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 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.

Image Source: Scholten — Nabi Rubeen Shrine, 1921-23

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 the Crusaders arriving on the shores of Palestine and building settlements there. After the defeat of the Crusaders, Europeans were still allowed to come to Palestine as pilgrims. The Europeans were cunning and it was feared that they would use their pilgrimage as a cover for taking over, so the local rulers arranged “counter-pilgrimages”. Nabi Rubeen was established around 1350 AD when Al Ashraf Al Mamluki, the governor of Gaza, built a shrine on the shore, reconnecting Palestinians with their shores that had been ethnically cleansed during the Crusder times. The place was not connected to a prophet or saint, yet it was marked now with a shrine for prophet Rubin. Nabi Rubeen festivities have Muslim origins and it 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 from the region. The saying “S/he has been ‘Roubined”, referred to people who came back a little changed from Rubeen festivities 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 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. All this, made Nabi Rubeen festivities exciting and a common saying by wives goes “Nabi Rubeen or divorce”.

Image Source: Scholten — Women on camelback on their way to Nabi Rubeen, 1921-23

The shrine for Prophet Rubeen is 14 km south of Jaffa, and two km from the sea. Near the shrine and the mosque, there was a small village called Nabi Rubeen. The marriage of the Rubeen River water with the Mediterranean seawater happened nearby at Ain Al Maliha where 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 for two months in the summer. 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 way past midnight listening to music or attending theatrical performances. Restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and patisseries were abundant. Festivities were held within walking distance from the Mediterranean, but the sea itself did not feature in the 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 in the summer and lasted longer between one, two months, or more. The relaxing beach city lasted from the beginning of August until the first drizzle or rain at the beginning of October.

A film about Nabi Rubeen in 1935, gives an impression of the festivities although it is wrong regarding 2 things, first Nabi Rubeen has absolutely nothing to do with anything biblical, it is a Muslim and Christian Palestinian heritage from the 13th century. Secondly, Nabi Rubeen was about a month or two months long. Source of video Yaffa48 and originally a Pathé film

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 marked the beginning of the festivities and was headed by the notables of Jaffa, its leaders, soldiers, and representatives, followed by the general population of Jaffa. They marched carrying the flags towards the seaport. At the port, the procession met with the Sailor’s Union’s representatives the sailors joined with their own Sailor’s flag. 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), a second 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 heading towards the camped summer city. 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.

Image Source: Scholten — Nabi Rubeen South of Jaffa, 1921-23

Rock the Casbah

Unfortunately, no photographs from the end of the 1930s and the 1940s when the festivities were most sophisticated, survived the Nakba. But we have a lot of written and oral testimonies. Decorated camels carried tents, small kitchens, food, and mattresses to the shrine. In front and behind the camels people walked. The procession which started in the urban city, continued until it reached the spot where River Rubeen pours into the sea, an ancient nature and pagan holy spot, then the procession headed east and up north towards the shrine, a Muslim tradition. 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 the 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 were covered by up to 50,000 camping Palestinians.

“Jaffan families, of the region, even from Jerusalem, Ramlah, and Gaza 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 Nabi Rubeen started to gain volume and the biggest changes were in the 1940s. The culture of fishermen and sailors was now followed by a culture of the urban who looked for leisure.

Image Source: Palestine Remembered — Nabi Rubeen, 1933

There were shops, souqs, bazaars, restaurants, canteens, bakeries, and hummus 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 shells were fresh from the sea, and oysters were picked at the end of the season, at the beginning of October. 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 some 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 raced 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. Argilas, or waterpipes were landed on the golden sand and men and women smoked while looking at the sea. After the summer holiday, people returned home to 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 open air by the sea, 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 served 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 was a shrine surrounded by barbed wire, deserted and falling apart on the sand near two deserted fig trees.