Mostafa Hussein, "Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine" (Princeton UP, 2025)

About this episode

Mostafa Hussein discusses his book on Jewish engagement with Arabo-Islamic culture in late Ottoman and British Palestine.

In the decades before the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948, native and immigrant Jews in Palestine mediated between Jewish and Arab cultures while navigating their evolving identities as settler colonists. Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine (Princeton UP, 2025) challenges the conventional view that Hebrew thinkers were dismissive of Arabo-Islamic culture, revealing how they both adopted and adapted elements of it that enhanced Zionist aims.Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from Arabic medieval chronicles, travel narratives, and poetry to modern Hebrew geography and botany texts, Mostafa Hussein provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine’s landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. Through the lens of a diverse group of Jewish intellectuals—ranging from Palestine-born Sephardi/Oriental and Ashkenazi Jews to Eastern European immigrants—he…

People in this episode

Guest: Mostafa Hussein

Topics covered

• Hebrew Orientalism
• Jewish culture
• Arabo-Islamic culture
• Zionism
• cultural exchange
• identity

Keywords

• Hebrew Orientalism
• Jewish identity
• cultural exchange
• Zionism
• Palestine
• Arabo-Islamic culture
• intellectuals

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine

Places: Palestine

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