The International Journal of Turkish Studies, 2012
The history of Jerusalem as traditionally depicted is the quintessential history of conflict and ... more The history of Jerusalem as traditionally depicted is the quintessential history of conflict and strife, of ethnic tension, and of incompatible national narratives and visions. It is also a history of dramatic changes and moments, one of the most radical ones being the replacement of the Ottoman regime with British rule in December 1917. From Empire to Empire challenges these two major dichotomies, ethnic and temporal, which shaped the history of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. It links the experiences of two ethnic communities living in Palestine, Jews and Arabs, as well as bridging two historical periods, the Ottoman and British administrations. Drawing upon a variety of sources, Jacobson demonstrates how political and social alliances are dynamic, context-dependent, and purpose-driven. She also highlights the critical role of foreign intervention, governmental and nongovernmental, in forming local political alliances and in shaping the political reality of Palestine during the crisis of World War I and the transition between regimes. From Empire to Empire offers a vital new perspective on the way World War I has been traditionally studied in the Palestinian context. It also examines the effects of war on the socioeconomic sphere of a mixed city in crisis and looks into the ways the war, as well as Ottoman policies and administrators, affected the ways people perceived the Ottoman Empire and their location within it. From Empire to Empire illuminates the complex and delicate relations between ethnic and national groups and offers a different lens through which the history of Jerusalem can be seen: it proposes not only a story of conflict but also of intercommunal contacts and cooperation.
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The Orientalist photographic archive is a stolen archive. Orientalism itself is the theft of the ... more The Orientalist photographic archive is a stolen archive. Orientalism itself is the theft of the photographic index. Innumerable images of the visual geographies of indigenous peoples are recast into a vision where only the colonizer sees and, if she even exists, the colonized is only to be seen. In the case of Palestine, this vision is coded by the overarching "Holy Land" narrative that is entwined with the creation of Zionism itself. Orientalism stole the visual landscape of Palestine long before the Zionists. This indexical theft then is related epistemologically to 1948. The theft of the photographic index is the colonial condition of photography, which deterritorializes the index. This is a condition of colonialism itself, which involves not only an expropriation of land but of visual indices, geographies and histories. While this assertion and larger implications are explored elsewhere, examples of Orientalism as theft can be found readily. Whether an image of the Pyramids, a veiled woman, the Bosphorous, or a Maronite priest, every image from "the East" was coerced by and/or conscripted into an Orientalist and colonialist signification system that coded these indexes even within nationalist discourses and systems of representation (fig. 5.1). Until recent decades, the "history of photography in the Middle East" has been circumscribed by the works and adventures of European photographers during colonial expansion in the region. Joseph-Philibert Girault, James Graham. and James Robertson to Francis Bedford, Auguste Salzmann, and the Maison Bonfils, not Arab and Armenian photographers, occupy the space of the progenitors of "Middle Eastern photography" (fig. 5.2). What is the effect when we realize that
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The selection of photographs in this section come from the albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh that are i... more The selection of photographs in this section come from the albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh that are in discussion in this book. While we are mindful that they are only a small fraction of the images, we present them in order to illustrate a number of different dimensions of the visual narrative that Jawhariyyeh unfolds for his viewership. Few images in his albums are self-generated, and none of the photographs in this Visual Interlude were taken by him personally, although he appears in one (see fig. 3.17). These images represent the photographs that he collected through different means, over different periods in his life, and ones he valued enough to carefully place within the narrative of his albums. Many of these images are easily found, especially those produced by the American Colony's Department of Photography, which can all be located in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Yet, for us, the value of the images lies not in their "originality" but in the ways they are located in relation to one another and in relation to the historical experiences that Jawhariyyeh was registering. Moreover, the value and coherence of the images emerge from meaning produced precisely through their deployment within a visual compendium of an "illustrated history of Palestine. " We also need to recognize that the Visual Interlude makes stark the gender imbalance in Jawhariyyeh's albums and, therefore, in his visual narrative. It is true that women have a considerably more prominent place, even if they are still underrepresented, in his written narrative. Images of women are found throughout the seven albums. The largest cluster of named, known women is the intervention by Arab Women's Executive Committee (see chapter 5 and fig. 3.1). Women are often named as members of families, described in relation to their male counterparts (as wives, sisters, aunts, etc.), and in relation to their social networks, geographies, and communities. Palestinian women appear often in family, school, and institutional
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The photographic oeuvre of Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1897-1968), if one may call it that, is no longer u... more The photographic oeuvre of Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1897-1968), if one may call it that, is no longer unknown. His albums, ostensibly titled Tarikh Filistin al-musawwar or the "Illustrated History of Palestine, " have been explored by a number of different scholars in an array of venues, largely focusing on representing historic Palestine "before the diaspora. " 1 With a large handful of notable exceptions, most of the images themselves, as we will see in this book, were produced by marquee indigenous and expatriate studios and, therefore, can be found elsewhere. As such, the photographic bricolage that structures these albums (individually and if approached as an oeuvre or an archive) makes us ponder both the "history of photography in Palestine" and "the history of Palestine through the photograph. " Whether an oeuvre, an archive, or an individual enunciation, we are compelled to consider photographic collection and visual narration as an act, as a document and as a testimony. Rather than consider the "history of photography in Palestine" and "the history of Palestine through the photograph" as separate fields of inquiry, we posit that Wasif Jawhariyyeh's albums allow us to seek the confluence, overlaps, departures, tensions, and interplay between the two. The most fundamental assertion of this book is that the juncture between the history of photography in Palestine and the history of Palestine through photography offers us evidence of the unbroken field of material, historical, and collective experience that constitutes an uncontestable continuum of what is Arab Palestine, from its living past to its living present. Here, we would argue against a nostalgic reading of Jawhariyyeh's photographs, a reading that suggests the loss and erasure of Palestine as a historical and present fact. Certainly, as Tamari's contribution shows, particular forms of melancholy may haunt these images or play a role in organizing their selection. "Haunting" is relational, however. Therefore, we indubitably acknowledge that the Zionist settler-colonial ethos is built on the erasure of
Camera Palæstina is a critical exploration of Jerusalemite chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1904–197... more Camera Palæstina is a critical exploration of Jerusalemite chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1904–1972) and his seven photography albums titled The Illustrated History of Palestine. Jawhariyyeh’s nine hundred images narrate the rich cultural and political milieu of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine. Nassar, Sheehi, and Tamari locate this archive at the juncture between the history of photography in the Arab world and the social history of Palestine. Shedding new light on this foundational period, the authors explore not just major historical events and the development of an urban bourgeois lifestyle but a social field of vision of Palestinian life as exemplified in the Jerusalem community. Tracking the interplay between photographic images, the authors offer evidence of the unbroken field of material, historical, and collective experience from the living past to the living present of Arab Palestine.
Nineteenth‐century Jerusalem was a city in great transition. It underwent political and administr... more Nineteenth‐century Jerusalem was a city in great transition. It underwent political and administrative reform inspired mainly by the Tanzimat reforms of the Ottoman Sultanate between 1839 and 1876. The arrival of European missionaries, consulates and colonists also ushered it into a new era of European policies towards the city. Similarly, the expansion of the city outside its historical walls and the building of the railway station transformed social and economic life in Jerusalem in unprecedented ways. Jerusalem became the administrative seat of a district that carried its name, its population growing at a rate faster than ever before and its markets flourishing with all kinds of tourist paraphernalia as well as products from Europe and its own hinterlands. These were times of social and political transformations, of modernisation and rising interconnectedness with the rest of the world. Yet, to its European visitors, Jerusalem seemed to embody a world of the past.
The state, as an idea, has been at the center of moral and political philosophy even before Plato... more The state, as an idea, has been at the center of moral and political philosophy even before Plato tackled it in his Republic. Philosophers have theorized about it in various ways, and have reached a variety of conclusions. While G. W. F. Hegel considered the nation-state to be the end of history, Karl Marx theorized that its abolition is what constituted an end to history— the history of class struggle in this case. 2 The state as an idea took its legitimacy historically from various sources including, but not limited to, religion. Empires were formed in the name of progress, dynasty, God, colonial interests, justice, and natural order, to mention a few, and in our current times constitute themselves in the name of international law and national rights. Still, the question of whose national rights states represent, and what groups in fact deserve to be called “nations” remains an issue of contention to this day. Although the right to statehood appears to be universal in our times, t...
The International Journal of Turkish Studies, 2012
The history of Jerusalem as traditionally depicted is the quintessential history of conflict and ... more The history of Jerusalem as traditionally depicted is the quintessential history of conflict and strife, of ethnic tension, and of incompatible national narratives and visions. It is also a history of dramatic changes and moments, one of the most radical ones being the replacement of the Ottoman regime with British rule in December 1917. From Empire to Empire challenges these two major dichotomies, ethnic and temporal, which shaped the history of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. It links the experiences of two ethnic communities living in Palestine, Jews and Arabs, as well as bridging two historical periods, the Ottoman and British administrations. Drawing upon a variety of sources, Jacobson demonstrates how political and social alliances are dynamic, context-dependent, and purpose-driven. She also highlights the critical role of foreign intervention, governmental and nongovernmental, in forming local political alliances and in shaping the political reality of Palestine during the crisis of World War I and the transition between regimes. From Empire to Empire offers a vital new perspective on the way World War I has been traditionally studied in the Palestinian context. It also examines the effects of war on the socioeconomic sphere of a mixed city in crisis and looks into the ways the war, as well as Ottoman policies and administrators, affected the ways people perceived the Ottoman Empire and their location within it. From Empire to Empire illuminates the complex and delicate relations between ethnic and national groups and offers a different lens through which the history of Jerusalem can be seen: it proposes not only a story of conflict but also of intercommunal contacts and cooperation.
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The Orientalist photographic archive is a stolen archive. Orientalism itself is the theft of the ... more The Orientalist photographic archive is a stolen archive. Orientalism itself is the theft of the photographic index. Innumerable images of the visual geographies of indigenous peoples are recast into a vision where only the colonizer sees and, if she even exists, the colonized is only to be seen. In the case of Palestine, this vision is coded by the overarching "Holy Land" narrative that is entwined with the creation of Zionism itself. Orientalism stole the visual landscape of Palestine long before the Zionists. This indexical theft then is related epistemologically to 1948. The theft of the photographic index is the colonial condition of photography, which deterritorializes the index. This is a condition of colonialism itself, which involves not only an expropriation of land but of visual indices, geographies and histories. While this assertion and larger implications are explored elsewhere, examples of Orientalism as theft can be found readily. Whether an image of the Pyramids, a veiled woman, the Bosphorous, or a Maronite priest, every image from "the East" was coerced by and/or conscripted into an Orientalist and colonialist signification system that coded these indexes even within nationalist discourses and systems of representation (fig. 5.1). Until recent decades, the "history of photography in the Middle East" has been circumscribed by the works and adventures of European photographers during colonial expansion in the region. Joseph-Philibert Girault, James Graham. and James Robertson to Francis Bedford, Auguste Salzmann, and the Maison Bonfils, not Arab and Armenian photographers, occupy the space of the progenitors of "Middle Eastern photography" (fig. 5.2). What is the effect when we realize that
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The selection of photographs in this section come from the albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh that are i... more The selection of photographs in this section come from the albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh that are in discussion in this book. While we are mindful that they are only a small fraction of the images, we present them in order to illustrate a number of different dimensions of the visual narrative that Jawhariyyeh unfolds for his viewership. Few images in his albums are self-generated, and none of the photographs in this Visual Interlude were taken by him personally, although he appears in one (see fig. 3.17). These images represent the photographs that he collected through different means, over different periods in his life, and ones he valued enough to carefully place within the narrative of his albums. Many of these images are easily found, especially those produced by the American Colony's Department of Photography, which can all be located in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Yet, for us, the value of the images lies not in their "originality" but in the ways they are located in relation to one another and in relation to the historical experiences that Jawhariyyeh was registering. Moreover, the value and coherence of the images emerge from meaning produced precisely through their deployment within a visual compendium of an "illustrated history of Palestine. " We also need to recognize that the Visual Interlude makes stark the gender imbalance in Jawhariyyeh's albums and, therefore, in his visual narrative. It is true that women have a considerably more prominent place, even if they are still underrepresented, in his written narrative. Images of women are found throughout the seven albums. The largest cluster of named, known women is the intervention by Arab Women's Executive Committee (see chapter 5 and fig. 3.1). Women are often named as members of families, described in relation to their male counterparts (as wives, sisters, aunts, etc.), and in relation to their social networks, geographies, and communities. Palestinian women appear often in family, school, and institutional
Camera Palaestina: Photography and Displaced Histories of Palestine
The photographic oeuvre of Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1897-1968), if one may call it that, is no longer u... more The photographic oeuvre of Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1897-1968), if one may call it that, is no longer unknown. His albums, ostensibly titled Tarikh Filistin al-musawwar or the "Illustrated History of Palestine, " have been explored by a number of different scholars in an array of venues, largely focusing on representing historic Palestine "before the diaspora. " 1 With a large handful of notable exceptions, most of the images themselves, as we will see in this book, were produced by marquee indigenous and expatriate studios and, therefore, can be found elsewhere. As such, the photographic bricolage that structures these albums (individually and if approached as an oeuvre or an archive) makes us ponder both the "history of photography in Palestine" and "the history of Palestine through the photograph. " Whether an oeuvre, an archive, or an individual enunciation, we are compelled to consider photographic collection and visual narration as an act, as a document and as a testimony. Rather than consider the "history of photography in Palestine" and "the history of Palestine through the photograph" as separate fields of inquiry, we posit that Wasif Jawhariyyeh's albums allow us to seek the confluence, overlaps, departures, tensions, and interplay between the two. The most fundamental assertion of this book is that the juncture between the history of photography in Palestine and the history of Palestine through photography offers us evidence of the unbroken field of material, historical, and collective experience that constitutes an uncontestable continuum of what is Arab Palestine, from its living past to its living present. Here, we would argue against a nostalgic reading of Jawhariyyeh's photographs, a reading that suggests the loss and erasure of Palestine as a historical and present fact. Certainly, as Tamari's contribution shows, particular forms of melancholy may haunt these images or play a role in organizing their selection. "Haunting" is relational, however. Therefore, we indubitably acknowledge that the Zionist settler-colonial ethos is built on the erasure of
Camera Palæstina is a critical exploration of Jerusalemite chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1904–197... more Camera Palæstina is a critical exploration of Jerusalemite chronicler Wasif Jawhariyyeh (1904–1972) and his seven photography albums titled The Illustrated History of Palestine. Jawhariyyeh’s nine hundred images narrate the rich cultural and political milieu of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine. Nassar, Sheehi, and Tamari locate this archive at the juncture between the history of photography in the Arab world and the social history of Palestine. Shedding new light on this foundational period, the authors explore not just major historical events and the development of an urban bourgeois lifestyle but a social field of vision of Palestinian life as exemplified in the Jerusalem community. Tracking the interplay between photographic images, the authors offer evidence of the unbroken field of material, historical, and collective experience from the living past to the living present of Arab Palestine.
Nineteenth‐century Jerusalem was a city in great transition. It underwent political and administr... more Nineteenth‐century Jerusalem was a city in great transition. It underwent political and administrative reform inspired mainly by the Tanzimat reforms of the Ottoman Sultanate between 1839 and 1876. The arrival of European missionaries, consulates and colonists also ushered it into a new era of European policies towards the city. Similarly, the expansion of the city outside its historical walls and the building of the railway station transformed social and economic life in Jerusalem in unprecedented ways. Jerusalem became the administrative seat of a district that carried its name, its population growing at a rate faster than ever before and its markets flourishing with all kinds of tourist paraphernalia as well as products from Europe and its own hinterlands. These were times of social and political transformations, of modernisation and rising interconnectedness with the rest of the world. Yet, to its European visitors, Jerusalem seemed to embody a world of the past.
The state, as an idea, has been at the center of moral and political philosophy even before Plato... more The state, as an idea, has been at the center of moral and political philosophy even before Plato tackled it in his Republic. Philosophers have theorized about it in various ways, and have reached a variety of conclusions. While G. W. F. Hegel considered the nation-state to be the end of history, Karl Marx theorized that its abolition is what constituted an end to history— the history of class struggle in this case. 2 The state as an idea took its legitimacy historically from various sources including, but not limited to, religion. Empires were formed in the name of progress, dynasty, God, colonial interests, justice, and natural order, to mention a few, and in our current times constitute themselves in the name of international law and national rights. Still, the question of whose national rights states represent, and what groups in fact deserve to be called “nations” remains an issue of contention to this day. Although the right to statehood appears to be universal in our times, t...
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Papers by Issam Nassar