EBOOK
Hebrew Orientalism
Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine
Mostafa Hussein(0)
About
How Jewish writers in late Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine used Arabo-Islamic culture to advance the goals of Zionism
In the decades before the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948, native and immigrant Jews in Palestine mediated between Jewish and Arab cultures while navigating their evolving identities as settler colonists. Hebrew Orientalism challenges the conventional view that Hebrew thinkers were dismissive of Arabo-Islamic culture, revealing how they both adopted and adapted elements of it that enhanced Zionist aims.
Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from Arabic medieval chronicles, travel narratives, and poetry to modern Hebrew geography and botany texts, Mostafa Hussein provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine's landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. Through the lens of a diverse group of Jewish intellectuals-ranging from Palestine-born Sephardi/Oriental and Ashkenazi Jews to Eastern European immigrants-he unveils the complex realities of cultural exchange and knowledge production, highlighting the dual role of these intellectuals in connecting with the East and promoting Zionist aspirations. Hussein offers fresh insights into the role of scholarly practices in advancing new perspectives on the region and its peoples and forging a modern Zionist Hebrew identity.
Illuminating the intricate and often contradictory engagement of Hebrew scholars with Arabo-Islamic culture, Hebrew Orientalism informs contemporary discussions of postcolonialism and settler colonialism and enriches our understanding of the historical dynamics between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Mostafa Hussein is assistant professor of Jewish-Muslim studies at the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the editor (with Brahim El Guabli) of Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media. "In this remarkable book, Hussein outlines the ways in which medieval Arab culture and medieval Arabic literature inspired innovative imaginings of the Palestinian landscape among Zionist thinkers. Lucidly written, well-argued, and based on an incredibly rich archive, Hebrew Orientalism offers new ways of navigating the fragile boundaries between Arabs and Jews."-Orit Bashkin, author of Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel
"Compelling and well argued. Hussein describes how Jewish scholars engaged with Arabic language and Islamic sources in their attempts to strengthen and disseminate Hebrew culture in Palestine. His familiarity with the Arabic references and their own historical and cultural context provides important insights."-Liora R. Halperin, author of The Oldest Guard: Forging the Zionist Settler Past "Shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award in Nonfiction, Jewish Book Council" "It is often claimed that early Zionist settlers into Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were indifferent to or would ignore Arab, Muslim and Palestinian culture. Mostafa Hussein challenges this view in his new book. . . . Hebrew Orientalism aims to offer a more nuanced view of the movement and highlight their differences, contradictions, circumstances and how events helped to evolve their ideas. Hussein has provided a very readable, thoughtful and insightful account of the intellectual movement."---Usman Butt, Middle East Monitor "A meticulously researched and quietly unsettling study of how engagement with Arabo-Islamic culture shaped modern Hebrew culture and, ultimately, the Zionist project itself. . . . Hussein has written a work that is rigorous without being arid, critical without grandstanding, and attentive to the tragic ironies of history without indulging in nostalgia. It forces the reade
In the decades before the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948, native and immigrant Jews in Palestine mediated between Jewish and Arab cultures while navigating their evolving identities as settler colonists. Hebrew Orientalism challenges the conventional view that Hebrew thinkers were dismissive of Arabo-Islamic culture, revealing how they both adopted and adapted elements of it that enhanced Zionist aims.
Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from Arabic medieval chronicles, travel narratives, and poetry to modern Hebrew geography and botany texts, Mostafa Hussein provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine's landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. Through the lens of a diverse group of Jewish intellectuals-ranging from Palestine-born Sephardi/Oriental and Ashkenazi Jews to Eastern European immigrants-he unveils the complex realities of cultural exchange and knowledge production, highlighting the dual role of these intellectuals in connecting with the East and promoting Zionist aspirations. Hussein offers fresh insights into the role of scholarly practices in advancing new perspectives on the region and its peoples and forging a modern Zionist Hebrew identity.
Illuminating the intricate and often contradictory engagement of Hebrew scholars with Arabo-Islamic culture, Hebrew Orientalism informs contemporary discussions of postcolonialism and settler colonialism and enriches our understanding of the historical dynamics between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. Mostafa Hussein is assistant professor of Jewish-Muslim studies at the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the editor (with Brahim El Guabli) of Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media. "In this remarkable book, Hussein outlines the ways in which medieval Arab culture and medieval Arabic literature inspired innovative imaginings of the Palestinian landscape among Zionist thinkers. Lucidly written, well-argued, and based on an incredibly rich archive, Hebrew Orientalism offers new ways of navigating the fragile boundaries between Arabs and Jews."-Orit Bashkin, author of Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel
"Compelling and well argued. Hussein describes how Jewish scholars engaged with Arabic language and Islamic sources in their attempts to strengthen and disseminate Hebrew culture in Palestine. His familiarity with the Arabic references and their own historical and cultural context provides important insights."-Liora R. Halperin, author of The Oldest Guard: Forging the Zionist Settler Past "Shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award in Nonfiction, Jewish Book Council" "It is often claimed that early Zionist settlers into Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were indifferent to or would ignore Arab, Muslim and Palestinian culture. Mostafa Hussein challenges this view in his new book. . . . Hebrew Orientalism aims to offer a more nuanced view of the movement and highlight their differences, contradictions, circumstances and how events helped to evolve their ideas. Hussein has provided a very readable, thoughtful and insightful account of the intellectual movement."---Usman Butt, Middle East Monitor "A meticulously researched and quietly unsettling study of how engagement with Arabo-Islamic culture shaped modern Hebrew culture and, ultimately, the Zionist project itself. . . . Hussein has written a work that is rigorous without being arid, critical without grandstanding, and attentive to the tragic ironies of history without indulging in nostalgia. It forces the reade