Dhikrayat mina al quds (A Jerusalem childhood) ذكريات من القدس

Foreword by Edward Said.

When I was about eight , I was sent to the girls' school, a Islamiyya, which had recently been opened by the majlis el islami al-al'la (the Higher Islamic Council). With its emphasis on general education and sciences-rather than on the languages, music and the handicrafts which were regarded as the proper education for girl's in my mother's time—this school was to achieve fame for its academic excellence. The teacher's were of different religions and sects: Christian, Druze and Moslem. Many of them came from Lebanon; I remember especially Wadad and Ishan Mahmasani and Zahia Maksad. I also keep a special memory of Meil Sakakini, a friend of the family from Jerusalem.

The school was situated inside the walls of the old city, not far from my home. A twenty minute walk down the hill from our house in the Musrara, in the shadown of the ancient wall of Jerusalem, brought me to Bab el Amoud, the gate way into the old city. Under its high historic arch people seemed to move back and forth between two worlds.