Naseej

“In its vivid close-ups of the diverse and dynamic communities for whom Palestine was home, Naseej offers both a heart-breaking account of what colonists have cost the world, and a hopeful template for the future. This is the book that is Palestine.” Ahdaf Soueif, novelist “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 racialized rule. This book reveals how a land could be called home by diverse people and communities of tangled origins, living side by side as neighbors and kin. As Palestinians.” Lila Abu-Lughod, author of Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Naseej, meaning “tapestry” in Arabic, is a book about the diversity and beauty of community, history, and continuity in Palestine. It compiles essays, short stories, poetry, interviews, and visual art to tell the story of how the vast web of Palestinian histories has been severed from its roots. 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 a culmination of centuries of interchange and experimentation. Arriving at a moment of utter devastation, this collection celebrates life in Palestine. From the trajectories of Romani groups to religious communities like Druze and Ahmadiyya Muslims, to the political experience of Black Palestinians, Naseej asks what kind of threads remain of this tapestry after some 150 years of colonialism. Arpan Roy is an anthropologist researching in Palestine and the region. He is the author of Relative Strangers: Romani Kinship and Palestinian Difference. Noura Salahaldeen is an anthropologist from Jerusalem. She researches the Palestinian African community in Palestine and Jordan. She is based in Jerusalem and Austria.

Introduction, 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 Sefrovic; 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