Mustafa Kabha
{{Infobox person
| name = Mustafa Kabha
| native_name = مصطفى كبها
| image = Prof. Mustafa Kabha - The Open University.jpg
| caption = Kabha in 2022
| birth_date = 1962
| birth_place = Umm al-Qataf, Israel
| nationality = Palestinian
| occupation = Historian, Philologist, Academic
| employer = Open University of Israel
| known_for = Research on Palestinian historiography, press history, oral tradition
}}
Mustafa Kabha ({{langx|ar|مصطفى داود كبها}}, born in 1962) is a Palestinian historian, philologist, and professor of modern Middle Eastern history. He is widely recognized for his work on the history of Palestinian society, Arabic journalism in Palestine, and oral history as a source of historical knowledge. Kabha is considered one of the leading scholars of Palestinian historiography and memory studies.{{Cite web |last=Atshan |first=A |title=Review; JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES; RECENT BOOKS - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/c10958d0b915d30bf5b641b7aa28b5d0/1?cbl=49082&pq-origsite=gscholar |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.proquest.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Fildes |first=Harriet |date=2014-02-03 |title=Book Review: the two-state solution: the UN partition resolution of mandatory Palestine – analysis and sources, edited by Ruth Gavison |url=https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56154/ |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=LSE Review of Books |language=en}}
Kabha is the President of Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel.{{Cite web |last=جدلية |first=Jadaliyya- |title=Mustafa Kabha and Nahum Karlinsky |url=https://www.jadaliyya.com/Author/11610 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=Jadaliyya - جدلية |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Amara |first=Muhammad |date=2022-03-29 |title=Arabic Language Academies in Israel Versus the Hebrew Language Academy: between Professionalism and Nationalist Politics |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/hlps.2022.0285 |journal=Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies |language=en |doi=10.3366/hlps.2022.0285|url-access=subscription }}
Academic career
Kabha received his academic training in Arabic language, history, and philology. He completed his doctoral studies at Tel Aviv University, specializing in modern Middle Eastern and Palestinian history. He serves as a faculty member at the Open University of Israel, where he teaches courses on Arab society, historiography, and modern Middle Eastern history.{{Cite web |last=Kabha |first=Mustafa |title=האוניברסיטה הפתוחה |url=https://www.openu.ac.il/ErrorMessages/400iv.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.openu.ac.il}}
Kabha's work focuses on the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Palestinians, with particular emphasis on the development of Arabic press in Palestine and the use of oral history in reconstructing collective memory. His studies have contributed significantly to understanding how Palestinians preserved historical knowledge under colonial, nationalist, and post-Nakba conditions.{{Cite journal |last=LeVine |first=Mark |date=2023 |title="Filling in the Blanks": Jaffa's Oranges, an English Suit, and the Rememorying of Palestinian History |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/filling-in-the-blanks-jaffas-oranges-an-english-suit-and-the-rememorying-of-palestinian-history/26FB92703F84C3EA5B74978CEA9764CE |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=377–385 |doi=10.1017/S0020743823000685 |issn=0020-7438|doi-access=free }}
Research and contributions
Kabha has published extensively on:
- The history of Arabic newspapers and journalism in Palestine during the Ottoman and British Mandate periods.
- The role of collective memory, narrative, and oral tradition in Palestinian historiography.
- The impact of political fragmentation on historical writing and collective identity in Palestinian society.
- Comparative studies of historiographical methodologies in Arab and Western academic traditions.{{Cite web |last=Kabha |first=Mustafa |title=האוניברסיטה הפתוחה |url=https://www.openu.ac.il/ErrorMessages/400iv.html |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=www.openu.ac.il}}
His work bridges historical narrative, philological analysis, and ethnographic documentation, and he has participated in various interdisciplinary projects focused on the preservation of oral testimonies and endangered linguistic traditions in rural Palestine.
Selected publications
- Kabha, M. (2004). The Palestinian Press as Shaper of Public Opinion, 1929–1939: Writing Up a Storm. Tel Aviv: Resling.
- Kabha, M. (2006). The Role of the Arabic Press in Palestine: Social and Political Change in the Late Ottoman and British Mandate Periods. In *Palestinian Social History and Culture*, ed. R. Kanaaneh and I. Rabinowitz.
- Kabha, M. (2010). Palestinian Collective Memory and Oral Histories: Between Myth and Document. *Jerusalem Quarterly*, 42, 34–47.
- Kabha, M. (2013). Between Tradition and Modernity: Arabic Journalism and Cultural Change in Palestine. *Middle Eastern Studies*, 49(2), 213–230.
Public engagement
Kabha is frequently invited to public forums, academic conferences, and media programs to discuss Palestinian history, identity, and the role of historical memory. He is involved in cultural initiatives to preserve Palestinian heritage and traditional storytelling practices. His public work emphasizes the importance of indigenous knowledge production and decolonial perspectives in historiography.{{Cite web |date=2019-09-11 |title=פרופסור מוסטפא כבהא על הקשר בין סיקור החברה הערבית לניסיון של כלי התקשורת להוכיח שהם לא שמאלנים |url=https://www.the7eye.org.il/343656 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=העין השביעית |language=he-IL}}
See also
References
External links
- [https://www.openu.ac.il/en/pages/faculty/mustafakabha.aspx Mustafa Kabha – Open University of Israel faculty page]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabha, Mustafa}}
Category:Palestinian historians