"SPLENDID . . . Eminently sane and patient . . . Essential reading for
Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike."
--The Washington Post
Venerated for millennia by three faiths, torn by irreconcilable
conflict, conquered, rebuilt, and mourned for again and again, Jerusalem
is a sacred city whose very sacredness has engendered terrible tragedy.
In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly
praised A History of God, traces the history of how Jews, Christians,
and Muslims have all laid claim to Jerusalem as their holy place, and
how three radically different concepts of holiness have shaped and
scarred the city for thousands of years.
Armstrong unfolds a complex story of spiritual upheaval and political
transformation--from King David's capital to an administrative outpost
of the Roman Empire, from the cosmopolitan city sanctified by Christ to
the spiritual center conquered and glorified by Muslims, from the
gleaming prize of European Crusaders to the bullet-ridden symbol of the
present-day Arab-Israeli conflict.
Written with grace and clarity, the product of years of meticulous
research, Jerusalem combines the pageant of history with the profundity
of searching spiritual analysis. Like Karen Armstrong's A History of
God, Jerusalem is a book for the ages.
"THE BEST SERIOUS, ACCESSIBLE HISTORY OF THE MOST SPIRITUALLY IMPORTANT
CITY IN THE WORLD."
--The Baltimore Sun
"A WORK OF IMPRESSIVE SWEEP AND GRANDEUR."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
