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 The World of David The Rise of David The Kingdom and the Temple The Kings of Judah The Whore of Babylon The Persians The Macedonians The Maccabees 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) 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) * In 1957, Yad Vashem, ‘A Place and a Name’, the memorial to the million Jews killed in the Holocaust, was created on Mount Herzl In 1965, the Israel Museum was opened, followed by the new Knesset, both funded by James de Rothschild who had helped recruit the Jewish Legion in Allenby’s army * Arafat claimed to have been born in Jerusalem His mother was a Jerusalemite, but he was in fact born in Cairo In 1933, at the age of four, he went to live with relatives for four years in the Maghrebi Quarter next to the Wall * As the tension rose, an old man visited the city for the last time and the world scarcely noticed: Haj Amin Husseini, the ex-mufti, prayed at al-Aqsa and then returned to his Lebanese exile, where he died in 1974 * Kollek, born in Hungary, raised in Vienna, and named after Theodor Herzl, had specialized in secret missions for the Jewish Agency, liaising with the British secret service during the campaign against the Irgun and the Stern Gang, and then buying arms for the Haganah He then served as director of Ben-Gurion’s private office * The chief academic work on Jerusalem madness describes the typical patients as ‘individuals who strongly identify with characters from the Old or New Testament or are convinced they are one of these characters and fall victim to a psychotic episode in Jerusalem.’ Tour guides should look out for ‘1 Agitation Split away from group Obsession with taking baths; compulsive fingernail/toenail clipping Preparation, often with aid of hotel bed-linen, of toga-like gown, always white The need to scream, sing out loud biblical verses Procession to one of Jerusalem’s holy places Delivery of a sermon in a holy place.’ The Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre in Jerusalem, which specializes in the Syndrome, is said to stand on the site of the village of Deir Yassin * Faisal Husseini, the son of Abd al-Kadir, emerged as one of the leaders of the Intifada Husseini had trained as a Fatah explosives expert and spent years in Israeli jails, the essential badges of honour for any Palestinian leader, but, released from prison, he was one of the first to come round to talks with the Israelis, even learningHebrew to put his case more clearly Husseini attended the Madrid talks and now became Arafat’s Palestinian minister for Jerusalem When the Oslo Accords fell apart, the Israelis confined him to Orient House before eventually closingit down When he died in 2001, buried like his father on the Haram, the Palestinians lost the only leader who could have replaced Arafat † Archaeologists had started exploring tunnels beneath the Arab homes that bordered the entire western wall of the Temple Mount duringthe 1950s and Professor OlegGrabar, the future doyen of Jerusalem scholars, remembers how they would frequently appear as if by magic out of the floors in the kitchens of the surprised residents Under Israeli archaeologists, the tunnel yielded – and continues to so – the most breathtaking finds from the immense stones of the foundations of Herod’s Temple, via Maccabee, Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad buildings, to a new Crusader chapel But the tunnel also contained the place closest to the Temple’s Foundation Stone where Jews could now pray–and it united Jerusalem by linkingthe Jewish and Muslim Quarters * These struggles reveal the complexities of both sides, sometimes bringing Israelis and Arabs together: when Rabbi Goren tried to commandeer the Khalidi house overlooking the Wall for a yeshiva, Mrs Haifa Khalidi was defended in Israeli courts by two Israeli historians, Amnon Cohen and Dan Bahat, and still lives today in her house above the famous Khalidiyyah Library When religious Jews tried to expand their digs and settlement in Silwan below the City of David, they were stopped by lawsuits brought by Israeli archaeologists * In 2009/2010, the population of Greater Jerusalem was 780,000: 514,800 Jews (who include 163,800 ultra-Orthodox) and 265,200 Arabs There were around 30,000 Arabs in the Old City and 3,500 Jews There are around 200,000 Israelis living in new suburbs in eastern Jerusalem * In Israel’s dysfunctional democracy, with weak coalition governments, national-religious organizations have become ever more powerful in questions of Jerusalem’s planning and archaeology In 2003, Israeli building started in the vital East One (E1) section, east of the Old City, which would have effectively cut off east Jerusalem from the West Bank, underminingthe creation of a Palestinian state Israeli liberals and America persuaded Israel to stop this, but plans to build Jewish settlements in the Arab neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan continue The latter stands next to the much-excavated ancient City of David where a Jewish nationalist-religious foundation, Elad, funds the invaluable archaeological excavations and runs a visitors’ centre telling the story of Jewish Jerusalem It also plans to move Palestinian residents to nearby housingto make way for more Jewish settlers and a King David park called the King’s Gardens Such situations can challenge archaeological professionalism Archaeologists, writes Dr Raphael Greenberg, a historian who has campaigned against this project, represent ‘a secular academic approach’, yet their backers hope for ‘results that legitimise their concepts of the history of Jerusalem’ So far his fears have not materialized The integrity of the archaeologists is high and as we saw earlier, the present dighas uncovered Canaanite not Jewish walls Nonetheless these sites have become flashpoints for protests by Palestinians and Israeli liberals * The Russian reverence for Jerusalem has been modernized to suit the authoritarian nationalism fostered by Vladimir Putin who in 2007 oversaw the reunion of the ex-Soviet Moscow Patriarchate and the White Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia Thousands of singing Russian pilgrims again fill the streets The Holy Fire is flown back to Moscow on a plane, chartered by an organization called the Centre for National Glory and the Apostle Andrei Foundation, headed by a Kremlin potentate A kitsch life-sized golden statue of ‘Tsar David’ has appeared outside David’s Tomb An ex-prime minister, Stephan Stepashin, is the chief of the restored Palestine Society: ‘a Russian flagin the centre of Jerusalem,’ he says, ‘is priceless.’ * The Families remain important in Jerusalem After the death of Faisal Husseini, Arafat appointed the philosopher Sari Nusseibeh (cousin of Weejah), as Palestinian representative in Jerusalem, but sacked him after he rejected suicide bombings The founder of al-Quds University, Nusseibeh remains the city’s intellectual maverick, admired by both sides At the time of writing, the Palestinian representative for Jerusalem is Adnan al-Husseini; another cousin, Dr Rafiq al-Husseini, advises President Abbas As for the Khalidis, Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York, advises Barack Obama * On a last visit to Jerusalem in 1992 before his death, Edward Said called the Church ‘an alien, rundown, unattractive place full of frumpy middle-aged tourists milling about in a decrepit and ill-lit area where Copts, Greeks, Armenians and other Christian sects nurtured their unattractive ecclesiastical gardens in sometimes open combat with each other’ The most famous sign of that open combat is a little ladder belonging to the Armenians on the balcony outside the right-hand window in the faỗade of the Church which tour guides claim can never be moved without other sects seizingit In fact, the ladder leads to a balcony where the Armenian superior used to drink coffee with his friends and tend his flower garden: it is there so that the balcony can be cleaned Copyright An Orion ebook First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Orion Books This ebook first published in 2011 by Orion Books © Simon Sebag Montefiore 2011 The right of Simon Sebag Montefiore to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent publisher A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978 29785864 Typeset by Input Data Services Ltd, Bridgwater, Somerset Orion Books An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd Orion House Upper Saint Martin’s Lane London WC2H 9EA An Hachette UK Company www.orionbooks.co.uk ... 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. .. ONE: JUDAISM The World of David The Rise of David The Kingdom and the Temple The Kings of Judah The Whore of Babylon The Persians The Macedonians The Maccabees The Romans Arrive 10 The Herods 11... 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