Edward Said described his native city as the city of death—a grim town of pilgrimage, fanaticism, and unbearable provincialism. This portrayal was reinforced by a large number of visiting luminaries, including Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad), Falih Rifki (Zeitundagi, 1915), and Selma Ekrem (Harim Days). Yet in the work of native writers like Serene al Husseini, Khalil Sakakini, and Wasif Jawariyeh we see an alternative Jerusalem—a libertine and even hedonistic city of jois de vivre and abandonment. Jawhariyyeh in his two volume memoirs (released in English lately as The Storyteller of Jerusalem) introduces us to the city of the carnivalesque. It includes the syncretic religious celebrations of Nabi Musa, and St George (al Khader); the religious ceremonials of Sabt al Nur, and Sitna Mariam; the bordellos of the old city, and the garconcieres (dur al hawa) of the bachelor patricians; the musical bands and theatrical groups; and the literay cafes fashioned after the Vagabond Café of Is’af al Nashashibi and Khalil Mutran). We will examine these features of the ‘grim city’ and try to answer the question as to why libertine Jerusalem has been camouflaged, ignored or repressed in the majority of writings by social historians and travel literature.