Palestinian Historians, Historians of Palestine

A symposium entitled "Palestinian historians/historians of Palestine: writing under the Mandate and beyond" took place this Friday at King's College, organized by Dr. Sarah Irving. The day was packed full of discussion on Palestinian historiography and papers focusing on Palestinian academics and historians, figures such as Abdul Latif Tibawi, Arif al-Arif,  Izzat Darwaza, Nicola Ziadeh, Jabra …

The Crisis of History in Jabra’s Novels

In an interview in 1990, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra commented on the need for “a change of vision…a new way of looking at things" in an Arab world "betrayed by thousands of years of decay” (Nasrawi). This sense of impasse has been a long-standing theme in Arab literary and cultural contexts, addressing what is seen as …

Hunters in a Narrow Street

Hunters in a Narrow Street by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was originally written in English, published in 1960. Unlike The Ship which has two narrators, and The Search for Walid Masoud, which has about a dozen, this novel is narrated by one person, Jameel, a Christian Palestinian who flees Jerusalem in 1948, following the death of …

The Search for Walid Masoud

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's novel The Search for Walid Masoud (1978), recounts  the complex legacy left behind by Walid: a Palestinian author and political activist who has been living in Baghdad since 1948. At the beginning of the narrative, Dr Jawad Husni, the first narrator, tells us Walid disappreared six months ago, leaving his car on …

The Ship

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship (Al Safina 1970) is narrated by two characters taking a trip on a cruise ship from Beirut to Italy: Isam Salman, an architect from Baghdad who has studied in London and Wadi Assaf, a Palestinian buisnessman who lives in exile in Kuwait. There's a cast of Arab and European characters …