American University of Beirut
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1912
VOLUME XV, No. 14
AUB Aquires Manuscripts and Uncollected Writings of A. Rihani A new Student Council at A UB will be formed, President Samuel B. Kirkwood announced today. The AUB Senate has voted to recoustitute a student council. The actual structure of a new constitution is under discussion by the Senate. The constitution of the former Student Council was suspended by the Senate following the 23-day strike in May and June of' 1971. The term of office of the former Council ended on June 30th. and A UB student affairs have belen conducted in the interim by a student-faculty committee. The current Senate discussions are based on the recoDHDendations made to the Senate by the Ad Hoc Commission on student participation.
h e manuscripts and uncollected writings of Ameen Rihani, one of the leading Lebanese intellectuals of the first half of the twentieth century, have been made available to the American University of Beirut for transcription, research and eventual publication. Albert Rihani, brother of the author, completed the arrangements on behalf of the Rihani family. The collection consists of nearly four trousand pages of un· edited material. There are twenty major items in the collection. which includes literary, political, and philosophical prose, along with at least one verse drama, a book of poetry and more than one thousand letters, written in both Arabic and English. Rihani was horn near Beirut in emigrated to the Freike, but United States at the age of twelve. He returned to Lebanon many times, travelling and studying ex· tensively throughout the Arab World. He wrote and published extensively in both Arabic and English, and among his other accomplishments translated into English The Quatrains of AbulAla' and The Luzumiat of AbulAla'. His broad inquiry into the philosophy and culture of both
East and West led him to a deep concern" with the encouragement of valid understanding where distrust and confusion often prevailed. His importance as a cultural media~or is suggested by his appointment in 1919 to represent Arab interest at the Hague Peace Conference. h e new availabiliy ,'f Rihani's papers and the reissue of his major published work are regarded at the University as a scholarly development of the first magnitude. The breadth of interest in this project is evident in the interdepartmental composition of the Editorial Committee, which is made up of fourteen senior faculty members from the Arabic, English, and Comparative Literature Departments. Qualified students, both graduate and undergraduate are included as active participants in the research and The Editorial editorial effort. Committee, formed under the chairmanship of Professor Suheil Bushrui, Chairman of the English Department, has already begun the work necessary to put the papers for scholarly into proper order use and to prepare the collection for publication in the Ameen Rihani Series, which was initiated in
THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE FOR THE RIHANI PAPERS Arabic Department: Professor Antoine Karam Professor Albert Mutlak Professor Nadim Naimy English Department: Professor Bernard Blackstone Professor Neil Bratton Professor Suheil Bushrui (Chairman) Professor Jack Capps (Executive Secretary) Professor Jack D'Amico Me. Adnan Hadar Professor George Khairallah Professor Anahid Melikian Professor John Munro Professor Richard Murphy
Student participation at AUB is already in effect in many University committees. The proposals of the CommiSSion, however, recommend broader student participation. President Kirkwood stressed his firm belief in student participation and his support for responsible student leadership in University affairs.
1971 with new editions of The Path of Vision (1921) and A Chant of Mystics (1921),
European Languages and Literature: Professor Eberhard Boeker University Library: Mr. Francis Kent Me. Peter Kilburn Me. Ritchie Thomas Photo JhoWJ
Pari of Rihani's MNJeflm,