Jerusalem: The Biography

† These clans were known in English as the Notables, to the Turks as the Effendiya, to the Arabs as the Aya. The Nusseibehs were Custodians of the Church; the Dajanis presided over David’s Tomb; the Khalidis ran the sharia lawcourts; the Husseinis usually dominated as Naqib al-Ashraf, Mufti and Sheikh of the Haram as well as leading the Nabi Musa festival. The Abu Ghosh, warlords of the mountains around Jerusalem, guardians of the pilgrim route from Jaffa, were allies of the Husseinis. Only recent research by Professor Adel Manna has revealed the true story of how the Ghudayyas took over the identity of the Husseinis. The Nusseibehs changed their name from Ghanim; the Khalidis from Deiri; the Jarallahs (who competed for the muftiship with the Husseinis) from Hasqafi. ‘It is disorienting and perplexing to have to endure a change of name,’ admits one of these grandees, Hazem Nusseibeh, ex-Foreign Minister of Jordan, in his memoir The Jerusalemites, ‘ even though it occurred seven centuries ago.’