In Palestinian Rituals of Identity: The Prophet Moses Festival in Jerusalem, 1850–1948, Awad Halabi presents a meticulous and comprehensive study of the events surrounding a local festival involving the annual pilgrimage to the tomb of Nabi Musa, 30 kilometers from Jerusalem and just south of Jericho, during the late Ottoman era and the British Mandate. By placing the ceremonial events in a religious, social, and political context, Halabi demonstrates how the pilgrimage has transformed over time, providing different meanings to participants even while serving as a “locus of interaction between the various social groups” (2).
Though the book focuses on the modern era and places Palestinians at the fore, it begins by situating the act of visiting tombs (ziyarat al-qubur) within Islamic history, taking the reader back to the latter part of the thirteenth century when the Mamluk leader Sultan Baybars “founded a humble shrine dedicated solely...