Mikhail Naimy

Mikha’il Na’ima (also spelled Mikhail Naimy; Arabic: ميخائيل نعيمة) (b.1889 in Mount Sannine in modern day Lebanon, d. 1988) was a Lebanese author and poet of the New York Pen League.

He wrote 99 books, including drama, essays, poetry, criticism, short stories and biography.

Among his best known books is the Book of Mirdad, a mystical text first published in Lebanon in 1948, which was translated into English and published in London in 1962.

The mystic Osho had this to say about The Book of Mirdad. He said, “There are millions of books in the world, but ‘The Book of Mirdad’ stands out far above any book in existence.”

Mr. Naimy was a biographer and longtime associate of Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese writer, artist, poet, and philosopher and he penned the first Biography about him (first published in Arabic) in 1934. The biography was later translated into English and reprinted in 1950.

He was fluent in three languages: English, Russian and Arabic.