Sari Nusseibeh - Family Background

Family Background

The Nusseibeh boast of a 1,300 year presence in Jerusalem, being descended from Ubayda ibn as-Samit, the brother of Nusaybah bint Ka'ab, a female warrior from the Banu Khazraj of Arabia, and one of the four women leaders of the 14 tribes of early Islam. Ubada, a companion of Umar ibn al-Khattab, was appointed the first Muslim high judge of Jerusalem after its conquest in 638 C.E., and received the keys of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, together with an obligation to keep the Holy Rock, now the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount, clean. The family retained an exclusive right to the keys down to the Ottoman period, when the Joudeh family obtained a warrant to share possession. To this day, the Nusseibeh, on receiving the keys from a member of the Joudeh clan, turn them over to the warden of the Church around dawn every day. Nusseibeh's grandfather successively married into three different Palestinian families of notables, the Shihabi, noted for their scholarship; the Darwish of the powerful al-Husayni clan; and to the Nashashibi, and thus, in Nusseibeh's words:'in a matter of a few years. . managed to stitch together four ancient Jerusalem families, two of which were bitter rivals'.