Customs as in the Time of Christ

Life and religion of the fellaheen — or peasants — of Palestine who represent the aboriginal inhabitants of the Holy Land

Evangeline Ben-Oliel

Customs as in the Time of Christ — The Cincinnati Enquirer, 20 March 1910 — The Cincinnati Enquirer · Cincinnati, Ohio · 20 March 1910

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On land: “All the land around the village is one of two kinds—the freehold or the communal land.” “The communal land is apportioned to the villagers annually. Each year they receive a different allotment.” On government: “The fellaheen of a village are divided into clans and are governed by a Sheik.

The Sheik is the Governor and the father of the community, a man revered and feared by all the inhabitants of the village.” On hospitality: “There is one building in every village set apart for visitors—the guest house, or ‘medafe’.”

Fellah’s Primitive Life. “The various clans have a common language and a common religion, and their customs are the same, but there is no such thing as unity among them all. Patriotism and national pride are unknown words to the fellaheen.

Their love is entirely limited to their own clan and their own village, and their affection for their own hut, or mud house, is very great indeed. The Sheik is a law unto himself.

Each clan wages war with the other clans, and lives only for its own clan and family.”… “The fellah lives the most primitive life imaginable in his rude stone house, or mud hut, on the rocky slopes of the hill.”…

How Land Is Held. “The freehold consists of gardens and vineyards.

They are divided into little plots of 12 feet square, with trenches of earth around them, with openings for irrigation, there being no rainfall for six months of the year.”… “The ‘Sok,’ or market place, is the meeting place for rich and poor, active and idle… It is the center for gossip, there being no newspapers, and the people being illiterate.”

Center of Village Life. “To the market place the women bring their baskets of produce.

Here sits the Scribe, who will read or write their letters for them for payment.”… “Every village has a Khatheeb—priest, teacher, lawyer and scribe, all in one.”… “The fellaheen are all of the Mohammedan faith, but only in name, for they know little regarding their religious beliefs.”… “A bride is bought by her husband and is paid for either in money or cattle, or in exchange for some other fair relative.”

Context added by this archive

A full illustrated Sunday page, thirty-eight years before 1948, describing Palestinian villagers as the people of the place: their land tenure, their courts, their schools, their hospitality to strangers. The subheading calls them “the aboriginal inhabitants of the Holy Land.” The same page calls them primitive and illiterate, and says their faith is a name only.

Cite this clipping

"Customs as in the Time of Christ," The Cincinnati Enquirer, 20 March 1910, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1910-001. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1910-001