Resurgent Nahda: Jerusalem’s Forgotten Crossroads

Resurgent Nahda revisits the 1933 and 1934 Arab Exhibitions in Mandate-era Jerusalem, revealing the city’s overlooked role in promoting a modern Arab renaissance. Through essays, archival materials, and interviews, this volume uncovers the artistic, economic, and cultural exchanges that connected Jerusalem to key regional capitals such as Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut—despite the fractured post-WWI landscape. Emerging from over seven years of research by editor Nadi Abusaada, the book is rooted in two exhibitions held in Ramallah and Amman and builds on his award-winning 2019 essay in the Jerusalem Quarterly.

Designed by -scope Ateliers and published by Kaph Books, the publication adopts a bilingual format with a dual opening that brings Arabic and English readers together at the book’s center—a space devoted to primary materials and exhibition content. This structural choice reinforces the book’s central theme of encounter, echoing the intersecting trajectories of artists, craftsmen, and thinkers who shaped this moment of collective cultural awakening.