Ameen Faris Rihani

This is the twenty-ninth in Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our twenty-ninth pathbreaker is Ameen Faris Rihani, a preeminent Arab American Scholar. He was born in Freike, Lebanon, in 1876, the son of Maronite Christian parents, and emigrated to New York in 1888. Contributing writer, John Mason, writes about how he became an American citizen in 1901. Rihani was not only a fine Lebanese American writer and an intellectual and political activist, but he was also a major figure in the Arab diaspora literary movement developed by Arab emigrants in North America. He died back in Lebanon in 1940.