"Judge us not severely."

Work-related Project on Climate Change

I’ve been working on the annotation project on the side (sometimes visiting the Ameen Rihani archive at the Library of Congress), and hopefully I will get an initial version online sometime soon. I am exploring whether it should be done through a Wiki, but I have had difficulty finding an appropriate Wiki technology for creating annotated works.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, where I just developed a visual demonstration of possible conflict scenarios under climate change. You can take a look at the subdomain http://cdi.projectkhalid.org.

Renunciation by Ameen Rihani

At eventide the Pilgrim came
  And knocked at the Belovèd’s door.
“Who’s there?” a voice within, “thy name?”
  “‘Tis I,” he said.–”Then knock no more.
As well ask thou a lodging of the sea,–
There is no room herein for thee and me.”

The Pilgrim went again his way
  And dwelt with Love upon the shore
Of self-oblivion; and one day
  He knocked again at the Belovèd’s door.
“Who’s there?”  ”It is thyself,” he now replied,
And suddenly the door was open wide.

Ameen Rihani, “Renunciation. A Poem,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, 131:783, August 1915, p.339

The Book of Khalid 1.0

After a good amount of effort, I am happy to announce that the first HTML e-book of Ameen Rihani’s The Book of Khalid is now posted. I hope that a good number of people will read it and that this website and associated blog can become a forum for discussion and the pursuit of related projects.

Of course, one can also order a print version from the Ameen Rihani Organization.

Reactions to The Book of Khalid

When I finished reading the novel in Summer 2007, I desperately wanted to express my thoughts to others. Unlike Khalid, I was not quite ready to burn the novel. Unfortunately, despite its relevancy to today’s world, I found very few who had consumed the work. I encourage readers to respond to this post to express their initial reactions and read others’ responses.

  • The Book of Khalid

    The first task of this project has been to produce a clean HTML version of Ameen Rihani's 1911 novel which includes Khalil Gibran's impressive illustrations. It is available here. Those who would like to read the book with the original page images can also use the excellent Open Library version.

  • Annotation Project

    I believe one of the reasons Rihani's masterpiece is underread and understudied is his intentional use of difficult and obscure language to demonstrate his command of the English language and involve actual Arabic terminology. Many of the cultural references may also require additional explanation for some readers. I am creating an annotated version to eliminate this barrier to the work and would welcome any assistance. Creating a series of lesson plans for high school teachers is a connected goal.

  • Arab-American Literature in Public Domain

    A substantial amount of relevant literature in the public domain has still not been digitized and made available to the world. Working with Project Gutenberg and Distributed Proofreaders, this Project will try to correct this circumstance.