Educated in Russia at the Russian Imperial Teachers' Institute in Nazareth and later in Ukraine, Naimy joined Gibran's New York circle of Arab-American writers. His critical book Al-Ghirbal (The Sieve, 1923) introduced modern literary criticism to Arabic, and his philosophical novel The Book of Mirdad (1948) influenced figures from Henry Miller to the early New Age movement.
Recurring themes
the Mahjar critic
spiritual prose in Arabic
the village memoir
Russian Orthodox influences in Arab letters
Selected works
- 1923The Sieve
- 1959Sab'un (Seventy)
- 1948The Book of Mirdad
- 1949Memoirs of al-Arqash