The Haj

In a narrative spanning more than thirty years, American author Leon Uris’s historical novel The Haj (1984) tells the story of a Palestinian Arab family who lives through the political and social turmoil of the Middle East between the 1920s and the 1950s. The title refers to the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim with means and able body is required to complete in their lifetime. Uris previously revisited parts of this era from the perspective of Jews in his best selling 1958 novel, Exodus.

In 1922, Ibrahim al Soukori al Wahhabi is a community leader in the town of Tabah in the British Mandate of Palestine, in the area that is now recognized internationally as Israel. After completing his pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibrahim marries and starts a family, though he is shamed by the fact that his wife Hagar doesn't deliver a son until his third child. Ibrahim's family has lived in the area for a hundred years and maintains ties to their nomadic Bedouin relatives. In 1936, Ibrahim fathers his youngest son, Ishmael. According to the tradition of Palestinian families, the youngest child is expected to shepherd the family into the future. While his older brothers lack ambition and wherewithal, Ishmael is naturally driven and resourceful like his sister Nada.

The community is turned upside-down when a rich Palestinian absentee landlord, Effendi Fawzi Kabir sells a parcel of nearby land to a group of Jewish farmers who use it to establish Kibbutz Shemesh. A kibbutz is a Jewish commune based on agriculture. Inspired by Arabic legends of ancient warriors, the Palestinian villagers attack the kibbutz. Although they are repelled back, the villagers brag falsely to Ibrahim about having killed many Jews. In an effort to ease tensions, Ibrahim strikes up an alliance with Gideon Asch, one of the Jewish kibbutz farmers, which eventually develops into a close friendship.



Tensions between the Palestinians and the Jews boil over, however, in 1948 after the Deir Yassin massacre, during which 120 Jewish nationalist paramilitary soldiers kill hundreds of Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin. Meanwhile, Ibrahim makes an enemy of Arab General Fawzi al-Qawuqji after Ibrahim refuses the general's order to evacuate Tabah so the village can be used as a military stronghold. Feeling pressure from both sides, Ibrahim leaves Tabah with his family and followers, leading them to the port city of Jaffa where he plans to charter a boat to the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, the family is forced into hiding when al-Qawuqji's troops enter the city bent on revenge against Ibrahim. While Ibrahim is away meeting with Gideon and arranging safe passage for his family, al-Qawuqji's troops find and gang rape the women of the family, an act of brutality that Ishmael witnesses.

With the help of Gideon, the family escapes to the West Bank. In Nablus, the city's mayor and an undercover military officer in King Abdullah I's Arab Legion try to convince Ibrahim to support them politically. Reluctant to join in their political fight but fearful of what will happen to him if he refuses, Ibrahim absconds with his family to live in a desert cave in Qumran near the Dead Sea. The family endures the harsh desert life until 1949 when they settle at a refugee camp in Jericho. Through a disfigured archaeologist named Dr. Nuri Mudhil, Ibrahim gets in touch with Gideon. At Gideon's encouragement, Ibrahim becomes a political moderate aiming to bring together Jews and Palestinians. With two other moderate leaders, Ibrahim attends an international conference in Zurich where he plans to present his position that Palestine will recognize the State of Israel if Palestinian Arabs are allowed to return to their homes. Unfortunately, a rich Saudi Arabian prince buys one of his allies off and the other ally accepts a very modest deal, brokered through the Vatican, that would only return Palestinian Christians to their homes, not Palestinian Muslims.

To send a message to Ibrahim and disrupt his moderate political aims, members of the Arab Legion murder his son, Jamil. As Ibrahim's grip on reality begins to falter, he murders Nada upon learning she is no longer a virgin. Seeking to "talk his father to death," Ishmael reveals that all the women of their family were raped in Jaffa by al-Qawuqji's troops. The shock of hearing this causes Ibrahim to die of a heart attack. At Ibrahim's funeral, "the display of grief was of a nature usually reserved for high holy men or great heads of state." Obsessed with the tragedies that have befallen his family—particularly the murder of Nada at the hands of Ibrahim—Ishmael loses his mind.



The Haj was met with a great deal of controversy over its depiction of Arab Palestinians. According to Kirkus Reviews, The Haj is "a dreary, ugly lecture/ novel—sure to attract an audience, but likely to embarrass all but the most unthinking Jewish readers."