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.

Arpan Roy is an anthropologist researching Palestine and the region. He is the author of Relative Strangers: Romani Kinship and Palestinian Difference and has held various teaching positions and fellowships in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Noura Salahaldeen is an anthropologist from Jerusalem, currently based in Europe. Her research focuses on the experiences of the African Community of Jerusalem under settler colonial rule in Palestine, and in the Palestinian diaspora in Jordan.

Introduction, by Arpan Roy and Noura Salahaldeen
PART I: ITINERARIES
1. Identity Card, by Najwan Darwish
2. Tales and Imaginaries from a Traveling City, by Noura Salahaldeen
3. The Story of Romanies in Palestine Is a Microcosm of the Palestinian Story, by Arpan Roy
4. Life in the Armenian Quarter: Dr. Gaby Kevorkian on the Genocide, Nakba, Naksa, and the Armenian Palestinians, by Antranik Cassem
5. Ibn Battuta in Gaza, by Intimaa Alsdudi and Hadeel Assali
PART II: DIRECTIONS OF PRAYER
6. The Indians of Ottoman Jerusalem, by Tyler Kynn
7. To and from Sufi Jerusalem, by Dalal Odeh and Eman Alyan
8. An "Air Smelling Event": The Metamorphosis of Simon the Just and His Shrine, by Salim Tamari
9. The Ahmadiyya of the Carmel, by Amir Odeh
PART III: TOPOGRAPHIES
10. Géographie Ethnologique du Djolan: Adib Souleiman Bagh, the Golan's Last Geographer, by Aamer Ibraheem
11. Similar but Not the Same: The Heritage Question in Palestine, by Khaldun Bshara
12. The Herzegovinian Muslim Colony in Caesarea, Palestine, by Nina Seferovi-
13. 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
PART IV: FAMILIAR PLACES
14. Umm Kulthum's Intercessor, by Sheikha Hussein Helawy
15. Saber's Dungeon, by Maisan Hamdan
16. The Theater of Life and Death, by Radi Shehadeh
17. The Circassians in Kafr Kama: Beautiful Homeland Gives Way to Traumatic Dispersal, by Hawa Batwash
18. They Tell Me This Is Jerusalem: Grammars of Belonging in Palestine, by Julia Elyachar