IMAGInInG ThE “ISrAElITES” • 135tripoli.^10 In other words, these journals were not intended to represent
nor to address Palestine’s arabic- readers in particular.
as I argued in chapter 1, however, attempting strictly to isolate Late
Ottoman palestine’s arab intellectual life from that of the broader Mid-
dle east, especially egypt and the Levant, is a problematic, even futile,
endeavor. the biographies of many of palestine’s intellectuals in this
period include close connections with figures and movements beyond
Palestine, and it was common for these individuals to spend significant
periods of their lives studying or working in surrounding lands. Late
Ottoman palestine’s arab intellectuals were part of a wider intellectual
community and culture; understanding what members of this same
community— even those without origins in Palestine— thought about
the Jews is therefore helpful in gaining a more complete picture of the
general discourse in which palestinian arab intellectuals participated.
It is for this reason that I have also included in this study a monograph
on Jewish history written by Shahin Makaryus, one of al-Muqtaṭaf’s ed-
itors. This recognition of a broader fin de siècle Arab nahḍa culture, of
course, does not discount and must not obscure the fact that palestine’s
arabs necessarily had particular concerns about the Jews, most notably
the question of Zionism, even if, as we shall see, those based outside of
palestine were becoming increasingly interested in the Jews and their
nationalist movement as well.
Beyond revealing the broader, regional nahḍa discourse on the
Jews, these journals also represent a rich source for an understand-
ing of the knowledge and beliefs of the arabic- speaking and arabic-
reading society in palestine. First, as ami ayalon has noted in his work
on literacy in Palestine, one finds evidence of Palestinian readership
of al-Muqtaṭaf and al-Hilāl in the noticeable number of letters to the
editor of the respective journals that were signed by readers who lived
in palestine.^11 Other evidence confirms that these three journals were
certainly present in palestine during the Late Ottoman period. all
likely had agents in Jerusalem. We know of al-Hilāl’s agent by name:
(^10) See ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, 52– 55.
(^11) ayalon writes that “during the 24 years of its publication until 1900, al-Muqtaṭaf
handled 81 queries from palestine, while al-Hilāl, launched only in 1892, responded to
queries of 20 different Palestinian readers.” Ayalon acknowledges, though, that “the
extent of palestinian presence in the questions- and- answers sections was, unsurprisingly,
markedly smaller than that of Lebanese and egyptian readers” and, in fact, “also smaller
than the presence of queries sent from Damascus, aleppo, or even Baghdad.” Nonethe-
less, “though limited in scope, such involvement did reflect active Palestinian interest in
the fruits of the nahdah.” ayalon, Reading Palestine, 52– 55. Suggestive of the wide reach
of these journals, letters arrived from as far off as natchez, Mississippi. See al-Hilāl (Oc-
tober 1910– July 1911), 53– 54.