Jerusalem: The Biography (2 page)

The Dome of the Rock (AKG)

Interior of the Dome of the Rock (Garo Nalbandian)

The looting of Jerusalem in 1099, illuminated miniature from a universal chronicle, Jean de Courcy, Bibliotèque Nationale, Paris (Bridgeman Art Library)

Baldwin I crosses the Jordan, illumination from
Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon
, Bibliotèque Nationale, Paris (AKG)

Medieval map of Jerusalem from Robert the Monk’s
Chronicle of the Crusades
(Corbis)

Melisende marrying Fulk of Anjou from the
Histoire de la conquete de Jerusalem
by William of Tyre, Bibliotèque Nationale, Paris (Bridgeman Art Library)

Melisende’s psalter,
c
. 1131–43, British Library (AKG)

Baldwin IV and William of Tyre, illumination from
Histoire de Outremer
by William of Tyre, British Library (AKG)

Portrait of Saladin, British Library (Bridgeman Art Library)

Frederick II entering Jerusalem, 1227, Vatican Library (AKG)

The Dome of Ascension (AKG)

Entrance to the Market of the Cotton Merchants

Qaitbay fountain (AKG)

Suleiman I, portrait attributed to school of Titian,
c
. 1530, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (AKG)

Fountain of the Gate of the Chain (AKG)

Engraving of Sabbatai Zevi (AKG)

Detail from the exterior mosaics of the Dome of the Rock (Corbis)

SECTION THREE

Ibrahim Pasha, Charles-Philippe Larivière, Museum of French History at the Palace of Versailles (RMN)

Greek Church of the Holy Sepulchre
, David Roberts, 1839 (AKG)

Sir Moses Montefiore (author’s collection)

Montefiore windmill (Mishkenot Sha’ananim)

Photograph of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Patriarch Yessayi, 1861 (Armenian Partriarchate)

A group of Yemenite Jews (American Colony)

A group of Ashkenazi Jews, 1885, Hulton Archive (Getty)

Crowd of Russian pilgrims at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (American Colony)

King David Street, Granger Collection (Topfoto)

Theodor Herzl and his family, Hulton Archive (Getty)

Kaiser Wilhelm II in Jerusalem, 1889, Hulton Archive (Getty)

The Kaiser at the Tomb of the Kings (American Colony)

Bertha Spafford and other members of the American Colony with Bedouin friends, 1902 (American Colony)

Hussein Selim al-Husseini (American Colony)

Montagu Parker (Morley family archives)

Wasif Jawhariyyeh (Institute for Palestine Studies)

Jemal Pasha, 1915 (American Colony)

Turkish executions in Jerusalem (Mary Evans Picture Library)

Chaim Weizmann, 1918

David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, 1910 (Getty)

T.E. Lawrence on the governor’s balcony, 1920 (Getty)

The Mayor of Jerusalem surrenders the city, 1917 (Getty)

Fourth of July reception at the American Colony (American Colony)

Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence and Amir Abdullah in the gardens of Government House, 1921, Matson Photograph Collection (Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

SECTION FOUR

Investiture by the Duke of Connaught in Barracks Square (American Colony)

Group outside Government House, 1924 (Israel State Archive)

King Hussein in Jerusalem, 1923 (Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

King Faisal and Amir Abdullah surrounded by students, 1933, Matson Photograph Collection (Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

David Ben-Gurion, 1924 (Mary Evans Picture Library)

Mufti Amin al-Husseini at the Nabi Musa festival, 1937 (Keystone Press, France)

Holy Fire ceremony, 1941, Matson Photograph Collection (Library of Congress, Washington, DC)

Prayers at the Western Wall, 1944 (Central Zionist Archives)

Asmahan (Getty)

Mufti Amin al-Husseini meets Adolf Hitler, 1941 (AKG)

Abd al-Kadir al-Husseini, 1940s (Associated Press)

Abd al-Kadir al-Husseini’s funeral procession, 1948 (Government Press Office, State of Israel)

Bombing of the King David Hotel

Katy Antonius (Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs)

Jerusalem in smoke during the Arab–Israeli War, 28 May 1948 (Mary Evans Picture Library)

Arab soldiers escorting a Jewish prisoner, 1 June 1948, Time and Life Pictures (Getty)

Jewish girl fleeing from burning buildings, 28 May 1948, Time and Life Pictures (Getty)

Arab troops behind sandbag barricades, 1 June 1948 (AKG)

King Abdullah with crowds in Jerusalem, 1 July 1948 (Getty)

The scene in al-Aqsa mosque after King Abdullah’s assassination, 20 July 1951 (Associated Press)

King Hussein of Jordan, 29 July 1967 (Associated Press)

Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan during an Israeli cabinet meeting, 1967 (Micha Bar Am/Magnum Photos)

Israeli paratroopers advancing to Lions’ Gate, 7 June 1967 (Avner Offer)

Israeli soldiers praying at the Western Wall, 7 June 1967 (Cornell Capa/Magnum Photos)

The sheikh in charge of the mosques on the Temple Mount, 7 June 1967 (Micha Bar Am/Magnum Photos)

Israeli troops making their way towards al-Aqsa (Micha Bar Am/Magnum Photos)

Israeli paratroopers at the Dome of the Rock (Avner Offer)

FAMILY TREES

The Maccabees: Kings and High Priests, 160–37
BC

The Herods, 37
BC
–
AD
100

The Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic Caliphs and Dynasties

Crusader Kings of Jerusalem, 1099–1291

The Hashemite (Sherifian) Dynasty, 1916–

MAPS

The Kingdom of David and Solomon, and the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 1000–586
BC

The Empires, 586
BC
–
AD
1918

Jerusalem in the First Century
AD
and Jesus’ Passion

The Crusader Kingdoms, 1098–1489

Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem, 1260–1917

The Sykes-Picot Plan, 1916

Sherif Hussein’s Imperial Dream, 1916

UN Plan, 1947

Israel since 1948

Jerusalem: The Old City

Jerusalem in the Early Twentieth Century

PREFACE

The history of Jerusalem is the history of the world, but it is also the chronicle of an often penurious provincial town amid the Judaean hills. Jerusalem was once regarded as the centre of the world and today that is more true than ever: the city is the focus of the struggle between the Abrahamic religions, the shrine for increasingly popular Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism, the strategic battlefield of clashing civilizations, the front line between atheism and faith, the cynosure of secular fascination, the object of giddy conspiracism and internet myth-making, and the illuminated stage for the cameras of the world in the age of twenty-four-hour news. Religious, political and media interest feed on each other to make Jerusalem more intensely scrutinized today than ever before.

Jerusalem is the Holy City, yet it has always been a den of superstition, charlatanism and bigotry; the desire and prize of empires, yet of no strategic value; the cosmopolitan home of many sects, each of which believes the city belongs to them alone; a city of many names – yet each tradition is so sectarian it excludes any other. This is a place of such delicacy that it is described in Jewish sacred literature in the feminine – always a sensual, living woman, always a beauty, but sometimes a shameless harlot, sometimes a wounded princess whose lovers have forsaken her. Jerusalem is the house of the one God, the capital of two peoples, the temple of three religions and she is the only city to exist twice – in heaven and on earth: the peerless grace of the terrestrial is as nothing to the glories of the celestial. The very fact that Jerusalem is both terrestrial and celestial means that the city can exist anywhere: new Jerusalems have been founded all over the world and everyone has their own vision of Jerusalem. Prophets and patriarchs, Abraham, David, Jesus and Muhammad are said to have trodden these stones. The Abrahamic religions were born there and the world will also end there on the Day of Judgement. Jerusalem, sacred to the Peoples of the Book,
is
the city of the Book: the Bible is, in many ways, Jerusalem’s own chronicle and its readers, from the Jews and early Christians via the Muslim conquerors and the Crusaders to today’s American evangelists, have repeatedly altered her history to fulfil biblical prophecy.