Hidden Companions – Ahmad Nabil (in Arabic)

Jinns and ghouls, guardians and tricksters, wizards and possessors, Ahmad Nabil’s Hidden Companions is a testimonial archive of Palestinian folklore.  In the Old City of Jerusalem, a man wakes every day to find coins under his pillow, a young lonely girl strikes up a friendship with a spectral voice, a veiled woman changes form to delude ordinary senses, a petite girl in all black breaches a group of young girls returning from a wedding, a goat and her two kids draw an unsuspecting young man into a hidden room, a group of curious boys conjure the spirit of Marx. Here, the Unseen…

Jinns and ghouls, guardians and tricksters, wizards and possessors, Ahmad Nabil’s Hidden Companions is a testimonial archive of Palestinian folklore. 

In the Old City of Jerusalem, a man wakes every day to find coins under his pillow, a young lonely girl strikes up a friendship with a spectral voice, a veiled woman changes form to delude ordinary senses, a petite girl in all black breaches a group of young girls returning from a wedding, a goat and her two kids draw an unsuspecting young man into a hidden room, a group of curious boys conjure the spirit of Marx. Here, the Unseen beings are a natural element of everyday life.

With rich, vivid descriptions and stunning illustrations, Ahmad Nabil weaves a literary account of paranormal stories collected from the Old City of Jerusalem. Held, passed around in whisper networks, and relayed over conversations, these stories come to symbolize a part of Palestine’s intangible heritage. Thrilling and unsettling in equal parts, Hidden Companions traces a captivating world largely unseen in popular narrative. 

This book is in Arabic. An English translation is forthcoming.