On Gibran and the Baha'i Faith: Connection Noted
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Entropy picked up a story from the Princeton Weekly Bulletin about Gibran that mentions a connection with the Baha'i Faith. -gw“The Prophet” (1923), Gibran’s principal work, was written in English and has been translated into 20 languages. It was inspired, in part, by the life and teachings of the founder of the Baha’i faith.
Entropy, Collection of Kahlil Gibran manuscripts donated to Princeton, Entropy
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/07/0618/07a.shtml
2 comments:
I believe this is an urban legend, a Baha'i myth. Gibran was certainly aware of the Baha'i Faith, but I don't know of any documented evidence that he based the Prophet on Bahá'u'lláh.
He did tell Juliet Thompson, who was his neighbor in NYC, that one of his books was inspired by Abdu'l-Baha; but that is as close a connection as I am aware of.
Don C
After leaving my comment, I contacted several scholars/historians, and they agreed with my assessment. One also pointed to a column in One Country at http://www.onecountry.org/e104/e10416as.htm which discusses parts of this issue. Another pointed out that this collection includes materials that Baha'is have not had access to, and perhaps there are notes in his notebooks that do point to Baha'u'llah as partial inspiration for The Prophet.
There are Baha'is who are already quite familiar with Princeton's Special Collections, and no doubt in the next couple years one of them will spend the time to investigate this possibility.
Don C
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