Saladin (Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, 1137-1193) - deeply admired by his contemporaries, Muslims and Franks, and continuously depicted as a perfect knight and mythological hero in later historiography and literature - became a cultural hero for a variety of modern ideologies. These include Pan-Arabism and Islamism; Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian nationalism; anti-Imperialism; criticism of the West and opposition to Zionism; religious tolerance and humanity. His various Eastern and Western images were researched by a number of scholars, in several disciplines. I intend to investigate Palestinian and Israeli "memories" of Saladin: re-trace their genealogies in medieval and Ottoman sources and in twentieth-century academic and popular narratives, and attempt to explain their development. I will highlight Saladin's contrasting representations in Hebrew essays: as a redeemer of exiled Jews on the one hand, and as a threatening precursor of Arab unity and jihad on the other hand. Regarding the Palestinian perspective, I will show Saladin's perceived role in the construction of pilgrimage sites and the establishment of annual festivals (mawasim) on these sites. According to this narrative – which is altogether absent from medieval sources - such gatherings were meant to defend Palestine from future invasion. The myth of Saladin's mawasim was perpetuated by the Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Muslim Council in Mandate-era Palestine at the popular shrines of Nabi Musa, Nabi Salih and other sites, and is upheld by the Palestinian Authority nowadays as both Islamic and national. In contrast, the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Hattin (Saladin's most conspicuous victory), initiated as a national holiday and Arab anti-Imperialist rally by the Palestinian "Istiqlal" Party in 1932, was short lived. Since 2011, however, the battle is annually reconstructed in a colorful meeting of the Regnum Hierosolymitanum group for history reenactment, by Israeli and international enthusiasts of "living medieval history" (see https://www.horns-hattin.com/press-release). In the conclusion of my paper, I will speculate why Saladin's myth "appropriated" the deeds of some earlier and later rulers of Palestine, and why the latter were pretty much forgotten, while his commemoration - as a conqueror and protector, and as an outstandingly generous knight - thrives.

In the aftermath of the 1967 War and the 1968 Battle of Karameh, Palestinian guerilla and resistance groups created strongholds in the Wihdat refugee camp in the Jordanian capital Amman and the nearby Baqa‘a camp to the north of the city. The most well-known organizations were Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The clout that the Palestinian groups held was further enhanced by the popularity of revolutionary movements in the world at the time, in places like Algeria, China, Cuba and Vietnam. Throughout its modern history up until then, Amman had been known for its relative stability and social harmony. Its residents tended to place their personal well-being and survival ahead of sustained ideological commitments. Yet by 1970, this relative harmony was seriously undermined by increased fedayeen activity, leading to an armed conflict between the Jordanian army and the Palestinian groups based in Amman and other parts of Jordan. Utilizing a broad range of primary and secondary sources, including interviews, material from the Department of the National Library in Jordan, contemporaneous newspaper accounts, and memoirs, this paper sheds light on this tumultuous period in the city’s history. I argue that the 1970-1971 conflict, while bloody, was not an intercommunal civil war, but rather a limited confrontation between two rival claimants of the same territory: the monarchy and the fedayeen. Despite the rapid growth of the fedayeen resistance movements, and their proliferation all over Amman, I demonstrate that Amman’s residents, regardless of ethnonational origin, preferred the stability afforded by King Hussein to the revolutionary fervor championed by the fedayeen. Unlike in Beirut in the late 1970s and 1980s, the Palestinian groups were not able to build significant alliances nor generate enough support in Amman or the rest of Jordan for a long period of time. Although Amman was the regional epicenter of the fedayeen movement during this short time, I argue that its residents rejected the idea that their capital would be transformed into a gateway to the liberation of Jerusalem.

Jabra Nicola (1912 – 1974)—a Trotskyist active in Mandate Palestine and Israel—often emerges in the margins of studies of the Palestinian and Israeli left. He is known as an intellectual who focused on theoretical issues. Nicola began his political life with the Palestine Communist Party (PCP) in 1931 where he became a member of the Central Committee in 1935. He remained within the circles of party leadership until 1943. During this time, he became involved with the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL)—a small Trotskyist group. When the PCP split along Arab and Jewish lines in 1943, Nicola left to work solely with the RCL until the reunification of the party in 1948 as the Communist Party of Israel (CPI). Within the CPI, he was barred from taking on a theoretical role, but led the party’s Arabic literary magazine, al-Jadīd. By 1963, Nicola left the CPI to join Matzpen—a new anti-Stalinist, anti-Zionist party—where he became a theoretical leader. Nicola stands out as a figure with a clear ideological foundation who nonetheless sought out political organizations to disseminate his ideas. I investigate Nicola’s life as a political activist through the history of his involvement in various parties as described by those who knew him. I also consider his writing for The Fourth International, al-Jadīd, and through Matzpen. I argue that, while a formidable intellectual force, Nicola also stands out as a real political leader grounded in ideology. His history of rising into leadership positions in various leftist groups makes him an inside observer over a long period of political turmoil. Rethinking Nicola as a political actor seeking out a place for his ideology not only reveals a new dimension to his own life but helps illustrate the wider leftist political sphere in Mandate Palestine and Israel.