Aims and objectives
Born near Bethlehem, Tawfiq Canaan (1882–1964) studied medicine at Beirut’s prestigious Syrian Protestant College, where he came into contact with important European, Ottoman and Palestinian intellectuals. Between 1901 and 1945, Canaan’s medical practice took him around Palestine, where he documented discussions with patients regarding their use of amulets, charms and talismans for medicinal and magical purposes. In 1996, Canaan’s daughters donated many items from Canaan’s collections—including personal papers in Arabic, English and German, and more than one thousand talismans and amulets made of various materials—to the Birzeit University Museum. EAP1656 will digitise and preserve Canaan’s collections.
