The Israeli capital is of great importance in the spiritual traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each of the three religions considers the city of Jerusalem to be the land of its worship. Some of the most sacred places of these beliefs are within the Old City. One object, the Temple Mount, contains the most important shrines for all three monotheistic teachings.
Known in Hebrew as Yerushalayimi and in Arabic as Al-Quds, the city in Christian, Jewish and Muslim hearts resonates for centuries with a common history of conflicts. Being one of the oldest capitals of the world, this territory has been repeatedly defeated, plundered, ravaged, destroyed and mourned. Rebuilding again and again, each layer of its land reveals some part of the history of the past associated with the three religions. The city of Jerusalem was often at the center of conflicts and divisions between peoples of different faiths, but it unites people in reverent reverence for its holy land.
Portrait of the capital in historical research
In 1996, the book of the British writer and religious scholar Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem: One City, Three Religions, was published. It splendidly and at the same time provocatively presents the historical portrait of the ancient capital. Based on chronological events, facts and legends, the author reveals the comprehensive theme of the fact that the city occupied a central place in the religious geography of Jews, Muslims, Christians, thereby leading to the mortal struggle for domination of the sacred land. Armstrong puts in his radical, richly illustrated story an understanding of the socio-political conditions of the past and the present, and also illustrates why Jerusalem, the city of three religions, became a place of bloody conflict.
What is this book about?
Revered for millennia by three religious teachings, the Israeli capital is a sacred city whose spiritual significance gave rise to a terrible tragedy. The exploits accomplished by adherents of one faith became terrifying crimes in the face of others. In his fascinating work, Jerusalem: One City, Three Religions, Karen Armstrong traces the history of how Jews, Christians and Muslims claimed the treasured capital and how they formed three fundamentally different concepts of holiness, damaging the city for centuries.
Armstrong reveals the complex history of spiritual upheavals and political transformations - from the capital of King David to the administrative outpost of the Roman Empire, from the cosmopolitan city consecrated by Christ, to the spiritual center conquered and glorified by Muslims, from the sparkling prize of European crusaders to the bulletproof symbol of the current Arab-Israeli conflict. In an accessible form, the writer tells when and how Jerusalem became the city of three religions and why it remains a "bone of contention" so far. The Washington Post spoke of the book as a magnificent, informative, important reading for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. And the equally influential diary Baltimore Sun wrote that this is the best serious and accessible story of the most spiritually important city in the world.
History of Monotheism Armstrong
The author has written 25 books on various religious faiths. She explores and analyzes the common sources of world religions, their unity and difference in moral and ethical standards, philosophy, myths, true history and speculation. The Washington Post called the writer an outstanding and fruitful historian in the field of religion. The American diary describes Armstrong as one of the most striking, widespread and always interesting modern writers.
The most famous and sensational book was The History of God, 1993, in which the writer traces the evolution of the three main monotheistic traditions from their origins in the Middle East to the present day, and also discusses Hinduism and Buddhism. In this work, as in the book “Jerusalem: One City, Three Religions,” Armstrong is not afraid to unconventionally and comprehensively discuss how the concept of a single god appeared and developed in three world beliefs, on which the community and the opposite of their religious fundamentalism are based, entailing centuries of confrontation between peoples of different spiritual teachings.
Bloody city
Written with grace and clarity, and the result of many years of research, Karen Armstrong's book on the Israeli capital combines the depth of historical search, impartial spiritual analysis and an accessible disclosure of the question - why is Jerusalem called the city of three religions?
The main monotheistic teachings consider the capital of Israel sacred. However, no city has a more bloody history of destruction and contention. At the same time, Christians should not be considered the most merciful side. Of all the invaders, whose motivation could be considered the most religious, perhaps the crusaders should be called the most merciless and vicious. After their first army captured Jerusalem in 1099, soldiers killed all the Muslims and Jews they could find. The carnage continued until piles of heads, arms and legs filled the city streets.
National and religious passions are rooted in every stone of Jerusalem. Just a little reason to provoke a conflict. For example, the discovery by the Israelis in 1996 in the Old City of the archaeological tunnel at the foot of the Al-Aqsa Mosque was enough to incite three-day killings and unrest by the Palestinians.
The true face of the city
However, it is noteworthy that the grandiose significance of Jerusalem, the city of three religions, creates a worldwide recognition of its holiness. Without the Vatican, Rome would still have remained a great city, and without the memorial sites associated with David, Jesus and Muhammad, the historical part of the Israeli capital would have become a little more than a doubtfully picturesque city surrounded by a wall in the Judean desert. Even his shrines, if they had lost the glory of centuries-old passions and prayers, would not have been particularly impressive, especially since in many cases they have dubious authenticity. An exception is the exquisite Dome of the Temple Rock.
Since the city of David became the chosen object for the ark of the Lord, it has had few other functions. It has never been considered the main center of trade, has no special strategic importance, contains too little water and fertile land, and does not have spectacular architecture. The divine history of Jerusalem, as a city of three religions, has always overshadowed the true image of the Old City, distracting from the contrast between its status as a great symbolic center of spirituality and an ordinary dusty place in the Middle East.
Importance for Judaism
Jerusalem became the tribal and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people from the 10th century BC and has long been included in its religious consciousness. This territory in the period of antiquity (Moria Earth) was considered the center of the Universe, where God was and where the creation of all things began from. The city embodies the site of the struggle of King David, his desire to build a Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms.
According to Tanah (Hebrew Scripture), the first temple on the site known as the Temple Mount was built by King Solomon and completed in 950 BC. Also, the mountain is considered a place where Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son. When the Babylonians captured the city in 580 BC, they destroyed the temple and sent the Jews into exile. After the Babylonian capture, Judaism was codified, and the Tanach (Old Testament) laid the foundation for both Christianity and Islam. Since Jewish worship is practiced only within the walls of the temple, a second sanctuary was erected in the same place in 516 BC, but after 550 years the Romans destroyed it. Remaining from the Second Temple, one supporting wall became for Jews the greatest shrine, the object of faith, prayers and hopes. This Western Wall and Temple Mount are the center of the pilgrimage of the Jews of modern Jerusalem, the city of three religions, as well as over the past centuries.
In written sources
The name of the city appears in Tanakh 669 times, and Zion, which usually means Jerusalem, occurs 154 times. The first section of the Torah (Jewish religious law) mentions only the mountain range of Moriah, which is considered the Temple Mount. It should be recalled that Tanah is the basis of the Old Testament and is a text sacred to both Judaism and Christianity. The Talmud, a set of religious rules of Judaism, describes in detail the connection between Jews and the city.
Significance for Christianity
In addition to its significance in the Old Testament, the city of the three religions Jerusalem occupies a crucial place in Christianity. The baby Jesus was first brought here to the Temple to represent him before the Lord (Luke 2:22). Here Christ preached and healed. He brought his apostles to Jerusalem, drove out merchants from the Temple (Mark 11:15), here he delivered his sermon on Mount of Olives, where he prayed before his arrest and from where he ascended. In this ancient city, the Last Supper took place. Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, he was buried and resurrected. Here the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, from here they went to different parts of the world to carry the Word and the Faith of Christ.
Christian shrines
Going to the Old City of the Israeli capital, every Christian will certainly visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the “Way of Sorrow” Via Dolorosa going to him. These are especially expensive and honored places for all followers of Christ. The temple, also called the Church of the Resurrection, is located in the Christian quarter of Old Jerusalem. In accordance with traditions dating back to at least the fourth century, the church contains two holy places: the hill of Calvary, where Jesus the Nazareth was crucified, and the empty tomb of His repose and resurrection. The sacred burial site is surrounded by a 19th-century shrine called Edicula.
According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD e. built a small temple to hide the cave in which Jesus was buried. The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, ordered around 325–326 to replace the sanctuary with a church. Today it is a more extensive complex that has grown over many centuries. Inside the church itself are the last four (by some definitions, five) episodes of the Way of the Cross of Christ, when He was heading to Calvary. Jesus moved along the street, later called Via Dolorosa, which is translated from Latin as "The Path of Suffering." The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage site since its inception in the fourth century.
Significance for Islam
Muslim tradition claims that in 610, Muhammad visited Jerusalem on his night trip, which is called Isra. From the walls of the Kaaba, Burak, the mythical winged animal, carried the prophet into the city. In one night, Muhammad crossed a great distance to pray in Jerusalem, and then ascend to paradise, where the angels cut his chest and washed his heart. The Ascension of the Prophet is called Mirai.
The territory where the prayer and the ascension took place was the Temple Mount, in that place is Al-Aqsa, the third largest mosque among Muslims after the sanctuaries in Mecca and Medina. After his night trip, Muhammad appointed her a place of pilgrimage. The dome of al-Aqsa is much more modest than the Kubbat al-Sahra (Ascension Dome), built in memory of the world of Muhammad. This grandiose vault, according to reviews of the city of the three religions of Jerusalem, is often mistaken for El Aksu. Jerusalem served as the first qiblah for Muslims until 625 , the direction of prayer, which was then transferred to the Kaaba in Mecca (Quran 2: 142-151).
Armstrong Book and Travel to the Capital of Israel
The study of the British writer is directly related to historical actions and those described in the scriptures of Jews, Christians, Muslims. Should I read the book Karen Armstrong, if you have a tour of Jerusalem, the city of three religions? Her work is not a guide to attractions and places of worship. It is better to study the history of the confrontation and conquests of the ancient capital after traveling to Israel and visiting the legendary pilgrimage sites, when the spirit of this centuries-old city will be felt. Then Armstrong’s dictum will become clear and bitter, that one of the inevitable messages of Jerusalem is to understand: suffering does not necessarily make people better and more noble, despite romantic myths that state the opposite. More often the opposite happens.