The United States Through Arab Eyes
An Anthology of Writings (1876-1914)
The first Arab immigrants to New York or Alaska or San Francisco were ‘small’ men and women, preoccupied with eking a living at the same time as confronting the challenges of settling in a new country. They had to come to terms with new race communities such as Indians, Chinese and Blacks, the changing role of women, and the Americanisation of their identity.
Their writings about these experiences – from travellers and emigrants, rich and poor, men and women – took the form of travelogues and newspaper essays, daily diaries and adventure narratives, autobiographies and histories, full-length books published in the Ottoman Press in Lebanon and journal articles in Arabic newspapers printed in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. Together they show the transnational perspective of immigrants as they reflected on and described the United States for the very first time.
Key features- Newly translated texts of the first writings about America by Arabs
- Divides the translations into four categories: minorities, women, identity and return
- Shows how Arabs admired the United States for its opportunities, religious tolerance and openness, but also criticised its brute materialism and debilitating work conditions
- A detailed introduction explores the idea of the Arab Nahda and America
Acknowledgements
Some notes on the translations
Part One: Emigration, the Arab Nahda and the United States of America – An Introduction
Part Two: The Texts
Section One: Minorities
1. The Book of the Description of Kingdoms by Idwar Ilyas, 1876
2. Kawkab America by Abraham Arbeely
3. Alaska and the Klondike: Land of Gold by Jibra’il ‘Assaf Mir‘I, early 1890s
4. Instructive Travels in the New World by Dr Naguib Abdou (1907/1908/1909)
5. The American Journey by Prince Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, 1912
Section Two: Women and Gender
1. The Book of the Description of Kingdoms by Idwar Ilyas, 1876
2. The Traveler’s Guidebook: and the history of America by Saj‘an Effendi ‘Arij Sa‘adeh
3. ‘The [female] Syrian emigrant’ by Miss Wadi‘a Faris Rashid
4. ‘Who has precedence: man or woman?’ by Mrs Asma Sabir
5. ‘The need to put a limit on or to pass a law prohibiting the Syrian woman from emigrating to America’
6. The Stranger in the West by Mikha’il Rustum Shuwayri, 1895
Section Three: Identity and Americanization
1. The Book of the Description of Kingdoms by Idwar Ilyas, 1876
2. History of the United States since its discovery until present times, followed by the history of Syrian emigration and all that pertains to it by Basil M. Kherbawi, 1888
3. The Traveler’s Guidebook: and the history of America by Saj‘an Effendi ‘Arij Sa‘adeh
4. The Syrian Soldier in Three Wars by Jibra’il Ilyas Ward, al-Tarabulsi, 1898
5. ‘The Greatness of America’ by Bulus Effendi al-Khawli, 1905
6. ‘From the Rooftops of New York’ by Ameen Rihani, 1907
7. ‘Syrians in America’ by Yusuf Jirjis Zakham
Section Four: Return
1. Diary of Khalil al-Sakakini: Diary, Letters, Reflections by Khalil al-Sakakini
2. The American Journey by Prince Muhammad ’Ali Pasha, 1912
Bibliography
Index
The United States Through Arab Eyes brings together for the first time in English the various Arabic writings of early Arab travellers and emigrants to America. Matar’s masterful translations will enrich classroom offerings across fields, including comparative literature, Arab/American and ethnic studies. This exciting anthology is never more to be desired than at a time when Trump’s America seems more forgetful than ever about its migratory roots/routes.
