Echoes of Al-Quds

The Soul of Al-Quds: Art, Music, and Traditions

Al-Quds' or also known as Jerusalem's culture is a structure that built from of history, religious faith, and centuries of many populations. The city's rich oral cultures, lively arts, historic architecture and the most important part is the daily lives of its peoples all express it.

Tatreez

Tatreez is a traditional embroidery technique. Palestinian women and girls decorated their thobe or clothing with symbols of place, history, and memory. The illustrative material of vibrantly stitched designs told the story of the maker's life and her connection to the region.

Palestinian styles symbolized "an individual or a place like a wife, a mother, a daughter, a family, a house, a village, a town, a field, and a market." The choice of threads, the perfect balance of colors, and each maker's version of traditional patterns that tell her story in stitches through the using of stitching skills. The thobe clearly shows a woman's personal information and memorializes the owner's life.

Dabkeh

Dabkeh is a well-known group dance that is accompanied with popular singing and traditional wind instruments.

It is a social activity where the Palestinian performed it at a various locations during festivals, celebrations, and occassions such as graduations and weddings. It involves eleven dancers whether they are a man or a woman. The dancers will hold their hands and shoulders while standing in a straight line or semicircle to show unity. The dance involve jumping and hitting the ground with their feet.

Literature and Storytelling

The historical and cultural stories are still remain alive through the "Hakawati", which means storyteller in Arabic word, tradition. There are many modern authors and poets have drawn inspiration from Al-Quds.

Key Figures:

  • Mahmoud Darwish
  • Tamim al-Barghouti
  • Fadwa Tuqan
  • Kamal Nasser
  • Hala Alyan
  • Mourid Barghouti
  • Remi Kanazi

Cuisine

Though it has its own unique recipes and variants on local dishes, Palestinian cuisine is comparable to the neighbour countries like Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and to a lesser extent, Egypt.

  • Hummus: A creamy chickpea dip that holds a central place in Palestinian cuisine. The name comes from the Arabic word for chickpeas, showing the dish's main ingredient.
  • Falafel: A deep-fried balls or patties made from ground chickpeas or fava beans that mixed with herbs and spices.
  • Tabbouleh: A fresh herb salad where parsley is the main ingredient that combined with bulgur wheat, tomatoes, and a zestry lemon dressing.
  • Maqlouba: A marvelous one-pot dish that contains layers of rice, meat, and vegetables that are cooked together and served with a flip over. It is because the name itself come from Arabic word which means upside-down.
  • Musakhan: A local dish that consists of roasted chicken with caramelized onions, sumac, and pine nuts that served on taboon bread soaked in olive oil.
  • Knafeh: An iconic dessert that contains crispy shredded pastry that filled with melted cheese and soaked in fragrant sugar syrup.
  • Manakeesh: A traditional Levantine flatbread which oftenly describes as Palestinian pizza that topped with za'atar and olive oil.

Sources & References