Though this is a very good book, I found I needed to take a break after about 200 pages. The accounts of horrific massacres and gruesome murders were getting to be just too much.

That said, this is a gripping, fast-moving survey of the history of a city everyone has heard of, for good or ill. The writing is also very good. The footnotes, though, are a mixed bag. Some are very long and not all seem strictly necessary. I did learn a few things from them, however!

A thoroughly worthwhile read then, if you can take it. Recommended. ( )

好難啃，角色好免洗（？
到了近一百五十年變得不免洗時，又變成涉及好多勢力，角色屬於哪一國不太好分
雖然是讀完了，但沒相關背景知識支撐
就只是建立了墜毀中的空中樓閣
頂多對於各宗教之間有深仇大怨、猶太教是啥留有一點點的認識
--
本書已經大量使用破折號了，人名中間的-有些卻用二個破折號表示，提高閱讀難度的程度
哈希姆→哈希米
--
胡笙、侯賽因、海珊（本書未出現）是同一個字喔
教宗的名字好像也沒有唯一的中文譯名 ( )

CUPRINS

1. Prefata - pag. 13
2. Multlumiri - pag. 21
3. Prolog - pag. 25

Partea întâi. IUDAISMUL - pag. 35
4. Capitolul unu. Lumea lui David - pag. 37
5. Capitolul doi. Ascensiunea lui David - pag. 42
6. Capitolul trei. Regatul si Templul - pag. 45
7. Capitolul patru. Regii Iudei (930–626 î.e.n.) - pag. 53
8. Capitolul cinci. Târfa Babilonului (930–626 î.e.n.) - pag. 62
9. Capitolul sase. Persii (586–539 î.e.n.) - pag. 68
10. Capitolul sapte. Macedonenii (539–336 î.e.n.) - pag. 73
11. Capitolul opt. Macabeii (164–66 î.e.n.) - pag. 83
12. Capitolul noua. Sosirea romanilor (66–40 î.e.n.) - pag. 89
13. Capitolul zece. Irodienii (40 î.e.n.–10 e.n.) - pag. 95
14. Capitolul unsprezece. Iisus Hristos (10–40 e.n.) - pag. 110
15. Capitolul doisprezece. Ultimul Irod (40–66 e.n.) - pag. 124
16. Capitolul treisprezece. Razboaiele iudaice: moartea Ierusalimului (66–70 e.n.) - pag. 134

Partea a doua. PAGÂNISMUL - pag. 139
17. Capitolul paisprezece. Aelia Capitolina (70–312 e.n.) - pag. 141

Partea a treia. CRESTINISMUL - pag. 153
18. Capitolul cincisprezece. Apogeul Bizanflului (312–518 e.n.) - pag. 155
19. Capitolul saisprezece. Apogeul Bizantului: invazia persanæ (518–630) - pag. 169

Partea a patra. ISLAMUL - pag. 177
20. Capitolul saptesprezece. Cucerirea araba (630–660) - pag. 179
21. Capitolul optsprezece. Omeiazii: restaurarea Templului (660–750) - pag. 187
22. Capitolul nouasprezece. Abbasizii: stapânii de departe (750–969) - pag. 196
23. Capitolul douazeci. Fatimizii: toleranta si sminteala (696–1099) - pag. 200

Partea a cincea. CRUCIADELE - pag. 211
24. Capitolul douazeci si unu. Masacrul (1099) - pag. 213
25. Capitolul douazeci si doi. Ascensiunea tinutului de peste Mare (1100–1131) - pag. 221
26. Capitolul douazeci si trei. Epoca de aur a tinutului de peste Mare (1131–1142) - pag. 225
27. Capitolul douazeci si patru. Impasul (1142–1174) - pag. 235
28. Capitolul douazeci si cinci. Regele lepros (1174–1187) - pag. 243
29. Capitolul douazeci si sase. Saladin (1187–1189) pag. 248
30. Capitolul douazeci si sapte. A treia Cruciada (1189–1193) - pag. 257
31. Capitolul douazeci si opt. Dinastia lui Saladin (1193–1250) - pag. 63

Partea a sasea. MAMELUCII - pag. 273
32. Capitolul douazeci si noua. Sclavul sultanului (1250–1339) - pag. 275
33. Capitolul treizeci. Declinul mamelucilor (1399–1517) - pag. 282

Partea a saptea. OTOMANII - pag. 289
34. Capitolul treizeci si unu. Magnificenta lui Soliman (1517–1550) - pag. 291
35. Capitolul treizeci si doi. Mistici si mântuitori (1550–1705) - pag. 294
36. Capitolul treizeci si trei. Familiile (1705–1799) - pag. 307

Partea a opta. IMPERIUL - pag. 313
37. Capitolul treizeci si patru. Napoleon în tara Sfânta - pag. 315
38. Capitolul treizeci si cinci. Noii romantici: Chateaubriand si Disraeli (1806–1830) - pag. 319
39. Capitolul treizeci si sase. Cucerirea albanezæ (1830–1840) - pag. 326
40. Capitolul treizeci si sapte. Evanghelistii (1840–1855) - pag. 331
41. Capitolul treizeci si opt. Noul oras (1855–1860) - pag. 348
42. Capitolul treizeci si nouæ. Noua religie (1860–1870) - pag. 352
43. Capitolul patruzeci. Oraøul arab, orasul imperial (1870–1880) - pag. 357
44. Capitolul patruzeci si unu. Rusii (1880–1898) - pag. 364

Partea a noua. SIONISMUL - pag. 369
45. Capitolul patruzeci si doi. Kaiserul (1898–1905) - pag 371
46. Capitolul patruzeci si trei. Cântaretul la oud din Ierusalim (1905–1914) - pag. 379
47. Capitolul patruzeci si patru. Primul Razboi Mondial (1914–1916) - pag. 390
48. Capitolul patruzeci si cinci. Revolta Araba si Declaratia Balfour (1916–1917) - pag. 397
49. Capitolul patruzeci si sase. Cadoul de Craciun (1917–1919) - pag. 411
50. Capitolul patruzeci si sapte. Victoriosi si prazi de razboi (1919–1920) - pag. 421
51. Capitolul patruzeci si opt. Mandatul Britanic (1920–1936) - pag. 428
52. Capitolul patruzeci si noua. Revolta Araba (1936–1945) - pag. 440
53. Capitolul cincizeci. Razboiul murdar (1945–1947) - pag. 451
54. Capitolul cincizeci si unu. Independenfla evreilor, catastrofa arabilor (1948–1951) - pag. 464
55. Capitolul cincizeci si doi. Divizat (1951–1967) - pag. 471
56. Capitolul cincizeci si trei. Sase zile (1967) - pag. 478

57. Epilog - pag. 487
58. Bibliografie - pag. 509
59. Arbori genealogici - pag. 531
60. Harti - pag. 541

Oh, Jerusalem. There is no other place on Earth quite as tragic, drenched in both blood and history.

And it makes for reading that cannot be put down.

Here's the short version of why you should read Simon Sebag Montefiore's history of Jerusalem: In just under seven hundred pages, Jerusalem: The Biography is a satisfying, narrative-based history one of the most contested pieces of real estate in world history, if not the most contested. In those relatively few pages, Montefiore manages to give at least the appearance of objective attention to each of the major religions that dominate the city's history, as well as to the many, many conquerors that pass through its gates over its thousands of years of history. With all the sordid intrigue of an Italian opera, Jerusalem: The Biography is painfully tragic, proceeding chronologically with the march of history as it demands to be read from the introduction to the last page. Not a tale of the daily, mundane, or pedestrian, it is a story of kings, rulers, and the powerful. The average Jerusalemite appears only as a pawn of history, to be butchered, starved, driven-out, or resettled.

As a Christian, it's hard to deny the allure of the holy city that was the setting for Jesus Christ's life. Indeed, even Christianity's god bemoaned the city, already ancient when he appeared, for its tragic past while alluding to the blood that would spill in its streets in coming years. And yet, as the reader turns through pages filled by debauchery, sieges, massacre, and horror, it is difficult to turn away from Montefiore's writing. Full of detail, Jerusalem is full of more detail than could possibly be necessary to know the history of the three-thousand-year old city,

To point to how varied and thorough the detail Montefiore brings to bear as he tells his story, New York Times reviewer Jonathan Rosen started randomly opening pages throughout the book:

"[O]n Page 4, Roman soldiers are crucifying 500 Jews a day in the run-up to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70; on Page 75, Alexander Jannaeus, a much-loathed Jewish king of the first century B.C., after slaughtering 50,000 of his own people, celebrates his victory “by cavorting with his concubines at a feast while watching 800 rebels being crucified around the hills.” Crucifixion was so common in the ancient world, Montefiore notes in one of his many fascinating asides, that Jews and gentiles alike had taken to wearing nails from victims as charms, anticipating what became a Christian tradition. And when the population dwindled — as after the First Crusade, which like a neutron bomb eliminated the infidels but preserved the holy places — you could always dash across the Jordan, like Baldwin the crusader king in 1115, and bring back “poverty-stricken Syrian and Armenian Christians, whom he invited to settle in Jerusalem, ancestors of today’s Palestinian Christians.”"

Despite his penchant for detail, Montefiore never seems to lose control of his narrative. Where tedium might threaten, a danger when facing a constant march of dates, names, and places, Montefiore seems to imbue his story with a kind of epicness... It is a city that is larger than history, exerting a magnetism on the peoples and nations that seem unable to avoid its attraction. Like a black hole, it seems to distort the laws of history and the decisions of otherwise rational actors who come too close to its gravitational pull.

And yet, the city is by no means as romantic as each successive re-writer of history would imagine it. From the barbarity of the crusaders at the turn of the first millennium to the dung-heap on the Temple Mount Caliph Omar found when he took the city in the 600s, to the modern-day controversies (including Yassir Arafat's head-scratching claim that Jerusalem had never been the site of the Jewish Temple). Still, Montefiore takes pains to be fair to Jewish, Christian, and Islamic relationships to the city, all while correcting oft-repeated myths and politically charged rewrites of history.

In some senses, it can be hard to read Jerusalem: The Biography and see a god in all of this violence. And yet, it is not any god that has brought the seemingly unending death and war to the Holy Land, but the errant followers of the faiths that call Jerusalem home.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evIyrrjTTY




( )

While it took me a couple of months to work my way through this book, that is not a sign that it was at all boring or disengaging. Rather, the episodic structure of the book makes it a delight to dip into. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in history or travel. ( )