‫زنبقة الغور‬

by Ameen Rihani

يعد الكاتب اللبناني أمين الريحاني من عمالقة الفكر والابداع والاصلاح الاجتماعي في أواخر القرن التاسع عشر وأوائل القرن العشرين في الوطن العربي ، فهو كاتب متعدد المواهب والملكات كتب الرواية والمقال والمسرح والسِّيَر والرحلات والنقد ، ونظم الشعر أيضا .. وكتب في مجالات مختلفة كالاقتصاد والاجتماع والتاريخ، وقد رحل عن عالمنا عام ١٩٤٠م، تاركا إرثًا أدبيًّا وفكرياً كبيرا .
وهذه الرواية "زنبقة الغور" من بواكير الروايات العربية الأولى، التي مهدت للتأصيل الفني لفن الرواية العربية ، حيث تخلصت في السرد من الانشاء والاطناب الفني أو المبالغات، إذ اقتربت من تصوير الواقع وتشابك أحداثه ، حيث تدور أحداثها في عدة بلدان ومدن في الناصرة وطبريا وحيفا بفلسطين ، ثم القاهرة وباريس ولبن&#

342 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2017

About the author

Born in Freike, Lebanon, on November 24, 1876, Ameen Rihani was one of six children and the oldest son of a Lebanese Maronite raw silk manufacturer, then a flourishing local industry. His father had commercial ambitions which beckoned him to America. In the summer of 1888, Ferris Rihani, the father, sent his brother and eldest son, Ameen, to the United States and followed a year later.

The young immigrant, then twelve years old, was placed in a school outside the city of New York, a few months after his arrival. There, he learned the rudiments of English. His father and uncle, having established themselves as merchants in a small cellar in lower Manhattan, soon felt the need for an assistant who could read and write English. Therefore, the boy was taken away from school to become the chief clerk, interpreter and bookkeeper of the business. The family continued in this trade for four years.

Ameen had a natural talent in eloquent speaking, and in 1895, the teenager became carried away by stage fever and joined a touring stock company headed by Henry Jewet (who later had his theatre in Boston). During the summer of the same year, the troupe became stranded in Kansas City, Missouri and so the prodigal son returned to his father. However, he returned not to rejoin the business, but to insist that his father give him a regular education for a professional career. They agreed that he should study law. To that end, he attended night school for a year, passed the Regents Exam, and in 1897 entered the New York Law School. A lung infection interrupted his studies, and at the end of his first year, his father had to send him back to Lebanon to recover.

Ameen Rihani first became familiar with Arab and other Eastern poets in 1897. Among these poets were Abul-Ala, whom Ameen discovered to be the forerunner of Omar Khayyam. In 1899 he returned to New York having decided to translate some of the quatrains of Abul-Ala into English. He managed to do this while he was still giving much of his time to the family business. The first version of the translation was published in 1903. During this period, he joined several literary and artistic societies in New York, such as the Poetry Society of America and the Pleiades Club, and also became a regular contributor to an Arabic weekly, "Al-Huda" published in New York. He wrote about social traditions, religion, national politics and philosophy. Thus, he began his extensive literary career, bridging two worlds. He published his first two books in Arabic in 1902 and 1903.

He also worked, along with other national leaders, for the liberation of his country from Turkish rule. In 1910 he published Al-Rihaniyat, the book that established him as a forward thinker and a visionary. As a result of the Rihaniyat, the Egyptian media hailed him as "The Philosopher of Freike." The Book of Khalid was written during this same period of mountain solitude and was later published in 1911 after he returned to New York (for the third time) via Paris and London where he met with fellow writers and artists. The illustrations for this book, which was the first English novel ever written by a Lebanese/Arab, were provided by Kahlil Gibran. A reception was held in honor of Rihani for the release of The Book of Khalid and the president of the New York Pleiades Club crowned him with a laurel garland.

Ameen Rihani passed away at age 64 at 1:00 pm on September 13, 1940 in his hometown of Freike, Lebanon. The cause of his death was a bicycle accident which resulted in infectious injuries from multiple fractures of the skull. The news of his death was broadcast to many parts of the world. Representatives of Arab kings and rulers and of foreign diplomatic missions attended the funeral ceremony. He was laid to rest in the Rihani Family Mausoleum in Freike.

Reviews

[حامد سيد رمضان · Rating 3 out of 5]

زنبقة الغور
أمين الريحاني
أسهمت روايةُ «زنبقة الغور» في خلع أدبنا الروائيِّ رداءَ المقامات والسجع التقليديِّ، ومهَّدتِ الطريق أمام أدب روائيٍّ عربيٍّ، أكثر موائمةً للعصر من حيث البناء الفنيِّ الحديث. وقد تأثر المؤلِّف باتجاه الروائيين الرومنتيكيين ﮐ «هيغو» و«دوماس»؛ حيث تميَّزت الرواية بتشابك الأحداث، وتعقُّدها واتساعها؛ فأحداثها الكثيرة لم تقتصر على بلدٍ واحدٍ، بل كان مسرحها العالم الأوسع. تبدأ أحداث الرواية في الناصرة، ثم طبريا فحيفا، وبعدها تنتقل الأحداث إلى القاهرة وباريس، ومنها إلى لبنان وعكا، فالناصرة وبحيرة طبريا من جديد. أما هيكل الرواية فهو أحداث مأساويَّة ناتجة عن استسلام المرأة للرجل بدون زواج، وغدر الرجل بها، ثم تشرد المرأة وطفلتها في أنحاء الأرض. وكذلك طفل ابنتها الذي جاء هو أيضًا نتيجة غدر رجل، وتجسِّد الرواية أبعادًا اجتماعيَّةً جوهريَّةً في الزمن الذي كتبت فيه.

[Sarahinidjel · Rating 1 out of 5]

مراجعة زنبقة الغور :
"بل أخاف وأشعر عندما أكون قربك كأني واقفة على شفير الهاوية، وفيها مايجذبني إليها ويحسسني بعمقها وظلماتها، فهل تخطئ الفتاة إذا أظهرت مافي قلبها، إذا أعربت عن رغبة تعرتها وحرمتها النوم؟! "

حكاية من الزمن الغابر لفتاة اسمها "سارة" تموت بعد معاناة تكتشفونها أول مشاهد الرواية، لتخلف لنا بنتا اسمها "مريم" تتركها أمام دير!
فتبدأ مغامرة هذه الأخيرة مليئة بالقرف إن أجيز لي استخدام المصطلح ، فلست ادري لماذا صور الكاتب المرأة الفلسطينية خاصة والمجتمع الفلسطيني عامة بتلك الصورة المنحطة!! .
الحسنة الوحيدة في الرواية هي اللغة الفاخرة، لغة الأوديسة والإلياذة.. والتي أشك في أن الكاتب قام باستعراض واضح في بعض المواطن...