The time of the white horses

The time of the white horses

The Time of the White Horses is a novel from a series of epics written by the Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah.

The events begin in the novel about Palestinian history by going back to the nineteenth century, up to the Nakba, and Ibrahim Nasrallah, through the novel, tried to provide a complete picture of the pivotal stages that modern Palestinian history went through, and the conflicts that have not stopped since eternity on the land of Palestine, including: Between the peasants and the leaders, the conflict with the Turks, and the conflict with the British, the Jews, and the Arab leaders.

Eye on the novel

The most prominent characteristic of the novel The Time of the White Horses is its shedding light on everything Palestinian, as follows:

• The novel dealt with the Palestinian man, the son, the father, the husband, the brother, the lover, the leader, and the commander.
• The novel dealt with the privacy of the Palestinian woman in several aspects: she is the mother, the farmer, the fighter, and the steadfast one in the face of injustice and oppression.
• The novel talked about the details of the Palestinian identity, and all its pillars, and answered the questions circulating about Palestine and its cause.
• The novel talked about the revolution and the revolutionaries, the calamities caused by the Zionist occupation, and the damage inflicted on all Palestinian families.
• The novel was not limited to political discourse, but rather dealt with Palestinian customs and traditions, lifestyle and rituals.
• The novel was translated into English after its great success.
• The novel turned into a huge TV series, but the show was frozen for various reasons. Satellite TV refused to produce the series.

The reason for naming the novel

Some critics believe that the writer chose the name “The Time of the White Horses” as a metaphor for the state of blackness in which people lived in Palestine before 1948 AD, although the appearance and details of life showed the opposite of that blackness. That is, it reflected a state of happiness, satisfaction, and harmony, and to indicate this, the writer used three basic symbols in the novel; They are: the purebred white horse, dirt, humans and what happened to them after the Nakba, and each of these symbols carried different connotations in the novel.

Quotes from the novel

• If the Jews lose, they will return to the country they came from, but if we lose, we will lose everything.
• We have never known fear. you ask me why? Because we were sure that only the soul that God had given us could take it, and at the time set by God, not the time set by the English or any creature on earth.
• God created the horse from the wind, the human being from dust, and the houses from human beings.
• In the house of Hajj Mahmoud, and before him in the house of Hajj Omar, the only thing that was not allowed to happen was: insulting women or insulting Persians.