Pathbreakers of Arab America—Mikhail Naimy

posted on: Jul 9, 2025

By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer

This is the eighty-ninth in Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series features personalities from various fields, including entertainment, business, sports, science, the arts, academia, journalism, and politics. Our eighty-ninth pathbreaker is Mikhail Naimy, a Lebanese-born poet, novelist, and philosopher, famous for his spiritual writings and widely recognized as one of the most important figures in modern Arabic literature.

Lebanese American Mikhail Naimy, an incredible literary figure in Arabdom

Mikha’il Nu’ayma, whose U.S. legal name is Michael Joseph Naimy, was born into a Greek Orthodox family on October 17, 1889, in Baskinta, Lebanon. He is better known in English by his pen name Mikhail Naimy. Naimy completed his elementary education at the Baskinta school, followed by studies at the Russian Teachers’ Institute in Nazareth and the Theological Seminary in Poltava.

Some literary critics consider Naimy a unique Arab writer, noting that “through his education in Russian schools in Lebanon and Palestine and later in Tsarist Russia, he became so familiar with the Russian language and literature that he came to write poetry in that language.”

In 1911, Naimy moved to the U.S., joining his two older brothers in Walla Walla, Washington, where they owned a furniture store. He then moved to Seattle to study at the University of Washington, earning degrees in law and liberal arts. Following his graduation in 1916, Mikhail moved to New York City, and in 1918, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After the war, Naimy returned to Walla Walla for a time, where he began his writing career in 1919.

In the U.S., following his degrees in liberal arts and law, Mihail became familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature, resulting in his publication of poems in English in several American periodicals and newspapers, including The New York Times. According to the Wikipedia Entry on Arab Americans, he wrote poetry in Russian, Arabic, and English. Additionally, he developed a broad interest in Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Muslim Sufis, which evolved into what appears to be Naimy’s own, defined faith.

As if inevitably, Mikhail moved back to New York, where he joined with Kahlil Gibran and eight other writers to form a movement for the rebirth of Arabic literature, the ‘New York Pen League.’ Gibran was its president, and Naimy was its secretary. In 1920, Naimy reformed the New York Pen League, along with its founders, Nasib Arida and Abd al-Masih Haddad, and other Mahjari (Arab diaspora) literary figures, such as Kahlil Gibran.

A 1968 study, ‘Mikhail Naimy: some aspects of his thought as revealed in his writings,’ by Hussein Muhammad Ali Dabbagh, informs us of Naimy’s profound faith. We discover that while his faith was broadly based on his understanding of Christian teachings, it “came to embrace elements from almost every faith that humanity has known.”

The above study explores an expanded view of Mikhail’s faith, which seems to have become his ‘worldview.’ As Dabbagh writes, “It is no exaggeration to say that Naimy is one of the most influential thinkers in the Arab World, whose ideas on the question of what attitude the East should take towards Western civilization are of great importance. Naimy propagates the idea that Western civilization is corrupting to the human soul, that its materialistic attitude towards life is to be denounced, and that the East should avoid adopting such a civilization.”

Naimy’s ‘The Book of Mirdad,’ a spiritual wonder, speaks of love, obedience, repentance, old age, and the cycle of life and death

Mikhail, a contemporary of ‘The Prophet’ author Kahlil Gibran, created his legend, mysticism, philosophy, and poetry. He wove a powerful allegorical story that has touched the hearts of millions of readers. ‘The Book of Mirdad’ is Mikhail’s “timeless allegorical tale [which] presents the teachings of Mirdad, Abbott of a monastery that stands where Noah’s Ark came to rest after the Flood. In a series of dialogues with his disciples, Mirdad offers lessons on themes such as love, obedience, borrowing and lending, repentance, old age, and the cycle of life and death.” One reviewer of a later edition of ‘Mirdad’ called it a “prophetic work [which] calls on humankind to prepare for another deluge, greater than Noah’s when Heaven will be revealed on Earth.”

In 1932, having lived in the United States for 21 years, Naimy returned to Baskinta, where he spent the rest of his life. He died of pneumonia at the age of 98 on February 28, 1988.

Sources:

“Mikha’il Nu’ayma,” (better known by his pen name Mikhail Naimy) Wikipedia Series on Arab Americans, 2025
Mikhail Naimy: An Introduction, Nadeem N. Naimy, American University of Beirut, 1967
“Mikhail Naimy: some aspects of his thought as revealed in his writings,” Hussein Muhammad Ali Dabbagh, Doctoral thesis, Durham University, 1968

John Mason, Ph.D., focuses on Arab culture, society, and history and is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017. He has taught at the University of Libya, Benghazi, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo; John served with the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID and the World Bank in 65 countries.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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