Book description
In this political biography, Ilan Pappe traces the rise of the
Husayni family of Jerusalem, who dominated Palestinian history from
the early 1700s until the second half of the twentieth century.
Viewing this sweeping saga through the prism of one family, the book
sheds new light on crucial events - the invasion of Palestine by
Napoleon, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, World War I, western
colonialism, and the advent of Zionism - and provides an unforgettable
picture of the Palestinian tragedy in its entirety. The Rise and Fall
of a Palestinian Dynasty is the history of Palestinian politics before
national movements and political parties. In telling the story of one
family, the book highlights the continuity between periods customarily
divided into pre-modern and modern, pre-Zionist and Zionist,
illuminating history as it was actually lived.
'A spellbinding account of the Husayni family and the crucial role
they played throughout the modern history of Palestine.' Mahmoud Yazbak
'No family was more intimately associated with the failure of the
Palestinians to achieve independence before the creation of Israel than
the Husayni family. Ilan Pappe presents us with a most engaging
political biography of that clan and the ways it exercised influence in
Palestine from Ottoman times through the end of the British Mandate.'
Philip S. Khoury 'A first-rate study which throws considerable light not
just on the Husayni family but on the history and politics of the
Palestinians since the eighteenth century' Avi Shlaim, author of The
Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World 'An original and significant
contribution to the literature on the modern political, social and
biographical history of Palestine - An excellent work' Salim Tamari,
author of Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and
Culture 'A unique and enlightening chronicle of an influential family
and the people whose lives they profoundly affected.' Publishers Weekly
'Ilan Pappe is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive
historian.' John Pilger, author of Freedom Next Time: Resisting the
Empire
Ilan Pappe is Professor of History in the Institute for
Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, Director of the
European Centre for Palestine Studies in Exeter and Co-Director of the
Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. He is the author of a
number of influential books on the Middle East, including The Ethnic
Cleansing of Palestine.
