Jerusalem: The Biography

By the same author

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Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
Young Stalin

Sashenka

JERUSALEM

THE BIOGRAPHY

Simon Sebag Montefiore

To my darling daughter
Lily Bathsheba

The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more; it is the history of heaven and earth.

Benjamin Disraeli,
Tancred

The city has been destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt again. Jerusalem is an old nymphomaniac who squeezes lover after lover to death, before shrugging him off her with a yawn, a black widow who devours her mates while they are still penetrating her.

Amos Oz,
A Tale of Love and Darkness

The Land of Israel is the centre of the world; Jerusalem is the centre of the Land; the Holy Temple is the centre of Jerusalem; the Holy of Holies is the centre of the Holy Temple; the Holy Ark is the centre of the Holy of Holies and the Foundation Stone from which the world was established is before the Holy Ark.

Midrash Tanhuma,
Kedoshim 10

The sanctuary of the earth is Syria; the sanctuary of Syria is Palestine; the sanctuary of Palestine is Jerusalem; the sanctuary of Jerusalem is the Mount; the sanctuary of the Mount is the place of worship; the sanctuary of the place of worship is the Dome of the Rock.

Thaur ibn Yazid,
Fadail

Jerusalem is the most illustrious of cities. Still Jerusalem has some disadvantages. Thus it is reported ‘Jerusalem is a golden goblet full of scorpions’.

Muqaddasi,
Description of Syria including Palestine

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

List of Family Trees and Maps

Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes on Names, Transliterations and Titles

Prologue

PART ONE: JUDAISM

1. The World of David

2. The Rise of David

3. The Kingdom and the Temple

4. The Kings of Judah

5. The Whore of Babylon

6. The Persians

7. The Macedonians

8. The Maccabees

9. The Romans Arrive

10. The Herods

11. Jesus Christ

12. The Last of the Herods

13. Jewish Wars: The Death of Jerusalem

PART TWO: PAGANISM

14. Aelia Capitolina

PART THREE CHRISTIANITY

15. The Apogee of Byzantium

16. Sunset of the Byzantines: Persian Invasion

PART FOUR: ISLAM

17. The Arab Conquest

18. The Umayyads: The Temple Restored

19. The Abbasids: Distant Masters

20. The Fatimids: Tolerance and Lunacy

PART FIVE: CRUSADE

21. The Slaughter

22. The Rise of Outremer

23. The Golden Age of Outremer

24. Stalemate

25. The Leper-King

26. Saladin

27. The Third Crusade: Saladin and Richard

28. The Saladin Dynasty

PART SIX: MAMLUK

29. Slave to Sultan

30. Decline of the Mamluks

PART SEVEN: OTTOMAN

31. The Magnificence of Suleiman

32. Mystics and Messiahs

33. The Families

PART EIGHT: EMPIRE

34. Napoleon in the Holy Land

35. The New Romantics: Chateaubriand and Disraeli

36. The Albanian Conquest

37. The Evangelists

38. The New City

39. The New Religion

40. Arab City, Imperial City

41. Russians

PART NINE: ZIONISM

42. The Kaiser

43. The
Oud
-Player Of Jerusalem

44. World War

45. Arab Revolt, Balfour Declaration

46. The Christmas Present

47. The Victors And The Spoils

48. The British Mandate

49. The Arab Revolt

50. The Dirty War

51. Jewish Independence, Arab Catastrophe

52. Divided

53. Six Days

Epilogue

Family Trees

Maps

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Copyright

ILLUSTRATIONS

SECTION ONE

Aerial view of the Temple Mount (Albatross/Topfoto)

Tel Dan stele,
c
. 850
BC
(Zev Radovan)

Ivory pomegranate, Israel Museum (AKG)

Section of Hezekiah’s wall (AKG)

The Siloam inscription,
c
. 700
BC
, Istanbul Archaeological Museum (AKG)

Detail of relief from the palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh (AKG)

Detail of relief from the Treasury of the Palace of Persepolis (Bridgeman Art Library)

Coin discovered near Jericho,
c
. 333
BC
(Zev Radovan)

Silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy I Soter,
c
. 300
BC
, Israel Museum (AKG)

Silver tetradrachm of Antiochus IV Epiphanes,
c
. 175
BC
, Israel Museum (AKG)

Judah the Maccabee

Silver denarius of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII (The Trustees of the British Museum)

Reconstruction of the Second Temple, Israel Museum (AKG)

Ossuary of ‘Simon the builder of the Sanctuary’ (AKG)

Greek inscription from the temple,
c
.50
BC
, Istanbul Archaeological Museum (AKG)

South-eastern corner of Herodian wall encircling the Temple Mount (Zev Radovan)

The Crucifixion, Hubert van Eyck, Ca’ d’Oro, Venice (Bridgeman Art Library)

Coin of Herod Antipas,
c
.
AD
4–39, Israel Museum (AKG)

Coin of Herod Agrippa I,
c
.
AD
43–39, Israel Museum (AKG)

Head of Titus, first century
AD
, Louvre Museum, Paris (Bridgeman Art Library)

Skeletal arm of young woman,
AD
67 (Zev Radovan)

Rocks at the foot of the Wall, Jerusalem (author’s photograph)

Detail from the Arch of Titus, Rome (AKG)

Coin minted to commemorate victory over Judaea,
AD
81 (Zev Radovan)

Bronze bust of Hadrian,
c
. 135, Israel Museum (Bridgeman Art Library)

Silver coin issued by Simon bar Kochba,
c
. 132–5, Israel Museum (AKG)

Fourth-century pilgrim graffiti, Church of the Holy Sepulchre (AKG)

Colossal head of Constantine the Great, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome (AKG)

SECTION TWO

Marble statue of Julian the Apostate, 362, Louvre Museum, Paris (AKG)

Justinian I and his retinue,
c
. 550, San Vitale, Ravenna (Bridgeman Art Library)

Theodora and her retinue,
c
. 550, San Vitale, Ravenna (Bridgeman Art Library)

Mosaic map of Palestine, Madaba (AKG)

The Golden Gate (author’s photograph)

Ascension of Muhammad, from a manuscript of Nizami’s poem ‘Khamza’, 1539–43, British Library (AKG)

Umayyad dynasty gold dinar showing Abd al-Malik (The Trustees of the British Museum)