Quotations

• Ameen Rihani was to the Arab nation what Tagore was to the Indians, and what Emerson and Thoreau were to the United States of America.

  Zaki Najib Mahmoud

• I find in my friend Ameen Rihani a formidable national reformer and a man genuinely concerned with the Arabs and their unity. I extremely admire his literature, his knowledge, and his true national spirit.

  King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia

• The Book of Khalid marks the beginning of an original genre both in English literature and modern Arabic letters. Not only was it the first ‘Arab narrative’ authored in English by an Arab (as opposed to Western representations of Arabs), but also because of its novelistic form….

  Nijmeh Hajjar

• The Book of Khalid shall impress modern readers of all ages, especially students, because the protagonist, Khalid, represents all of us.

  Naji Oueijan

• Ameen Rihani was a towering intellectual and a pioneer of Arab-American literature. His tireless and exemplary efforts to bridge cultures and civilizations are sorely needed in any age, especially our own.

  Waïl Hassan

• The anniversary of the book’s first publication should help us all to discover a thirst for the cross-cultural in our lives.

  Geoffrey Nash

• The centennial anniversary of the first Arab-American novel pays homage to the ‘roadmap’ Rihani designed a century ago to help the nations of the world foster mutual understanding and achieve peaceful relations.

  Nuwar Diab

• The Book of Khalid remains a seminal yet still neglected work in the intellectual and literary history of both the Arab world and North America, and its republication is long overdue.

  Stephen Sheehi

• Rihani’s work helps me connect my young students to an Arab past from a Western space. He is the embodiment of Arab awakening and national spirit, and indeed, an industriousness that is both Arabic and Islamic in its essence.

  Hani Bawardi

• Project Khalid, which celebrates a key work by a distinguished Arab philosopher, will be a major contribution to link Arab-Americans to the roots and causes of their forefathers’ immigration to the United States.

  Clovis Maksoud

• The Book of Khalid’s description of the iconic immigrant journey … allowed me to connect my own Mexican immigrant heritage to the wave of Arab-Americans who came at the turn of the 20th century.

  Lizeth Lara

1. Previous
2. Next