The present study deals with the function of place in the short-story collection The Leaning Date Palm by the Palestinian writer Muhammad ‘All Taha, published in 1995. The study begins with a definition of the concept of place in the context of narrative fiction, and the important artistic, sensory and semantic functions it has as an artistic component in the story. This is followed by a discussion of the writer’s background and his literary output, after which we provide a survey of the main topics and ideas, as well as the prominent other features, of the story collection The Leaning Date Palm. Our study leads to the conclusion that place plays an important role in this story collection, especially due to the author’s focus on national issues in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Place, after all, constitutes a fundamental element in that conflict. The author, our study has found, deals with the concept of place from a number of different perspectives: Longing for the past, the traditional place, the importance of returning to one’s homeland, and protecting one’s land.
