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The People of Palestine / An enlarged edition of "The Peasantry of Palestine, Life, Manners and Customs of the Village" cover

The People of Palestine / An enlarged edition of "The Peasantry of Palestine, Life, Manners and Customs of the Village"

Chapter 2: PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
By Elihu Grant
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About This Book

A detailed ethnographic portrait of Palestine's western lands and people, concentrating on village life while situating it within regional geography and seasons. It describes topography, water sources, flora, fauna, and agricultural practices, then examines social structures—tribe, family, marriage customs, childhood, domestic architecture, food, clothing, household industry, crafts and markets. Health, illness, burial, religious observance, local shrines, saints, festivals and widespread superstitions receive attention, as do nomadic and urban populations for contrast. Illustrations and firsthand observation aim to capture continuity and change in rural customs and daily routines during the period covered.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

We thought that Palestine had passed into ancient history, but it has been a centre of modern events. No country in the world has a more continuously interesting and profitable story. Its present population is made of sturdy and able people. Three great religions call it Holy Land. It presents to view three distinct types of human society, the desert nomad who dwells in the tented encampment, the peasant villager who reminds us in so many ways of the people of the Bible, and the more foreign looking and mingled folk of the large cities.

We have picked the village life as most suggestive of the quaint customs of the past. It has been gratifying to have those who know this life best, including villagers themselves, praise the accuracy and sympathy of the descriptions.

The volume has not been compiled from books, but drawn from life. An additional chapter seeks to sum present conditions.

Life has changed even in the East but much remained in Palestine, especially under the Turkish régime, that is suggestive of Bible Times. We trust that we have provided here a cross-section of a most interesting period. We hope for even more, that the reader with dramatic imagination may be able to fill the places and figures of the biblical past with life.

E. G.
Haverford, Pa.,
February 24, 1921.

A few words that are pretty well fixed in popular usage, as Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem, etc., are not changed in spelling, but for most Arabic words the following alphabet has been used in transliteration:

— r gh y
b z f a
t s ḳ u
th sh k i
j ṣ l â
ḥ ḍ m û
kh ṭ n î
d ḍh or ẓ h  
dh   w  

The use of y final and of ô as aids to pronunciation will be of obvious import. When a foreign word occurs in the book for the first time it is put in italics.