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Ameen Rihani (Amīn Fāris Anṭūn ar-Rīḥānī) ((アラビア語:أمين الريحاني) / ALA-LC: ''Amīn ar-Rīḥānī''; 1876 – 1940), was a Lebanese Arab-American writer, intellectual and political activist. He was also a major figure in the ''mahjar'' literary movement developed by Arab emigrants in North America, and an early theorist of Arab nationalism. He became an American citizen in 1901. == Early days == Born in Freike (in modern-day Lebanon) on November 24, 1876, Rihani was one of six children and the oldest son of a Lebanese Maronite raw silk manufacturer, Fares Rihani. In 1888, his father sent his brother and Ameen to New York City; he followed them a year later. Ameen, then eleven years old, was placed in a school where he learned the rudiments of the English language. His father and uncle, having established themselves as merchants in a small cellar in lower Manhattan, soon felt the need for an assistant who could read and write in English. Therefore, the boy was taken away from school to become the chief clerk, interpreter and bookkeeper of the business. During this time, Ameen made the acquaintance of American and European writers. He eventually became familiar with the writings of Shakespeare, Hugo, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, Whitman, Tolstoy, Voltaire, Thoreau, Emerson and Byron, to name a few. Ameen had a natural talent in eloquent speaking, and in 1895, the teenager got carried away by stage fever and joined a touring stock company headed by Henry Jewet (who later had his theatre in Boston).〔Rihani, Albert, Where to Find Ameen Rihani, Beirut, The Arab Institute for Research and Publication, 1979〕 During the summer of the same year, the troupe became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri and so the prodigal son returned to his father. However, he returned not to rejoin the business, but to insist that his father give him a regular education for a professional career. They agreed that he should study law. To that end, he attended night school for a year, passed the Regents Exam, and in 1897 entered the New York Law School. A lung infection interrupted his studies, and at the end of his first year, his father had to send him back to Lebanon to recover. Once back in his homeland, he began teaching English in a clerical school in return for being taught his native Arabic language. Rihani had first become familiar with Arab poets in 1897. Among these poets were Abul-Ala Al-Ma’arri, whom Ameen discovered to be the forerunner of Omar Khayyam. In 1899 he returned to New York, having decided to translate some of the quatrains of Al-Ma’arri into English. The first version of the translation was published in 1903. He began writing in English, becoming, according to Lebanese historian Samir Kassir, "the first Arab to publish in English without at the same time renouncing his own language."〔Kassir, Samir, ''Histoire de Beyrouth'', Paris, Fayard, p.394〕 During this period, he joined several literary and artistic societies in New York, such as the Poetry Society of America and the Pleiades Club, and also became a regular contributor to an Arabic daily newspaper, ''Al-Huda'', published in New York. He wrote about social traditions, religion, national politics and philosophy. Thus, he began his extensive literary career, bridging two worlds. He published his first two books in Arabic in 1902 and 1903. In 1905 he returned to his native mountains. During an ensuing six-year period of solitude, he published, in Arabic, two volumes of essays, a book of allegories and a few short stories and plays. Rihani, who was influenced by the American poet Walt Whitman, has introduced free verse to Arab poetry. His new style of poetry was published as early as 1905. This new concept flourished in the Arab world and continued to lead modern Arab poetry after Rihani's death in 1940 and throughout the second half of the 20th century. Additionally, he lectured at the Syrian Protestant College (later The American University of Beirut) and in a few other institutions in Lebanon and the Arab World, as well as in the cities of Aleppo, Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, and others. He also worked, along with other national leaders, for the liberation of his country from Turkish rule. In 1910 he published ''Ar-Rihaniyyaat'', the book that established him as a forward thinker and a visionary. As a result of ''Ar-Rihaniyyaat'', the Egyptian media hailed him as "The Philosopher of Freike". During this same period of mountain solitude ''The Book of Khalid'' was written and was later published in 1911 after he returned to New York. The illustrations for this book, which was the first English novel ever written by a Lebanese/Arab, were provided by Khalil Gibran. A reception was held in honor of Rihani for the release of ''The Book of Khalid'' and the president of the New York Pleiades Club crowned him with a laurel garland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ameen Rihani」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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