New Books Network Mostafa Hussein, "Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine" (Princeton UP, 2025)
May 1, 2026
Mostafa Hussein, assistant professor of Jewish–Muslim studies, explores how Hebrew thinkers engaged with Arabo-Islamic culture in late Ottoman and British Palestine. He highlights conscious appropriation of Arabic language and local knowledge, profiles mixed Sephardi and Ashkenazi figures, and tracks how scholarly practices shaped claims to the land and modern Hebrew identity.
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Hebrew Orientalism As Ambivalent Local Project
- Hebrew Orientalism is an ambivalent, local form of Orientalism shaped by Zionist aims rather than European imperial domination.
- Hebrew writers both denigrated and borrowed from Arabo-Islamic culture to indigenize Jewish settlers and legitimize claims to Palestine.
Study Practices Not Just Texts To See Nuance
- A third way methodology studies practices on the ground rather than only ideology or assumed objectivity.
- Hussein analyzes routines, fieldwork, and margins-era cultural work by Jewish writers living in Palestine to reveal contradictions in knowledge production.
Mixed Background Hebrew Orientalists From Palestine
- Several protagonists were mixed-background Palestinian Jews like David Yellen and Abraham Shalom Yehuda who knew Arabic and local life.
- Abraham Shalom Yehuda argued Arabs are as ancient as Hebrews and opposed condescending views toward Palestinian peasants.
