Bruce Anderson ,Prospect magazine February 2011 — Issue 179
The tortuous past of Jerusalem, endlessly fought over by Jews, Christians and Muslims, is brilliantly revealed in Simon Sebag Montefiore’s “biography”
Jerusalem: The Biography
by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25)
Jerusalem is an epitome of the human condition: man at his best, and worst. Over three millennia people have believed the city to be the bridge between heaven and earth. But it has usually been a dangerous crossing. Jerusalem has inspired courage, sacrifice and chivalry; art, architecture, and music. It has also sunk into persecution, brutality, butchery, squalor and venereal disease. Just to its south lies the Valley of Hinnom, notorious for child sacrifices even in the early Jewish era. As a result, it came to be known as Gehenna: hell. Given Jerusalem’s history, it is appropriate that it should have its own branch of Hades.
Jerusalem is also a bloody testimony to the ambivalent nature of religion. The Christians who guard the Church of the Holy Sepulchre cannot live in peace. The monks and priests from the various denominations often assail each other, especially at Easter, as if they would re-crucify Christ. Jerusalem is a holy city, where the faithful often pray with a sword or a gun. Throughout its centuries—even in the high eras of grandeur—tragedy was always at hand.
That was especially true of the Jews. Archaeologists have established that David did exist. From the days of Royal David’s City, Jerusalem has been the capital of Jewry: the focal point for Jewish aspirations. This has helped the Jewish people to survive and to avoid the twin perils of extirpation and assimilation. Down the many centuries of exile and diaspora, millions of Jews have vowed “next year in Jerusalem,” even though they had no earthly prospect of visiting the city. The dream kept Judaism alive.
There was a problem. The Jews were the pioneers of monotheism, which enabled mankind to make a break with the superstitions of the pagan era. But Jewish monotheism created two daughter houses: Christianity and Islam. Both of them venerated Jerusalem and sought to rule it; both of them were prone to outbreaks of matricide. The Jews had already experienced terror. In AD 70, Titus conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish state. For the next 1,800-odd years, often oppressed, enslaved and massacred, Jews somehow clung to a presence in their city.
It is a moving story, and an endlessly troubled one. Many of the devout believe that the destiny of Jerusalem will be bound up with the end of the world. They may well be proved right.
To write a “biography” of Jerusalem is a formidable undertaking. Simon Sebag Montefiore has risen to the challenge. His book can be commended to anyone who is planning a trip to Jerusalem, or who wants background on the Palestinian question— or who just enjoys a good read. The author is especially good on archaeology. Just under the surface of Jerusalem lie 3,000 years’ worth of stones and bones. Many stones have been disinterred and reused. Newer buildings rest on the foundations of ancient ones. The city centre is an archaeological palimpsest, and Sebag Montefiore appears to have mastered the scholarship. But this is not an arid process: he can make the stones live and sing. He would be an excellent guide on an archaeological tour.
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