Jerusalem – The Biography (Fully Revised and Updated)

The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of the two peoples, the shrine of three faiths and for believers, the site of Judgement Day. The Holy City and Holy Land are the battlefields in many of today’s multifaceted conflicts. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and the key to peace in the middle east? How did the Holy Land become so important not just to the region but to the wider world? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study Montifiore reveals this ever-changing city and turbulent region through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the Kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in the Holy City and Holy Land.

A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism, co-existence, power and myth, but also a freshly updated, carefully balanced history of the History of the Middle East, from King David to the new players of the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wars today. This is how today’s Middle East was forged, how the Holy Land became sacred and how Jerusalem became Jerusalem- the only city that exists twice-in heaven and on earth.