Palestinian Oral Tradtions and the ‘Sanctity’ of Damascus: A Critical Analysis of a Palestinian Seventeenth-Century Manuscript

Abstract

This article explores the concept of the ‘Holy Land’ as reflected in a Palestinian seventeenth-century manuscript: A String of Pearls in Praise of al-Sham, by Muhammad Habib, and in light of the considerable output of works on the ‘virtues of the Holy Land’ by Muslim writers in Palestine and Syria. Although these writers composed their works using materials from traditional sources (religious, historical, geographical), the key issue explored here is the use of Palestinian oral and local traditions which were not always consistent with official or orthodox Islamic thought and thus local traditions which remained outside the bounds of official hadith compilations. This study explore the role played by local or oral traditions in highlighting the sanctity of a city or a site in Palestine and Syria.