Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931; Gibran also spelled Jibran, Khalil also spelled Kahlil, Arabic name in full Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān) was a Lebanese author, philosopher, poet and artist. His poetry is notable for its use of formal language and insights on topics of life using spiritual terms. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 26 poetic essays. He was a key figure in the Romantic movement that transformed Arabic literature in the first half of the twentieth century.
Kahlil Gibran grew up in the region of Bsharri in Lebanon. During his youth he did not receive any formal schooling since his family was poor, but he was visited regularly by priests who taught him about the Bible, the Syriac and Arabic languages. During his youth, his family's property was confiscated by the Ottoman authorities after Kahlil Gibran's father was sent to prison for fraud and tax evasion. With no home, the Gibran family decided to follow Gibran's uncle and emigrate to the United States; they left for New York on June 25, 1895. Kahlil Gibran's father had been released in 1894 but decided to stay in Lebanon.
At the time the second largest Lebanese community was in Boston's South End, and thus the Gibran family decided to settle in that area. Gibran's mother started working as a peddler to bring in money for the family, and Khalil Gibran started school on September 30, 1895. Because Kahlil Gibran had no formal schooling in Lebanon he was placed in a special class for immigrants who had to learn English.
In his early teens, the artistry of Gibran's drawings caught the interest of his teachers and he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged and supported Gibran in his artistic and cultural endeavors.
Gibran's first published works were drawings, which were used for book covers in 1898. His first art exhibition was held in 1904 in Boston. It was during this exhibition that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, a respected headmistress ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship that lasted for the rest of Gibran's life, and Haskell influenced not only Gibran's personal life, but his career as well. In 1908 Gibran went to study art with Auguste Rodin in Paris for two years.
Gibran died on 10 April 1931 of cirrhosis of the liver. He was an alcoholic and had been in poor health since the early 1920s. His body was taken to Boston, and despite his family’s fears that he would be denied Catholic rites, his friend Monsignor Stephen El-Douaihy conducted a funeral mass. Several memorial services were conducted during the following weeks. Since Gibran was a major Arabic literary figure, the procession to Bisharri and the associated ceremonies were elaborate to the edge of absurdity. Gibran had wanted to be buried in his native village, and his coffin was sent to Lebanon in 1932 when Mary Haskell and his sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Lebanon (Mar Sarkis and the Gibran Museum).
Kahlil Gibran occupies a curious place in literary history. As one of the writers who broke with the old and rigid conventions of Arabic poetry and literary prose, he is among the great figures in the twentieth-century revival of Arabic literature. His Arabic works are read, admired, and taught, and they are published and sold among the classics of Arabic literature. In English, on the other hand, a chasm remains between his popularity and the lack of critical respect for his work. Nevertheless, his works are widely read and are regarded as serious literature by people who do not often read such literature. The unconventional beauty of his language and the moral earnestness of his ideas allow
him to speak to a broad audience as only a handful of other twentieth-century poets have.
Music Credits: Away by Patrick Patrikios
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