Khalil Raad, Khalidi brothers Hasan-Shukri and Hussein Fakhri in Ottoman Army Medical Corps uniforms, A-Quds (Jerusalem), 1915

Khalidi brothers Hasan-Shukri and HusseinFakhri in Ottoman Army Medical Corps uniforms, A-Quds (Jerusalem), 1915. Portrait by Khalil Raad.
“During the war it became customary for local middle-class conscripts to have their portraits taken while dressed in army uniforms with guns, swords, and other military paraphernalia provided by the studio against an idyllic natural (mostly European) background. For some reason many of these backdrops were forest surroundings or country roads lined with trees. The portraits were standardized heroic postures meant as souvenirs for the family, fiancées, and friends before the men were shipped to the front or other military locations.”

Image and the text from: “The Great War and the Remaking of Palestine” by Salim Tamari