First published in 1911, Ameen Rihani’s Book of Khalid is widely considered the first Arab American novel. The semi autobiographical work chronicles the adventures of two young men, Khalid and Shakib, who leave Lebanon for the United States to find work as peddlers in Lower Manhattan. After mixed success at immersing themselves in American culture, the two return to the Middle East at a time of turmoil following the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Khalid attempts to integrate his Western experiences with Eastern spiritual values, becoming an absurd, yet all too serious, combination of political revolutionary and prophet. The Book of Khalid offers readers a heady mix of picaresque, philosophical dialogue, and immigrant story.In this critical edition, Fine includes the text of the original 1911 edition, a substantial glossary, and supplemental essays by leading Rihani scholars. Demonstrating the reach and significance of the work, these essays address a variety of themes, including Rihani’s creative influences, philosophical elements, and the historical context of the novel. Attracting a new generation of readers to Rihani’s innovative work, this edition reveals his continued resonance with contemporary Arab American literature.

When celebrated mahjar writer Ameen Rihani returned to his native Lebanon from his long stay in New York, he set out on nine journeys through the Lebanese countryside, from the rising mountains to the shores of the Mediterranean, to experience and document the land in intimate detail.Through his travelogue The Heart of Lebanon, Rihani brings his readers along by foot and by mule to explore rural villages like his childhood home of Freike, the flora and fauna of massive cedar forests, and archaeological sites that reveal the history of Lebanon. Meeting goatherds, healers, monks, and more along the way, Rihani offers more than vivid descriptions of the country’s sweeping scenery. His candid and often humorous narration captures what he sees as the soul of Lebanon and its people. Allen’s fluid translation transports English-language readers to an early twentieth-century rural Lebanon of the writer’s time in a way that only Rihani’s firsthand account can accomplish.

First published in 1911, Ameen Rihani’s Book of Khalid is widely considered the first Arab American novel. The semi autobiographical work chronicles the adventures of two young men, Khalid and Shakib, who leave Lebanon for the United States to find work as peddlers in Lower Manhattan. After mixed success at immersing themselves in American culture, the two return to the Middle East at a time of turmoil following the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Khalid attempts to integrate his Western experiences with Eastern spiritual values, becoming an absurd, yet all too serious, combination of political revolutionary and prophet. The Book of Khalid offers readers a heady mix of picaresque, philosophical dialogue, and immigrant story.In this critical edition, Fine includes the text of the original 1911 edition, a substantial glossary, and supplemental essays by leading Rihani scholars. Demonstrating the reach and significance of the work, these essays address a variety of themes, including Rihani’s creative influences, philosophical elements, and the historical context of the novel. Attracting a new generation of readers to Rihani’s innovative work, this edition reveals his continued resonance with contemporary Arab American literature.

When celebrated mahjar writer Ameen Rihani returned to his native Lebanon from his long stay in New York, he set out on nine journeys through the Lebanese countryside, from the rising mountains to the shores of the Mediterranean, to experience and document the land in intimate detail.Through his travelogue The Heart of Lebanon, Rihani brings his readers along by foot and by mule to explore rural villages like his childhood home of Freike, the flora and fauna of massive cedar forests, and archaeological sites that reveal the history of Lebanon. Meeting goatherds, healers, monks, and more along the way, Rihani offers more than vivid descriptions of the country’s sweeping scenery. His candid and often humorous narration captures what he sees as the soul of Lebanon and its people. Allen’s fluid translation transports English-language readers to an early twentieth-century rural Lebanon of the writer’s time in a way that only Rihani’s firsthand account can accomplish.