Lebanese and Syrian immigrant women living in the Americas, or the mahjar, published some of the earliest Arabic novels and women’s journals as part of the nahḍa, or the Arabic literary and cultural renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The cultural hub of this Arabic literary movement in America was New York City’s first Arab immigrant neighborhood, “Little Syria,” located just blocks from what is now known as “Ground Zero.” A consideration of works by diasporic Arab women writers North and South America both 1) reframes the Arab nahḍa as a transnational movement, and 2) expands the definition of what can be considered “American literature.” By shedding light on this neglected archive – and re-inserting Arab women into the wider American historical and literary narratives from which they have long been erased – this essay demonstrates that “Arabs” are in fact an important, yet neglected, part of American history.

New York City holds a very important place in the history of modern Arabic literature. It was here were a generation of young writers of the 'mahjar' (diaspora) started a literary movement that became the foundation for a wave of Arabic romanticism that spread across the Arab world. Writing in both Arabic and English and inspired by the meeting of East and West that they encountered in New York, a new generation of authors nurtured this new style. Works, inspired by the immigrant experience in the city, found an enthusiastic readership across the world and literary greats who are still celebrated today, such as Kahlil Gibran, Mikhail Naimeh, Amin Rihani and Afifa Karam began to form their new style.