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Co-edited by myself and Noura Salahaldeen, Naseej: Life-Weavings of Palestine / نسيج: اسفار من فلسطين is a book about diverse forms of life, communities, histories and continuities in Palestine. It compiles essays, short stories, poetry, interviews, and visual art to tell an aspect of the Palestinian story that has not been told: the severing of Palestinians from vast and ancient regional histories.
Palestine has always been a precious patchwork of languages, ethnicities, cultures, religions and practices, weaved into the fabric of an Arab and Islamic civilization that was itself a culmination of centuries of interchange and experimentation.
Arriving at a moment of utter devastation—one of the most difficult in Palestinian history—this vibrant collection celebrates the diversity of life in Palestine. From the trajectories of Romani groups to the formations of religious communities like Druze and Ahmadiyya Muslims, to the political experience of Black Palestinians and much more, Naseej, meaning “tapestry” in Aarabic, asks what kind of threads remain of this tapestry after some 150 years of modernity and colonialism.
Naseej is the first book project of Insaniyyat—the Society of Palestinian Anthropologists.
The book will be published in both Arabic and English versions. It will first be published in English by Pluto Press in March 2025.
Reviews
“In its vivid close-ups of the diverse and dynamic communities for whom Palestine was home, Naseej offers both a heart-breaking account of what colonists have cost the world, and a hopeful template for the future. This is the book that is Palestine.” Ahdaf Soueif, novelist
“A remarkable book of creative personal essays, poems, and scholarly investigations that illuminate the wondrous tapestry that was Palestine before the Zionists imposed their vision of exclusionary ethnonationalism and racialised rule. Unrecognisable today, except in subtle vestiges of interwoven lives and shared solidarities, this book reveals how a land could be called home by diverse people and communities of tangled origins, living side by side as neighbours and kin. As Palestinians.”
Lila Abu-Lughod, author of Do Muslim Women Need Saving?
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