Hisham Khatib Collection - Prints
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Abstract
Dr. Hisham Khatib was a Palestinian-Jordanian politician, intellectual and economist. The Hisham Khatib Collection on Palestine and the region once part the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq, contains over 4,000 images and was built over 40 years. The majority of objects are 19th century albumen photographic prints, travel albums of the same period and early 20th century, and postcards. There are many images taken by prominent photographers and studios, including; Felix Bonfils, the American Colony, Hippolyte Arnoux, Abdullah Freres, Lehnert and Landrock, Zangaki Brothers and Frances Frith. The photographic portion of the collection (digitized and digitally archived by Akkasah)is part of a larger private collection of maps, paintings and manuscripts.
Biographical / Historical
Dr. Hisham Khatib was a Palestinian-Jordanian politician, intellectual and economist of renowned international reputation and a consultant to many local (Jordanian) and international organizations. He was born in Akka (Acre), Palestine in 1937 and lived in Jerusalem until 1974, when he relocated to Jordan.
Dr. Hisham held numerous posts in many Jordanian cabinets. He was Minister of Energy, Water, and Planning. His last posts were as the Head of the Management Committee of the Arab Thought Forum, Honorary Vice Chairman of the World Energy Council and member of many international and regional committees on energy, environment and technology, including the UN Commission on Science and Technology, World Federation of Scientists and Arab East Studies Association. He was decorated in Jordan, Indonesia, Italy, Austria, Sweden and the Vatican. He was also an honorary member of Darat al Funun's advisory board.
Dr. Hisham spent over 40 years building a vast and historically valuable collection of representations of the Near East, focused on the Holy Lands, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Egypt. The artworks in this extensive collection include paintings, lithographic prints, maps, books, photographs and postcards.
He published two books focussed on his collection: Palestine and Egypt Under the Ottomans: Paintings, Books, Photographs, Maps and Manuscripts (2003) and Jerusalem, Palestine and Jordan: In the Archives of Hisham Khatib (2013). He also published Economic Evaluation of Projects in the Electricity Supply Industry - Energy Engineering (2014).
Dr. Hisham Khatib died in June 2022. [Text edited from https://daratalfunun.org]
Arrangement
This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor. The collection was digitized as access was given and arranged according to container and album from Dr. Hisham Khatib's library.
Scope and Contents
Dr. Hisham Khatib's collection was built over decades from a variety of auctions, rare book dealers and markets. The photographic portion of the collection (digitized and digitally archived by Akkasah) is composed of 2,534 photographic prints (both albumen and gelatin silver) and 1,629 postcards. The main focus is Palestine and the Holy Lands. The collection extends geographically to the wider region under the Ottoman Empire and has a secondary focus on Egypt and a tertiary focus on Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. There are a small number of images (under 10 per country) representing Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, India, Turkey and Yemen.
A great many images are of archaeological and holy sites in Palestine, in particular the Dome of the Rock [Qubbat Al-Sakhrah] and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre and Church of the Nativity as well as other significant mosques and mausoleums in Palestine, Syria and Egypt. There is also a focus on landscapes and to a lesser extent, some images that include people, though very few of these are portraits and many are in the Orientalist tradition of including locals for scale or demonstrations of customs or regional costume.
There are many images taken by prominent photographers/studios, including; Felix Bonfils, the American Colony, Hippolyte Arnoux, Abdullah Freres, Lehnert and Landrock, Zangaki Brothers and Frances Frith.
There are 16 photograph albums, the majority of which were put together by British people who had been on pilgrimages or tours of the Holy Lands or stationed in Palestine, Egypt or Iraq during the Second World War. Of note are the albums created by Les Wells (L. Wells) a serviceman in the British military as two further albums are available in the collections owned by Akkasah: https://specialcollections.library.nyu.edu/search/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&f%5Bformat_sim%5D%5B%5D=Archival+Collection&f%5Brepository_sim%5D%5B%5D=akkasah&per_page=50&q=L.+Wells. Within the postcard collection, the Shlomo Narinsky (Neroni) and Sonia Narinsky album is a rare collection.
All finding aids can be viewed at: https://specialcollections.library.nyu.edu/search/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&f%5Bformat_sim%5D%5B%5D=Archival+Collection&f%5Brepository_sim%5D%5B%5D=akkasah&per_page=50&q=Hisham+Khatib" show="new" actuate="onrequest">.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Dr. Hisham Khatib are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from repository. Please contact Akkasah at akkasah@nyu.edu or submit an image request form: https://akkasah.org/en/page/frontpage/image-request
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Hisham Khatib Collection; AD_MC_030; box number; folder number or item identifier; Akkasah Center for Photography, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection obtained directly from Dr. Hisham Khatib and digitized by Akkasah in Amman, Jordan in 2017.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Materials were digitized on a Nikon D810 and Capture One 10. Original caption information, when available, will be transcribed into page-level descriptions. Where captions are illegible, the archivist's interpretation is enclosed in square brackets.