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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.
April 19, 1999
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.
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