The Social and Cultural History of Palestine Essays in Honour of Salim Tamari
Explores the social and cultural landscape of Palestine under Late Ottoman and British rule
- Highlights the rise of social and cultural history within scholarly research on Palestine
- Discusses issues of gender, class, race and empire, set against the background of the diverse Palestinian society of the first half of the 20th century
- Draws on a wide range of archival materials in Arabic, Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish, French and other languages, many of them rarely examined by researchers
- Brings together a multigenerational selection of researchers in the field, from senior figures in Palestinian history to exciting newcomers
Over the past decade, histories of Late Ottoman and especially Mandate Palestine have moved away from the political framing of the Arab-Israeli conflict to consider questions of social and cultural history, as well as, increasingly, adopting new frameworks such as environmental and medical history. One of the most important voices in this movement, as a scholar and as a mentor of others’ work, has been Salim Tamari. This volume brings together both new and established researchers on Late Ottoman and Mandate-era social and cultural history, many of them Palestinian, to showcase the kind of work inspired by Tamari’s legacy, to reflect on the development of these themes in the historiographical context, and to contribute to the decolonisation of Palestinian history. The contents range from considerations of tourist souvenirs and artisanal manufacture to the social history of Gaza, and from debates around cosmopolitanism in colonial Palestine to the socio-economic roles of Palestinian women.
List of Figures The Contributors Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Social and Cultural in the Historiography of Mandate Palestine Sarah Irving
1-Jaffa before the Nakba: Palestine’s Thriving City, 1799–1948 Mahmoud Yazbak
2-To ‘Strengthen Mediterranean Resistance’? Albert Antebi and the Porous Boundaries of Cultural Identification in Ottoman Jerusalem, 1896–1919 Karène Sanchez Summerer
3-Tales out of School: Palestinian Students in a Jewish Institution, 1870–1937 Dotan Halevy and Amin Khalaf
4-Costumes and the Image: Authenticity, Identity and Photography in Palestine Sary Zananiri
5-‘The Reconstruction of Palestine’: Geographical Imaginaries after World War I Nadi Abusaada
6- Decolonising the Social History of Rural Palestinian Women: The Economic Activity of Rural Women in Galilee during the British Mandate Rawda Morkus-Makhoul
7-Ethnographies of Madness: Père Antonin Jaussen, Shaykh Sa’ad al-Din and the Management of Mental Illness in Mandate-era Nablus Chris Sandal-Wilson
8-‘Irrespective of Community or Creed’: Charity, Solidarity and the 1927 Jericho Earthquake Sarah Irving
9-Photographing the Palestinian Nakba: Rethinking the Role of Photography in Historical WritingIssam Nassar
Reviews:
This collection of essays showcases the latest and most innovative scholarship on late Ottoman and Mandate Palestine: a new generation of historians has taken up Tamari's social history mantle with great gusto, bringing into the limelight an array of Palestinian actors previously silenced in the historical record. – Jacob Norris, University of Sussex
Professor Salim Tamari has revolutionised the study of social and cultural history of modern Palestine. This collection builds on Tamari's insights and methodologies, weaving a fascinating collage of social and cultural trajectories in modern Palestine, from Napoleon's devastation of Jaffa to Palestinian boys in a Jewish agricultural school. – Yair Wallach, SOAS University of London
This book, deeply contextualized, dexterously researched, and judiciously written, avoids easy answers while it clings to difficult questions [...] The concern to uncover material — events, photographs, and oral testimonies — that captures the interplay of forces shaping Palestinian lives unites the individual essays and enables the book’s trenchant power to fully take hold. – Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College, Middle East Journal
