ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the significance of the work of Tawfik Canaan, a Palestinian collector in Jerusalem at the turn of the last century who lived and practiced within a stimulating yet controversial academic and scholarly milieu. It is spring 1995, and Birzeit University receives a few dozen cardboard boxes, labelled by hand: The Tawfik Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets. The significance of Canaan's collection is closely tied to its documentation of the diversity of social and religious beliefs and customs practised in Palestine which reflects the pluralism of Palestinian society. The prevailing cultural and intellectual ambiance in Jerusalem at the beginning of the twentieth century must have had a great impact on Canaan. The continuous unstable political environment in Palestine since Canaan started his collection at the turn of the last century until the present day has affected a dramatic chain of changes on the ground.
