Gibran Khalil Gibran

By mahaz
  • Birth

    Birth
    Gibran is born in Besharri, a town in what is now northern Lebanon that is surrounded by the famed "Cedars of Lebanon"
  • Period: to

    Biography

  • Boston

    Boston
    After his father is imprisoned in Besharri for corruption,Gibran's mother and her four children emigrate to Boston in hopes of escaping misery. Kahlil shows talent at drawing and, at age 12, begins to learn English.
  • Moves Back to Lebanon

    Moves Back to Lebanon
    Moved by a desire to complete his Arabic-language education, Gibran returns to Lebanon and attends al-Hikmah high school in Beirut, where he pursues a reformist Arabic curriculum. He also studies religion and ethics.
  • Back in Boston

    Back in Boston
    Gibran returns to Boston, now aged 19. Develops a friendship, then romantic feelings for a young Bostonian woman, Josephine Peabody, a poet and intellectual. In the same year, he loses to tuberculosis his sister Sultana, his half-brother Peter, and his mother Kamila.
  • Meets Mary Haskell

    Meets Mary Haskell
    Meets Mary Haskell, an American school headmistress in Boston who supported promising young orphans. Marks the beginning of a lifelong friendship that sometimes veered toward romance. It is owing to Mary that he will be able to devote himself to his painting.
  • Studying in Paris

    Studying in Paris
    At 25 years of age, Gibran begins his two-year stay in Paris, paid for by Mary Haskell, where he studies painting and is influenced by the reigning school of Symbolism.
  • Famine in Lebanon

    Famine in Lebanon
    At age 33, Gibran's feelings of nationalism and resentment of Ottoman rule grow, as famine ravages the Levant. He becomes active in raising relief funds in the U.S. for the starving.
  • The Prophet

    The Prophet
    Appearance of The Prophet. Its lyricism and simple style make it an immediate and considerable success. Continues correspondence with May Ziadeh of Cairo. Mary Haskell moves to Savannah Georgia and goes out of Gibran's life,
  • Death and Funeral

    Death and Funeral
    Gibran dies in a New York hospital. The New York Sun announces in its obituary, "A Prophet is Dead." His body is shipped back to Lebanon, and an immense procession follows his coffin from Beirut to Besharri.