US honours Lebanese author

Scholars, diplomats and the general public have gathered at the US Library of Congress, the world’s largest collection of books and manuscripts, to celebrate Arab-American author Ameen Rihani.

Rihani’s novel, The Book of Khalid, was published a hundred years ago, the book is an account of one Arab-American’s journey from his homeland in Lebanon to the US.

Rihani was the first Arab-American to have an English language book published in the US.

He was remembered as the man who tried to bridge the two cultures he lived in.

Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports.