Gibran as Nationalist and Nahḍawī

Chapter Three foregrounds the national and civilisational concern in Gibran’s Arabic writings as warranted by, but also beyond, the question of bilingualism. Reading essays and one-act plays spanning the period before, during, and after World War One, as well as posthumously published letters, the chapter thoroughly examines the politics and ethics of the nation in Gibran. It demonstrates that Gibran’s nationalism is imagined and defined territorially, in that it is the territory of Greater Syria as a pre-national, pre-state waṭan (homeland or dwelling) that grounds his nationalism, not sect, religion or ethnicity. Gibran’s specificity, the chapter argues, lies in his constant emphasis on al-istiqlāl al-maʿnawī or moral independence as the universal condition for the hoped historical ascendancy of Syria and the Arab East as national and civilisational entities, respectively. This emphasis for Gibran critiques the notion of Euro-America as the civilisational telos of history, calling for an Eastern originality of innovation, framed at times in essentialist and social Darwinist terms, seen as the prerequisite for an authentic Nahḍa or awakening. The discussion of the latter reveals how Gibran’s vision is enabled by, and diverges from, other prominent Nahḍawī intellectuals.