| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: The politicization of the Nabi Musa festival during the Palestine Mandate is a well-known fact, yet other Arab Palestinian festivals knew a similar transformation in the same context. Such was the case of the Mawlid al-nabawī (birthday of the Prophet Muhammad). Arab nationalists meant it to evolve into a communal festival for all the Arabs of Palestine. Yet, for mainly denominational, geographical and political reasons, the attempt met with diverse success throughout the territory of the Palestine Mandate. Attendance to public festivities remained decidedly Muslim in character. Repeated appeals to Christian participation were of little avail. Yet the attempts to include Christian Arabs in the festival throw light on Arab nationalist ideologies in Palestine at the time : from that point of view, the Prophet Muhammad stands out as an axiological inspiration, regardless of denominational boundaries. In 1937, political mobilization on the occasion of the Mawlid al-nabawī peaked. Yet even then, attendance was greatest in Gaza and Acre, places where the festival was traditionally important. Furthermore, the degree of mobilization, varying from place to place, seems to reflect the influence of the main Arab Palestinian factions, whose rivalry was reaching a climax in the late 1930s. |
