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Chapter Seven LEGACY AND LINKAGE The descendants of the early Arab-American immigrants who emigrated from1880 to1915 are generally proud people. They love their Arab heritage and warmly embrace their American nationality. Their elders influenced them by establishing linkages to their social and cultural heritage through language, food, family record keeping, music, photos, traditions, and holiday celebrations. Language When Very Rev. Michael M. H. died, his collection of Arabic books was given to his daughter, Ethel H.M.K. When Ethel died, the family decided Sam S., a nephew, should acquire the collection as Sam had been fluent in Arabic since the age of eight and additionally chanted in Arabic at church. Violet N. S., the widow of Sam S., reflected on the collection: Owning the books gave Sam so much joy. He enjoyed them so much and would read from them daily. Some books are so ragged you can tell they have been used so much. You can tell the books have been through a lot of hands. Some look brand new and have beautiful covers. One of the books had the family tree in Arabic, and Najib Saliba translated Sam’s family’s genealogy for me into English . Najib found a book that my father, Moosa [Moses] N., who resided in West Virginia, gave to Father Michael. Evidently when the priest was in West Virginia, my father had given him this Arabic book and it had my father’s name on it. At that time neither my father nor I had any idea that I was going to end up marrying Sam S., a relative of Rev. Father Michael M. H. Mitchell G. Chakour was known for giving books from his collection to some of his students at the Arabic school. John K. B. wrote on the inside page of one of the books given him: ‘‘This book belongs to John K. B. I received it from Mitchell Chakour, my Syrian School teacher on Halloween night, October 31, 1928, at the masquerade party.’’ 171 172 ARAB-AMERICAN FACES AND VOICES George ‘‘Bitar’’ P. was among others who had a fine collection of Arabic books that included books published in 1905 and in later years. Children used many Arabic words in games and were amused when parent or grandparent used an Arabic word during a conversation in English. Some children who were not aware that many English words are derivatives from Arabic would ask an adult relative what the Arabic name was for candy, potato, sofa, Messiah, myrrh, tariff, algebra, or carafe. The response would be qandi, batata, suffa, Il-Masih, myrra, tarif, al-jabr, or gharraf , respectively. The children laughed because they thought the adult was making fun by repeating the English word with an Arabic accent, when in fact the English word was derived from Arabic and the adult had responded in Arabic. They were not aware of the commonalties that bind the two great languages and that a considerable number of English words are derived from Arabic, which for centuries was the world’s lingua franca. Food Both Arab and non-Arab loved to visit an Arab-American home because of the hospitality and abundance of delicious food that guests were served. Appetite aside, food represented much more than the means to stay alive and healthy. As with many other ethnic groups, food was part of their cultural social system. Peoples of the Near East have mingled through centuries of interchange, and some Arab recipes are similar to the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, Turk, and others. Arabic food is prepared with much variation based upon the geographic location of birth in the homeland. Some tasty and nutritious Arab dishes frequently appear under their Arabic names in healthy American diets, on school menus, at public functions, in nonethnic restaurants, and stores. Some of the most popular are sold as: Appetizers—hummus bi tahini, baba qhannuj (eggplant finely blended with tahini and pungent with lemon juice and crushed garlic); falafel (ground fava beans, sesame seeds, spices, and chopped parsley, shaped in small balls or patties). Salads—tabbuli; suf (similar to tabbuli but with chickpeas—also called garbanzo beans or ceci—instead of tomatoes). Both salads are served with lettuce, grape leaves, or cabbage leaves to scoop up the salad from one’s plate. Entrees served with Syrian bread—waraq inab mihshee; mujaddarah (lentils , burghul, and brown rice, olive oil, chopped onion, and julienned onion browned and sprinkled on top). [18.225.255.134] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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