Naseej
Life-Weavings of Palestine
A profound collection of Palestinian writing revealing a rich tapestry of culture and history
Naseej, meaning 'tapestry' in Arabic, is a book about diverse forms of life, communities, histories and continuities in Palestine. It compiles essays, short stories, poetry, interviews, and visual art to tell an aspect of the Palestinian story that has not been told: the severing of Palestinians from vast and ancient regional histories.
Palestine has always been a precious patchwork of languages, ethnicities, cultures, religions and practices, weaved into the fabric of an Arab and Islamic civilization that was itself a culmination of centuries of interchange and experimentation.
Arriving at a moment of utter devastation - one of the most difficult in Palestinian history - this vibrant collection celebrates the diversity of life in Palestine. From the trajectories of Romani groups to the formations of religious communities like Ahmadiyya Muslims in Haifa, to the political experience of Black Palestinians and much more, Naseej asks what kind of threads remain of this tapestry after some 150 years of modernity and colonialism.
'A remarkable book of creative personal essays, poems, and scholarly investigations that illuminate the wondrous tapestry that was Palestine before the Zionists imposed their vision of exclusionary ethnonationalism and racialised rule. Unrecognisable today, except in subtle vestiges of interwoven lives and shared solidarities, this book reveals how a land could be called home by diverse people and communities of tangled origins, living side by side as neighbours and kin. As Palestinians.'
- Lila Abu-Lughod, co-editor of Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of MemoryIntroduction, by the editors
Beginnings
1. Weaving a Life with the Wonder of Difference - by Khaled Furani
2. Identity Card (poem) - by Najwan Darwish
Itineraries
3. Between Birth and Death: Tales from a Traveling City - by Noura Salaheldeen
4. The Story of Romanies in Palestine is a Microcosm of the Palestinian Story - by Arpan Roy
5. Interwoven Legacies: Dr. Gaby Kevorkian on Armenian Resilience and Palestinian Resistance - by Antranik Cassem
6. Ibn Battuta in Gaza - by Intimaa Alsdudi and Hadeel Assali
Directions of Prayer
7. The Indians of Ottoman Jerusalem - by Tyler Kynn
8. The Road from and to the Sufi Zawiyas - by Dalal Odeh and Eman Alyan
9. An 'Air Smelling' Event: The Metamorphosis of Simon the Just and his Shrine - by Salim Tamari
10. The Ahmadiyya of the Carmel - by Khaled Furani and Amir Odeh
Topographies
11. 'Géographie Ethnologique du Djolan': Adib Souleiman Bagh, the Golan’s Last Geographer - by Aamer Ibrahim
12. Similar but not the Same: The Heritage Question in Palestine - by Khaldun Bishara
13. The Herzegovinian Muslim Colony in Caesarea - by Nina Sefrović; translated and with an introduction by Darryl Li
14. On the Use and Misuse of Music: A Conversation about Jumana Manna’s A Magical Substance Flows into Me - by Jumana Manna and Saleem al-Bahloly
Familiar Places
15. Umm Kulthum’s Intercessor (short story) - by Sheikha Helawy
16. Theater of Life and Death in Our Town - by Radi Shehadeh
17. Circassians in Kafr Kamma: From the Beautiful Homeland to the Painful Diaspora (short
story) - by Hawa Batwash
18. They Tell Me This Is Jerusalem: Grammars of Belonging in Palestine - by Julia Elyachar
Afterword
eBook ISBN: 9780745350868
156mm x 234mm