The prophet Al Mustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to die, poetically described as the ship that will carry him home. The local people, seeing that he is about to leave them, come to him at the temple. They leave their plows in the field, their winepresses. Almitra comes out of the temple, and she is described as a seeress, and the first to recognize Almustafa (to truly see who he is). The townsfolk are beside themselves with grief, and Almitra asks him to share with everyone what he has learned, living amongst them. She then facilitates Almustafa addressing several questions regarding life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
The Prophet has been translated into more than 100 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.[2] By 2012, it had sold more than nine million copies in its American edition alone since its original publication in 1923.[1]
Of an ambitious first printing of 2,000 in 1923, Knopf sold 1,159 copies. The demand for The Prophet doubled the following year—and doubled again the year after that. It was translated into French by Madeline Mason-Manheim in 1926. By the time of Gibran's death in 1931, it had also been translated into German. Annual sales reached 12,000 in 1935, 111,000 in 1961 and 240,000 in 1965.[4] The book sold its one millionth copy in 1957.[5] At one point, The Prophet sold more than 5,000 copies a week worldwide.[4]
Inspiration
Born a Maronite, Gibran was influenced not only by his own religion but also by the Bahá’í Faith, Islam, and the mysticism of the Sufis. His knowledge of Lebanon's bloody history, with its destructive factional struggles, strengthened his belief in the fundamental unity of religions, something which his parents exemplified by welcoming people of various religions in their home.[6]:p55 Connections and parallels have also been made to William Blake's work,[7] as well as the theological ideas of Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson such as reincarnation and the Over-soul. Themes of influence in his work were Arabic art, European Classicism (particularly Leonardo da Vinci) and Romanticism (Blake and Auguste Rodin), the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and more modern symbolism and surrealism.[8]
Gibran’s strong connections to the Baháʼí faith started around 1912. One of Gibran's acquaintances, Juliet Thompson, recalled that he met 'Abdu'l-Bahá when that Bahai leader journeyed to the West.[9][10] Gibran, who had arranged to draw his portrait, was unable to sleep the night before meeting him.[6]:p253 Gibran later told Thompson that in 'Abdu'l-Bahá he had "seen the Unseen, and been filled."[6]:p126[11] Gibran began work on The Prophet in 1912, when "he got the first motif, for his Island God," whose "Promethean exile shall be an Island one" rather than a mountain one.[6]:p165 In 1928,[12] at the screening of a film about `Abdu'l-Bahá, Gibran proclaimed in tears the exalted station the leader held, and left the event weeping still.[10]
Royalties and copyright control
Gibran instructed that, on his death, the royalties and copyrights to his materials be owned by his hometown, Bsharri, Lebanon. The Gibran National Committee (GNC) in Bsharri manages the Gibran Museum. Founded in 1935, the GNC is a non-profit corporation with exclusive rights to manage Gibran's copyright in his literary and artistic works.[13]
The Garden of the Prophet
Gibran followed The Prophet with The Garden of the Prophet, which was published posthumously in 1933. It narrates Al Mustafa's discussions with nine disciples following Al Mustafa's return after an intervening absence. It also included the noted poem "Pity the Nation", written some 20 years earlier. [14]
Adaptations
1973: The Profit; Albran's Serial, a parody published in 1973 by Price/Stern/Sloan, California, as written by the fictional Kehlog Albran (pseudonym for authors Martin A. Cohen and Sheldon Shacket). It reached its fourth printing in 1981.[15]
1981: "On Children", a song by Sweet Honey in the Rock on their album Good News. Sets to music the words of Chapter 4 of The Prophet, also called "On Children".[16]
2002: Electronic and new-age music composer Gandalf and narrator Thomas Klock created an audiobook CD with a German version, Der Prophet, layered with music.
2009: The Prophet: Music Inspired by the Poetry of Khalil Gibran, an album by Australian oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros, winner of Limelight Award for Best World Music Achievement 2010, nominated for an Australian Recording Industry Award (ARIA) for Best World Music Album 2010.
2010: The Propheteer, a book of political satire reimagining The Prophet as George W. Bush lecturing his cronies on the White House lawn while waiting for his chopper bound for Texas. ISBN978-1-4502-6057-2.
2020: The film An American Prophecy, directed by Aaron Dworkin and produced by Robin Schwartz, includes recitations from the book by front-line healthcare workers, who introduce each section with reflections on their experience battling the COVID-19 pandemic.[18][user-generated source]
2024: The Prophet, Vol. I, composed by Richard Zarou, contains a musical setting of the first five poems. The composer intends to set the entire collection of poems over the next several years in a series of five Volumes.
↑ Cole, Juan. "Chronology of his Life". Juan Cole's Khalil Gibran Page – Writings, Paintings, Hotlinks, New Translations. Professor Juan R.I. Cole. Retrieved January 2, 2009.
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