Palestinian Rituals of Identity: The Prophet Moses Festival in Jerusalem, 1850-1948
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Document Type
Book
Description
Members of Palestine’s Muslim community have long honored al-Nabi Musa, or the Prophet Moses. Since the thirteenth century, they have celebrated at a shrine near Jericho believed to be the location of Moses’s tomb; in the mid-nineteenth century, they organized a civic festival in Jerusalem to honor this prophet. Considered one of the most important occasions for Muslim pilgrims in Palestine, the Prophet Moses festival yearly attracted thousands of people who assembled to pray, conduct mystical forms of worship, and hold folk celebrations.
Palestinian Rituals of Identity takes an innovative approach to the study of Palestine’s modern history by focusing on the Prophet Moses festival from the late Ottoman period through the era of British rule. Halabi explores how the festival served as an arena of competing discourses, with various social groups attempting to control its symbols. Tackling questions about modernity, colonialism, gender relations, and identity, Halabi recounts how peasants, Bedouins, rural women, and Sufis sought to influence the festival even as Ottoman authorities, British colonists, Muslim clerics, and Palestinian national leaders did the same. Drawing on extensive research in Arabic newspapers and Islamic and colonial archives, Halabi reveals how the festival has encapsulated Palestinians’ responses to modernity, colonialism, and the nation’s growing national identity.
Publication Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Texas Press
City
Austin
Keywords
Maqam al-Nabi Musa - History; Maqam al-Nabi Musa - Political aspects - History; Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages - Politcial aspects - History; Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages - Jerusalem - History; Festivals - Jerusalem - Hisostyr; Festivals - Political aspects - Jerusalem - History; Fasts and feasts - Jerusalem - History; Fasts and feasts - Islam - Political aspects - History;
Disciplines
Cultural History | History | Islamic Studies | Islamic World and Near East History | Near Eastern Languages and Societies | Religion
Repository Citation
Halabi , A. (2023). Palestinian Rituals of Identity: The Prophet Moses Festival in Jerusalem, 1850-1948. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
DOI
10.7560/326312
