Though there are numerous methods by which humans have created orderly societies, peace and stability appear to depend upon one, powerful prerequisite. There must be enough land to be fairly shared by all. For if humans have cause to fight over land, on the grounds of its scarcity or its significance, then violence and discord are inevitable. And where violence and discord reign, order cannot take root. This is the lesson that the city of Jerusalem teaches us, both through its history and its present day. It is a lesson that Mr. Sebag-Montefiore's thorough biography of this most ancient and contentious city conveys so well.
Settled some 6,000 years ago, Jerusalem is one of the oldest, continuously inhabited human settlements on Earth. After its rise to regional prominence under King David, the city was claimed by the Persians, the Macedonians, the Maccabees, the Romans (pagans and Christians both), the house of Herod, Islamic kalifs, warlords from ancient Iraq, Christian Crusaders, Saladin, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, a succession of European empires, and regional Arab factions before the mantle of its ownership was finally seized by the Jewish people in the name of a new Israel. Amidst these contested centuries, the city has been sacked and besieged, its holy sites desecrated and its peoples savaged by wars, plagues and unimaginable deprivations. At its height it was a world-renowned place of trade and commerce that housed hundreds of thousands of souls. At its ebbs, it was a ravaged ruin, a rat-infested jungle of broken buildings that was home to barely 20,000 humans, its glory a dim and forgotten memory next to the brilliance of Damascus and Baghdad.
And yet, despite the wild variations in its fortunes, Jerusalem has always been the spiritual home to three of the world's most prominent faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Its holy sites are, for these adherents, literally biblical, the places where demigods lived and died. These are the ties that have maintained the settlement for all these centuries. But of course, these are also the ties that cause it to be the center of its factiousness. For each of these three faiths have a claim upon ground that has never been shared. It has only ever been fought for and won. It seems doubtful that this will change anytime soon.
Though Jerusalem is preoccupied with creating a catalogue of the lives of the powerful leaders who have, over the millennia, claimed and ruled this holy, human city, it is, in every other respect, an informational tour de force. Mr. Sebag-Montefiore, a British historian, is thorough to the point of academic rigor in his attempt to trace Jerusalem's political lineage from its founders down to the Six Day War which, since 1967, has momentarily settled the question of Jerusalem's ownership. He is refreshingly forthright concerning the fallibility of his sources, particularly for the city's earliest years, the history of which comes down to us primarily through biblical tales. Consequently, the author wisely confines this part of the narrative to a brief reconstruction of events as we understand them. The majority of the tale is taken up with Jerusalem's more recent history, the authenticity of which can be confirmed by multiple, contemporary sources. These more modern sections are filled with both the giants of history and the wars they waged, all of which are vividly rendered by the author.
However, as successful as Jerusalem is at teaching the reader about the city's political history, it does very little to convey a sense of Jerusalem as seen through the eyes of anyone but its rulers. But for some passages concerning architectural trends through time, and but for passing references to a few of its more famous artists, the reader is negligibly educated on life in the city, at any point. History is not just a reconstruction of the successes and the failures of kings and politicians. It is a tapestry comprised of culture and politics with neither more important than the other. Jerusalem has failed to considerably deepen my understanding of the city as a whole.
This is a thorough and successful read which is well worth the 650-page commitment. Jerusalem has a fascinating and tangled history which Mr. Sebag-Montefiore has admirably conveyed. Unfortunately, the lack of cultural information prevents it from achieving the greatest heights. (4/5 Stars)
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