The Haj: A Novel (The Signed First Edition Society)

566 pp. Original brown full leather, gilt titles and decorations, all edges gilt, decorated endpapers, ribbon marker bound in. Illustrations by Reinord Von Whitt-Pritchette, maps follow text. "The Haj is a novel published in 1984 by American author Leon Uris about a Palestinian Arab family caught up in the area's historic events of the 1920s - 1950s as witnessed by Ishmael, the youngest son. The story begins in 1922 when Ibrahim, Ishmael's father, takes over the position of muktar from his dying father in the relatively isolated village of Tabah in the Ajalon Valley, just off the main road leading to Jerusalem from Jaffa. The book then goes on to show how the family is affected by the proximity of nearby kibbutz Shemesh, by the political struggles exhibited and the pressures exerted by the region's Arab leaders during the course of 35 years, and by the disruptive effect of having to resettle (rather than be in close proximity to Jews, relegating the family to being self imposed refugees and the affect that a bigoted father) had on them. Leon Uris, based all of his novels in the actual reality of it's time. Leon put much effort and payroll towards establishing novels of fiction based in factual timelines concerning the life of the culture & story he was providing, also Mr.Uris contributed maps of the relative age and insight to political impact. Haj in the novel's title refers to the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make at least once in his lifetime. Literally, it refers to the pilgrimage that the head of the family, Ibrahim al Soukori al Wahhabi, made to Mecca in his young adulthood, and which gave him the honorific Hajji used throughout the book. Figuratively it refers to both the transforming physical journey that the family makes from its home in Tabah to the refugee camps near Jericho, and to the psychic transformations that the family endures as it is ripped away(By their own people) from its traditional life and sees, one by one its values being eroded."