New Window Opens into Palestinian Heritage with Amulets Exhibit

Birzeit University opened the Tawfiq Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets on April 27, 2013, seeking to provide a new opportunity for researchers to study Palestinian heritage and to train students and staff in museum practices.
Museum Director Inas Yassin said that the opening of the hall is a starting point for research in tangible cultural heritage represented by the Palestinian costume collection and the collection of doctor Tawfiq Canaan, who traded amulets and talismans for his medical services and then wrote about the collection at the time of the British Mandate.
The exhibit’s opening ceremony was attended by President Khalil Hindi, a number of University Council members, Museum Director Yassin and a number of artists and interested students.
The ethnographic and art collections at Birzeit University Museum include more than 2,000 pieces, among them the extensive Tawfiq Canaan collection, a number of traditional Palestinian dresses and jewelry and 250 pieces of art donated by Palestinian, Arab and international artists.