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Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean
For thousands of years, the region of Palestine and the East Mediterranean has been denied an indigenous voice for an inclusive history. Three religions ascribe their origins to this part of the world, appropriating and re-appropriating the "Holy Land" time and again.
Hidden Histories offers a powerful corrective to common understandings. It emphasizes Palestine's long history and dispels many old and new myths – covering issues of religious origins and sacred sites, identity and self-colonization, and the retrieval of ancient heritage.
Hidden Histories offers a powerful corrective to common understandings. It emphasizes Palestine's long history and dispels many old and new myths – covering issues of religious origins and sacred sites, identity and self-colonization, and the retrieval of ancient heritage.
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 18, 2023
This was a difficult book to review and I was tempted not to give it any rating. Obviously I have but this rating only reflects my reading experience and thoughts about how the book fulfilled my expectations based on the summary.
What I expected from the book was a socio-political history of Palestine that would help this American understand more about the region and the conflicts. What I got was a reflection on Palestinian cultural, linguistic, religious, and a bit of agricultural history. Specifically, the book was an argument about how that Palestinian history is not just overlooked but overwritten by more dominant narratives, notably Israeli.
I cannot profess to fully understand or appreciate or verify the considerably detailed work that the author did to recover some of these Palestinian histories. At times the histories seem well researched and sourced. They were interesting. At other times historical conclusions appeared very anecdotal, circumstantial, and coincidental. The charitable reading of the more poorly sourced arguments is that the lack of evidence and scholarship IS the evidence of colonization and cultural erasure, but that feels a little dubious to me. Also, I am suspicious of argumentation attempting to show how a dominant socio-political order critiqued for being based on a faulty exegetical interpretation of religious texts can be proven faulty by a different exegetical reading of the same texts that seem (to me!) based on just as many suppositions, assumptions, and guesses.
Does the author have a point about cultural and linguistic erasure? I don't know ... probably. I'm convinced that there is some of that going on here. But the issue is bigger and more complicated in a way that this book just doesn't really touch upon.
What I expected from the book was a socio-political history of Palestine that would help this American understand more about the region and the conflicts. What I got was a reflection on Palestinian cultural, linguistic, religious, and a bit of agricultural history. Specifically, the book was an argument about how that Palestinian history is not just overlooked but overwritten by more dominant narratives, notably Israeli.
I cannot profess to fully understand or appreciate or verify the considerably detailed work that the author did to recover some of these Palestinian histories. At times the histories seem well researched and sourced. They were interesting. At other times historical conclusions appeared very anecdotal, circumstantial, and coincidental. The charitable reading of the more poorly sourced arguments is that the lack of evidence and scholarship IS the evidence of colonization and cultural erasure, but that feels a little dubious to me. Also, I am suspicious of argumentation attempting to show how a dominant socio-political order critiqued for being based on a faulty exegetical interpretation of religious texts can be proven faulty by a different exegetical reading of the same texts that seem (to me!) based on just as many suppositions, assumptions, and guesses.
Does the author have a point about cultural and linguistic erasure? I don't know ... probably. I'm convinced that there is some of that going on here. But the issue is bigger and more complicated in a way that this book just doesn't really touch upon.
September 10, 2012
Ra’ad provides a very convincing rebuttal to popular/conventional historical narratives of the Levant. I was absolutely fascinated and sometimes even frightened by his arguments, the evidence he uses to support them and his sheer audacity in challenging the very foundations of our world view.
I have read histories that challenge or at least complement conventional historical narratives before. What distinguishes Ra’ad’s work is that it presents a serious academic argument that diagnoses the problem as stemming mainly from monotheism – or rather individuals who base their historical narratives on a literal interpretation of the Bible (Old Testament). Of course, he lists other problems that have helped perpetuate this misrepresentation of an entire region’s history. I leave it to the curious to find out what they are.
Eye opening,
uplifting,
enlightening
and encouraging.
I have read histories that challenge or at least complement conventional historical narratives before. What distinguishes Ra’ad’s work is that it presents a serious academic argument that diagnoses the problem as stemming mainly from monotheism – or rather individuals who base their historical narratives on a literal interpretation of the Bible (Old Testament). Of course, he lists other problems that have helped perpetuate this misrepresentation of an entire region’s history. I leave it to the curious to find out what they are.
Eye opening,
uplifting,
enlightening
and encouraging.
August 4, 2022
Excellent Book worth reading for those interested in the history of Palestine and the region.
An important book against the colonial propaganda.
I recommend it to everyone along with Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History By nur mashala and Gary fields enclosure.
An important book against the colonial propaganda.
I recommend it to everyone along with Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History By nur mashala and Gary fields enclosure.
January 4, 2018
Great book . IsraShit has NO legitimacy.
May 31, 2015
HIDDEN HISTORIES: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean
by Basem L. Ra’ad
Pluto Press (2010)
I just finished reading this fascinating book. It literally sat on my desk for three years after buying it from the author following a lecture he gave in Ramallah. It is one of those books that you know you must read, but you are fully aware that you need to be in a particular mindset, because it will radically rewire your thinking.
It’s a heavy read, in terms of history, religion, archeology, culture, language, colonialism, and so much more. The lightest chapter is titled, Cats of Jerusalem, and it will make you never ignore cats in Jerusalem again.
I recommend this extremely well-documented read for anyone willing to challenge their existing body of knowledge, especially about monotheistic religions, as well as the origin of Palestinians. I strongly recommend it to Palestinian students thinking of what to research in their studies, especially PhD students.
A few excerpts to whet your intellectual appetite:
“Consider the religion industry and the investments made over many centuries just in terms of religious buildings, personnel, related literature, promotional activities, and in art objects and paraphernalia. Such investments lend credibility by virtue of the resulting massive productions, so that to doubt the veracity of these creations appears daunting.” (p. 86)
“In the West, the nineteenth century experienced an awakening and a blinding at the same time, an existential recognition that was countered by religious fixations: a dichotomy of existential barrenness and conformist reaffirmation. This was later expressed differently in the modernist period, and eludes naming or definition in the postmodernist, “post-historical” condition with its globalizing trends. At the same time, some of the inventions and falsifications of reality have established their effective hegemony.” (p. 87)
“In one of the greatest confiscations of national heritage, the Israelis have turned an imaginary, “biblical” landscape into an identity with the land by appropriating and exploiting Palestine's environment and resources, as well as aspects of Palestinian heritage—all the elements that Palestinians have lived with for millennia.” (pp. 117-118)
“The people of Palestine are ancient. Their ancientness is not a fabricated one. It is not assumed. It is real. They do not need to constantly assert it or to reassure themselves they are an ancient people or insist on how ancient they are. But Palestine's wholeness was shattered in 1948, and its direct links to that wholeness and its relatedness to the region have been disrupted. In this situation, how possible is it to maintain a naturalness that has been subject to such an attack? How can the lived past be recovered when its presence is now only infrequently recorded, silently, in what people say and do? How does one search for what is left of the indigenous Palestinian culture in an environment contaminated by the savagery of the present?” (p. 196)
“Monotheistic sequencing remains one of the most damaging assumptions about the history of Palestine and its people.” (p. 197)
Happy purposeful reading.
by Basem L. Ra’ad
Pluto Press (2010)
I just finished reading this fascinating book. It literally sat on my desk for three years after buying it from the author following a lecture he gave in Ramallah. It is one of those books that you know you must read, but you are fully aware that you need to be in a particular mindset, because it will radically rewire your thinking.
It’s a heavy read, in terms of history, religion, archeology, culture, language, colonialism, and so much more. The lightest chapter is titled, Cats of Jerusalem, and it will make you never ignore cats in Jerusalem again.
I recommend this extremely well-documented read for anyone willing to challenge their existing body of knowledge, especially about monotheistic religions, as well as the origin of Palestinians. I strongly recommend it to Palestinian students thinking of what to research in their studies, especially PhD students.
A few excerpts to whet your intellectual appetite:
“Consider the religion industry and the investments made over many centuries just in terms of religious buildings, personnel, related literature, promotional activities, and in art objects and paraphernalia. Such investments lend credibility by virtue of the resulting massive productions, so that to doubt the veracity of these creations appears daunting.” (p. 86)
“In the West, the nineteenth century experienced an awakening and a blinding at the same time, an existential recognition that was countered by religious fixations: a dichotomy of existential barrenness and conformist reaffirmation. This was later expressed differently in the modernist period, and eludes naming or definition in the postmodernist, “post-historical” condition with its globalizing trends. At the same time, some of the inventions and falsifications of reality have established their effective hegemony.” (p. 87)
“In one of the greatest confiscations of national heritage, the Israelis have turned an imaginary, “biblical” landscape into an identity with the land by appropriating and exploiting Palestine's environment and resources, as well as aspects of Palestinian heritage—all the elements that Palestinians have lived with for millennia.” (pp. 117-118)
“The people of Palestine are ancient. Their ancientness is not a fabricated one. It is not assumed. It is real. They do not need to constantly assert it or to reassure themselves they are an ancient people or insist on how ancient they are. But Palestine's wholeness was shattered in 1948, and its direct links to that wholeness and its relatedness to the region have been disrupted. In this situation, how possible is it to maintain a naturalness that has been subject to such an attack? How can the lived past be recovered when its presence is now only infrequently recorded, silently, in what people say and do? How does one search for what is left of the indigenous Palestinian culture in an environment contaminated by the savagery of the present?” (p. 196)
“Monotheistic sequencing remains one of the most damaging assumptions about the history of Palestine and its people.” (p. 197)
Happy purposeful reading.
August 11, 2024
EDIT: I first read this book back in June or July and upon my first review, gave it four stars. I’m coming back after returning to some passages that I’ve been mulling over since. In revisiting this work, it’s clear to me that my previous rating was not sufficient, as I genuinely believe this book is worthy of *five stars*.
Much of what B. Ra'ad explores in depth here continues to fascinate me; it draws me back in. His scholarship has radically altered for the better my approach to the study and historiography of ancient Palestine. It’s a must read for any serious intellectual activist.
As I concluded my previous review I will again say that we need more books like this.
…
It’s a really great book, though one would be benefited with prior familiarity re ancient history in the region as it is certainly not an introductory read.
It can be considered amongst the shining scholarly works that rip Zionist, i.e. biblical, historiography to shreds. The propagandistic demonization of ancient societies and peoples (Canaanites, Philistines, Babylonians, Assyrians), a destruction of Zionist linguistic fantasies, the influences of Canaanite culture, archaeology, Twain and Melville re Palestine, the pagan roots of the three Abrahamic religions, and so much more are all detailed superbly in what amounts to a demolition of Zionist and broader orientalist mythology.
A couple notes:
-The book makes some quite interesting self-criticisms of contemporary Levantine, specifically Palestinian, discourse. It is a very insightful read for anyone, but Professor Raad’s scholarship will be of particular interest to Palestinians.
- the sections on linguistics are particularly dense.
- I disagree with Raad’s personal views re religion, which to me seem contradictory with much of the findings he discuses in detail, but this is very minor.
One can only hope to see more books like this.
Much of what B. Ra'ad explores in depth here continues to fascinate me; it draws me back in. His scholarship has radically altered for the better my approach to the study and historiography of ancient Palestine. It’s a must read for any serious intellectual activist.
As I concluded my previous review I will again say that we need more books like this.
…
It’s a really great book, though one would be benefited with prior familiarity re ancient history in the region as it is certainly not an introductory read.
It can be considered amongst the shining scholarly works that rip Zionist, i.e. biblical, historiography to shreds. The propagandistic demonization of ancient societies and peoples (Canaanites, Philistines, Babylonians, Assyrians), a destruction of Zionist linguistic fantasies, the influences of Canaanite culture, archaeology, Twain and Melville re Palestine, the pagan roots of the three Abrahamic religions, and so much more are all detailed superbly in what amounts to a demolition of Zionist and broader orientalist mythology.
A couple notes:
-The book makes some quite interesting self-criticisms of contemporary Levantine, specifically Palestinian, discourse. It is a very insightful read for anyone, but Professor Raad’s scholarship will be of particular interest to Palestinians.
- the sections on linguistics are particularly dense.
- I disagree with Raad’s personal views re religion, which to me seem contradictory with much of the findings he discuses in detail, but this is very minor.
One can only hope to see more books like this.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews