author
Ameen Fares Rihani
1876–1940
A Lebanese American writer and public thinker, he helped shape early Arab American literature while writing across poetry, essays, fiction, and political commentary. His work often explored the meeting point between Arab and Western cultures with unusual independence and energy.
1 Audiobook
The Book of Khalid
by Ameen Fares Rihani
About the author
Born in Freike, Lebanon, on November 24, 1876, he moved to New York as a boy and later became an American citizen. He wrote in both Arabic and English and is widely associated with the Mahjar, or émigré, literary movement, as well as with the early development of Arab American literature.
His books and essays returned again and again to big questions: culture, reform, freedom, religion, and the relationship between the Arab world and the West. He is especially remembered for blending literary ambition with public debate, and for bringing Arab intellectual life to English-language readers at a time when that was still rare.
He died on September 13, 1940. Today, he is remembered not only as a novelist and poet, but also as a bridge figure whose writing linked places, languages, and political ideas across continents.