Old City, old family, old texts

IT IS noon, and the worshippers in Jerusalem's Old City hurry past two Israeli soldiers towards the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest Islamic sites. The soldiers glance at the men for a second, then go back to chatting beside a barricade set up outside what looks like an old stone house, a few hundred metres from the Dome of the Rock and the Wailing Wall.It is the Khalidi Library, a literary trove containing thousands of books and almost 2,000 manuscripts on Islamic theology, philosophy and more. Named after the Jerusalem family that established it in 1899 and has maintained it ever since, the library is housed in a building that dates back to the time of the Mamluk dynasty, which controlled what is now Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517.The Khalidis are one of the oldest Palestinian families in Jerusalem. They have a famous literary legacy and have been involved in the city's civil affairs for hundreds of years.'The presence of the family in Jerusalem since the Islamic conquest is not documented, but our presence since its [12th-century] liberation by Saladin is," explains Raja Khalidi, one of the...Continue reading
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