief accounts of Gibran’s life were “This Man From Lebanon,” an appreciation by an acolyte who called herself Barbara Young, who described him as “one of the rare gestures of the Mighty Unnameable Power,” and a sloppy memoir by his good friend Mikhail Naimy, written in Arabic, that characterized him as a rake and a tippler. In this 75th anniversary year of the publication of “The Prophet,” the 615 letters and 47 diaries the Gibrans unearthed in the course of researching their book -- which was expanded and reprinted in 1991 -- constitute the bulk of firsthand knowledge of Gibran’s American experience.

If Waterfield’s “Prophet” is pathography, “Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet,” by the Lebanese scholar Suheil Bushrui and his colleague Joe Jenkins, both of the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project at the University of Maryland, breaks new ground, falling into a category that lies somewhere in between hagiography and history. Bushrui and Jenkins’s adoration of their subject emerges in their declarations that the poet could “sing with the eloquence of Isaiah and the sorrow of Jeremiah,” that he ought to be recognized as a national hero for the Arab world, much as Cuchulain is for the Irish, and, more controversially, that, although Gibran was a Maronite Christian, “his writings through the years reflect his desire to merge the Sufi Muslim tradition with the Christian mystical heritage of his background.” And yet, through their consultation of Arabic and other sources, the authors add substantial texture to previous descriptions of Gibran’s social and work habits in Beirut, Paris and New York, paying particular attention to his friendships with men like Rodin, Yeats and Carl Jung. “Kahlil Gibran: Man and Poet” also amplifies Gibran’s relationship with Mary Haskell, furnishing poignant detail of her November-December marriage with the widower Jacob Florance Minis, which she embarked upon in 1921 when she was 48, as she and Gibran

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were completing their collaboration on “The Prophet.” Haskell asked Gibran if she could truthfully tell her Minis that she loved him “better than anyone else in the world,” as he so often asked her. Gibran told her she could say yes, because “every love is the best in the world, and the dearest.” Haskell married Minis, but eight years later, while keeping house for Minis in Savannah, Ga., she still edited Gibran's works in secret, registering her thoughts about him in her diary in code.

Like Jean and Kahlil Gibran before them, Bushrui and Jenkins are not afraid to acknowledge the poet’s foibles. They readily admit that he mythologized himself, cultivated famous people and had sexual relationships with women. They quote a dialogue between Haskell and Gibran in full: Haskell asked if Gibran thought it was all right for a man or woman to have as many as seven sexual partners; he replied, “If the seven were all willing, yes.” No nudges or winks required.

Gibran’s widely varying critical reception can be laid not to any deficit of character or talent, they suggest, but to the problem of categorization. His writing “is neither pure literature nor pure philosophy, and as an Arab work written in English it belongs exclusively to no particular tradition.” In other words nine million people have bought the book and don’t know where to shelve it.

On April 11, 1931, Kahlil Gibran died in his studio in New York. The woman by his side was his secretary and later his biographer, Barbara Young, who had begun working for him seven years earlier, after Haskell married Minis. In his most significant addition to Gibran lore, Waterfield furnishes the dramatic postscript. Because both Haskell and Gibran had been exceedingly discreet, nobody, much less Young, suspected the strength of their attachment, and when Young discovered Haskell’s letters in the studio, he recounts, she was shocked. Gibran’s will had left the management of his art collection to Haskell, but Young soon began to appropriate not only his artworks but his correspondence and other artifacts, claiming that Gibran had meant her to have them. Gibran’s will also incensed many of his Boston relatives, because it bequeathed royalties from sales of “The Prophet” to Bsherri, the tiny mountainside town he had left in 1895.

Waterfield suggests that the grandiose gesture was a bid to retroactively create the myth Gibran had spread among his American friends -- that his family had been wealthy. If so, it was a scheme worthy of a Gatsby. However, once hundreds of thousands of dollars began flowing from the publisher into Bsherri, fierce squabbles divided the villagers; the Lebanese Government had to step in to restore peace.

The larger squabble over the worth of Gibran’s literary legacy may never be resolved. Bushrui and Jenkins glumly conclude that the critical split that Jean and Kahil Gibran deplored decades ago plagues Gibran scholars today: “those who have deified him and those who have dismissed him as a mere populist poet” still refuse to be reconciled. A solution to this troubled opposition may lurk within the multipurpose wisdom of “The Prophet.” Just as Gibran instructed married couples to imagine their love as an ocean that unites as well as separates them, the quarreling camps might as well acknowledge that their shared obsession joins them in a partnership of opposed minds. Like it or not, Kahlil Gibran is “the moving sea between the shores of their souls.”

Liesl Schillinger writes on art and culture for The National Post in Canada and is on the staff of The New Yorker.

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FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KAHLIL GIBRAN An outstanding conference organized by the Gibran Project was entitled “The First International Conference on Kahlil Gibran: The Poet of the Culture of Peace.” The event was held at the University of Maryland, College Park, from December 9-12, 1999. This international, multicultural gathering drew 150 participants with representatives coming from Algeria, Australia, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Guadeloupe, Ireland, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Peoples Republic of China, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

The purpose of The First International Conference on Kahlil Gibran was not just to commemorate Gibran’s life and work, but to consolidate efforts to preserve and promote his unique legacy, particularly in the academic field. Poets, students, writers, scholars, and artists came together not only to study Gibran’s poetry, art works, and vision of a global society, but also to initiate and develop definite plans for preserving Gibran’s legacy and establish a Gibran canon worthy of his exceptional accomplishments as a writer and artist.

Consequent with the inspiring tone of the opening ceremony, subsequent days of the conference featured a variety of activities that illuminated numerous aspects of Gibran’s legacy. Panel presentations and dialogues featured a distinguished array of scholars, thinkers, and artists who addressed a range of salient topics. The following events, among others, took place: a panel on the Immigrant Experience in America; two dialogues (one in English and one in Arabic) on the legacy of Kahlil Gibran; a Youth Session addressing Gibran’s vision as it pertains to justice, peace, equality of men and women, interreligious understanding, and spirituality; and reports on methods in use around the world to present Gibran’s poetry and paintings to a mass audience.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements.

Kahlil Gibran

Those attending the First International Conference on Kahlil Gibran commented on the exceptionally high standard of scholarship on display, the wonderful spirit of fellowship that had been attained, the positive views and ideas that were shared, and the profound personal influence that the event exerted upon them. * * * The organizers of The First International Conference on Kahlil Gibran are now planning a follow-up event to be held in Beirut. This conference, and its related activities, will build upon the fruits of what was accomplished at Maryland.

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INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES “An Evening with Kahlil Gibran” In February 1998 the Gibran Project organized “An Evening with Kahlil Gibran” under the distinguished auspices of His Excellency Muhammad Chatah, Ambassador of the Republic of Lebanon to the United States. This event was held, in part, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the publication of Gibran’s The Prophet. In honor of the occasion a special program of readings from the poems, prose, letters, parables, and sayings of Gibran was organized by Samia Nassar and Suheil Bushrui.

Sir David Roberts Memorial Lecture In June 1999, Professor Bushrui delivered the Sir David Roberts Memorial Lecture, organized by the British Lebanese Association. Sir Robert Davis was one of the foremost scholars of the Middle East and British diplomacy, and was a well-known author. The title of the lecture was “Kahlil Gibran: Poet of the Culture of Peace.”

Gibran’s works were discussed in relation to the theme of the lecture.

“Unity of Ethic and Vision in the Works of Kahlil Gibran” In June 1999, at the Temenos Academy of London, Professor Bushrui delivered a lecture on “Unity of Ethic and Vision in the Works of Kahlil Gibran.”

May Ziadah Commemorative Conference In October 1999 the Director of the Gibran Project was keynote speaker at the May Ziadah Commemorative Conference in Beirut, Lebanon. Ziadah was the first women newspaper editor in the Middle East and a leading Arab suffragette. She also maintained a long-standing correspondence with Kahlil Gibran that highly influenced her thinking on the emancipation of women.

“Lebanon’s Dialogue with the West: Ameen Rihani and Arab Civilization” On June 21, 2001, Professor Bushrui delivered the prestigious annual lecture organized by the Temenos Academy in London on the theme of “Lebanon’s Dialogue with the West: Ameen Rihani and Arab Civilization.” The Temenos Academy operates under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

The presentation was featured as the L. M. Singhvi-Temenos Interfaith Lecture for the year 2001. The 2001 Lecture was originally scheduled to be delivered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Previous Singhvi-Temenos Lectures have been presented by such eminent personages as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a foremost Muslim thinker and Sufi, and the Bishop of London.

Professor Bushrui shared many of the insights included in his recently published Arabic language book on the Lebanese-American thinkers and writers Ameen Rihani, Kahlil Gibran, and Mikhail Naimy. The themes addressed in the lecture are highly relevant to our increasingly globalized world, including inter-religious reconciliation, inter-cultural dialogue, and the role of literature and the arts in producing understandings that lead to peace. In particular, the address offered a discerning résumé of the life and work of Ameen Rihani.

I am for ever walking upon these shores, Betwixt the sand and the foam.

The high tide will erase my foot-prints, And the wind will blow away the foam, But the sea and the shore will remain For ever.

Kahlil Gibran

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EXHIBITIONS AND FESTIVALS “The World of Kahlil Gibran: A Pictorial Record of His Life and Work” The Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project has created and developed a major exhibit entitled “The World of Kahlil Gibran: A Pictorial Record of His Life and Work.” The Exhibition illustrates selected aspects of the life and work of Kahlil Gibran. It consists of over 150 photographs, with commentary, suitably reproduced for public display, of people, places and events in the poet’s lifetime and also of reproductions of some of Gibran’s paintings, drawings and sketches. The material includes a number of rare photographs.

Among the significant photographs in this exhibit are reproductions of a number of hitherto unseen illustrations and paintings, including two sketches Gibran made of himself in Paris in 1910, as well as five very early pencil drawings made circa 1902. Rare reproductions of scenes of Boston and New York in the early 1900s, and breathtaking landscapes of the environs of the cedars of Lebanon, are also displayed.

The selection of passages and photographs illustrates comprehensively both the range of Gibran’s work and, for the English reader, its peculiar quality, at once exotic and familiar. The exhibition sets the poet in the context of his life: his native land, Lebanon; his adopted country, America; and the travels (spiritual as well as geographical) which shaped his genius “The World of Kahlil Gibran” was first displayed at the UNESCO Palace in Paris in March 1996. On that occasion, approximately 1,500 people were in attendance. Since that time it has been featured in Washington, DC and at the University of Maryland.

“Ana Alarabi Festival” In 1998, Professor Bushrui served as an adviser to the annual “Ana Alarabi Festival,” the most important Arab cultural event in the United States.

Professor Bushrui participated in the program as a reader of Gibran and as a judge of the essay contest. However, he is most proud of having served as an adviser to the festival. In this capacity, Professor Bushrui helped foster the truly ecumenical vision of that year’s event, a spirit demonstrated by the catalogue’s introduction which hails the inherent “diversity within unity” of the Arabs. For the first time, the festival celebrated not only the Arabic aspects of the Arab American heritage, but also located the experiences of that community within this country’s broader immigrant tradition.

“Kahlil Gibran: Artiste et Visionnaire” In 1998, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris held a major international exhibition, “Kahlil Gibran: Artiste et Visionnaire.” The catalogue of the exhibition featured an essay by Suheil Bushrui (translated from the English) entitled “Kahlil Gibran, poète de l’écologie de la vie.”

I spend my life writing and painting, and my enjoyment in these two arts is above all other enjoyments.

Kahlil Gibran

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SENATOR KENNEDY REQUESTS RESEARCH ON JFK’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS Early in the year 2000, the Office of Senator Edward Kennedy contacted the Gibran Project in order to verify a possible direct link between the writings of Kahlil Gibran and the famous phrase used in President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

After exhaustive research on Gibran’s Arabic writings from the early 1920s, the following conclusions were offered to Senator Kennedy: I came to be for all and in all. That which alone I do today shall be proclaimed before the people in days to come. And what I now say with one tongue, tomorrow will say with many.

1. Only those involved in the preparation of President Kennedy’s inaugural address may be able to shed light on whether these were Kennedy’s own words or a borrowing from Gibran;

Kahlil Gibran

2. A 1965 translation of some of Gibran’s essays borrowed the phrase “The New Frontier” from President Kennedy.

Senator Kennedy, in his own hand, sent a letter of appreciation to the Gibran Project expressing his gratitude for the research and conclusions.

It should also be noted that Senator Kennedy’s office contacted the Gibran Project only after the Library of Congress was unable to provide information regarding this matter. *

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“Are you a politician who says to himself: ‘I will use my country for my own benefit’? If so, you are naught but a parasite living on the flesh of others. Or are you a devoted patriot, who whispers into the ear of his inner self: ‘I love to serve my country as a faithful servant’?

Kahlil Gibran, The Voice of the Master, translated from the Arabic by Anthony R. Ferris (London: Heinemann, 1958), 33-34.

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Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country.

Kahlil Gibran, Mirrors of the Soul, translated and edited by Joseph Sheban (New York: Philosophical Library, 1965), 61.

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PUBLICATIONS The following books and articles have been published by the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project. For convenience, items are listed in reverse order of publication (the most recent publications are listed first).

The Wisdom of the Arabs. Compiled by Suheil Bushrui. Oxford: Oneworld, 2002.

Kahlil Gibran: Tesori Dello Spirito. Traduzione di Rossana Terrone.

Milano: Gruppo Editoriale Armenia S.p.A., 2002.

Mandelblüte und Abendsonne: Weisheiten Für Leben. Zusammengestellt von Suheil Bushrui. Aus dem Egnlischen von Ursula Assaf-Nowak.

Zürich: Pendo Verlag GmbH, 2002.

Kahlil Gibran: A Spiritual Treasury. Compiled by Suheil Bushrui. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.

Kahlil Gibrán, poeta iluminado, una nueva biografía. Suheil Bushrui y Joe Jenkins. Chapultepec: Editorial Grijalbo, 2000.

Liebesbriefe an May Ziadeh. Herausgegeben, übersetzt aus dem Arabischen und eingeleit von Ursula and S. Yussuf Assaf. Düsseldorf: Walter Verlag, 2000.

Surat-Surat Cinta: Surat-Surat Cinta Kahlil Gibran Kepada May Ziadah.

Jakarta: Grasindo, 2000.

Love Letters: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran to May Ziadah. Translated and edited by Suheil Bushrui and Salma Haffar al-Kuzbari. Oxford: Oneworld, 1999.

Al Adab al Lubnane bi al-Lughati al-Ingliziah, Ameen Rihani, Kahlil Gibran, and Mikhail Naimy (Lebanese Literature in English: Ameen Rihani, Kahlil Gibran, and Mikhail Naimy), by Suheil Bushrui. Beirut: alMuassasah al-Arabiyah li al-Dirasat wa al-Nashr, 2000.

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Kahlil Gibran, Man and Poet. By Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins.

Oxford: Oneworld, 1998.

Cartes D’Amor. Traducció de Jordi Arbonès. Barcelona: Columna Edicions, 1998.

Cartas D’Amor. Traducció de Damián Alou. Barcelona: Ediciones Del Bronce, 1998.

Nor do I find in the seasons of my years any harvest save only sheets of fair white paper traced over with markings of black ink….

Kahlil Gibran

“Kahlil Gibran, le prophète du Liban.” Par Suheil Bushrui, Magazine Littéraire 359 (November 1997): 102-3.

“Kahlil Gibran: Poet of Ecology.” By Suheil Bushrui, Resurgence 176 (May-June 1996): 38-40.

Lettere D’Amore: Corrispondenza con Mayy Ziyadah. Introduzione e traduzione a cura di Valentina Colombo. Milano: San Paolo, 1996.

Lettres d’Amour: Lettres d’Amour de Khalil Gibran à May Ziadah.

Traduites de l’arabe en anglais par Suheil Bushrui et Salma H. Al-Kuzbari et de l’anglais en français par Claude Carme et Anne Derouet. Orsay: Médicis-Entrelacs, 1995.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Introduced and annotated by Suheil Bushrui. Oxford: Oneworld, 1995.

Il Profeta, introduzione di Suheil Bushrui, traduzione di Ariodante Marianni. Milano: Bilbioteca Universale Rizzoli, 1993.

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FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

ADVANCE ANNOUNCEMENT The Essential Gibran Compiled and Edited by Suheil Bushrui Published in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Gibran’s passing by Oneworld Publications, Oxford (May-June 2006) To commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the passing of Kahlil Gibran, Oneworld Publications and the Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project at the University of Maryland announce the publication of The Essential Gibran, a volume of selected passages representative of Gibran’s style and thought. The collection includes selections from the Arabic works, selections from the English works, selections from the letters and selected criticism of his artwork as well as his writings.

The selections included will represent “The Essential Gibran.” They will offer a wide variety of theme, occasion, mood, and form. Reflective poetic prose, dramatic sketches, allegories and parables, national and international addresses, romantic writings of all kinds — these and more will capture Gibran’s essential style. His poetic vision takes form and shape in a new selection of passages from his English and Arabic writings: his abiding respect for universal human rights, the equality of men and women, and religious tolerance; while his profound respect for the natural world, at a time when it was already under threat from the forces of industrialization, makes him a forerunner of the ecological movement.

Emphasized is his message of cultural, religious, and political reconciliation which gains a particular poignancy and relevance in an age when East and West are in increasing need of mutual understanding to promote and strengthen a way towards peaceful coexistence.

The Essential Gibran is a universal figure whose profound humanity and concern for the highest standards of integrity in both a moral and literary sense transcends the boundaries between cultures which have too often found themselves in opposition to each other.

The selection of passages will offer a unique perspective of Kahlil Gibran as a poet of the culture of peace, and in many ways will throw new light on a twentieth-century author who occupies a unique position in the pantheon of the world’s great writers, and whose work has been translated into some forty different languages, enabling it to be read and appreciated in places as far apart as Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi, Manila, Nairobi, Rome, Paris, London and New York. The selections will also provide an up-to-date reevaluation of Gibran as a writer, critic, painter and thinker, show how he assimilated and absorbed a multiplicity of influences in his Arabic and English writings, developing in the process, a unique consciousness, one that transcended cultural barriers and still retains its potency today.

Suheil Bushrui is internationally recognized as the foremost authority on Kahlil Gibran, and has widely published on him in Arabic and in English. In 1983 he was appointed by the President of the Republic of Lebanon as a coordinator of the Presidential Committee commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of Gibran’s birth. He is currently Professor and Director of the University of Maryland Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project at the Center for Heritage Resource Studies.

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THE COLLECTED WORKS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN Suheil Bushrui, Joe Jenkins and Susan Reynolds General Editors

This groundbreaking series consisting of five volumes will be the first of its kind to include the entire creative output of Kahlil Gibran, including his English language works (books and articles), Arabic materials (which will appear in a new translation), letters, and artwork.

For the first time, Gibran’s worldwide readership will have access to the range of his writings and artwork in a single, expertly produced collection.

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VOLUME I: THE ENGLISH WORKS Estimated length: 450 pages * VOLUME II: THE ARABIC WORKS IN TRANSLATION Estimated length: 400 pages * VOLUME III: THE LETTERS Letters in English and those translated from the Arabic Estimated length: 400 pages * VOLUME IV: THE ARTWORK This will include his black and white twenty drawings, published in 1919 and a selection of oil, charcoal and ink drawings Estimated length: 200 pages * VOLUME V: A SUPPLEMENT TO THE COLLECTED WORKS THE WORLD OF KAHLIL GIBRAN: A PICTORIAL RECORD OF HIS LIFE AND WORK

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Published by Oneworld (Oxford)

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DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY ARABIC LITERATURE SERIES

The Dictionary of Literary Biography provides extensive information on writers from all eras and styles through its series of over 300 volumes. Each volume in each series is distinguished by a concentration on a particular genre, time frame or movement in literature and presents biographical information for key figures associated with each title.

In June 2004, Professor Bushrui was asked to write an article on Kahlil Gibran for the Dictionary of Literary Biography Arabic Literature Series.

The article will appear in Volume IV: 1850-1950 of the four-volume series, edited by Roger Allen, Professor of Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania. Volume IV also includes entries on other writers, dramatists and poets such as Ahmad Shawqi, Iliyya Abu Madi, Muhammad alMuwaylihi and Abu Khalil al-Qabbani. *

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I was, And I am.

So shall I be to the end of Time, For I am without end.

Kahlil Gibran

Excerpt from the article: The need for Gibran’s voice to be heeded remains strong. In the seventy-five years since he died, the Arab world has been transformed beyond recognition by the oil riches that have come its way. Whilst this phenomenon has not been without its benefits, bringing progress in place of stagnation, among some of the wealthier Arabs it has engendered a materialistic approach that runs counter to their spiritual heritage. Religious intolerance, too, thrives in the Middle East as it does elsewhere in the world. These are subjects on which Gibran has much of value to say, and throughout his English and Arabic writings, he reminds us of the sanctity of our Mother Earth and the need to protect the natural environment. But it is as the voice of reconciliation and consolation that Gibran needs most of all to be heard.

Kahlil Gibran was truly a citizen of the world: a man from the East who brought a much-needed element of spirituality to the West; and eventually a man of the West as well, benefiting from an environment in which freedom, democracy, and equality of opportunity opened doors for him. His work remains a shining example, on an individual level, of the inspired results that can be forthcoming when cultures merge in a spirit of unity and goodwill.

For the earth in its all is my land and all mankind my countrymen.

Kahlil Gibran

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INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN LETTER OF INVITATION

I have great pleasure in announcing the establishment of the International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran, on the 10th of April 2006 - the 75th anniversary of the passing of Kahlil Gibran.

A legally constituted Steering Committee, whose main function is to prepare for the First Annual General Meeting sometime in the near future, will soon be formed. I have great pleasure also to inform you that I have invited the Poet Henri Zoghaib, Director of the Center for Lebanese Heritage, to act as Co-Coordinator with special responsibilities for Lebanon and the Arab world.

I am certain that you share with me the conviction that the existence of such an Association has now become imperative, and that its activities will promote greater cooperation among Gibran scholars throughout the world.

It is my sincere hope that after you have studied the Articles of Association (a draft copy of which is attached) you will support it with your active participation and become a member as soon as details are finalized. In the meantime, I welcome any suggestions or advice that can further the interests of this Association.

Sincerely,

Suheil Bushrui Professor and Director, Kahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project at The Center for Heritage Resource Studies and Senior Scholar (of Peace Studies) at The Center for International Development and Conflict Management 1141 Taliaferro Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 USA

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DRAFT – ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF KAHLIL GIBRAN

1)

NAME The title of the Association shall be The International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran

2)

OBJECTIVE Subject always to Article 19, the purpose of the Association shall be to encourage study and research of the life and works of Kahlil Gibran and related fields of study. The Association shall concern itself with the holding of conferences at regular intervals; with periodical publication of papers and bulletins, relating particularly to the study and research of Kahlil Gibran; with travel and exchange facilities for scholars who wish to study and conduct research on Kahlil Gibran; with the collection of information about the nature and location of source materials; and through the promotion of comparative studies in English and Arabic, particularly in the areas of translation and textbook preparation.

3)

AFFILIATION (a) The Association shall seek affiliation with organizations of similar aims. (b) The basis of such affiliations shall be determined by the Advisory Board.

4)

ELECTION OF MEMBERS Applications for membership shall be received by the Secretary for election by the Committee at its sole discretion.

5)

MEMBERSHIP Membership of the Association shall be divided into the following categories: (a) Ordinary, i.e., for individuals (b) Corporate, i.e., for institutions, libraries, publishing houses, societies. (c) Such other categories (i.e., temporary membership, membership of the Association for members of affiliated organizations, etc.) as the Committee may from time to time determine.

6)

SUBSCRIPTIONS (a) The annual subscription shall be such as may be determined periodically by the Committee in respect of each category of member. (b) The Committee shall have the power to allow reduced subscriptions following an Ordinary Member’s retirement from normal professional duties, for undergraduate students and for graduates engaged in full time work for a higher degree.

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(c) Subscriptions shall be due on 1 January each year and the Committee may without further notice after due warning terminate the membership of any member who is more than three months in arrears with his subscription.

7)

COMMITTEE AND OFFICERS (a) The executive business of the Association shall be dispatched by a Committee consisting of the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and six other (Ordinary) Members of the Association who shall be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting. The Chairman (or his nominee) of the Kahlil Gibran National Committee shall be an ex-officio member of the Committee. The first President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and other members of the Committee shall hold office until the first Annual General Meeting, but shall then be eligible for re-election. (b) The Committee may co-opt up to a maximum of ten additional members and may fill any casual vacancies among the officers of the Committee, but any officer or member of the Committee so appointed shall hold office only until the next following Annual General Meeting and shall then be eligible for re-election.

8)

SUB-COMMITTEE The Committee may periodically appoint from among their number such Sub-Committees as they may deem expedient, and delegate them such of the Committee’s powers and duties as they think appropriate. All Sub-Committees shall report their proceedings to the Committee and shall conduct their business in accordance with the directions of the Committee.

9)

TREASURER AND AUDITORS It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to keep proper and sufficient accounts, and to present to each Annual General Meeting accounts for the year ended on the previous 31st December which shall be audited by two members of the Association. The first Auditors shall be appointed by the Committee to hold office until the first Annual General Meeting, and thereafter the two Auditors shall be elected at each Annual General Meeting to hold office until the next Annual General Meeting. Copies of the duly audited accounts shall be sent to each member with the Notice convening the Annual General Meeting.

10)

TRUSTEES The Committee may, if it finds it necessary, nominate not fewer than two or not more than four Trustees in whom the property of the Association (other than cash, which shall be under the control of the Treasurer) may be vested, to be dealt with by the Trustees as the Committee shall from time to time direct, and the Trustees so appointed shall hold office until death or resignation or until removed from office by resolution of the Committee, and the Committee shall have power to appoint additional Trustees (up to the said maximum) from time to time.

11)

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING An Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held no later than during the month

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of September in each year and no more than 15 months shall elapse between one Annual General Meeting and another. At the Annual General Meeting the following business shall be conducted: (a) The presentation and (if accepted) the passing of the accounts for the previous financial year ended 31st December, which shall first have been audited. (b) The election of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and other members of the Committee. (c) The election of the two Auditors. (d) Such other business as shall have been communicated to the Secretary and included in the Notice of the meeting sent by him to the members.

12)

EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING An Extraordinary General Meeting may be convened by the Committee at any time and shall be convened within 21 days at the written request of one-fifth of the members entitled to vote.

Such request must state the purpose for which the meeting is required.

13)

NOTICE OF MEETING The Secretary shall at least one month before any General Meeting send to every member, at his address as recorded in the Association’s books, a Notice of the meeting stating the time and the place of the Meeting and the business to be conducted.

14)

BUSINESS AT GENERAL MEETING The business at a general meeting shall be limited to that provided for in these Articles and any further matters set out in the Notice convening the meeting.

15)

VOTING At General Meetings of the Association the members shall be entitled to vote either in person or by post, and the Committee shall have power to make such regulations as they shall think expedient for the conduct of postal voting. For the purpose of voting, Corporate Members shall nominate in writing a representative to attend meetings or to vote by post, and the person purporting to be duly nominated on behalf of a Corporate Member shall be deemed to have been properly nominated if his nomination purports to be signed by the Secretary or other proper officer of the Corporate Member so nominating him.

16)

CHAIRMAN The President of the Association shall preside at all meetings of the Committee and at all general meetings of the Association, and in the case of equality of votes he shall have a casting vote. If he shall not be present within 15 minutes after the time appointed for the meeting, or he has signified his inability to be present at the meeting, the members present shall choose one of their number to preside over the meeting in his place.

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17)

AMENDMENTS Subject always to Article 19, these Articles may be amended, repealed, altered or added to by a majority vote at a General Meeting, for which not less than one month’s notice containing the proposed amendment has been given.

18)

DISSOLUTION If the Committee decides at any time that it is advisable to dissolve the Association, it shall call an Extraordinary General Meeting and if their decision shall at such an Extraordinary General Meeting be confirmed by a simple majority, the Committee shall have power to dispose of any assets held by or in the name of the Association provided that any assets remaining after the satisfaction of any proper debts and liabilities shall (subject to Article 19) be applied towards such objects as the Committee may determine and as may be approved by the Minister of Education and Science.

19)

CHARITABLE INTENT Notwithstanding anything hereinafter contained, it is hereby declared that the Association is established for charitable purposes only and that under no circumstances shall any funds or assets of the Association be applied towards non-charitable purposes.

20)

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ASSOCIATION The headquarters of the Association shall be located at the office of the Kahlil Gibran Professor, who will act as the Coordinator and Manager of the activities of the Association, in addition to any office he may be elected to serve. The Co-Coordinator will be the Poet Henri Zoghaib, Director at the Center for Lebanese Heritage (CLH) at Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, Lebanon.

21)

THE ASSOCIATION’S ADDRESS The address of the Association shall be the Kahlil Gibran Professorship, Center for Heritage Resource Studies, 1141 Taliaferro Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.

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GIBRAN STUDIES: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

(A BI-ANNUAL PERIODICAL)

The International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran is pleased to announce the inauguration of the first periodical to be devoted exclusively to the work of Kahlil Gibran and his times. Gibran Studies: An International Journal will be published annually in the first instance and (it is hoped that) eventually it may become a bi-annual publication.

Edited by an Editorial Committee to be appointed by the Founder-President of the Association, the periodical will have an international advisory board consisting of well-known Gibran scholars from different parts of the world.

The journal will include critical articles, manuscript drafts of poems, plays and prose writings, unpublished letters, editions of individual works, reprints of inaccessible published material, reproductions of paintings and other similar items. Each issue will contain approximately 30,000 words, and while the main emphasis will be on Gibran, matters of related interest will of course be considered.

Each issue of the journal will contain a review section and a bibliographical section which will aim at updating the Gibran bibliography as given in An Introduction to Kahlil Gibran.

Further details regarding submission of papers, articles, news, information and bibliographical data will soon be published together with information regarding subscriptions, orders and other inquiries.

And you, O Poets, Life of this life; You have conquered the ages Despite their tyranny, And gained for you a laurel crown In the face of delusion’s thorns.

You are sovereign over hearts And your kingdom is without end

Kahlil Gibran