50 • cHAPTeR 2
work, then, were basically educated Arabic- readers, especially those
familiar with Palestine, though not necessarily themselves residents
of Palestine.
did al- Khalidi envisage christian Arab readers, or only Muslims like
himself? Would he have considered Arabic- reading Jews as a potential
audience? As we will see, al- Khalidi generally writes respectfully of
christianity and emphasizes its commonalities with Islam; Judaism, on
the other hand, is set in opposition to both religions, and not in Juda-
ism’s favor. Because the text portrays Judaism as the outsider religion,
and because a large portion of the manuscript consists of a retelling
of the history of the Jews and their faith, it is unlikely that Jews were
among the intended readership. christian Arabs, on the other hand,
might well have been desired readers; indeed, al- Khalidi, while craft-
ing his text, had surely read the 1911 translation of and commentary
on the JewishEncyclopedia’s “Zionism” article by Najib Nassar, a Pal-
estinian Orthodox christian.^39 Nassar and his fellow christian Arabs in
Palestine and the Levant were participants in al- Khalidi’s intellectual,
social, and political milieu.
The Ancient Jewish Link to PalestineAl- Khalidi accepts the historical link of the Jews to Jerusalem, whether
he calls it ūrshalīm or al- Quds, and to the Holy Land, whether he de-
notes it as Ṣahyūn (Zion) or Filasṭīn (Palestine).^40 This acceptance is
in keeping with the precedent of al- Khalidi’s uncle and intellectual
mentor, Yusuf diyaʾ al- Khalidi (1842– 1906).^41 As mayor of Jerusalem,
Yusuf diyaʾ al- Khalidi sent a letter on March 1, 1899, to the chief rabbi
of France, Zadoc Kahn,^42 asking that the note be passed along to Theo-
dor Herzl. even as he opposed Zionism, Yusuf diyaʾ al- Khalidi, writing
in French, conceded: “The idea in itself is only natural, beautiful, and
(^39) Naṣṣār, aṣ-Ṣahyūniyya. This text will be discussed later in this chapter.
(^40) Though late twentieth- and early twenty- first- century Arab anti- Zionist polemics
have developed a discourse of denial of Jewish historical claims to Palestine (repre-
sented by Yasser Arafat’s famous, if apocryphal, “What Temple?” rhetorical quip), this
denial, like all ideas, also has a history. Future research might seek to trace the historical
development of the position, which has been informed by a complex array of political,
religious, archeological, and, recently, genetic arguments.
(^41) On Yusuf diyaʾ al- Khalidi, see Khalidi, PalestinianIdentity, 67ff.
(^42) The last governmentally- recognized chief Rabbi of France, Kahn (1839– 1905) was
an early member of Hibbat Zion who sympathized with Herzl. See “Kahn, Zadoc,” in
EJ^2 , 11:724.