Of Noble Origins: A Palestinian Novel (Modern Arabic Literature: Palestinian) - Softcover

Khalifeh, Sahar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 977416542X ISBN 13: 9789774165429

Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press, 2012

Synopsis

The Qahtan are a Palestinian family that claims to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula, descended from the family of the Prophet Muhammad. This connection has given its members a certain ascendancy in their society, and has influenced their cultural and political choices.
The true test occurs when the Qahtanis, like other Palestinians, confront two enemies after the First World War: the British Mandate and the Zionist movement. Observing the gradual and increasing illegal Jewish immigration and land appropriation, the Palestinians come to realize they have been betrayed by a power that “fulfilled their promises to the Jews and reneged on their promises to the Arabs.”
Sahar Khalifeh brings to the forefront the inner conflicts of Palestinian society as it struggles to affirm its cultural and national identity, save its threatened homeland, and maintain a semblance of normalcy in otherwise abnormal circumstances.

About this title

About the Author:

Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus in 1941 and is the author of eight novels. She holds a Ph.D. in women’s studies and American literature from the University of Iowa. She divides her time between Amman and Nablus. She is the author of The Inheritance (AUC Press, 2005) and The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant (AUC Press, 2007), for which she won the Naguib Mahfouz 2003 Medal for Literature, and End of Spring (AUC Press, 2007).

Aida Bamia is professor emerita of Arabic language and literature at the University of Florida. She is the translator of The Inheritance (AUC Press, 2005), The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant (AUC Press, 2007), Papa Sartre by Ali Bader (AUC Press, 2009), and Heart of the Night by Naguib Mahfouz (AUC Press, 2011).

Review:

"The book is unique in that Kahlifeh brings together an unusually diverse cast of characters. Generally, books set at the eve of Israel's creation are told either with Israeli or British characters, or with Palestinian and British ones, but in Khalifeh's book Palestinian Christians and Muslims, Jewish immigrants, and British colonial leaders are all treated with equal sympathy. The British Mandate governor is not just an owner or master; indeed, he is a complex character who is half in love with a Palestinian Christian. Most of the book's Jewish characters are similarly complex."--Women s Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 977416542X
• ISBN 13: 9789774165429
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304