A Lebanese thinker, writer, novelist, historian, traveller, and cartoonist. He is considered one of the greatest advocates of social reform and giants of thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Arab world. He was called "Al-Rihani" due to the large number of basil trees surrounding his house. Al-Rihani wrote in many literary genres, such as poetry, novels, articles, theatre, biographies, travels, and criticism. He also wrote in many other fields of knowledge, such as philosophy, history, economics, sociology, geography, and practiced drawing and acting. Al-Rihani had a history of struggle in which he spared no effort in employing his encyclopedic knowledge against the French occupation and striving for Lebanon's independence. He remained on his path of knowledge and struggle until God passed away in 1940 AD, after he left a huge literary and scientific legacy.