By the same author
Catherine the Great and Potemkin
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)
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)