Studying the history of Shīʿism in the region that is today the state of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, is an unusual experience for a researcher. The Iranian Islamic Republic, which leads most of the Shīʿī world today, declared Israel its enemy. Nevertheless, for long periods of its history (before and after the development of Zionism), Palestine was a place where Shīʿīs and Jews coexisted.
The fact that there is almost no remaining Shīʿī presence in present-day Israel and that almost the entire Muslim Palestinian population is Sunnī makes the reconstruction of the history of Shīʿism in this region a challenging yet fascinating task.
When I began the present research, I realized that in that year, ʿāshūrāʾ (the tenth of Muḥarram 1438 AH), coincided with Yom Kippur (the tenth of tishrei, 5777 of the Jewish calendar). This was the first time after thirty three years that these two occasions happened at the same time, as it used to be originally in the eve of Islam, when the tenth of Muḥarram and Yom Kippur fell on the same day. The day of the tragic massacre of Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī, the Prophet Muḥammad’s grandson, took place on the date of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. These two events are considered the holiest days in the year, for Shīʿīs as well as for Jews. The same coincidence occurred in the second year of my research. On both 11–12 October 2016 and in 29–30 September 2017, ʿāshūrāʾ and Kippur happened to occur at the same time.
As part of my field research, I visited the two most important Shīʿī sites in Palestine. On the morning of ʿāshūrāʾ, 10 October 2016, I visited the place that was, more than a thousand years ago, the holiest Shīʿī site in medieval Palestine, namely, the location where it is believed that the head the Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī was buried. I arrived at the site, near the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, hoping to witness Shīʿī pilgrims from the Ismāʿīlī Bohrā community performing taʿziya (mourning) ceremonies. Instead of the historical mausoleum, I found a small modern and modest sanctuary, without even the typical mosque or dome. Unfortunately, the Bohrās did not come that year. My visit reflected my impression about the history of Shīʿism in Palestine: it was a phenomenon that existed in the past, then disappeared, but its traces can still be found.
On another trip, on 2 September 2017, I traveled to the tomb of al-Nabī Yūshaʿ (the Prophet Joshua) in Galilee; for the last three centuries, this was the holiest Shīʿī site in Palestine. Although it was partly in ruins, I could easily see that it was still attended and venerated by locals, though most of them are Sunnīs and Druzes, not Shīʿīs, as in the past. The new graffiti on the walls and the remnants of cloth and food inside the domed building indicated that people continue to make pilgrimages to this site. This phenomenon reflects the need of Arabs from Galilee to seek the spiritual support of the ahl al-bayt (People of the House), the close family of the Prophet Muḥammad, as well as that of the Prophet Joshua, who was a prophet in Islam and was particularly important to Shīʿīs.
Indeed, the fact that I live in the territory of my study contributes to my research. Conversations I have had with Israeli Muslims, including colleagues in the university and my own students at the University of Haifa and the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), helped me understand the Sunnī attitude toward the Shīʿīs in general and those in Palestine in particular. In this study, I included appendices with photos I took during my visits to the two Shīʿī sites that are most relevant to the topic. I added the inscriptions, which I photographed on the inside walls of the shrine of al-Nabī Yūshaʿ; these have not yet been studied. Given the sensitivity of the topic of Sunnī-Shīʿī relations, local Arabs preferred to avoid interviews concerning the Shīʿīs in Israel. Nevertheless, since some interviews with Palestinians who converted to Shīʿism are already widespread online, I was able to use them to shed light on the issue of the influence of Shīʿism in Palestine. A translation of two of the most important interviews appears in the appendices.
As a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the University of Haifa, I benefited from the encouragement of Professor Fruma Zacks and her colleague Professor Yuval Ben-Bassat, and for this I would like to thank them both. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of those at the library of Haifa University, who gave me access to the documents used in this study. My gratitude goes to Sigal Shoshany, the head of Beit Gordon Museum in Kibbutz Deganya Alef, for her warm welcome and for her authorization to photograph the two rare Sitt Sukayna marble tablets. I wish to thank the Israel State Archives (ISA) in Jerusalem for permitting me access to documents concerning Shīʿī villages in Galilee in 1948 and for authorizing me to use them in this book. Special thanks goe to Dr. Moran Zaga from the University of Haifa for her important contribution in preparing the maps for this book, based on the information gathered in this study.
I would like to thank Farhad Daftary, the head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. At his encouragement I contacted Mustafa Abdulhussein from the Dāwūdī Bohrā community in London. I am grateful to the latter for a fascinating interview, which appears in appendix 7. I also thank Aḥmad Ḥusayn Khaṭīb from Ghajar, for sharing his views about the background of the ʿAlawīs in the Golan.
I owe a special debt to my English editor, Valerie Joy Turner, for her rigorous editing of the manuscript.
I would like to express my appreciation to the late Margaret Owen, a friend and a gifted editor of my previous publications. Her professional contribution and her wonderful personality will always be remembered.
Last but not least, I thank my wife Dorit and my children Itamar, Noa, and Michal, who supported me during long periods of study.