Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān (Arabic: جُبْرَن خَلِيل جُبْرَن), often called Kahlil Gibran in English, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and artist. He was also thought of as a philosopher, though he did not accept that title. He is most famous for writing The Prophet, a book first published in the United States in 1923. This book has sold millions of copies and has been translated into over 100 languages.
Gibran was born in Bsharri, a village in what is now Lebanon, in 1883. His family was Christian, and he moved to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1895. His mother worked as a seamstress, and he studied in Boston, where a teacher noticed his talent and introduced him to a photographer and publisher named F. Holland Day. At age 15, Gibran returned to Lebanon to attend school in Beirut. He later went back to Boston after the death of his younger sister in 1902. Soon after, he lost his older brother and mother, and for a time, he relied on his sister’s income from her job as a dressmaker.
In 1904, Gibran’s drawings were displayed in Boston for the first time. His first book in Arabic was published in New York in 1905. With help from a supporter named Mary Haskell, he studied art in Paris from 1908 to 1910. While there, he met Syrian thinkers who supported political change in the Ottoman Empire. Some of Gibran’s writings, which expressed similar ideas and criticized religious leaders, were later banned by Ottoman authorities. In 1911, Gibran moved to New York, where his first English book, The Madman, was published in 1918. He also worked on The Prophet and The Earth Gods. His artwork was shown in galleries in Boston and New York. He also corresponded with a writer named May Ziadeh starting in 1912. In 1920, Gibran helped restart a group of poets called the Pen League.
Gibran died in 1931 at age 48 from liver disease and early stages of tuberculosis. At the time of his death, The Prophet had already been translated into German and French. His body was moved to his birthplace in Bsharri, Lebanon, where he had promised to give all future money from his books to the village. A museum in Bsharri now displays his work.
Scholars have described Gibran’s life as influenced by ideas from different thinkers. His writings covered many themes and used different styles of writing. He is considered one of the most important figures in Arabic literature during the early 20th century. His artwork often included spiritual and mythical symbols, and critics have compared his style to that of Leonardo da Vinci. His many works are seen as a lasting contribution to art and literature worldwide.
Life and career
Gibran was born on January 6, 1883, in the village of Bsharri in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, which is now part of Lebanon. Few records mention the Gibrans, but they are believed to have arrived in Bsharri near the end of the 17th century. A family story claims they came from Chaldean sources, but a more likely account says the Gibran family moved from Damascus, Syria, in the 16th century and settled on a farm near Baalbek before moving to Bash'elah in 1672. Another account suggests the family originated in Acre and moved to Bash'elah in 1300. Gibran’s parents, Khalil Sa’ad Gibran and Kamila Rahmeh, were Maronite Christians. Kamila’s grandfather had converted from Islam to Christianity. She was thirty when Gibran was born, and Khalil was her third husband. Gibran had two younger sisters, Marianna and Sultana, and an older half-brother, Boutros, from one of Kamila’s previous marriages. Gibran’s family lived in poverty. In 1888, he began attending Bsharri’s one-class school, run by a priest, where he learned basic Arabic, Syriac, and arithmetic.
Gibran’s father initially worked in a pharmacy but faced gambling debts. He later worked for a local Ottoman-appointed administrator. In 1891, while acting as a tax collector, he was removed from his position, and his staff was investigated. Khalil was imprisoned for embezzlement, and his family’s property was taken by authorities. Kamila decided to move to the United States with her children. Although Khalil was released in 1894, Kamila left for New York on June 25, 1895, taking Boutros, Gibran, Marianna, and Sultana with her.
Kamila and her children settled in Boston’s South End, which was then the second-largest Syrian-Lebanese-American community in the United States. Gibran entered the Josiah Quincy School on September 30, 1895. School officials placed him in a special class for immigrants learning English. His name was recorded as “Kah lil Gibran.” His mother worked as a seamstress, selling lace and linens door-to-door. His half-brother Boutros opened a shop. Gibran also enrolled in an art school at Denison House, a nearby settlement house. His teachers introduced him to F. Holland Day, an innovative Boston artist, photographer, and publisher, who supported Gibran’s creative work. In March 1898, Gibran met Josephine Preston Peabody, who was eight years older than him, at an exhibition of Day’s photographs. Gibran developed a romantic attachment to her. That same year, a publisher used some of Gibran’s drawings for book covers.
Kamila and Boutros wanted Gibran to learn more about his heritage rather than focus only on Western culture. At age 15, Gibran returned to Lebanon to study Arabic literature for three years at the Collège de la Sagesse, a Maronite-run institute in Beirut, where he also learned French. In his final year at the school, Gibran created a student magazine with classmates, including Youssef Howayek, who became a lifelong friend. Gibran was named the “college poet.” He graduated at eighteen with high honors and then traveled to Paris to study painting, visiting Greece, Italy, and Spain on his way. In Paris, Gibran socialized with intellectuals and was known to Auguste Rodin, a famous artist, as a talented artist.
On April 2, 1902, Sultana died at age 14, likely from tuberculosis. Gibran returned to Boston two weeks after her death. The following year, Boutros died of the same disease, and his mother passed away from cancer on June 28. Two days later, Peabody left Gibran without explanation. Marianna supported Gibran and herself by working at a dressmaker’s shop.
In January 1904, Gibran held his first art exhibition in Boston at Day’s studio. During this event, he met Mary Haskell, a headmistress of a girls’ school, who was nine years older than him. They became lifelong friends, and Haskell spent money to support Gibran and edited his English writings. The nature of their relationship remains unclear. Some say they were lovers but never married because of Haskell’s family’s objections, while others suggest their relationship was not physical. Gibran and Haskell were briefly engaged between 1910 and 1911. According to Joseph P. Ghougassian, Gibran proposed to Haskell out of gratitude, but she ended the engagement, explaining she preferred their friendship over marriage. Haskell later married Jacob Florance Minis in 1926 but remained Gibran’s close friend, patron, and supporter, helping advance his career.
In 1904, Gibran met Amin al-Ghurayyib, editor of Al-Mohajer (The Emigrant), where Gibran began publishing articles. In 1905, his first published work, A Profile of the Art of Music, appeared in Arabic in New York. The following year, Nymphs of the Valley was published in Arabic. On January 27, 1908, Haskell introduced Gibran to Charlotte Teller, a 31-year-old writer, and Émilie Michel, a 19-year-old French teacher at Haskell’s school. Both women became Gibran’s models and close friends. That same year, Gibran published Spirits Rebellious, a novel critical of secular and spiritual authority. According to Barbara Young, a later acquaintance, the book was burned in Beirut by religious groups who called it “dangerous, revolutionary, and poisonous to youth.” The Maronite Patriarchate spread rumors of Gibran’s excommunication but never officially declared it.
In July 1908, with Haskell’s financial support, Gibran studied art in Paris at the Académie Julian, joining the atelier of Jean-Paul Laurens. Gibran accepted Haskell’s offer partly to distance himself from Michel, whom he felt conflicted about due to his gratitude toward Haskell. However, Michel unexpectedly arrived in Paris and became pregnant, though the pregnancy was ectopic and required an abortion, likely in France. Michel returned to the United States by late October. Gibran visited her in Paris in July 1910, but no intimacy remained between them.
By early February 1909, Gibran had been working in the studio of Pierre Marcel-Béronneau and left the Académie Julian to focus on his studies with Béronneau. In December 1909, he began a series of pencil portraits titled “The Temple of Art,” featuring famous artists and
Works
Gibran wrote in many different forms, including poetry, parables, short stories, fables, political essays, letters, and aphorisms. Two plays in English and five plays in Arabic were published after his death between 1973 and 1993. Three plays he wrote in English near the end of his life remain unpublished: The Banshee, The Last Unction, and The Hunchback or the Man Unseen. His writings often discussed topics like religion, justice, free will, science, love, happiness, the soul, the body, and death. His work was described as creative, using symbols, showing deep love for his homeland, and having an emotional, sad, yet powerful speaking style. Scholars like Salma Jayyusi and Roger Allen say Gibran was a leading poet of the Mahjar school, which was part of the Romantic movement.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi noted that Gibran’s choice of words in both Arabic and English was less typical of modern poets, as his themes were spiritual and universal. Jean Gibran and Kahlil G. Gibran said Gibran used language he heard growing up in Besharri and later in Boston. This style appealed to many Arab immigrants. The poem You Have Your Language and I Have Mine (1924) was written in response to criticism about his use of Arabic.
Scholars like Bushrui and Jenkins say the Bible, especially the King James Version, greatly influenced Gibran. His work also reflects the Syriac tradition. Gibran once said the Bible is like Syriac literature in English, calling Syriac the most beautiful language ever made. Waterfield noted that the parables in the New Testament influenced Gibran’s own parables and homilies, while the poetry in the Old Testament shaped his devotional language and rhythms. Annie Salem Otto said Gibran intentionally imitated the Bible’s style, unlike other Arabic writers who did so unconsciously.
Ghougassian said the works of English poet William Blake had a special influence on Gibran, especially Blake’s vision of the world. Gibran called Blake “the God-man” and praised his art as the most profound in English. George Nicolas El-Hage noted that Gibran knew some of Blake’s work early in Boston but did not fully understand it until later in Paris, likely through Auguste Rodin.
Gibran also admired Syrian poet Francis Marrash, whose works he studied in Beirut. Shmuel Moreh said Gibran’s writing echoed Marrash’s style, including ideas about education, women’s rights, and society’s morals. Bushrui and Jenkins said Marrash’s idea of universal love deeply influenced Gibran.
American poet Walt Whitman also influenced Gibran, especially his focus on the universality of people and nature. El-Hage said German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s influence appeared in Gibran’s work only after The Tempests. Though Nietzsche’s style fascinated Gibran, he did not fully adopt it, saying Gibran’s teachings were more like Jesus’ than Nietzsche’s.
For many years, Gibran’s work was not widely studied by scholars. Bushrui and Munro said Western critics struggled to fit his English-language works into the Western literary tradition. El-Hage added that critics often failed to understand Gibran’s view of imagination and his changing focus on nature.
Waterfield said Gibran wanted to become a Symbolist painter after working in Paris. He preferred oil paint from 1908 to 1914 but used pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache before and after. In a letter, Gibran said Turner was the greatest English artist. Haskell recorded that Gibran was inspired by Turner’s painting The Slave Ship to use bold colors in his work, such as in Rose Sleeves (1911).
Gibran created over 700 visual artworks, including the Temple of Art series. His works are displayed in museums like the Gibran Museum in Bsharri, the Telfair Museums in Savannah, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City, Mathaf in Doha, the Brooklyn and Metropolitan Museums in New York, and the Harvard Art Museums. A possible painting by Gibran was featured in a 2008 episode of History Detectives.
Religious views
According to Bushrui and Jenkins,
Although raised as a Maronite Christian (see § Childhood), Gibran, as an Arab, was influenced by his own religion and also by Islam, especially the mysticism of the Sufis. His understanding of Lebanon’s violent past, marked by harmful conflicts between groups, strengthened his belief that all religions share a common unity.
In addition to Christianity, Islam, and Sufism, Gibran’s mysticism was also shaped by theosophy and Jungian psychology. In Suheil Bushrui’s book The Essential Gibran, the Irish critic, poet, and painter George William Russell wrote that Gibran called himself a “lifeist” and often praised life.
Around 1911–1912, Gibran met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the leader of the Baháʼí Faith who was visiting the United States, to draw his portrait. This meeting had a strong effect on Gibran. Juliet Thompson, a Baháʼí and one of Gibran’s acquaintances later in life, said Gibran could not sleep the night before meeting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. This experience inspired Gibran to write Jesus the Son of Man, a book that portrays Jesus through the “words of seventy-seven contemporaries who knew him—enemies and friends: Syrians, Romans, Jews, priests, and poets.” After ʻAbdu'l-Bahá’s death, Gibran gave a speech about religion with Baháʼís. At another event where a film of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was shown, Gibran stood up, cried, and praised ʻAbdu'l-Bahá highly before leaving the event in tears.
In the poem “The Voice of the Poet” (صوت الشاعر), published in A Tear and a Smile (1914), Gibran wrote:
“You are my brother, and I love you. I love you when you prostrate yourself in your mosque, kneel in your church, and pray in your synagogue. You and I are sons of one faith—the Spirit. And those who are set up as leaders over its many branches are like fingers on the hand of a divinity that points to the Spirit’s perfection.”
In 1921, Gibran participated in a meeting at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery to discuss the question, “Do We Need a New World Religion to Unite the Old Religions?”
Political thought
During the final years of Gibran's life, people in Lebanon often encouraged him to return home. They believed he could be a strong leader for his people if he agreed to take on that role. Although he was moved by their feelings, he believed going back to Lebanon would be a big mistake. "I think I could help my people," he said. "I could even lead them—but they would not be led. They are confused and looking for answers. If I went to Lebanon and shared my book The Prophet, saying, 'Let us live in this light,' their excitement for me would quickly fade. I am not a politician, and I will not be one. I cannot do what they want."
In 1911–12, Gibran met ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who traveled to the United States to promote peace. Gibran admired ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's teachings but argued that young nations, like his own, should be free from Ottoman control. During this time, he wrote the poem "Pity the Nation," which was published 20 years after his death in The Garden of the Prophet. On May 26, 1916, Gibran wrote a letter to Mary Haskell, stating, "The famine in Mount Lebanon was planned and caused by the Turkish government. Already 80,000 people have died from starvation, and thousands more are dying every day. This happened to the Christian Armenians and to the Christians in Mount Lebanon." He dedicated a poem titled "Dead Are My People" to those who died in the famine.
Gibran supported making Arabic the national language of Syria. When the Ottomans were driven out of Syria during World War I, he created a drawing titled "Free Syria," which was printed on the cover of the Arabic-language newspaper As-Sayeh (founded in 1912 in New York by Haddad). Adel Beshara noted that in a draft of a play, Gibran expressed hope for Syria's independence and progress. According to Khalil Hawi, this play clearly shows Gibran's belief in Syrian nationalism, differentiating it from Lebanese and Arab nationalism, and shows that nationalism and internationalism coexisted in his thinking. Waterfield wrote that Gibran was not fully in favor of socialism, as he believed it often focuses on the lowest common standards rather than helping people reach their best.
Legacy
The book The Prophet became very popular in the 1960s among people in the American counterculture and later with the New Age movements. It has stayed popular with these groups and with more people since it was first published in 1923. The Prophet has never been out of print and has been translated into over 100 languages. It is one of the top ten most translated books in history and was one of the best-selling books in the United States during the twentieth century.
Elvis Presley kept a copy of The Prophet given to him by his girlfriend, June Juanico, in 1956. He marked it with notes, and this copy is still in Lebanon. Another copy is at the Elvis Presley Museum in Düsseldorf, Germany. A line from Gibran’s 1926 book Sand and Foam—“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you”—was used by John Lennon in a slightly changed form in the Beatles’ song “Julia” from their 1968 album The Beatles (also called The White Album).
Johnny Cash recorded The Eye of the Prophet as an audio cassette book. On his 2003 album Unearthed, he also talked about Gibran’s work in a track called “Book Review.” British singer David Bowie mentioned Gibran in his 1970 song “The Width of a Circle” from the album The Man Who Sold the World. Bowie used Gibran as a reference because Gibran’s work A Tear and a Smile was popular during the 1960s hippie movement. In 1978, Uruguayan musician Armando Tirelli made an album based on The Prophet. In 2016, a musical version of Gibran’s fable “On Death” from The Prophet was created by Gilad Hochman. It was performed in France under the title River of Silence.
Gibran’s influence goes beyond art. President John F. Kennedy may have been inspired by Gibran’s 1925 essay The New Frontier when writing his 1961 inaugural address. Kennedy echoed Gibran’s message when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”
The book The Prophet was adapted into a film in 2014. In 2018, a musical called Broken Wings was created by Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, based on Gibran’s novel of the same name. The musical premiered in London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.
Many places, monuments, and schools around the world are named after Gibran, including the Gibran Museum in Bsharri, Lebanon; the Gibran Memorial Plaque in Copley Square, Boston; the Gibran Khalil Gibran Garden in Beirut; the Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden in Washington, D.C.; the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, New York; and the Khalil Gibran Elementary School in Yonkers, New York. A crater on Mercury was also named in his honor in 2009.
Family
American sculptor Kahlil G. Gibran (1922–2008) was a cousin of Gibran. The Katter political family in Australia was also related to Gibran. He was noted in parliamentary records as a cousin of Bob Katter Sr., originally named Khittar, who was a longtime member of the Australian parliament and former Minister for the Army. Through Bob Katter Sr., Kahlil G. Gibran was also related to his son, Bob Katter, founder of Katter's Australian Party and former Queensland state minister, and to state politician Robbie Katter.