Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Events

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Popular Religion and Nationalism in Interwar Palestine: The Case of Nebi Musa and Nebi Rubin

April 1, 2025
5pm
Location
Washington Hall, Room 201
241 Jamestown Rd
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Access & Features
  • Open to the public
Salim Tamari Poster

presented by Salim Tamari

Popular religious festivals in Palestine, known as Mawasim, were transformed during the Mandate period by the twin factors of nationalist appropriation (in the case of Nabi Musa) and secularization (in the case of Nabi Rubin). I will examine how those ceremonial religious events as they were impacted the by increased surveillance and mapping, as well as by increased regulation by the authorities.

Nebi Rubin was, until 1948, the major religious festival in coastal Palestine and Syria, and one of the major mawasims (‘seasons’) of popular pilgrimage in Palestine, second only to Nebi Musa. Its early history suggests Rubin to be a regional trading fair in the Philistine plains, and a cultic ritual worship center of Baalism, celebrating the betrothal of the sweet water of the Rubin River to the Mediterranean Sea. After the defeat of the Crusades, Rubin was revived as a festival aimed at mobilizing pilgrims from Jaffa, Gaza, Ramleh, and Lydda to pre-empt against the resurgence of European pilgrimage into a new crusade. During the early 20th century, the Nebi Rubin festival underwent increasing secularization, evidenced by the participation of visiting theatrical groups, musical concerts, cinema, and a Luna Park. The Jaffa Municipality undertook the main role of regulating the fair’s economy: policing the festival, supervision of food consumption, and trade. In my presentation I will use Aerial Photography, military mapping and early photographic collections (especially those of Frank Scholten, 1921-1925) to examine how this popular religious festival was transformed. Those images show the carnivalesque features of the festival, including the tent city and its quarters, Sufi processions, the pilgrimage caravans, and the frolicking of youth in the waters of Naher Rubin. The demise of those mawasim during and after the Nakba was a turning point in the Palestinian relationship to religion and nationalism.



Sponsored by: AMES. Sociology, the Reves Center and A&S

Contact

mlitz@wm.edu