The Palestinian Diaries

In an attempt for the triumph of Islam, Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him- who was for many times attacked by the West, the artist and calligrapher Yasser Abu Saima, son of the city of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, Made the first “manuscript” of the Gospel of Luke in Arabic, and presented it as  a gift to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the city on 13th of may.

Saima said to Aljazeera.net that he has been for two months working on this manuscript, which is the first around the world and the Arabic countries. “Al-Bashir”, called it according to the Gospel of Luke, is written in Arabic ,  he was able to do it despite the lack of time.

Natural materials
The Saima (51 years) said that the manuscript consists of about sixty-five-page presentation of 55 cm width and 75 cm length. Each page contains an image and an explanation of it in Arabic language. It begins from Virgin Mary’s pregnancy of christ to the crucifixion issue.

He used cartonic paper processed by natural materials from egg whites and Shabbah to keep it as long as possible. He also used Arabic ink made manually out of pomegranate , salt, honey, and arabic gum.

The Message
Saima who embraces Islam, said: ”regardless of whether it says “clergy”, the purpose behind the submission of this manuscript was to bring the attention of the Pope and the Christian world in general that the person is not printing the attack and the attack on one of the “even those who differed with him ideologically.”

The other letter from the manuscript is a reply to the Danish cartoonist who attacked the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. “I want to show him how we, Muslims, deal with all prophets as equal, and the faith of the Muslim is not complete until he believes in all the divine prophets and their books” , Saima said.

Holy also
In addition to the manuscript, the Gospel, Saima made two manuscripts of the Holy Quran written in Arabic, and a manuscript of  “Rubaiyat Al khayyam” translated by Wadea al-Bustani published in 1932. He is preparing for a manuscript that contains the collections of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, to put it in his tomb.

Saima became professinal in Arabic writing since he was 17. He is a teacher of Arabic writing at the Faculty of Arts, University of Bethlehem. He used his talent in writing to support his family, who lived in Hittin refugee camp in Jordan. Then in 1997, they came to the Palestinian territories and he continued his creativity in Arabic writing.