Arab American Heritage Month
Welcome to our digital exhibit celebrating Arab American Heritage Month. This page is a companion to the physical display in the HKS Library, available through April 2024. Harvard affiliates can request books via HOLLIS, for pick-up at the library of your choice.
Launched in 2017 by Arab America and the Arab America Foundation, National Arab American Heritage Month has taken place in the U.S. every April to formally recognize the achievements of Arab Americans and "celebrate our community's rich heritage and numerous contributions to society." In 2022, President Biden recognized National Arab American Heritage Month, joining Congress, the U.S. Department of State, 45 governors, and 140 counties, municipalities, and local school districts in commemorating the initiative.
The Arab America Foundation traces its roots to Kahlil Gibran, the celebrated Lebanese-American writer, poet, and philosopher who a century ago helped to create al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya (also known as Al Mahjar or The Pen League). According to the Arab American National Museum, this collective of writers and scholars who had emigrated to America from Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine "encouraged the revitalization of Arab literature" through individual works and contributions to each other's periodical publications. Many consider the Mahjari writers to be successors of the Nahda movement (also known as the Arab Renaissance) - a period of cultural flourishing during the late-19th and early 20th century spurred by Ottoman Empire reform, the Young Turk Revolution, and encounters with the West. al-Rabita al-Qalamiyya dissolved following Gibran's death in 1931, but its goal of promoting and preserving Arab heritage through cultural production and education lives on.
The books in this display pay homage to this Arab American literary tradition, featuring works by Mahjari and contemporary Arab American writers and scholars.
The Baker Library at HBS has also curated resources for Arab American Heritage Month, including books, databases, interviews, art, and special collections.
Did you know? Kahlil Gibran spent much of his early life in Boston, immigrating to the city from Lebanon with his mother and siblings. Living in the South End, Gibran educated himself at the Boston Public Library. He wrote the first draft of his acclaimed work The Prophet in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Learn more about Gibran's adolescence in Boston and visit his memorial in Copley Square.
Harvard Library Research Guides
Research Databases on Arab Countries
- Africa-Wide Information (Harvard Login)Comprehensive database of historical and social science scholarship on Africa, covering all of the modern era from the sixteenth century to the present.
- African Studies Abstracts OnlineCompiles abstracts of social science and humanities journal articles and book chapters on Africa; curated by staff at the African Studies Centre of the University of Leiden, Netherlands. 2003-2017
- Africa PortalContains policy-focused articles, working papers, and reports authored by a variety of think tanks and NGOs (until 2022)
- CIAO Columbia International Affairs Online (Harvard Login)Continuously updated, comprehensive site that curates articles, working papers, policy briefs, conference proceedings, etc. on international relations and related fields, including security studies, international law, and human rights.
- Index Islamicus (Harvard Login)Bibliography of books, articles, conference proceedings, and reviews on Islam and the Muslim world in European languages.
- Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies (Harvard Login)Indexes scholarly and policy research on North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
- Oxford Bibliographies: African Studies (Harvard Login)Continuously updated, concise bibliographies on a variety of topics in African Studies.
- Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History (Harvard Login)Provides detailed synopses of major research problems and themes in African history and historiography, often with extensive bibliographies.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (Harvard Login)Provides citations and abstracts of political science, international relations, and public policy scholarship published in international journals, thus providing perspectives of non-U.S. scholars.
Groups & Initiatives around HKS & Harvard
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) - Harvard initiative supporting research, teaching, and learning on topics related to the Middle East.
- Middle East Initiative - HKS research project "dedicated to advancing public policy in the Middle East by convening the world's foremost academics and policy experts, developing the next generation of leaders, and promoting community engagement on campus and in the region." Part of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
- Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights - "An academic hub engaging in a broadly collaborative justice and rights-based approach in the study of Palestinian health through knowledge production, education, and multidisciplinary community engagement." Part of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
- Africa Policy Journal - Former HKS student journal that "promotes dialogue about African policy and current affairs in the areas of business, culture, design, education, governance, health, and law."
- Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy - Former HKS student journal that "presents analysis and new perspective, addresses complex issues, and explores growing trends shaping the contemporary Middle East and North Africa region."
- Africa Caucus - HKS student organization that "promote[s] the engagement of the HKS community with the African continent."
- Arab Caucus - HKS student organization that "aims to shed light on the Arab World's rich history and traditions as well as its political, social and economic issues."
- The Lebanon Society - HKS student organization that is "dedicated to engaging the HKS community around Lebanese political, economic, social, and cultural affairs."
- Moroccan Caucus - HKS student organization that "provides an environment to discuss topics related to Moroccan society, economy, and culture among students interested in the country."
- Palestine Caucus - HKS student organization that is "committed to promoting awareness of cultural and political issues in Palestine by educating the HKS community through regular events and activities."
- Saudi Caucus - HKS student organization that "foster[s] cross-cultural understanding and focuses on initiating meaningful conversations and intercultural dialogues."
Display Books: Mahjari Writers
Click on the circular "i" icons to view book descriptions. Click on the Harvard shield icons to access ebooks (Harvard Key required).
The Book of Khalid by
Told with great good humour and worldly compassion The Book of Khalid recounts the adventures of two young men, Khalid and Shakib, who leave Lebanon for the United States to seek their fortune in turn-of-the century New York. Together, they face all the difficulties of poor immigrants - the passage by ship, admittance through Ellis Island and the rough immigrant life. Playing with classical Arabic literary forms, as well as Western literary conventions, this is a unique contribution to world literature.
This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781612190877Publication Date: 1911
The Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran by
For the first time, all the major works of this beloved writer are gathered together in one hardcover volume. Poet, artist, and mystic, Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 to a poor Christian family in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States as an adolescent. His masterpiece, The Prophet, a book of poetic essays that he began while still a youth in Lebanon, is one of the most cherished books of our time and has sold millions of copies in more than twenty languages since its publication in 1923. But all of Gibran's works--essays, stories, parables, and prose poems--are imbued with equally powerful simplicity and wisdom, whether they are addressing marriage or children, friendship or grief, work or pleasure. Perhaps no other twentieth-century writer has touched the hearts and minds of so remarkably varied and widespread a readership. Included in this volume are The Prophet, The Wanderer, Jesus the Son of Man, A Tear and a Smile, Spirits Rebellious, Nymphs of the Valley, Prose Poems, The Garden of the Prophet, The Earth Gods, Sand and Foam, The Forerunner, and The Madman.
ISBN: 9780307267078Publication Date: 2007
The Madman by
Thought-provoking collection of life-affirming parables and poems by the author of The Prophet, many casting an ironic light on the beliefs, aspirations, and vanities of humankind. "How I Became a Madman," "The Two Hermits," "The Wise Dog," "The Good God and the Evil God," "Night and the Madman," many more. Three illustrations by the author.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780486419114Publication Date: 2001
The Prophet by
One of the most beloved classics of our time--a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Published in 1923, Gibran's masterpiece has been translated into more than twenty languages. Gibran's musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death. Each essay reveals deep insights into the impulses of the human heart and mind. The Chicago Post said of The Prophet: "Cadenced and vibrant with feeling, the words of Kahlil Gibran bring to one's ears the majestic rhythm of Ecclesiastes . . . If there is a man or woman who can read this book without a quiet acceptance of a great man's philosophy and a singing in the heart as of music born within, that man or woman is indeed dead to life and truth." With twelve full-page drawings by Gibran, this beautiful work makes an incredible gift for anyone seeking enlightenment and inspiration.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780394404288Publication Date: 1923
Nymphs of the Valley by
ʻArā'is al-Murūj (Nymphs of the valley) is a collection of short stories by the celebrated Lebanese-American author and artist Khalil Gibran.
ISBN: 9780394438832Publication Date: 1948
The Book of Mirdad by
A classic of spiritual literature for fans of visionary, metaphysical, and mystical novels such as The Little Prince and The Alchemist Mikhail Naimy, a contemporary of Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, has woven legend, mysticism, philosophy and poetry into a powerful allegorical story that has touched the hearts of millions of readers. This timeless allegorical tale 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. Reissued for a new generation, this prophetic work calls on humankind to prepare for another deluge, greater than Noah's, when Heaven will be revealed on Earth.
ISBN: 9781907486401Publication Date: 1948
Display Books: Contemporary Writers
Click on the circular "i" icons to view book descriptions. Click on the Harvard shield icons to access ebooks (Harvard Key required).
Brooklyn Heights by
Hind, newly arrived in New York with her eight-year-old son, several suitcases of unfinished manuscripts, and hardly any English, finds a room in a Brooklyn teeming with people like her who dream of becoming writers. As she discovers the various corners of her new home, they conjure up parallel memories from her childhood and her small Bedouin village in the Nile Delta: Emilia who sells used shoes at the flea market smells like Zeinab, the old woman who worked for Hind's grandfather; the reflection of her own body as she dances tango awakens the awkwardness of her relationship to that body across the years; the story of Lilette, the Egyptian bourgeoise who has lost her memory, prompts Hind to safeguard her own. Through this kaleidoscopic spectrum of disadvantaged characters we encounter unique but familiar life histories in this award-winning and intensely moving novel of displacement and exile.
ISBN: 9789774164880Publication Date: 2012
Homeland Elegies: A Novel by
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home. Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one--least of all himself--in the process.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780316496421Publication Date: 2020
How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America by
The story of how young Arab and Muslim Americans are forging lives for themselves in a country that often mistakes them for the enemy Arab and Muslim Americans are the new, largely undiscussed aproblema of American society, their lives no better understood than those of African Americans a century ago. Under the cover of the terrorist attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the explosion of political violence around the world, a fundamental misunderstanding of the Arab and Muslim American communities has been allowed to fester and even to define the lives of the seven twentysomething men and women whom we meet in this book. Their names are Rami, Sami, Akram, Lina, Yasmin, Omar, and Rasha, and they all live in Brooklyn, New York, which is home to the largest number of Arab Americans in the United States. We meet Sami, an Arab American Christian, who navigates the minefield of associations the public has of Arabs as well as the expectations that Muslim Arab Americans have of him as a marine who fought in the Iraq war. And Rasha, who, along with her parents, sister, and brothers, was detained by the FBI in a New Jersey jail in early 2002. Without explanation, she and her family were released several months later. As drama of all kinds swirls around them, these young men and women strive for the very things the majority of young adults desire: opportunity, marriage, happiness, and the chance to fulfill their potential. But what they have now are lives that are less certain, and more difficult, than they ever could have imagined: workplace discrimination, warfare in their countries of origin, government surveillance, the disappearance of friends or family, threats ofvigilante violence, and a host of other problems that thrive in the age of terror. And yet How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? takes the raw material of their struggle and weaves it into an unforgettable, and very American, story of promise and hope. In prose that is at once blunt and lyrical, Moustafa Bayoumi allows us to see the world as these men and women do, revealing a set of characters and a place that indelibly change the way we see the turbulent past and yet still hopeful future of this country.
ISBN: 9781594201769Publication Date: 2008
Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry by
At no other time in American history has our imagination been so engrossed with the Arab experience. An indispensable and historic volume, Inclined to Speak gathers together poems, from the most important contemporary Arab American poets, that shape and alter our understanding of this experience. These poems also challenge us to reconsider what it means to be American. Impressive in its scope, this book provides readers with an astonishing array of poetic sensibilities, touching on every aspect of the human condition. Whether about culture, politics, loss, art, or language itself, the poems here engage these themes with originality, dignity, and an unyielding need not only to speak, but also to be heard. Here are thirty-nine poets offering up 160 poems. Included in the anthology are Naomi Shihab Nye, Samuel Hazo, D. H. Melhem, Lawrence Joseph, Khaled Mattawa, Mohja Khaf, Matthew Shenoda, Kazim Ali, Nuar Alsadir, Fady Joudah, and Lisa Suhair Majaj. Charara has written a lengthy introduction about the state of Arab American poetry in the country today and short biographies of the poets and provided an extensive list of further readings.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781610752060Publication Date: 2008
I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by
I Was Their American Dream is at once a coming-of-age story and a reminder of the thousands of immigrants who come to America in search for a better life for themselves and their children. The daughter of parents with unfulfilled dreams themselves, Malaka navigated her childhood chasing her parents' ideals, learning to code-switch between her family's Filipino and Egyptian customs, adapting to white culture to fit in, crushing on skater boys, and trying to understand the tension between holding onto cultural values and trying to be an all-American kid. Malaka Gharib's triumphant graphic memoir brings to life her teenage antics and illuminates earnest questions about identity and culture, while providing thoughtful insight into the lives of modern immigrants and the generation of millennial children they raised. Malaka's story is a heartfelt tribute to the American immigrants who have invested their future in the promise of the American dream.
ISBN: 9780525575115Publication Date: 2019
A Map of Home by
From America to the Middle East and back again-- the sparkling story of one girl's childhood, by an exciting new voice in literary fiction In this fresh, funny, and fearless debut novel, Randa Jarrar chronicles the coming-of-age of Nidali, one of the most unique and irrepressible narrators in contemporary fiction. Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali--whose name is a feminization of the word "struggle"--soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas. This critically acclaimed debut novel is set to capture the hearts of everyone who has ever wondered what their own map of home might look like.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780143116264Publication Date: 2009
My War at Home by
Born in Kandahar in 1978, Sultan fled to the United States at age five with her family. Raised in Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens, Sultan saw her life change when she was married by arrangement at the young age of seventeen to a virtual stranger fourteen years her senior -- a marriage she struggled to maintain and then hastily fought, eventually (after three years) being granted a divorce. This very divorce would become one of the first in her close-knit Afgan community, where the subject is considered rare and taboo. Sultan went on to graduate from college summa cum laude with a degree in economics, and in July 2001, she returned to Kandahar, to explore her family roots and find herself. There she met her relatives and surveyed the conservative provincial town where she was born. on return visit to afganistan, she discovered the tragic death of her relatives at the hands of American troops and began to seek answers. My War at Home is her memoir of self-discovery, family tradition, and life as a Muslim and feminist with political ideals. It speaks to the younger generation of Muslims in America as they struggle to resolve the ever-present inner conflict about what it means to be an American and a Muslim, while also examining the Muslim-American identity at both personal and political levels.
ISBN: 9780743480475Publication Date: 2006
Once in a Promised Land by
Once in a Promised Landis the story of a couple, Jassim and Salwa, who left the deserts of their native Jordan for those of Arizona, each chasing their own dreams of opportunity and freedom. Although the two live far from Ground Zero, they cannot escape the nationwide fallout from 9/11. Jassim, a hydrologist, believes passionately in his mission to keep the water tables from dropping and make water accessible to all people, but his work is threatened by an FBI witch hunt for domestic terrorists. Salwa, a Palestinian now twice displaced, grappling to put down roots in an inhospitable climate, becomes pregnant against her husband's wishes and then loses the baby. When Jassim kills a teenage boy in a terrible accident and Salwa becomes hopelessly entangled with a shady young American, their tenuous lives in exile and their fragile marriage begin to unravel . This intimate account of two parallel lives is an achingly honest look at what it means to straddle cultures, to be viewed with suspicion, and to struggle to find save haven.
ISBN: 9780807083901Publication Date: 2007
Orientalism by
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780394740676Publication Date: 1979
The Other Americans by
Late one spring night in California, Driss Guerraoui--father, husband, business owner, Moroccan immigrant--is hit and killed by a speeding car. The aftermath of his death brings together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui's daughter Nora, a jazz composer returning to the small town in the Mojave she thought she'd left for good; her mother, Maryam, who still pines for her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora's and an Iraqi War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son's secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself. As the characters--deeply divided by race, religion, and class--tell their stories, each in their own voice, connections among them emerge. Driss's family confronts its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love--messy and unpredictable--is born. Timely, riveting, and unforgettable, The Other Americans is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781524747145Publication Date: 2019
Salt Houses by
On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they will all soon come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Salma is forced to leave her home in Nablus Alia's brother gets pulled into a politically militarized world he can't escape. Alia and her gentle-spirited husband move to Kuwait City, where they reluctantly build a life with their three children. When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990, Alia and her family once again lose their home, their land, and their story as they know it, scattering to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and beyond. Soon Alia's children begin families of their own, once again navigating the burdens (and blessings) of assimilation in foreign cities.
ISBN: 9780544912588Publication Date: 2017
Season of Migration to the North by
After years of study in Europe, the young narrator of Season of Migration to the North returns to his village along the Nile in the Sudan. It is the 1960s, and he is eager to make a contribution to the new postcolonial life of his country. Back home, he discovers a stranger among the familiar faces of childhood--the enigmatic Mustafa Sa'eed. Mustafa takes the young man into his confidence, telling him the story of his own years in London, of his brilliant career as an economist, and of the series of fraught and deadly relationships with European women that led to a terrible public reckoning and his return to his native land. But what is the meaning of Mustafa's shocking confession? Mustafa disappears without explanation, leaving the young man--whom he has asked to look after his wife--in an unsettled and violent no-man's-land between Europe and Africa, tradition and innovation, holiness and defilement, and man and woman, from which no one will escape unaltered or unharmed. Season of Migration to the North is a rich and sensual work of deep honesty and incandescent lyricism. In 2001 it was selected by a panel of Arab writers and critics as the most important Arab novel of the twentieth century.
ISBN: 9781590173022Publication Date: 2009
Talking Through the Door: An Anthology of Contemporary Middle Eastern American Writing by
The writers included here are descendants of multiple cultural heritages and reflect the perspectives of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds: Egyptian, Iranian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Libyan, Palestinian, Syrian. They are from diverse socioeconomic classes and spiritual sensibilities: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and atheist, among others. Yet they coexist in this volume as simply American voices. Atefat-Peckham gathered poetry and prose from sixteen accomplished writers whose works concern a variety of themes: from the familial cross-cultural misunderstandings and conflicts in the works of Iranian American writers Nahid Rachlin and Roger Sedarat to the mysticism of Khaled Mattawa's poems; from the superstitions that govern characters in Diana Abu-Jaber's prose to the devastating homesickness in Pauline Kaldas's characters. Filled with emotion and keen observations, this collection showcases these writers' vital contributions to contemporary American literature.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9780815633471Publication Date: 2014
The Time Between Places: Stories that Weave In and Out of Egypt and America by
This collection of twenty stories delves into the lives of Egyptian characters, from those living in Egypt to those who have immigrated to the United States. With subtle and eloquent prose, the complexities of these characters are revealed, opening a door into their intimate struggles with identity and place. We meet people who are tempted by the possibilities of America and others who are tempted by the desire to return home. Some are in the throes of re-creating themselves in the new world while others seem to be embedded in the loss of their homeland. Many of these characters, although physically located in either the United States or Egypt, have lives that embrace both cultures. ""A Game of Chance"" follows the actions of a young man when he wins the immigration lottery and then must decide whether or not to change his life. ""Cumin and Coriander"" takes us inside a woman's thoughts as she tries to come to terms with the path her life has taken while working as a cook for American expatriates in Egypt. ""The Top"" enters the mind of a man whose immigration results in a loss of identity and sanity. These compelling stories pull us into the lives of many different characters and offer us striking insights into the Arab American experience.
- This link opens in a new window
ISBN: 9781557289476Publication Date: 2010
A Woman Is No Man: A Novel by
"Where I come from, we've learned to silence ourselves. We've been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of--dangerous, the ultimate shame." Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children--four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra's oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda's insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. Deya can't help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when Deya was only eight. But her grandmother is firm on the matter: the only way to secure a worthy future for Deya is through marriage to the right man. But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family--knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future.
ISBN: 9780062699763Publication Date: 2019
