Shīʿī Folklore and Religious Traditions About Palestine

chapter 4 Shīʿī Folklore and Religious Traditions about Palestine

1 Shīʿism in Palestinian Folklore

Traces of Shīʿism remained in twentieth-century Palestinian folklore prior to 1948. It is probably impossible to determine exactly when local Sunnīs adopted these Shīʿī terms and symbols, which seem to exist in every Arab country that was ruled by Shīʿī dynasties for any significant period.

1.1 ʿĀshūrāʾ Water and dhū l-fiqār Talismans Canaan provides some examples of Shīʿī customs that Palestinian Sunnīs embraced and continue to practice, even into the first half of the twentieth century. At ʿāshūrāʾ, the tenth of Muḥarram and the day Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī was massacred with his family at Karbalāʾ, it is believed that the water in some wells was mixed with those of Zamzam (the well of Hagar in Mecca), thus giving it purifying and even curative properties. Two of these wells are located in east Jerusalem, in Silwām (or Silwān), Ḥammām al-Shifāʾ (also called Ḥammām ʿāshūrāʾ), and one is in Nablus, at the shrine of al-Nūbānī.1 On the eve of the day of ʿāshūrāʾ (that is, laylat ʿāshūrāʾ), some people in Nablus used to perform the ziyāra to local saints.2 It could be claimed that these customs are based on the importance of ʿāshūrāʾ in Sunnism, commemorating the event when Israelites were saved from Pharaoh and is a recommended fast. However, Canaan notes another more definite remnant of Shīʿism in Sunnī Palestinian folklore, namely, the use of typical Shīʿī talismans. These are pre- pared from circular papers put on seals (khātim); they contain praise for ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and are given out by some shaykhs in the “mosque of ʿUmar” (that is, the Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem. According to Shīʿī tradition, this well- known phrase was heard when the Prophet Muḥammad transferred the sword called dhū l-fiqār to ʿAlī in the Battle of Uḥud (in the year 3/625):

1 Canaan, Muhammedan Saints, 65–66. 2 Ibid., 216, 217.

There is no young warrior like ʿAlī, and no sword like dhū l-fiqār.3

The ʿāshūrāʾ traditions in Palestine before 1948 were recorded by the Palestinian Ḥusayn ʿAlī Lūbānī, a Lebanese refugee from Dāmūn (near Acre), in his book on festivals and traditions in Palestine. He only mentions these traditions in his description of the Shīʿī villages of al-Baṣṣa and Tarbīkhā (or: Tirbīkhā). In al-Baṣṣa, during the first ten days (which end with ʿāshūrāʾ) of the month of Muḥarram, men and women used to meet in the house of one of the Shīʿī shaykhs of the village. There they retold the tragic story of Ḥusayn that ended with his martyrdom, and they mourned and cried and beat themselves on their cheeks and their chests. On the same day, some people (probably Sunnīs from the same village) distributed sweets (the same tradition is mentioned in another village, see below).4 In Tarbīkhā, during ʿāshūrāʾ, although they were mourning the martyrdom of Ḥusayn, people used to gather together and eat fried chicken, in honor of the spirits of the Imām and those who died with him.5 The mourning of ʿāshūrāʾ is not mentioned elsewhere in Lūbānī’s book, though in the village of Jimzu near Lod, which existed until 1948, a strange custom was practiced during ʿāshūrāʾ. Instead of mourning, Sunnī villagers used to eat fried chicken in celebration of this day, though it is recommended that Sunnīs fast during the day, in solidarity with the suffering of the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The author proposes, that this custom may have remained from the time of the Sunnī Ayyūbids and Mamlūks, who might have tried to transform the day of ʿāshūrāʾ into a day of joy. Perhaps for the same reason, Sunnīs in this region used to prepare cakes called “sweets of ʿāshūrāʾ.”6

1.2 The Mawsim Traditions Until the war of 1948 there was a mawsim (a feast) in Ashkelon; this was one of several feasts that took place in various periods and places in Palestine.7 Canaan describes the mausoleum in Ashkelon as dating from 1927, as follows:

3 Ibid., 117. The errors of the shaykhs are corrected in parentheses. Concerning the meaning of the dhū l-fiqār sword transmitted from the Prophet Muḥammad to ʿAlī in the battle of Uḥud, see E. Mittwoch, “Dhū l-Faqār,” EI2 (1991), 2:233. 4 Ḥusayn ʿAlī Lūbānī, Muʿjam al-aʿyād wa-l-mawāsim wa-l-munāsabāt al-filasṭīnī (Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān Nāshirūn), 96–97. 5 Ibid., 106–107. 6 Ibid., 121–122. 7 Concerning the earliest eye witness of this annual fetival provided by the traveler Nuʿmān al- Qasṭalī (d. 1920), see: D., Talmon-Heller, “Job (Ayyub), al-Husayn and Saladin in Late Ottoman Palestine”, pp. 135–138 and the rare photo in p. 139.