Jerusalem October 2-19

I spent the first half of October in Jerusalem. My crossing over the Allenby bridge on the morning of Sunday October 2 was routine, but long. In Jerusalem I stayed at the Albright Institute, sharing the Annual Professor’s apartment with another research fellow. The group of current Albright fellows was particularly friendly, and included three researchers from China, part of a new fellowship program for Chinese scholars. One evening we all walked around the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods to see the preparations for Sukkot. Sy Gitin, the director of the Albright Institute, also held a reception one afternoon for the Albright community.

My reason for coming to Jerusalem was to resume work with Khader Salameh on the catalogue of Arabic inscriptions in the Islamic Museum. With some difficulty, Khader had obtained a permit for me to enter the Masjid al-Aqsa compound freely, which was a help. Khader has now retired as the director of the museum, but continues as director of the library. I spend most days with him in the library working through our draft text of the catalogue.

During these weeks I also worked on my article about the Masjid al-Aqsa compound and did some further work on the Dalman translation project.

On the afternoon of Monday October 17 I went to Bethlehem to visit Iman Saca, who is now on sabbatical from Saint Xavier College in Chicago. I met her at the Palestinian Heritage Center that her mother runs.

Iman, her mother and brother and me with some tapestries in the background at the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem

Back in Jerusalem that evening, I met Tawfiq Deadle, an archaeologist at Hebrew University, whom I had first met at the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting in Atlanta last November.

On October 19 I gave a public lecture at the Swedish Studies Center on Muslim Pilgrims to Jerusalem in the Ottoman Period; in past years I have given other public lectures there. That evening I packed up for my trip to the USA.