My Grandmother and Other Stories: Histories of the Palestinians as ...

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Ahmad Jamal Pasha with the staff of Salahiyyah College (St. Ann), Jerusalem, 1915. Source: Library of Congress, Maston Collection. [ 44 ] HISTORICAL FEATURES The Short Life of Private Ihsan
In his diary, Turjman expressed hostility to both Nashashibi and Jaber for their arrogance and elitism. But he was particularly venomous towards Adel Jaber, whom he accused of being an apologist for Jamal Pasha and at one point, a secret agent for the government. 57 He narrates how on 15 May, 1915, Jaber was sent to Jaffa on behalf of Pasha, most likely on a mission related to recruitment for the Salahiyyah College. At the end of the entry, he approvingly quotes his cousin Hasan al-Khalidi, indicating that Adel Jaber is “an Ottoman spy”. 58 Jaber himself never disguised his pro-CUP sentiments, and defended Ottoman policy in heated debates with Nashashibi, Sakakini, and Musa Alami, and continued to do so until the end of the war. In his political leanings, he was not alone. This episode reflects the tension building in that period between Arab secessionists and Ottomanists within the Palestinian (and Syrian-Lebanese) intelligentsia. There is no indication whatsoever that Ihsan’s spying accusation against Jaber had any basis in fact (it is possible, on the other hand, that Adel was secretly vying for the attention of Suraya, Ihsan’s woman friend). It was this schism in the ranks of Arab political groups that Jamal was seeking to foster between what he considered ‘extreme nationalists’, and moderate Arab nationalist. 59 He saw al-Salahiyyah as the institutional base from which he could build a cadre of a loyalist Arab civil service for the new regime. 60 Another major objective for the Salahiyyah was to create an intellectual base for a pan-Islamic movement under Ottoman sponsorship. According to Martin Strohmeier, Jamal Pasha aimed at training “theologians who would be both open-minded and intellectually equipped to deal with secular and scientific concepts” in the spirit of Muhammad Abdo. 61 The latter was greatly admired by Sakakini’s circle–the group that later became known as the party of ‘Vagabonds’, but they moved beyond Abdo’s objectives of Islamic reform, adopting essentially secular (and sometimes antireligious) perspectives. With British troops approaching southern Palestine, Jamal Pasha moved the premises of the college, together with the students and teaching staff, to Damascus. Subsequently, the Salahiyyah college failed, being unable to recruit students from outside the Syrian-Palestinian areas (that is, from India and Indonesia) as Jamal had anticipated, and too short-lived to develop an independent school of thought. Sakakini and Rustum Haidar soon defected and joined the Arab rebellion. Ihsan’s own readings while serving under Roshen Bey were very eclectic. The family had a substantial library at home from which Is’af al-Nashashibi and Musa Alami used to borrow books. He also added several volumes during his apprenticeship at the Dusturiyyah college. In the long hours at his desk, he used to read al-Zamachshari and other Arab classics, such as the History of Arab Civilization by Muhammad Kurd Ali, who was a chief supporter of al-Salahiyyah’s pan-Islamic program. Ihsan read and admired Qasim Amin’s book Tahrir al-Mar’a (The Liberation of Women, Cairo, 1899). But he also was a heavy consumer of romantic novels–what would be called Jerusalem Quarterly 30 [ 45 ]
Page 1 and 2: Spring 2007 — Issue 30 formerly t
Page 3 and 4: My Grandmother and Other Stories Hi
Page 5 and 6: What kind of rights, legal standing
Page 7 and 8: analytical positioning and narrativ
Page 9 and 10: the reader to the enormous difficul
Page 11 and 12: left home to work as an imam in the
Page 13 and 14: On that ‘very typical’ evening,
Page 15 and 16: law be able to identify him? Dozens
Page 17 and 18: “Of course.” “Doctor, can I t
Page 19 and 20: aising my hopes of stirring his mem
Page 21 and 22: Still, nothing indicated new feelin
Page 23 and 24: The next day we all went to visit t
Page 25 and 26: Only three months passed following
Page 27 and 28: The Great War brought about a radic
Page 29 and 30: War, Conscription, and the Predicam
Page 31 and 32: major urban centres. Railroads link
Page 33 and 34: War Diaries: Mersin and Jerusalem S
Page 35 and 36: Neither his religiosity nor his acc
Page 37 and 38: Ali Roshen Bey. Ottoman military ar
Page 39 and 40: on the eve of announcing the Arab R
Page 41 and 42: command, no one had any notion that
Page 43: the Sisters of Zion, and Bishop Gob
Page 47 and 48: Ottoman prisoners of war in British
Page 49 and 50: al-Amara (southern Iraq), and his n
Page 51 and 52: Perhaps they took advantage of his
Page 53 and 54: With the economic collapse of many
Page 55 and 56: Monday 10 July, 1916. No more crops
Page 57 and 58: 23 All data about Turjman’s perso
Page 59 and 60: From Seferberlik to the Nakba A Per
Page 61 and 62: its inhabitants. In Abu Jamil’s r
Page 63 and 64: In Abu Fayyad’s home, Jalilah was
Page 65 and 66: to pursue the perpetrator after he
Page 67 and 68: The olive season was a good one tha
Page 69 and 70: Whatever the answers, the fact rema
Page 71 and 72: efore our return to Majd al-Kroum.
Page 73 and 74: Endnotes 1 Not much has been writte
Page 75 and 76: the Majd al-Kroum plains. For furth
Page 77 and 78: Sa’id Nimr’s Stormy Career From
Page 79 and 80: “Still, I have to be here.” Gra
Page 81 and 82: Sa’id saw this as a great opportu
Page 83 and 84: me to treat their injured. After th
Page 85 and 86: From the stories I heard about my g
Page 87 and 88: Once they brought a young man to hi
Page 89 and 90: My father shared Edward’s deep ap
Page 91 and 92: Hanna studied in the Schneller’s
Page 93 and 94: Hanna and Mathilde Bisharat (holdin
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and his new bride to dinner. When d
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in resolving issues between Palesti
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The Palestinian ‘Wailing Wall’
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A Farewell Naila suggests parting f
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His reaction to the news of the wal
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with a different legal status. Appr
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to learn that we weren’t married.
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checkpoint on the southeast side of
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“To Hadassah Hospital,” I answe
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As a ‘spiritual’ Muslim addicte
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what had happened. Why have you cha
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eligiosity. The renaming of the sal
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Jerusalem Diary March - August 2007
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