I N T R O D U C I N G J E R U S A L E M & T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 2
BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY
According to the Bible, after Solomon died, conflicts led to the division of the Jewish nation into two separate parts:
the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judaea in the south.
Two centuries later, t h e A s s y r i a n s c o n - quered the north, and many of the Jews of Israel were deported.
When Judaea withheld t r i b u t e , i t t o o w a s invaded and defeated at the battle of Lachish.
The Assyrians, in turn, were defeated by the
Babylonians who, in 587 BC, captured Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple, forcing the Jews of Judaea into exile. During the brief period of Babylonian captivity the Jews main- tained and even strengthened their c u l t u r a l a n d r e l i g i o u s i d e n t i t y . Defeated by the Persians under Cyrus the Great in 538 BC, the Babylonians disappeared from history and the Jews were allowed to return to their land.
THE SECOND TEMPLE
Returning to Jerusalem, in the 6th cen- tury BC, the Jews built a new temple on the same site as the first. This event in the history of Jerusalem marks the beginning of what is referred to as the
“Second Temple” period.
The Persians remained dominant in the region until their empire was torn apart by the armies of Alexander the Great. Judaea was swallowed up in the wake of the Macedonian’s triumphant progress into Egypt. On the death of Alexander, his empire was split between three generals; the dynasties they founded proceeded to fight over the spoils, with Palestine eventually
going to the Syria-based Seleucids. The culture of the Greeks spread through- out the region. This era saw the rise of the Decapolis (“ten cities” in Greek), a loose grouping of Hellenistic city-states
in an otherwise Semitic land- scape, which included Philadelphia (A (( mman), Gerasa (J (( erash) and Scy- thopolis (Beth Shean).
But Jerusalem resisted.
The response of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC) was to rededicate the Jews’ temple in Jerusalem to Zeus and make observance of Hebrew law pun- ishable by death. Led by Judas Maccabeus, a priest of the Hasmonean family, the Jews rebelled in 164 BC.
They defeated the Seleucids, took complete control of Jerusalem and reconsecrated their Temple.
Rule of Judaea was assumed by the Hasmoneans. However, independence for the Jews did not ensure peace.
There was bitter conflict between the Hasmoneans and the Pharisees, a rival priestly sect who propounded strict observance of Hebrew religious tra- dition. In the struggle for influence,
Israelite prisoners leaving Lachish after its fall to the Assyrians in 701 BC
The recapture of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus in his successful revolt against the Seleucids, 164 BC
538 BCCyrus the Great frees the Jews in exile in Babylon 587 BCThe Babylonians
conquer Jerusalem and destroy the First Temple
The seal of Jeroboam, a 9th-century Jewish king
Alexander the Great, whose successors Hellenized Palestine
332 BC Alexander the Great conquers Palestine 515 BCThe
founding of the Second Temple 722 BCAssyria
conquers the Kingdom of Israel and sends the Israelites into exile
800 BC 700 BC 600 BC 500 BC
TIMELINE
400 BC
F T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 3
both factions asked for help from the new political and military power of the period – Rome.
THE ROMANS AND JEWISH UPRISINGS
The Romans lost no time in taking advantage of this opportunity: in 63 BC their legions took Jerusalem. The Hasmoneans were superseded by a series of Roman governors, known as procurators. Anxious
not to offend local reli- gious sensibilities, the Romans had the Jewish Herod (the Great) rule a s a c l i e n t k i n g i n Palestine (37–4 BC).
Allowed a relatively free h a n d i n d o m e s t i c affairs, the ambitious Herod expanded his frontiers and promoted architectural projects such as the Masada and Herodion fortress com-
plexes, the port-city of Caesarea and the grand reconstruction of the Jews’
Second Temple in Jerusalem.
On Herod’s death his kingdom was ruled for a brief period by his three s o n s b e f o r e b e i n g g o v e r n e d directly by the Romans. A heavy tax burden, insensitive adminis- tration and the imposition of Roman culture were responsible for growing discontent among the Jews. Large numbers of Messianic claimants, revolutionary prophets and apocalyptic preachers only served to inflame the situation fur- ther. This was the political climate into which Jesus Christ was born, as described in the biblical New Testament.
Jewish clashes with Rome broke out repeatedly, culminating in a full-scale revolt in AD 66. It took the Romans four years to gain victory in this First Jewish War.When in AD 70 they finally captured Jerusalem, they destroyed the city and demolished the Temple (see pp44–5). The final subjugation of the Jews occurred three years later at Masada. Judaea once again became a
Roman province, but the Jews refused to be subdued and before long a sec- ond major revolt broke out.
THE EXILE OF THE JEWS
After the Second Jewish War (AD 132–5), Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem
as Aelia Capitolina, a Roman city, which Jews were forbidden to enter. Their communities were broken up and great numbers were sold into slavery and
sent to Rome. Others fled, south into Egypt and across North Africa, or east to join the existing Jewish commu- nity in Babylon who had settled there after the destruc- tion of the First Temple. This great scattering of the Jews is known as the Diaspora.
Jerash, a former Decapolis city which flourished under the Romans
Hadrian, builder of Aelia Capitolina
132–5Second Jewish War led by Simon Bar-Kokhba
Coin minted by the Jewish rebels at Masada 37–4 BCHerod
the Great reigns in Judaea
AD 66–70First Jewish War and the destruction of the Second Temple
63 BCRoman legions under Pompey conquer Jerusalem 164 BCThe
Maccabean Revolt results in Jewish independence
AD 73Fall of Masada 1st century BC
Petra-based Nabataean empire at its height 3rd century
BCGrowth of the Decapolis
AD 1
300 BC 200 BC 100 BC AD 100 AD 200
I N T R O D U C I N G J E R U S A L E M & T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 4
The Destruction of the Second Temple
During the Jewish Revolt of AD 66, the Romans suffered early defeats
until the emperor Vespasian sent his son Titus to Jerusalem with four legions.
The siege of the city was bitterly fought.
Eventually, after five months, on 29 August AD 70, the city’s defenders were forced to surrender. In The Jewish War, historian Flavius Josephus describes how the Temple was set ablaze in the heat of battle. “When the flames rose up,” he writes, “the Jews let out a terrific cry and, heedless of mortal danger, ran to put it out.” But it was in vain, and the Second Temple was razed to the ground.
Arch of Titus
The Romans built the triump Arch of Titus in the Forum i Rome, with friezes showing t victorious troops with their b from the destroyed Temple.
The Western Wall Herod’s engineers created the Temple plat- form by building four walls around a natural
hill and filling in. The Western Wall (see p85)is part of one of those retaining walls.
of Carved f limestone, ossu the bones of the dead. This p ossuary bears the name Cai was the name of the Temple at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Antonia Fortresswas built by Herod the G t d 37 35 BC t t t th T l
Titus
ROMAN EMPIRE AD 117 Maximum extent of the M
M EmpireEE
T H E H I S T O R Y O F T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 5
Bronze Helmet
oin morative ed after t of the Jewish rebels depicting, on one side, Vespasian and, on the other, Rome standing triumphant over a subdued Judaea.
a was onnade,
n length, ing.
THE SECOND TEMPLE
Built in the 6th century BC on the same site as the First Temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC, the Second Temple was greatly expanded by Herod the Great (37–4 BC). He nearly doubled the size of the Inner Temple.
Destruction and Sack of the Temple of Jerusalem
Painted by Nicolas Poussin in 1625–6, and now in the collection of the Israel Museum(see pp132–7), this shows Roman soldiers, directed by Titus on his white horse, emerging from the Inner Temple carrying the Jewish menorah and other treasures.
The Inner Temple contained the Holy of Holies, an empty chamber meant for the Ark of the Covenant, which was lost
he Hulda ates
I N T R O D U C I N G J E R U S A L E M & T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 6
TIMELINE
PALESTINE UNDER ROMAN RULE
Despite the Jews being banned from Jerusalem, during the 2nd and 3rd centuries their religion and traditions remained very much alive in Pales- tine, and scholars and religious schools were active throughout Galilee. This was the period in which the academies wrote down Jewish oral law and the commentaries on it, known collectively as the Talmud.
In the early 4th century, the Christians, who had also suffered Roman per- secution, were granted freedom of worship by the Emperor Constantine (306–37), himself a con- v e r t t o t h e r e l i g i o n . Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople.
This tur n of events opened the doors of the Holy Land to pilgrims – first and foremost the devout Helena, mother of
Constantine – and Jerusalem regained its former impor- tance. The first Christian churches were built on the sites connected with the life of Christ, and monasticism spread both in the towns and in the deserts of Pales- tine and Egypt. The first Holy Sepulchre church was dedicated in Jerusalem in 335.
During the rule of Theo- dosius (379–95) Christianity became the official state religion. Not long after the Roman Empire was divided in 395 between Theodosius’s two sons, the Latin-speaking Western Empire fell to Germanic invaders but the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, thereafter known as the Byzantine Empire, survived.
THE BYZANTINE ERA
Despite a long series of schisms with- in the Eastern Church over the nature of Christ (see p100), the Byzantine period was an age of relative stability and prosperity in the Holy Land. The flow of pilgrims contin- ued and monastic life drew ever more adher- ents. The construction of two important religious buildings, St Catherine’s Monastery (see pp246–8) y in Sinai and the enor- mous Nea Basilica (see p82) in Jerusalem, re- flected the confidence of the era. The Holy Land became the land we can see on the early medieval mosaic map at Madaba (see pp216–17). However, upheaval was to arrive in
Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor
Byzantine icon of the Madonna and Child, 6th century
AD 300 400 500 600
AD 313Constantine grants freedom of worship to Christians in the Edict of Milan
395The Roman Empire
splits into East and West 638
Battle of YarmukYY River; beginning of Arab dominion in the Holy Land Coin of Constantine,
AD 320
661Omayyad dynasty established in Damascus
691Dome of the Rock completed in Jerusalem 527–65Reign of
Byzantine emperor Justinian
4 7
614 in the form of an invading Persian army. Welcomed and supported by the Jews, who hoped for greater religious freedom, the Persians massacred the Christians and desecrated their holy sites before being driven off in 628 by the forces of the Byzantine Empire.
In the same year that the Byzantines reconquered Palestine, in neighbouring Arabia an army led by the Prophet Muhammad con- quered Mecca, marking the emergence of a new force in the Near East which, in a little over ten years, would change the face of the Holy Land.
THE ARABS AND ISLAM
In AD 638, only six years after Muhammad’s death, the troops of his successor, or caliph, Omar defeated the Byzantines at the Yarmuk Y Y River, in moder n-day Syria. The Muslims became the new rulers of Palestine.
I s l a m r e c o g n i z e s m a n y o f t h e prophets of the Old Testament, such
as Abraham (Ibrahim), and so the
Arabs regarded Jerusalem as holy in t h e s a m e w a y a s t h e J e w s a n d Christians. The Arabs also believed that the Prophet Muhammad had ascended to Heaven on his Night Journey (see p27) from the same rock in Jerusalem on which, according to
the Bible, Abraham had been about to sacrifice his son,
and over which the Jews had built their temples.
Consequently, the rubble in the Temple area was cleared and construction of two mosques began there: the Dome of the Rock (691) and El-Aqsa (705). Access to this “sacred precinct”
(Haram esh-Sharif), was forbidden to non-Muslims, but Christians and Jews were permit- ted to live in the city of Jerusalem on payment of an “infidels” tax.
Groups of Christian pilgrims regu- larly arrived in the Holy Land from Byzantium and Europe and were given safe passage under the successive Arab dynasties of the Omayyads (661–750), Abbasids (750–974) and, initially, the Fatimids (975–1171). This happy
state of affairs ended in 1009 when the third Fatimid caliph El-Hakim initiated the violent per- s e c u t i o n o f n o n - M u s l i m s a n d
destroyed the Holy Sepulchre. The situation became critical in 1071
when Jerusalem fell to the Seljuk Turks, who forbade Christians
access to the Holy City.
The outraged response of Christian Europe was to take up arms and set off on the first of a series of crusades spread over almost 200 years to recapture the Holy City and biblical sites of Palestine (see pp48–9).
Pilgrimage scroll showing the Haram esh-Sharif
Triumphant group of the feared Muslim cavalry
700 800 900 1000 1100
Dome of the Rock
1099The Crusaders take Jerusalem 975North African Fatimid
dynasty rules the Holy Land from Cairo
1071Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem and bar Christian pilgrims 747Earthquake drives
dwindling populations from Petra and Jerash
Fatimid jewellery
I N T R O D U C I N G J E R U S A L E M & T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 8
The Crusades
The First Crusade
Passing through Constantinople, the Crusaders first engaged the Muslim Seljuks in Anatolia (Turkey). They conquered Nicaea and Antioch before marching down through Syria to Palestine.
THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM On 7 June 1099, the Crusaders laid siege to Jerusalem. The Muslims held out for five weeks until on 15 July the Christian troops breached the walls unleashing a massive slaughter in the streets.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Stylized Gothic gates of Jerusalem
Scenes from the life of Christ
The Second Crusade Most of the Second Crusaders never made it to the HolyLand.
Those that did launched a disastrous attack on Damascus and had to withdraw.
“God wills it!” With these words, on 27 November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II launched an
appeal to aid the Byzantines in their wars with the Seljuk Turks and so free the Holy
Land. His preachings inspired more than 100,000 men and women from all over Europe to join the armies heading east.
They succeeded in creating a Latin king- dom of Jerusalem, but a series of further Crusades meant to reinforce the Western Christian presence in the east were ever less successful.
Within 200 years the Crusaders were gone, leaving a legacy of fine ecclesiastical and military architecture.
Crusading emperor Frederick I
ACRE JERUS J SS LEMA
THE HOLY LAND Crusader domains 1186 C
C
Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid
dynasty (1169–1250) 1099 Crusaders
capture Jerusalem;
Godfrey of Bouillon becomes “Protector of the Holy Sepulchre”
1187Saladin defeats the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin and takes Jerusalem 1148Second
Crusade defeated while besieging Damascus
1188–92 Third Crusade; after reconquering much of the coast, Richard I fails to retake Jerusalem 1119 Founding
of the Knights Templar
1100 1120 1140 1160 1180 1200
TIMELINE
Templar Knight
•
T H E H I S T O R Y O F T H E H O L Y L A N D 4 9
The Crucifixion was believed to have taken place on the site occupied by the Holy Sepulchre church.
The city walls were finally breached by the Crusaders in the north, near Herod’s Gate, and also on Mount Zion.
Siege warfare was a major element of the Crusades; siege engines were built on site.
The Third Crusade The retaking of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187 prompted
the Third Crusade. The Crusade failed to regain the Holy City, but Richard I “the Lionheart”
negotiated the right of access for pilgrims.
The Fall of Akko Following a succession of defeats by the Mamelukes, the Crusaders were forced to leave the Holy Land for good in 1291. The last stronghold to fall was Akko, where this coat
of arms was discovered.
Richard I and Saladin
The burial of Christ
1260Mamelukes defeat invading Mongols; Baybars becomes Sultan of Egypt
Louis IX embarking on the last Crusade
1217–21 Fifth Crusade
1291Last Latin strongholds in Holy Land, including Akko, fall to Mamelukes 1249–50Louis IX of
France leads unsuccessful invasion of Egypt 1244Jerusalem falls to Muslim mercenaries in the employ of Egypt
1270Last major Crusade, led by Louis IX, ends in his death in Tunis
1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
THE TEMPLARS AND HOSPITALLERS Much of the defence of Crusader gains in the Holy Land fell to two elite Military Orders of monastic knights, the Hospitallers (see p99) and the Templars, so named because they were headquartered in the former Temple area of Jerusalem. The Orders occupied and refortified Crusader castles in the Holy Land, as well as building new ones of their own.
The Hospitaller castle of Belvoir in the Jordan Valley
I N T R O D U C I N G J E R U S A L E M & T H E H O L Y L A N D 5 0
PALESTINE UNDER THE MAMELUKES
In the wake of the Crusades, Jerusalem slowly declined to the status of a provincial city. The Mamelukes (for- mer slave guards of Saladin’s Ayyubid A A dynasty) ruled the Holy Land from Egypt, and the Holy City became a place of banishment for officials who fell from court favour in Cairo.