F. E. PETERS
"To read this volume is to experience a first-hand encounter with the long, sad, and splendid history of what to so many is the Holy City, the theater of some of earth's most terrible tragedies but also the symbol of some of earth's highest hopes."
--Jack Finegan, Professor Emeritus, Pacific School of Religionl Graduate Theological Union
This remarkable collection of first- hand accounts portrays Jerusalem as it appeared through the centuries to a fascinating variety of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and secularists, from pilgrim to warrior to merchant. F. E. Peters skillfullly unites these moving eyewitness statements by an immensely readable narrative commentary. Adding more than sixty illustrations (eight pages in full color), he creates a continuous history of the center of three faiths-- holy but bitterly contested ground. Throughout, he has attempted "not to take sides in the ongoing disputes or make a case in this city whose very walls shake with special pleading and exclusive claims."
Some of the descriptions gathered here take the form of prayers, songs, and benedictions. Others read like curses, filled with sadness, rage, or frustration. The choice of material, from the first appearance of Jerusalem in history to the beginnings of modern times, ca. 1834, emphasizes neither the theological beliefs nor the political ideologies of the narrators but their myriad reactions to Jerusalem itself and to the various peoples who lived there. The book also includes extensive notes and bibliographical information reflecting the most up-to-date research on the city.
"I do not know any other book that presents so rich and diverse an 'anthology on Jerusalem, let alone any other that does so with this kind of intellectual mastery and elegance. The work is, also, as close to a continuous history of Jerusalem as we are ever likely to see."--Jacob Neusner, University of South Florida
"New and noteworthy" New York Times, December 31, 1995
F. E. Peters is Professor of History and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at New York University. Among his earlier works are Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton), Aristotle and the Arabs (New York University), The Harvest of Hellenism (now back in print from Barnes and Noble, Allah's Commonwealth (Simon and Schuster), and the autobiographical memoir, Ours: The Making and Unmaking of a Jesuit (Richard Mareck and Penguin; see above).
Jacket Illustration: "Jerusalem, From the Road Leading to Bethany," colored lithograph in David Roberts, The Holy Land: Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (London: F. G. Moon, 1842). Courtesy of Princeton University Library. The spectator stands on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Valley of Jehoshaphat toward the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.
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