Info
Dajani Chronicles is an archival project that follows the lives of the nine sons of Daoud Taher Ibrahim Dajani, my great-great-grandfather. Those nine men are born in Ottoman Jerusalem, witness the fall of the empire, live through the British Mandate in Palestine and are at the height of their success and wealth when the 1948 Catastrophe befalls them, becoming the first generation of displaced Palestinians.
Through stories told by the nine brothers’ children and grandchildren, and with the help of an immense photographic archive, at the heart of which is this 1943 family photo of the nine brothers and their families, I attempt to reconstruct and document the life stories of the nine brothers: their childhood in Jerusalem, education, marriages, offspring, connections, professions, properties and the loss of all in 1948.
Unless otherwise stated, all text, audio and design elements on this website are the property of Ola Dajani. Copyright © 2026 by Ola Dajani.
All photographic and video content is the property of their respective creators or owners and may be protected under copyright laws. Please refrain from reusing, reproducing or distributing any of the material on this website. All audio interviews were conducted and recorded by Ola Dajani except for Nawal Ahmad Daoud Dajani’s interview, no details available on the interviewer, date or place of the interview.
The content of this project is provided for informational purposes. Although every effort is made to provide accurate and factual information, I accept that there may be errors or omissions. If you believe that this is the case, please get in touch.
With special thanks to
Abu Dheir, Rima Saadi
Amad, Ureib Zuheir
Ash’hab, Sawsan
Awaida, Nahil
Barakat, Maha Abdel Hamid
Budeiri, Musa Khalil
Busailah, Tanya
Dajani, Abeer Fouad Daoud
Dajani, AbulWalid Mohammed Daoud
Dajani, Anbara Mohammed Daoud
Dajani, Deema Fouad Daoud
Dajani, Fadia Daoud Fayek
Dajani, Faihaa Daoud Fayek
Dajani, Farouq Fouad Daoud
Dajani, Fatina Daoud Fayek
Dajani, Fayek Daoud Fayek
Dajani, Fouad Fakhri
Dajani, Ghada Nabil Tawfiq
Dajani, Hani Hussein Khalil
Dajani, Hind
Dajani, Ibtisam Abdel Mohsen Daoud
Dajani, Jamal Kamal
Dajani, Lubna Adel Ahmad
Dajani, Maha AbulWafa Wafa
Dajani, Marwan Ali Daoud
Dajani, Moataz HusamEddin Yousef Wafa
Dajani, Mohammed Hussein Mohammed
Dajani, Mohammed Suleiman Mohammed
Dajani, Musab Raed Jawad
Dajani, Riad Abdel Mohsen Daoud
Dajani, Rihab Abdel Mohsen Daoud
Dajani, Rusailah
Dajani, Salwa Fayek Daoud
Dajani, Samer AbulWalid Mohammed
Dajani, Samir Mahmoud Ibrahim
Dajani, Sanaa Samir Arafat
Dajani, Soumaiyah Ali Daoud
Dajani, Suha Nazih Mahmoud
Dajani, Tareq Fouad Daoud
Dajani, Wafa AbulWafa Wafa
Dajani, Wafaa Daoud Fayek
Dajani, Wassim Moussa Mohammed
Dajani, Ziad Abdel Mohsen Daoud
Furas, Yoni
Gitai, Amos
Gorman, Anthony
Hamadeh, Beverley
Herbawi, Ahmad
Kamal, Mohammed Jahangir
Kleibo, Mounir
Kobiljski, Aleksandra
Lababidi, Sawsan Yahya
Labban, Muna Abdel Rahman
Labban, Samar Abdel Rahman
Lee, Su
Lubke Cuss, Louise
Melhem, Sandra
Mikati, Samar
Murad, Nabil Mohammed
Najia, Samar Afif
Najia, Samer Afif
Nakkash, Saniyeh Mohammad
Nuri, Nuri Akram
Othman-Asser, Laila
Rodgers McCormick, Gail
Sahhar, Micaela
Sammut, Paul
Sandal-Wilson, Chris
Scheck, Tamara
Shaban, Hana Ahmad Mohammed
Shoup, Sam
Simson, Henrietta
Wahbeh, Maysara Zakaria
Wahbeh, Yahya Zaki Yahya
Wahbeh, Zaki Yahya Zakaria
Zananiri, Sari
Bibliography
al-Dajani, A.M. and al-Dajani, M.A. (2022) ‘The Muslim Custodian of King David’s Tomb Since 1529 al-Sayyid Sheikh Ahmad Dijani, the Jerusalemite (1459–1561)’, in al-Dajani, I.M. and Leiner, M. (eds) Reconciliation, Heritage and Social Inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp.219–230.
Armstrong, K. (1996) Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Avakian, A. (1968) ‘Stranger’ no more: an Armenian nurse from Lebanon tells her story. New rev. edn. Antelias: [Publisher unknown].
Bair, B. (2010) ‘The American Colony Photography Department: Western Consumption and ‘Insider’ Commercial Photography’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (44), pp.28–38.
Batruni, C.W. (2019) Producing pioneers: the American Junior College for Women and the Beirut College for Women, 1924–1973. PhD thesis. American University of Beirut.
Busailah, R. (2017) In the Land of My Birth: A Palestinian Boyhood. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Canaan, T. (1946) The hygienic and sanitary conditions of the Arabs of Palestine. Jerusalem: Palestine Arab Medical Association.
Cortas, W.M. (2009) A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman. New York: Nation Books.
Dajani, A.T. (1944) Mushahadat fi al-Hajj. Jerusalem: Matba’at al-Arab.
Dajani, A.T. (1954) Muhhaddarat fi iqtissadiyat al-Urdun. Cairo: Jami’at al-Duwal al-’Arabiyah, Ma’had al-Dirāsāt al-’Arabiyah al-’Aliyah.
Dajani Daoudi, M.S. (no date) Dajani heritage in Nabi Daoud. Unpublished presentation.
Dalachanis, A. and Lemire, V. (eds) (2018) Ordinary Jerusalem, 1840–1940: Opening new archives, revisiting a global city. Leiden: Brill.
Dodge, B. (1958) The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat’s.
El Cheikh, N.M. and El Mikati, S. (2016) Women at AUB: The Beginnings, 1905–1947 (A Photo Essay). Beirut: One Hundred and Fifty.
Fleischmann, E.L. (2009) ‘‘Under an American Roof’: The Beginnings of the American Junior College for Women in Beirut’, Arab Studies Journal, 17(1), pp.62–84.
Furas, Y. and Kozma, L. (2025) Palestinian Doctors: Medical Practice and the Transformation of Palestine, 1900–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Green, A.H. (1981) ‘Family history in the Arab world: archival history as a complement to ethnography’, International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 11(2), pp.327–346.
Gitai, A. (dir.) (1980) House [Documentary]. Israel Broadcasting Authority. Available at: Israel Film Archive (Accessed: 21 September 2026).
Gitai, A. (dir.) (1998) A House in Jerusalem [Documentary]. Agav Films. Available at: Israel Film Archive (Accessed: 21 September 2026).
Gitai, A. (dir.) (2005) News from Home/News from House [Documentary]. ARTE; Agat Films & Cie; Agav Films. Available at: Israel Film Archive (Accessed: 21 September 2026).
Halaby, M.H. (2021) In My Mother’s Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home. London: Thread Books.
Holt, P.M. (2012) Committee of One: Making a Difference, One Life at a Time. Atlanta, GA: Matriarch Press.
Hourani, A. (1968) ‘Ottoman Reform and the Politics of Notables’, in Polk, W.R. and Chambers, R.L. (eds) Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East: The Nineteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.41–68.
Jawhariyyeh, W. (2014) The storyteller of Jerusalem: The life and times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904–1948. Edited by S. Tamari and I. Nassar. Translated by N. Elzeer. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press.
Kark, R. (1991) Jerusalem neighborhoods: planning and by-laws, 1855–1930. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University.
Kark, R. and Landman, S. (1980) ‘The Establishment of Muslim Neighbourhoods in Jerusalem, Outside the Old City, During the Late Ottoman Period’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 112(2), pp.113–135.
Karmi, G. (2002) In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. London: Verso.
Khalidi, A. (2009) ‘The Mamilla Cemetery: A Buried History’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (37), pp.104–109.
Kobiljski, A. (2005) ‘Women Students at the American University of Beirut from the 1920s to the 1940s’, in Okkenhaug, I.M. and Flaskerud, I. (eds) Gender, religion and change in the Middle East: Two hundred years of history. Oxford: Berg Publishers, pp.67–84.
Kozma, L. and Furas, Y. (2020) ‘Palestinian doctors under the British Mandate: the formation of a profession’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 52(1), pp.87–108.
Mikdadi, R.D. (2000) My Life Story: My Travel With My Life-Time. Beirut: [Publisher unknown].
Munro, J.M. (1977) A mutual concern: the story of the American University of Beirut. Austin, TX: Caravan Books.
Nammar, J.J. (2012) Born in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press.
Nashef, K. (2002) ‘Tawfik Canaan: His Life and Works’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (16), pp.12–26.
Nicol, J.H. (1956) An Outline History of the American Junior College for Women and the Beirut College for Women. Unpublished manuscript. Lebanese American University.
Odeh, S.I. (2000) ‘The Arab College in Jerusalem, 1918–1948: Recollections’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (9), pp.48–58.
Penrose, S.B.L. (1941) That They May Have Life: The Story of the American University of Beirut 1866–1941. New York: The Trustees of the American University of Beirut.
Pringle, D. (2007) The churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A corpus: Vol. III. The city of Jerusalem. Illustrated by P.E. Leach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sahhar, M. (2025) Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family. Sydney: NewSouth.
Sanchez Summerer, K. and Zananiri, S. (eds) (2021) Imaging and Imagining Palestine: Photography, Modernity and the Biblical Lens, 1918–1948. Leiden: Brill.
Sandal-Wilson, C. (2019) ‘Beyond Jerusalem Syndrome: Religious Mania and Miracle Cures in British Mandate Palestine’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (78), pp.16–37.
Sandal-Wilson, C. (2025) Mandatory Madness: Colonial Psychiatry and Mental Illness in British Mandate Palestine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Singer, A. (2002) Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: an imperial soup kitchen in Jerusalem. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Stanton, A.L. (2012) ‘Jerusalem calling: The birth of the Palestine broadcasting service’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (50), pp.6–21.
Stoddard, R. (2020) Sarah and her Sisters: American Missionary Pioneers in Arab Female Education, 1834–1937. Beirut: Hachette Antoine.
Tamari, S. (ed.) (2002) Jerusalem 1948: The Arab Neighbourhoods and their Fate in the War. 2nd edn. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Studies/Institute for Palestine Studies.
Tleel, J. (1999) ‘I am Jerusalem: Life in the Old City from the Mandate Period to the Present’, Jerusalem Quarterly, (4), pp.230-240.
Toone, J. (2004) Legitimacy and Notables in Ottoman Jerusalem: A Case Study of Bayt Al-Dajani Using Waqfs and Marriage Records. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2150623 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2150623
Zananiri, S. (2026) Photographing Biblical Modernity: Frank Scholten in British Mandate Palestine. London: I.B. Tauris.
Archives and online resources
American Foundation for the BlindArchives and Special Collections, American University in BeirutAs-Safir ArchivesThe British LibraryBook WorksBritish Mandate Jerusalemites Facebook pageDrexel University Legacy Center Archives & Special CollectionsDublin City Library Dublin and Irish CollectionThe University of EdinburghEvangelisches Archiv Baden und WürttembergICRC ArchivesImperial War MuseumInstitute for Palestine StudiesInteractive Encyclopaedia of the Palestine QuestionInternet ArchiveIsrael State ArchivesJSTORKing’s College London, Archives and CollectionsThe Lebanese American University, Special CollectionsLeiden University Special CollectionsLibrary of Congress
Miami University Special Collections & University Archives
National Library of Medicine
Presbyterian Historical Society
National Library of Israel
The Netherlands Institute for the Near East
Palestine Memory
Palestine Museum Digital Archive
Palestine Open Maps
Palestine Remembered
Penn Libraries Holy Land Collections
The Perkins Archives, Perkins School for the Blind