High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Abraham Mitrie Rihbany (1869–1944; sometimes spelled Ribhany) was an Eastern Mediterranean Arab immigrant to America who wrote on matters of religion and politics. "In debt and nearly penniless on his arrival in New York, he went on to become a respected clergyman and nationally recognized community leader." His best-known book, The Syrian Christ (1916), was highly influential in its time in explaining the cultural background to some situations and modes of expression to be found in the Gospels. It is still cited in both Biblical Studies and Sociolinguistics.