Birth: NULL/NULL/1954 Death:NULL/NULL/NULL
Born in Jerusalem in 1954; holds an Associate in Arts Degree from Birzeit College (1973); received a BA (1977), MA (1981) and PhD (1986) in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, where he also received training in filmic ethnography; returned to Palestine and worked as writer, film director, painter, and anthropologist specialized in Middle Eastern Culture and Religion; was Assistant Professor at Birzeit University from 1975-87 and in 1994-95, and at Bethlehem University from 1987-88; was a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University for Foreign Students, Nishigahara Yonchome, Japan from 1995-98; returned and became Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, in 1999, then Director of the Fine Arts Dept. from 1999-2001, where he was involved in developing the curriculum, as well as Coordinator of the ‘Common Heritage’ research project (jointly with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem); lectures on Muslim philosophy; was a Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute from 2001-04; is a Faculty member at the St. George’s College, Jerusalem, since 1992; lectures on Sufi Islam, the Qur’an and Muslim hermeneutics; has directed several documentaries for the Palestinian TV related to the social history of Jerusalem; has participated in innumerable art shows since 1982, incl., more recently, Possessed by Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1999), Another Autumn (Bethlehem, 2001), Silent Prayers (Amsterdam, 2002) The Mystery of Blue (Jerusalem, 2003), Palms of Jericho (Jericho, 2003), and Sea Waves Break at the Shore of Gaza (Jerusalem, 2005); his painting ‘Double Window’ was the first Palestinian artwork chosen by UNICEF in 1995; author of several books on modern Arab thought, Japanese civilization, and Palestinian culture, incl. Before the Mountains Disappear (Kloreus Book, 1992), Jerusalem in the Heart (Kloreus Publication, 2000) and, most recently, the play Another Autumn (Ivory Tower Publications, 2005).
