Posted on: 1999

By Khaled Nusseibeh

To state that life is oftentimes wrapped in painful paradoxes would not be saying something new or extraordinary. The elegant and graceful handwriting and prose of Iss’af Nashashibi– about whom this article speaks– stand in paradoxical contrast to the turbulent and sometimes difficult circumstances to which the people of Jerusalem and Palestine, and to which Iss’af Nashashibi himself was subject.

If his handwritten and remarkably seasoned prose show elegant, adept self-expression to extend the metaphor, the people of Palestine showed great resilience in the face of the challenge to survive the threats of dispossession, dismemberment, Diaspora and the unrelenting distortion of a legacy by Zionist forces and ideology.

If we accept that Nashashibi’s year of birth was 1882 (and this writer has seen contradictory accounts about his year of birth) then we would be speaking about the year in which the forces of the British government occupied Egypt during the reign of Khedive Isma’il. The year of his death is, by contrast, without doubt 1948.

Both 1882 and 1948 were years of great consequence for Egypt, Britain, Palestine, and the Arab World. In a sense, 1882 fortified the presence of British imperialism in the Middle East through the political and economic subjection of Egypt.

And, 1948 was the year of Arab political and military defeat and the establishment of the Zionist entity on the soil of Palestine– as it was, likewise, the year of Palestinian exodus and colossal loss of territorial and human rights.

Unfortunately, British influence in Egypt and mandated tutelage over Palestine both catalyzed and oversaw the fruition of the Zionist project of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Equally, the Zionist project was a harbinger of great suffering and instability for the Arab region– let alone the world at large– as well as a sordid saga of oppression, abuse of power, a systematic violation of the rightful entitlement of the Palestinian people to live in security on their ancestral soil, on their orchards, and in their villages and cities.

Ironically, Zionism was and is still viewed by some who are politically and culturally influential in the West as a strategic asset when in fact it has and continues to undermine trust and goodwill in relations between the East and West.

Iss’af Nashashibi, scholar, teacher, man of letters, publicist and poet is the son of Uthman ibn Salman Nashashibi who was a Jerusalemite noted for his learning and private wealth– in addition to being a member of a leading Jerusalem Muslim, Arab family.

Iss’af’s early years had to do with a socially and religiously conservative upbringing within the framework of the Ottoman system of Sunni Caliphal rule of which Palestine– and especially Jerusalem– were a vital part. The great ancestor of the Nashashibis was Amir Nasser Eddin who was appointed by the Mameluke King Jukmuk to a leading position in the administration of Palestine and its places of worship. After his tenure expired he decided to move from Egypt and settle in Jerusalem from which time onwards the family enjoyed continuous habitation in the Holy City.

It is interesting to note that the name Nashashibi derives from “Nashab” which means arrow or spear: essentially, Nashashibi may mean those who produce arrows. Far from being a producer of arrows Iss’af hurled many a lance at tendencies in modern Arab culture which sought to supersede traditional matrices of thinking, of belles lettres, of styles of classical Arabic expression of which he was a staunch defender; in a cultural sense he was deeply conservative.

That by no means implies an oblivion on his part to trends in modern civilization, whose selective adoption he may have advocated as a means to overcome tendencies of backwardness and decline evident in the material and cultural performance of the Arab nation: the progressing march of Zionist colonialism and, Arab and Islamic disunity were perhaps important stimulators of a realization that progress was critically important in the task to overcome these enormous challenges.

Having acquired a conventional “Kuttab” (small classroom gathering) education in his early years in Jerusalem in the sciences of religion, language, and mathematics, he traveled to the great city of Beirut and studied in a Missionary school where he acquired some knowledge of French and Western Culture, in addition to continuing his study of the Arabic language and literature under the supervision of Abdullah Bustani, Muhyi addin Khayyat and Mustapha Ghalayani. By the end of World War I he taught Arabic at Al-Salahiya and Al-Rashidiya schools.

Nashashibi wrote prolifically on such subjects as politics, language, grammar, and poetry, though he was more skilled as an essayist than as a poet. In 1935 he published a work about Islam titled “Al Islam Al Sahih” or “The Correct Islam” in which he attempted to give an interpretation of the Muslim creed in its pure form.

Nashashibi wrote this book after much research and during a decade when some of the finest literary figures (for example, Muhammad Heikal, Abbas Al-Aqqad, Taha Hussein) were showing increased focus on Islamic themes in their writings.

The year of his death (1948) in Cairo was also a year of grief for the Arab and Muslim worlds because it ushered in a time of political turbulence, Palestinian dispersal and considerable dispossession for the people of Palestine. His funeral, which the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, attended, evoked the condolences of leading figures in Egyptian society including the Muslim luminary Imam Hassan Al-Banna, King Farouk, Nuqrashi Pasha– in addition to many in the arena of culture who paid tribute to a remarkable man who lived and struggled defending the integrity of Arab culture and the survival of Palestine as a land with a people, a history and a future.

It may be of symbolic significance that Nashashibi passed away in the land inhabited by his ancestors because of circumstances beyond his control: his ancestors, several centuries ago, were inhabitants of Egypt.

Equally symbolic, perhaps, is that funeral prayers were held at the “Sharkass” Mosque (or Circassian Mosque): the Circassians were the dominant group in the Mameluke State which appointed Nasser eddin Nashashibi– the family’s ancestor, perhaps five centuries earlier, as Nathir Al-Haramayn in Palestine, or the Inspector at the two holy places.

Mr. Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator and writer. He currently manages the Ubada Center for Writing and Translation Services in Amman. Born in Amman in 1961, he obtained his BA and MA from Columbia and Princeton Universities, respectively. Mr. Nusseibeh, who originates from Jerusalem, specialized in Near Eastern Studies with a focus on Islamic thought and studies.