From 1861-1914, Lebanon had calm political conditions as well as prospered economically and culturally particularly with the introduction of the Jesuit College (1875) and the presently called American University of Beirut (1866). Also, this is the period of dense immigration of Lebanese youths to the new continent of North and South America.

All of the Governor Generals ruled over a Lebanon which was geographically much smaller in superficies than the one of the Ma’anids and Chihabites Emirates. For instance, Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, the Biqa valleys, and many more provinces were not annexed to the Mount Lebanon, but were parts of the Ottoman.

Such was the geography and history of Lebanon at the time Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883. His native village Bsherri was then located in the Mutasarrifyya. In over-all the Ottoman rule in Lebanon was in many respects corrupted; the rich enjoyed privileges either from the clergy or the feudal government while the poor were exploited.

 

FOOTNOTES

1 Hitti, P.K., Lebanon in History, New York: Macmillan Co., Ltd., 1957, p. 130. According to some texts of mythology, the marriage of Tammuz (or Dumuzi) was rather with Inanna, the fertility of nature. Also, Tammuz (or Dumuzi) was a shepherd-god appointed by Enki who in his turn was asked by Anu and Enlil to organize the economic life of Mesopotamia, by instituting different social functions in the different parts of the country. Now, the yearly marriage of the goddess Inanna to the god Tammuz (or Dumuzi) commemorates the revival of “the creative powers of spring.” (H. and H.A. Frankfort, and J. Wilson, and Th. Jacobsen, Before Philosophy: Adventure of Ancient Man, Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1971, p. 175; pp. 214 - 215).

2 Meo, Leila, M.T., Lebanon: Improbable Nation. A Study in Political Development, Indiana University Press, 1965, pp. 40 - 64.

3 Hitti, P.K., op. cit. p. 364.

4 Hourani, A.H., Syria and Lebanon, London: Oxford University Press, 1946, p. 25. See also P.M. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516-1922, Cornell University Press, 1966, pp. 112-123.

5 Hitti, P.K., op. cit., pp. 247-252.

6 ibidem, pp. 257-265.

7 Meo, Leila, M.T., op. cit., p. 30.

8 Hitti, P.K., op. cit., 443.

CHAPTER TWO

LIFE OF KAHLIL GIBRAN

RARE ARE the writers who receive world recognition during their life. The factors causing the oblivion of a literator while still existing are many; the most important ones are: the life span, the economic situation, the geographical location, the educational and political activities’ backgrounds of the family of the writer as well as the friends of the writer.

Did Gibran enjoy an international reputation while among men? Of course, he did not personally witness the translation in twenty languages of his masterpiece The Prophet, but still he did reach the Arabic readers and some American literati.1 His fame really grew after his death, especially with the blow of his posthumous works.2

Gibran came from a modest socio-economic class and his presence on earth was quite brief, forty-eight years only. He was born on January 6, 1883 in the small village of Bsherri.