Published Story
Joie De Vivre
Image Source: Matson, Library of Congress , before 1933 Fourteen kilometers south of Jaffa, there’s a Mediterranean beach with sand so soft it falls off your clothes, far enough from the city noise and close enough...
Fourteen kilometers south of Jaffa, there’s a Mediterranean beach with sand so soft it falls off your clothes, far enough from the city noise and close enough to travel to work in the morning to Jaffa. Here the western breeze is combined with the Mediterranean Azur, and you can watch the sun go down on the horizon and the stars come out and shine on the waves. Markets, restaurants, Arak, gambling, cinemas, theatre, dance, sufi dervishes, music, and concerts are available. La Dolce Vita for nearly two months a year. Welcome to Nabi Rubeen.
In the twelfth century, Salah Eddin al-Ayyubi (Saladin) and his successors aimed at reclaiming the shores of Palestine that had been colonized for 100 years by Crusaders arriving on the shores and building settlements there. After the defeat of the Europeans, they were still allowed to arrive as pilgrims. Rulers arranged “counter-pilgrimage” when it was feared that Europeans would use their pilgrimage as a cover for taking over. Nabi Rubeen was established around 1350 AD when Al Ashraf Al Mamluki, the governor of Gaza, built the shrine continuing Saladdin’s policy of reconnecting the people to the shores of Palestine. The place had nothing to do with any person, prophet, or saint, but was marked now with a shrine. Nabi Rubeen has pure Muslim political origins and was a massive celebration involving all classes. The wealthy came for leisure and peasants came to work, sell their products, and mingle.
Nabi Rubeen was the most urban and joyful festival in Palestine and attracted people also from the region. A common saying by wives goes “Nabi Rubeen or divorce”. And “S/he has been ‘Roubined”, was said about people who came back from Rubeen after partying, drinking, and relaxing. Some Palestinians even regarded gambling as a seashore culture practiced during Rubeen. Many people saved money specifically for this vacation. Rubeen was also a place where you could easily get rid of your money and come back barefoot. There are stories of people who sold their furniture in order to spend their vacation at Rubeen. Even Sufis were bitten by expenditure and luxury using the season for business and making a profit. No wonder Jaffa’s Sailors Union had a soup kitchen providing free hot meals.
The shrine of Prophet Rubeen is 14 km south of Jaffa, and two km away from the sea. Near the shrine and the mosque, used to stand a small Nabi Rubeen village. The marriage of the Rubeen River water with the Mediterranean seawater happened nearby at Ain Al Maliha (the salty water spring) and it is said that the water was as clear as an owl’s eye. The northern bank of the river was known earlier as the Baal River by the Canaanites and is an extension of the waters of Wadi Al Sarar coming from the Jerusalem mountains. Walid Khalidi writes that the shrine of Nabi Rubeen was built in the same place where a Canaanite temple once stood and that the festival had a pagan origin.
Some 40-50,000 Jaffans and people from the surroundings, relaxed on the beach. It was the place for vacation, entertainment, and great food; a place to meet new people, fall in love, have affairs, and catch up on new trends and stories. People took their formal wear off and strolled around in white jellabas and leather sandals or walked barefoot in the soft sand. Men and women moved around until way past midnight listening to music or attending theatrical performances. Festivities were held within walking distance from the Mediterranean, but the sea itself did not feature in its activities. It was leisure at the beach.
Palestine had multiple prophet-related festivities: Nabi Saleh in Ramallah was known for being a light and cheerful festivity. Nabi Moussa had a political and social consciousness undertone. The Fourth of Ayoub at the Asqalan mound was the sea pilgrimage where people entered the sea to be purified. But Nabi Rubeen, like Jaffa, was the biggest, most urban, and cosmopolitan festivity in Palestine. All of Palestine’s festivals lasted for a day or two, and the season of festivities started in April. But Nabi Rubeen was the of the summer and lasted longer than a month, sometimes it lasted two months or more. From the beginning of August until the first drizzle or rain at the beginning of October.
The festivities were preceded by two processions: The Bayraq (flag or banner) procession, and the Shrine Cover procession. Al Bayraq preceded the Shrine Cover and started in Jaffa from the Mahmoudiya Mosque where Prophet Rubeen flags were stored during the year. The ceremonial procession was headed by the notables of Jaffa and its leaders, soldiers, and representatives, followed by the general population of Jaffa. Carrying the flags they all marched towards the seaport. At the port, the procession met with the Sailor's Union's representatives and sailors who joined with their own Sailor's flag. Joined together they marched as one through the alleys and markets of Jaffa towards the Jaffa Citadel. Passing through the rest of the city they marched back to the Mahmudiyah Mosque Square. When the full moon was completed (sometime around mid-August), the procession of the Prophet's Shrine's Cover took off and people arrived from all over central and southern Palestine to join. The procession started from Jaffa, preceded by Jaffa's city flag. At arrival, the yearly renewed fabric cover of the prophet's shrine was venerated. This procession proceeded to the south of Jaffa by foot. The worshipers flowed as a river of human beings towards the river and its shrine, to the sound of the quietest camel hooves, the beating of drums, the clang of mystic cassettes, and the singing of the youth of Jaffa.
Rock the Casbah
Decorated camels carried tents, small kitchens, food, and mattresses to the shrine. In front and behind the camels people walked. The procession continued until it reached the spot where River Rubeen pours into the sea, then the procession headed east and up north towards the shrine. On the way, people picked up flowers from the banks of the river. As soon as the veneration of the shrine’s new cover was over and all the rituals of fulfilling vows, cutting the hair of the young, and circumcisions of babies - the banks of the river and the beach had turned into a city of tents. The whole southern Jaffa shore and river bank would be covered by up to 50,000 camping Palestinians.
“Jaffan families, of the region, even from Jerusalem, Ramlah, and Gazza had been preparing for weeks. Each city and its countryside had its customary location to set up its tents in, even the location of the tent of each of the families of the major cities, such as Jaffa, Ramle, and Lydda, was known. The municipality supervised the organization of the tents and determined their locations according to each city and its countryside. The tents of the city of Jaffa were erected on the western side of the shrine. To the north, were the tents of the people of the city of Ramle, and between them the tents of the people of the city of Lod. While the tents of the peasants of the villages of Jaffa, Ramle and Lod surrounded the tents of the cities. As for the "Waqf Camp", it was located on the banks of the Rubin River and was designated for the official guests and visitors of the season
Slowly over the decades, the festival moved from being by the river banks to the seashore, and its focus turned from daytime into nightlife. From a religious festivity to a pure urban holiday. Photographs from the 1920s show rather simple and rural festivities. In the 1930s, it started to gain volume and the biggest changes were in the 1940s. This was a place where a culture of fishermen and sailors was now followed by a culture of the urban.
There were shops, souqs, bazaars, restaurants, canteens, bakeries, and stalls. Everything that existed or took place in Jaffa moved during Rubeen to the beach. Watermelons were transported on camels from Jenin, straw papyrus mats weaved from Al Hula covered the sand, sardines, and oysters were fresh from the sea, and Arak was transported from Zahle (Lebanon) by boats via Beirut. Egyptian films were screened under the stars in the open-air cinema, and puppet shows got the children mesmerized. Many weddings took place early in the summer and many were on their honeymoon. An Aleppine band would blast its tablas and dervishes and Sufis twirled in dance with hypnotizing chants. A few weddings took place. Horses or camels were racing by the Mediterranean leaving soft white sand splashing behind them. Freshly made hummus and Zaatar manakeesh were sold in small stalls. Audiences were loud at theater performances, covering the sound of waves. The smell of fragrant grills and freshly chopped herbs helped one find their way to the open restaurants and bakeries. People went back home with new poems, songs, shells, new recipes, and friendships and many had to recover from a hangover and empty pockets. Night parties at Nabi Rubeen had both local artists and performers from the Arab world. Actress Fatmah Rushdi, Ali Kassar and his musical company, famous Yusif Wahbe, and the well-known singers Fathiyya Ahmad and Muhammad Abdul Mutallib, the latter was extremely popular in Rubeen and was hired every July for a Jaffa performance. Also, Egyptian singer Fat’hia Ahmed’s voice in the 1940s remained in the memories of the exiled Jaffan refugees, throughout decades of uprooting and displacement after the Nakba.
In August of 1947, the British forbade the celebrations claiming that they serve as political gatherings. 1946 was the last time the 40-50,000 Jaffans and other visitors slept on the soft beach listening to the waves, drinking Arak, watching a film at the open-air cinema, or dancing to drum beats. They had no idea that this will be over, for all of them. All that was left are a shrine surrounded by barbed wire, deserted and falling apart on the sand, and two fig trees standing.
*All previous images from Scholten's Archive
References
https://metras.co/author/alihabiballah/
“Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture”, Saleem Tamari, University of California Press; 1st edition (November 3, 2008)
Refugee oral histories from:
https://www.palestineremembered.com/OralHistory/Interviews-Listing/Story1151.html#Jaffa