Little Syria ( ar, سوريا الصغيرة) was a diverse neighborhood that existed in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
from the late 1880s until the 1940s.
[, pp.76-77; Two other sections of New York were singled out as particularly Syrian in 1939, "the Syrian shops and coffee houses with their Arabic signs, on Atlantic Avenue" in ]South Brooklyn
South Brooklyn is a historic term for a section of the former City of Brooklyn – now the New York City borough of Brooklyn – encompassing what are now the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Ter ...
(p.463) and "a small Arabian and Syrian quarter" on Thatford Avenue near Belmont in Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie ...
(p.498). The name for the neighborhood came from the Arab speaking population who emigrated from
Ottoman Syria
Ottoman Syria ( ar, سوريا العثمانية) refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and south ...
. Today this area would include the nations of
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
, and
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
.
Also called the Syrian Quarter, or Syrian Colony in local newspapers it encompassed a few blocks reaching from
Washington Street in
Battery Park
The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...
to above Rector Street.
This neighborhood became the center of New York’s first community of Arab speaking immigrants. In spite of this name the neighborhood was never exclusively Syrian or Arab, as there were many other Irish, German, Slavic, and Scandinavian immigrant families present.
The neighborhood declined as the inhabitants began moving out to other areas,
Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, an ...
, the
Sunset Park area and
Bay Ridge
Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base and ...
, with many retail shops relocating to
Atlantic Avenue, in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
[O'Brien, Jane and Botti, David (February 7, 2012]
"Altered States: Preserving New York City's 'Little Syria'"
''BBC News Magazine
BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...
'' The community disappeared almost entirely when a great deal of lower Washington Street was demolished to make way for the entrance ramps to the
Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.
[Dunlap, David W. (August 25, 2010]
"When an Arab Enclave Thrived Downtown"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Accessed August 25, 2010. The quarter was located at the southern edge of the site that would become the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
.
After the
September 11 terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
the cornerstone of the Syrian St. Joseph's
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
Church was found in the rubble
History
Early years
The earliest Syrians migrants to arrive in the United States were nearly all men, who came as
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
seminarians between the 1830s and 1880s. Many were converts as a result of the American Protestant mission in Syria and only remained in the U.S. for a few years to complete their studies before returning home.
The first wave of permanent Syrian immigrants arrived in Manhattan through the
Castle Garden
Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immigration station, predating ...
landing docks and registration depot by the start of the 1880s. These were mostly rural Christian merchants from the
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at .
Geography
The Mount Le ...
area in Ottoman Syria. The majority of these Christians belonged to the
Melkite
The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in the Middle East. The term comes from the common Central Semitic Semitic root, ro ...
,
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
, and
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
denominations, with a few Protestants, who had fled Greater Syria due to religious persecution and poverty following the French intervention after the
1860 Syrian Civil War. During this conflict between the Arab Christian and Druze populations, many militias ended up killing several thousands civilians across the Mount Lebanon area and Damascus. In addition, disruptions to the local silk trade caused by the influx of international competition following the opening of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
in 1869 lead many merchants to leave for port cities across Africa, Latin America, and North America, with Manhattan being one.
It is estimated that only 5-10% of the area's Arab residents were Muslims, mostly coming from the area around present day
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
.
This included a minority of
Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
, which although a distinct ethnoreligious community in the Levant, are often counted as Muslim.
![Selling cool drinks in Little Syria, Manhattan in 1916](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Selling_cool_drinks_in_Little_Syria%2C_Manhattan_in_1916.png)
In New York City many immigrants would work as pack
peddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods.
In England, the term was mostly used fo ...
s. They would often carry forty to eighty pounds of notions, which they would sell uptown during the day and further afield in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
during the summer.
Other peddlers would sell luxury goods and religious objects such as
damask cloth, embroideries, rosaries and crosses made from
olive wood
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family (biology), family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as '' ...
from the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
.
In order to maintain this constant flow of these goods many Syrians also started import-export businesses in order to sell directly to these peddlers. Many women worked as peddlers as well, mainly selling sundry goods, however they also labored as seamstresses, mill workers, factory workers, and entrepreneurs in their own right.
Marie el-Khoury, a prominent jewelry designer, was one of the most successful Syrian-born business owners in the city. Originally trained as a jeweler under her father, she moved the business from its original location on the boardwalk in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497. to Manhattan after his death.
The Christians in the neighborhood mainly lived on Washington Street, to the south of the site of the World Trade Center, where they established three churches, including
St. Nicolas Syrian Orthodox congregation and
St. George Chapel of the
Melkite Rite, which as of 2010 survives as Moran's Ale House and Grill,
and which was designated a
New York City Landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 2009.
[Caratzas, Michael D. (July 4, 2009]
" St. George's Syrian Church Designation Report"
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
Anti-Arab sentiment and Community response
In reaction to the emergence of this new community
nativist sentiments against Syrians began to be published in local papers such as ''
Harper’s Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
'' and ''
the New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as early as May 1882.
Over the years, several reports were published which called the Syrian peddlers "''dirty Arabs from Mount Lebanon''", quoted an immigration officer who said the Arab immigrants "''were educated to steal''” as they came from "''the landing of thieving Arabs''", and stirred up fears that "''the Syrian Arabs from the Lebanon range have undertaken to invade the United States''". This was spite of the fact that there were less than one thousand Syrians in Manhattan at the time. Over the years nearly 125,000 Syrians would eventually immigrate to the United States, settling across the mainland United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.
In 1899 an article about the Syrian Quarter and its 3,000 residents described how the immigrants arriving there didn't "''leave all their quaint customs, garments, ways of thinking at home,''" nor did they become "''ordinary American citizens,''" but instead "''just enough of their traits, dress, ideas remain, no matter how long they have been here, to give the colonies they form spice and a touch of novelty.''" Noting "''a number of amazingly pretty girls,''" the reporter described Little Syria near the turn of the 20th century as a mix of social classes.
[Childe, Cromwell (August 20, 1899]
"New York's Syrian Quarter"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Accessed August 25, 2010.
In reaction to this many immigrants such as
Philip K. Hitti, attempted to use Americans who praised Syrians; such as Louise Houghton, who published a four-part series titled "''Syrians in America''" in the Survey, to change the public perception of these immigrants. Houghton maintained that "''Syrian immigrants appreciated liberty, kept clean homes, and obeyed the law''".
In his book, ''The Arab Americans: A History'', writer
Gregory Orfalea describes playwright Henry Chapman Ford's view of Syrian-Americans by quoting that, "Their family life, their clean way of living impressed me and I decided that the Americanization of such a race was a big factor in making the "melting pot" one of the greatest nations of history".
An 1895 New York Times article mentions that Syrians are fond of "''water, trees, and flowers'' and ''perhaps one great reason that keeps the Syrian Colony in the lower part of Washington Street''".
However, Houghton's report was in spite of the fact that at this time many immigrants lived in squalor in multi-family tenements as noted by immigrant Abraham Mitrie Rihbany, during his time working and living in the Syrian Colony. Hitti was also notorious for cherry picking details and findings in order to foster the assimilation of Syrian immigrants and further promote their acceptance by the American populace by erasing any divisive findingss. Hitti even went on to obscure anti-Syrian prejudice, and government backed studies such as the a 1901 report by the Industrial Commission that noted that Syrians lacked a strong worth ethic.
Arab American literary scene
Lebanese-Americans
Ameen Rihani
Ameen Rihani (Amīn Fāris Anṭūn ar-Rīḥānī) ( ar, أمين الريحاني / ALA-LC: ''Amīn ar-Rīḥānī''; Freike, Lebanon, November 24, 1876 – September 13, 1940), was a Lebanese American writer, intellectual and political a ...
,
Naoum Mokarzel
Naoum Mokarzel ( ar, نعوم مكرزل / ALA-LC: ''Naʻūm Mukarzil,'' sometimes spelled "Naʿum Mukarzil"; 2 August 1864 – 5 April 1932) was an influential intellectual and publisher who immigrated to the United States from Mount Lebanon i ...
, and, the Boston raised,
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
were among the first cultural luminaries that called Little Syria home, with the other cultural, educational, and journalistic minds. It was in Little Syria the
linotype machine
The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...
was first modified to produce Arabic characters, which would transform Arabic language journalism. The first Arabic-language periodicals in North America were all printed in New York, the first being ''
Kawkab America
''Kawkab America'' ( ar, كوكب أميركا, 'Star of America' or literal translation 'Planet of America') was an Arabic-language weekly (later daily) newspaper published in New York City, United States. ''Kawkab America'' was the first Arabic ...
'' in 1892. ''Kawkab America'' was established by the brothers Nageeb and Dr. Abraham J. Arbeely, Syrian immigrants who settled in Tennessee. The Arbeely were one of the first Syrian families to immigrate to the U.S., Nageeb Arbeely was even made the
American consul to Jerusalem by President
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
and worked as an immigration inspector at Ellis Island. ''Kawkab America'' mainly had an Orthodox Christian readership and was edited for a time by the theologian
Abraham Mitrie Rihbany
Abraham Dimitri Rihbany known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany ( ar, أبراهام متري الرحباني; sometimes spelled ''Rahbany'') was an American theologian, philologist and historian of Greek Orthodox Lebanese descent.
"''In debt and nea ...
, a Lebanese
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
convert who came from a family belonging to the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch ( el, Ελληνορθόδοξο Πατριαρχείο Αντιοχείας), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East ( ar ...
.
Later, over 50 Arabic-language periodicals came to be published out of the neighborhood, including ''
Al-Hoda''. There were also the English-language ''
The Syrian World
''The Syrian World'' was a short-lived magazine devoted to the celebration and cultural diffusion of Syria, which at the time consisted and referred to the modern day states and territories of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. It was the fir ...
'' which aimed at the first generation of
Syrian-Americans who grew up or were born in the United States.
Legacy
![Syrian baklava maker in the New York City diaspora](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Syrian_baklava_maker_in_the_New_York_City_diaspora.jpg)
In his 2006 book ''The Arab Americans'',
Gregory Orfalea described Little Syria as "an enclave in the New World where Arabs first peddled goods, worked in sweatshops, lived in tenements and hung their own signs on stores." Naoum and Salloum Mokarzel created the publication ''Al-Hoda'', adapting the
Linotype machine
The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Lin ...
to produce text in the
Arabic alphabet, which "made possible and immeasurably stimulated the growth of Arabic journalism in the Middle East." By 1935 the influx of Syrian immigrants declined, following the folding of D. J. Faour and Bros, the first Syrian owned bank and a few years after ''The Syrian World'' closed in 1932.
By August 1946, residents and business owners on the stretch of Washington Street from Rector Street to Battery Place in what was then the "heart of New York's Arab world" had received condemnation notices, just years before the neighborhood was razed to create entrance ramps needed for the
Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel
The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel, officially the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and commonly referred to as the Battery Tunnel or Battery Park Tunnel, is a tolled tunnel in New York City that connects Red Hook in Brooklyn with the Battery in Manhattan ...
, which opened in 1950.
[Karpf, Ruth (August 11, 1946]
"Street of the Arabs"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Accessed: August 25, 2010.
A public park at the junction of
Trinity Place
Church Street and Trinity Place form a single north–south roadway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its northern end is at Canal Street and its southern end is at Morris Street, where Trinity Place merges with Greenwich Street. The dividing ...
,
Greenwich Street
Greenwich Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, Manhat ...
and Edgar Street, the
Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza honors the history of the former neighborhood through interpretive plaques and signs. In 2011, a collection of
historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
ists and Arab-American activists, under the "Save Washington Street" campaign, lobbied the
Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
and its chairman, Robert Tierney, to designate the
Downtown Community House The Downtown Community House at 105-107 Washington Street is a six-story, five-bay red brick building that is among the last vestiges of the Lower West Side of Manhattan's former life as an ethnic neighborhood known as “ Little Syria.” From the ...
and the tenement at
109 Washington Street in Little Syria as city landmarks. Then, in 2019, the Washington Street Advocacy Group published a report by its president, Todd Fine, "Voluntary Destruction: Historic Preservation in the Lower West Side since September 11, 2001". Among other things, the report urged that the Community House and the tenement be preserved as among the last remaining vestiges of Little Syria, with
St. George's Syrian Catholic Church
St. George's Syrian Catholic Church is a former church located at 103 Washington Street between Rector Street and Carlisle Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The church is the last physical reminder of the Syrian Ameri ...
having already been designated an individual landmark. A proposal for a "mini historic district" has been put before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, in response to what is being referred to as a "landmarks emergency".
The recently published "Strangers in the West", addresses in detail the early formation of the colony, from 1880-1900, provides the specific names and occupations of the early immigrants to the Quarter, their backgrounds, and the history of the neighborhood's growth. It includes multiple discussions of issues faced by the immigrants, including the development of journalism, medical care, educational institutions, legal cases, and the contributions of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair on the rapid expansion of the Quarter and its popularity in New York City.
[Jacobs, Linda K. (2016) ''Strangers in the West''. New York: Kalimah Press] The neighborhood is a setting in the novel
The Golem and the Jinni.
See also
*
Syrian American
*
Lebanese American
Lebanese Americans ( ar, أمريكيون لبنانيون) are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon.
Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the ...
*
Naoum Mokarzel
Naoum Mokarzel ( ar, نعوم مكرزل / ALA-LC: ''Naʻūm Mukarzil,'' sometimes spelled "Naʿum Mukarzil"; 2 August 1864 – 5 April 1932) was an influential intellectual and publisher who immigrated to the United States from Mount Lebanon i ...
*
Marie el-Khoury
*
Abraham Mitrie Rihbany
Abraham Dimitri Rihbany known as Abraham Mitrie Rihbany ( ar, أبراهام متري الرحباني; sometimes spelled ''Rahbany'') was an American theologian, philologist and historian of Greek Orthodox Lebanese descent.
"''In debt and nea ...
*
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
*
Ameen Rihani
Ameen Rihani (Amīn Fāris Anṭūn ar-Rīḥānī) ( ar, أمين الريحاني / ALA-LC: ''Amīn ar-Rīḥānī''; Freike, Lebanon, November 24, 1876 – September 13, 1940), was a Lebanese American writer, intellectual and political a ...
*
Nageeb Arbeely
Nageeb Arbeely, (July 1863 - January 28, 1904) was a Syrian-born naturalized-American, appointed by President Grover Cleveland to the post of Consul in Jerusalem in 1885.
Though Arbeely was popular among the American Colony, he was deemed unaccep ...
References
External links
Little Syria, Manhattanat
Flickr Commons
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting service, image hosting and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and w ...
{{Mahjar
Arab-American culture in New York City
Ethnic enclaves in New York (state)
Former New York City neighborhoods
Jordanian-American culture
Lebanese-American culture in New York (state)
Maronite Church in the United States
Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the United States
Palestinian-American culture
Syrian-American culture in New York City