Abraham Rihbany
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Abraham Dimitri Rihbany known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany (; sometimes spelled ''Rahbany''; August 27, 1869 – July 5, 1944) was an American
theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
,
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
and
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
of Greek Orthodox Lebanese descent. "''In debt and nearly penniless on his arrival in New York, he went on to become a respected clergyman and nationally recognized community leader''." His best-known book, ''The Syrian Christ'' (1916), was highly influential in its time in explaining the cultural background to some situations and modes of expression to be found in the Gospels. It is still cited in both Biblical Studies and Sociolinguistics.


Life and Works

Rihbany was born in Shweir, in the
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate The Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861–1918, ; ) was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the 19th-century Tanzimat reform. After 1861, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian Mutasarrif (governor), which had be ...
. At 9 years old he was apprenticed to a stone-cutter, but at the age of 17 he managed to attend the American Presbyterian School in Souk El Gharb, catching up on his secondary education in two years of study and briefly becoming a teacher himself. It was here that he became a
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
, in spite of his family's long adherence to the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rum (endonym), Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (), is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider ...
. In 1891 Rihbany emigrated to the United States, in the first instance to New York City, where he briefly edited '' Kawkab Amirka'' (The Star of America), North America's first Arabic-language newspaper. He left New York in 1893 and travelled through the Mid-West, funding short stints of study at Manchester University (Indiana) (1894) and Ohio Wesleyan University (1895–96) by giving lecture tours to churches on the culture of the Holy Land as a key to the Scriptures. He indefinitely postponed his studies after being offered a position as a resident Congregationalist minister in Morenci, Michigan. Thereafter he served as minister for two years in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, and for nine in
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
, ending up at the Church of the Disciples, a Unitarian church in Boston, Massachusetts. His first book, ''A Far Journey'' (1913), was an account of his life in Syria and America. His publisher promoted it as a "bridging of the thousands of years that separate Turkey and the United States". His ideas about the importance of East-Mediterranean culture to an understanding of the Gospels were developed in a series of articles for '' The Atlantic Monthly'', and in 1916 published in book form as ''The Syrian Christ''. This went through numerous American and British editions up to 1937, was translated into German, and has more recently been translated into Arabic and reissued in English. During the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Rihbany began writing on political issues. His ''Militant America and Jesus Christ'' (1917) made a case for American involvement in liberating the homeland of Jesus from Ottoman rule and argued against Christian pacifism. The following year he brought out ''America Save the Near East'', which sold out three editions in twelve months. In it he advocated American trusteeship over an independent Greater Syrian federal republic. Rihbany believed that America stood alone in lacking imperial ambitious in the region and that the United States was uniquely equipped to reshape the region in a progressive fashion. It was due to this publication that he came to attend the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, where he became attached to the entourage of Emir Faisal, the leader of the Arab delegation, as a translator. A Greater Syrian state (the Kingdom of Syria) did briefly come into existence under Faisal before the French Mandate of Syria was imposed in 1920. Rihbany's account of the peace conference, ''Wise Men from the East and Wise Men from the West'', was in part published in ''Harper's Magazine'' (Dec. 1921) before being issued as a book. While promoting Arab nationalist and Anti-Zionist ideas, Rihbany did not stop writing religious pamphlets for the American Unitarian Association, as well as more substantial works of spiritual reflection. One British reviewer of his ''Seven Days with God'' commented on his "keen spiritual insight and considerable vigour of thought".'' Times Literary Supplement'', July 7, 1927, p. 475. Rihbany died in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1944.


List of his books

*
A Far Journey
'. London: Constable; Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
, 1914. *
The Syrian Christ
'. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. *''Militant America and Jesus Christ''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. *''America Save the Near East''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1918. *''The Hidden Treasure of Rasmola''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. *''Wise Men from the East and from the West''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1922. *''The Christ Story for Boys and Girls'', illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1923. *''Seven Days With God''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. *''The Five Interpretations of Jesus''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1940.


See also

* List of Arab American writers


References


Other sources

Waïl S. Hassan, "The Emergence of Autobiography." Chapter 3 of ''Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab American and Arab British Literature.'' New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. pp. 78–99. *Excerpts from ''A Far Journey'' in ''Immigrant Voices: Twenty-Four Voices on Becoming an American'', edited by Gordon Hutner. New York: Signet Classics, 1999. *Habib I. Katibah, ''The New Spirit in the Arab Lands''. New York, 1940, p. 58. *''The American Spirit in the Writings of Americans of Foreign Birth'', edited by Robert E. Stauffer, 1922. * The New York Times Book Review, Nov. 24, 1918, review of ''America Save the Near East''.


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rihbany, Abraham 1869 births 1944 deaths American theologians American philologists 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers 20th-century American historians American non-fiction writers American writers of Lebanese descent Converts to Protestantism from Eastern Orthodoxy American Presbyterians Lebanese Presbyterians Lebanese philologists Mahjar American male non-fiction writers People from Dhour El Choueir Lebanese emigrants to the United States