TheMahjar (Arabic:المهجر,romanized: al-mahjar, one of its more literal meanings being "theArab diaspora"[1]) was a movement related toRomanticismmigrant literarymovement started by Arabic-speaking writers who had emigrated to theAmericas fromOttoman-ruled Lebanon, Syria and Palestine at the turn of the 20th century and became a movement in the 1910s.[2][3][4][5] Like their predecessors in theNahda movement (or the "Arab Renaissance"), writers of the Mahjar movement were stimulated by their personal encounter with theWestern world and participated in the renewal ofArabic literature,[5] hence their proponents being sometimes referred to as writers of the "late Nahda".[6] These writers, in South America as well as the United States, contributed indeed to the development of the Nahda in the early 20th century.[7]Kahlil Gibran is considered to have been the most influential of the "Mahjari poets".[4][3]
As worded by David Levinson andMelvin Ember, "the drive to sustain some Arab cultural identity among the immigrant communities in North America" was reinforced from the beginning when educated immigrants launched Arabic-language newspapers and literary societies in both theNew York andBoston areas to encourage poetry and writing, with the aim of keeping alive and enriching theArabic cultural heritage."[8] Thus, in 1892, the first American Arabic-language newspaper,Kawkab America, was founded inNew York and continued until 1908, and the first Arabic-language magazineAl-Funoon was published byNasib Arida inNew York from 1913 to 1918. This magazine served as a mouthpiece for young Mahjari writers.
The Pen League (Arabic:الرابطة القلمية /ALA-LC:al-rābiṭah al-qalamīyah) was the first[9] Arabic-languageliterary society in North America, formed initially byNasib Arida andAbd al-Masih Haddad[10] in 1915[11] or 1916,[12] and subsequently re-formed in 1920 by a larger group of Mahjari writers inNew York led byKahlil Gibran.[13] They had been working closely since 1911.[14] The league dissolved following Gibran's death in 1931 andMikhail Naimy's return toLebanon in 1932.[15]
The primary goals of the Pen League were, in Naimy's words as Secretary, "to lift Arabic literature from the quagmire of stagnation and imitation, and to infuse a new life into its veins so as to make of it an active force in the building up of the Arab nations".[16] As Naimy expressed in the by-laws he drew up for the group:
The tendency to keep our language and literature within the narrow bounds of aping the ancients in form and substance is a most pernicious tendency; if left unopposed, it will soon lead to decay and disintegration... To imitate them is a deadly shame... We must be true to ourselves if we would be true to our ancestors.[17]
Literary historian Nadeem Naimy assesses the group's importance as having shifted the criteria of aesthetic merit in Arabic literature:
Focusing on Man rather than on language, on the human rather than on the law and on the spirit rather than on the letter, theMahjar (Arab emigrant) School is said to have ushered Arabic literature from its age old classicism into the modern era.[18]
Members of the Pen League included:Nasib Arida,Rashid Ayyub,Wadi Bahout,William Catzeflis (or Katsiflis),Kahlil Gibran (Chairman),Abd al-Masih Haddad,Nadra Haddad,Elia Abu Madi,Mikhail Naimy (Secretary), andAmeen Rihani.[19] Eight out of ten members wereGreek Orthodox and two wereMaronite.[20] Musicians such asRussell Bunai were also associated with the group.[21]
The first Arabic-language newspaper inBrazil,Al-Faiáh (Arabic:الفيحاء /ALA-LC:al-fayḥāʾ), appeared inCampinas in November 1895, followed byAl-Brasil (Arabic:البرازيل /ALA-LC:al-brāzīl) inSantos less than six months later.[22] The two merged a year later inSão Paulo.[22] The first Arabic-language literary circle in South America,Riwaq al-Ma'arri, was founded in 1900[23] bySa'id Abu Hamza, who was also settled in São Paulo.[24]Al-Rabita Al-Adabia would be founded inBuenos Aires 49 years later, but newspapers and magazines in Arabic were active in Argentina already also in the 1900s.
Shafiq al-Ma'luf "led the major grouping of South American Mahjar poets".[25] Other poets includeFawzi Maalouf, al-Qarawi and Farhat.[26][3] In contrast with the North Mahjari, southern authors much more were related with a national theme and nostalgia for homeland.[3]
Mikhail Naimy's book of literary criticismAl-Ghirbal (published in 1923) contains the main principles of the Mahjar movement.[27]
Les écrivains du Mahjar sont les écrivains de langue arabe ayant émigré en Amérique. Comme leurs aînés de la Nahda, ils sont stimulés par leur rencontre personnelle de l'Occident et participent largement au renouvellement de la littérature arabe.