The Enduring Legacy of Kahlil Gibran Papers delivered at the Second International Conference on Kahlil Gibran: “Reading Gibran in an Age of Globalization and Conflict” May 3-6, 2012 The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland Suheil Bushrui and James Malarkey, Editors with the assistance of Taraz Darabi Foreword by George Salim Zakhem 1 We acknowledge the generous support we have received for the publication of this book from Mrs. Faiza Ali Reza, Mrs. Maria Shammas, and Mrs. Lisa Zakhem. We also acknowledge the committee responsible for the establishment of the Leila Tannous Dawton Memorial Lecture and the organization of the launch of this book: Mr. Mourad Boutros Mr. Anthony Dawton Mrs. Faiza Ali Reza Mr. David Richmond Mrs. Maria Shammas Mr. George Shweiry Mrs. Lisa Zakhem 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, we would like to thank George and Lisa Zakhem for their generous sponsorship; the distinguished patronage of His Excellency Antoine Chedid, Ambassador of Lebanon to the United States of America; and Mr. Antoun Sehnaoui, Esq., for his gracious support. The Second International Conference on Kahlil Gibran was organized by the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, in association with Darabi Associates, Inc. (Florida, USA), Min Ajl Lubnan (Washington D.C., USA), and The Telfair Museums of Art (Georgia, USA). The Conference organizers should also like to thank Mrs. Rita Abela Nammour and Mrs. Sandra Abela Tarazi for their generous gift to the Conference in honor of the memory of Edwin Abela and his outstanding services to humanity and the arts. We wish to record here our special indebtedness to the partners and sponsors who made the Second International Conference on Kahlil Gibran a success: The Association for the Promotion and the Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (Beirut, Lebanon); Babbage Simmel (Ohio, USA); Bechara Nammour and Capital Restaurants (Washington D.C., USA); Gibran National Committee (Bsharri, Lebanon); Global Technology Associates (Virginia, USA); Institut du Monde Arab (Paris, France); The Irish Lebanese Cultural Foundation (Kilkenny, Ireland); The International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran (Maryland, USA); The Lebanese American University Center for Lebanese Heritage (Beirut, Lebanon); Mourad Boutrous (London, UK); Oneworld Publications (Oxford, U.K.); and The Rihani Organization (Washington D.C., USA). We also wish to thank Dr. Babak Mortazie, Mr. Khalil Akhavan, Dr. Michael Goldberg, Dr. Debbie Goldberg, and Dr. Sy Majidi for their selfless commitment and service during the Conference. In the preparation of this volume we have received much valuable help from Ms. Cynthia Pauwels, who carefully edited the final manuscript with meticulous attention to detail, and made valuable suggestions. Finally, we are grateful to research assistants Mr. Austin Lee, Ms. Shirin Majidi, and Ms. Mona Rezvani for their distinguished services in the preparation of this collection. 3 Dedication IN HONOR OF LEILA TANNOUS DAWTON AND IN HER MEMORY (1921-2013) Read at a memorial service held in London A Tribute by Suheil Bushrui Research Professor Emeritus Professor and Director of The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace, Center for Heritage Resource Studies, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences University of Maryland We are gathered here today not to mourn the passing of a remarkable woman of unique qualities of mind and spirit, but to celebrate her luminous life and her ceaseless efforts to enrich the lives of all those who came to know her intellectually and spiritually. Leila Tannous Dawton has left us a rich legacy of noble ideals and set a perfect example of how East can meet West in friendship and unity, and in peace and dignity. The end of any life on this earth can be a cause of either sorrow for a life wasted, or gratitude and joy for a life well lived. Leila Tannous Dawton lived a life full of great achievements, a life in which she single-handedly opened new frontiers, for she was a pioneer in every sense of the word. If May Ziadeh was the first Arab-woman editor of an Arabic newspaper, and Huda Sha’rawi the leader par excellence of women’s emancipation in Egypt, then Leila Tannous Dawton was most certainly the first woman broadcaster and radio program editor whose voice internationally enriched the British Broadcasting Corporation Cultural and Literary Programs in Arabic. In this way, she spoke to the whole world and conquered not only the minds, but also the hearts, of her listeners everywhere. Leila Tannous, on completion of her university studies in Beirut, and with an outstanding academic record, arrived in London in 1946. A year later she married Bernard Dawton (1918-2004), a mathematician, a graduate of Cambridge University, and the perfect English gentlemen. She bestowed her special bounties of love as a loyal wife to her husband and a loving mother to her talented and gifted sons, Julian 4 and Anthony. To Bernard Dawton, she was a true partner and a real inspiration, as he was to her in his unstinting support and encouragement for her manifold literary and social activities in London. To meet Leila and Bernard for the first time, one realized what an extraordinary relationship existed between those two very special human beings. One was reminded of the Arabic adage: No relationship between two people is genuine or true Until each to the other speaks as I instead of you. Through her remarkable work for the BBC, Leila united the Arab world in a way that no other person could have done. She developed a special voice that spoke the beautiful Arabic language in a manner and a style that was understood by the speakers of Arab dialects everywhere, covering an area from Morocco to Baghdad. Perhaps her greatest achievement is that she represented, spiritually and intellectually, a meeting point between East and West. She shared those eternal values of both cultures with her audiences everywhere, honoring every human being, regardless of religion, color, race, language, or gender. In her own person, she exemplified the coming together of East and West, and in many ways she represented the promise of a future united world. She was bilingual in every sense of the word. Her Arabic could be described as al-sihr al-halal (lawful magic), and her English can only be described as Her Majesty’s English at its best. She and her dear husband were world travellers, but they belonged to two great cities, Beirut and London. Leila’s erudition was impressive. Her great knowledge of Arab culture and civilization was matched by her remarkable understanding of English literature, and particularly English poetry. Her BBC work provided her with the experience she needed to create the British Lebanese Association in London. When the civil war in Lebanon forced many Lebanese to live abroad, a large group ended up in the British capital of London. Leila felt it her duty to gather together the various members of the Lebanese community in diaspora and unite them in a collective effort to serve the best interests of Lebanon during those difficult years, as well as devise ways in which those Lebanese in Britain could make a valuable cultural and artistic contribution to many aspects of British life and thought. She organized lectures, artistic performances, exhibitions, dramatic productions, and a variety of different cultural events in London. In addition to all this, she realized the importance of honoring and preserving the Arabic language, and she was the founder of the first Arabic language school in London, an institution which reflected that creative aspect of the language and its literature. She took the lead in founding the British Lebanese Association’s scholarly fund to support Lebanese students who were anxious to complete their higher 5 education in Britain, and she assisted in training experts who went back to Lebanon to rebuild the country after the devastating civil war. Leila was Lebanon’s unofficial ambassador everywhere. Her home became the center of Lebanese diplomatic, cultural, and literary activity, and she devoted the last two decades of her life in the service of Lebanon. Like Kahlil Gibran, she believed in a Lebanon unified in all its endeavors, a Lebanon of justice, of religious harmony, and of progressive thought. Towards this end, she served on the International Advisory Board of the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland. The University, therefore, is deeply indebted to many services she has rendered. In honor of her blessed memory, Sir David Miers, former Ambassador of Great Britain in Lebanon and, until recently, the Chairman of the British Lebanese Association, paid the following tribute: Leila Tannous Dawton was an exceptionally talented person. She was for many years the conscientious, efficient and inspirational administrator of the British Lebanese Association. Being fully conversant with the key characteristics, as well as the more subtle nuances, of both cultures, she was able to give sound and much- valued advice to both the British and the Lebanese elements in the Association and played a key role in the success of its events. She combined perceptiveness with discretion, wisdom with modesty, and invariably used for constructive and achievable objectives the universal respect in which she was held. In honoring her memory today, the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland announces the establishment of an annual memorial lecture, the title of which will be “The Leila Tannous Dawton Annual Memorial Lecture in the Dialogue of Civilizations.” In that same spirit, this collection of papers from the Second International Conference on Kahlil Gibran is dedicated to her indefatigable efforts.