Hejazi

“Just think of the most important shrines of the Muslim world becoming gradually the producers of tolerance, pluralism, and eventually liberal ideas,” a number of Hejazi human rights activists who obviously preferred to remain anonymous told me during a conference in Washington in the late 1990s.

The Coming Revolution Walid Phares 2010

“Imagine the birthplace of Islam ruled by the same spirit as the Jordanian monarchy,” say Hejazi activists.

The Coming Revolution Walid Phares 2010

"The reason the Samaritans revere this place," Hejazi explained, "is because they believe Abraham came here and built his first altar in Canaan."

Walking in Palestine 2010

Foreign legations were confined to the more liberal Hejazi port city of Jeddah.

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Kai Bird 2010

It made no sense, except to Churchill and his Colonial Office bureaucrats, to place Abdullah, a Hejazi, and his Bedouin tribesmen in charge of Transjordan, a comparatively settled society of small tradesmen, shopkeepers and farmers living in small towns.

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Kai Bird 2010

For a Muslim, Hejazi tells me, the idea of a path named after Abraham is attractive since the great patriarch is revered as the "father of hospitality".

Walking in Palestine 2010

Hejazi was my man in Palestine, a person of unending cheerfulness and optimism.

Walking in Palestine 2010

With my guide Hejazi, I walked through peaceful fields of wheat past other ancient sites, exploring Roman tombs lost in undergrowth and watching storks circling overhead on their migration north.

Walking in Palestine 2010

After a huge feast of chicken, freshly made bread, pickles, salads and yoghurt, Hejazi and I bedded down on mattresses in the living room and slept.

Walking in Palestine 2010

Born in 1919, al-Muammar came from a prominent Hejazi family; his father had been an aide to King Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, and al-Muammar had a degree in economics from the American University of Beirut.

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Kai Bird 2010