Jerusalem Falls

The first full account of the medieval struggle for Jerusalem, from the seventh to the thirteenth century The history of Jerusalem is one of conflict, faith, and empire. Few cities have been attacked as often and as savagely. This was no less true in the Middle Ages. From the Persian sack in 614 through the bloody First Crusade and beyond, Jerusalem changed hands countless times. But despite these horrific acts of violence, its story during this period is also one of interfaith tolerance and accord. In this gripping history, John D. Hosler explores the great clashes and delicate settlements of medieval Jerusalem. He examines the city's many sieges and considers the experiences of its inhabitants of all faiths. The city's conquerors consistently acknowledged and reinforced the rights of those religious minorities over which they ruled. Deeply researched, this account reveals the way in which Jerusalem's past has been constructed on partial histories--and urges us to reckon with the city's broader historical contours.

Spring, 1096. Europe's princes march their armies toward the Holy Land. They are accompanied by tens of thousands of pilgrims, led by a fiery preacher Peter the Hermit. Their destination is Jerusalem, the holiest of all Christian cities. Their goal is to conquer the Muslim occupation. History will call them the First Crusade. Among the pilgrims is Oderic of Rheims, a Benedictine monk from eastern France. He's devoted to the cause, but the Crusade will test every vow he swore to the Church. His poverty will be challenged by greed, his obedience tempted by blood lust. But it's his oath of chastity facing the greatest trial, in a deep, secret love for Rebecca, a Jewish woman Oderic rescues on the long road to Jerusalem. The four-year journey is filled with unimaginable hardships and dangers: terrifying Turkish armies, impregnable cities, a death march, starvation, excruciating thirst, desertions. Ninety percent of the Crusaders will never see Europe again. As Oderic evolves from priest to warrior to lover, he realizes he will not return to Europe the same man. If he returns at all.

Jerusalem's formal political borders reveal neither the dynamics of power in the city nor the underlying factors that make an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians so difficult. The lines delineating Israeli authority are frequently different from those delineating segregated housing or areas of uneven service provision or parallel national electoral districts of competing educational jurisdictions. In particular, the city's large number of holy sites and restricted religious compounds create enclaves that continually threaten to undermine the Israeli state's authority and control over the city. This lack of congruity between political control and the actual spatial organization and everyday use of the city leaves many areas of occupied East Jerusalem in a kind of twilight zone where citizenship, property rights, and the enforcement of the rule of law are ambiguously applied. Michael Dumper plots a history of Jerusalem that examines this intersecting and multileveled matrix and, in so doing, is able to portray the constraints on Israeli control over the city and the resilience of Palestinian enclaves after forty-five years of Israeli occupation. Adding to this complex mix is the role of numerous external influences—religious, political, financial, and cultural—so that the city is also a crucible for broader contestation. While the Palestinians may not return to their previous preeminence in the city, neither will Israel be able to assert a total and irreversible dominance. His conclusion is that the city will not only have to be shared but that the sharing will be based upon these many borders and the interplay between history, geography, and religion.

Shaping Jerusalem: Spatial planning, politics and the conflict focuses on a hidden facet of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the relentless reshaping of the Holy City by the Israeli authorities through urban policies, spatial plans, infrastructural and architectural projects, land use and building regulations. From a political point of view, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may appear to be at an impasse; however, it is precisely by looking at the city’s physical space that one can perceive that a war of cement and stone is under way. Many books have been written on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over Jerusalem; some of them have focused on the urban fabric; Shaping Jerusalem uniquely discusses the role of Israeli spatial actions within the conflict. It argues that Israel’s main political objective – control over the whole city – is ordinarily and silently pursued through physical devices which permanently modify the territory and the urban fabric. Relying on strong empirical evidence and data through the analysis of statistical data, official policies, urban projects, and laws, author Francesco Chiodelli substantiates the political discussion with facts and figures about the current territorial situation of the city, and about the Israeli policies implemented in the city in the past six decades.

Acre and its Falls analyses a wide range of aspects of the history of Acre across the crusader period, combining political, military and cultural history, with a notable emphasis on the memory of the city in Europe.

‘Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem’ is the first in a series of three books which collectively present the work of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative, or JOCI, a major Canadian-led Track Two diplomatic effort, undertaken between 2003 and 2014. JOCI’s raison d’être was to find sustainable governance solutions for the Old City of Jerusalem, arguably the most sensitive and intractable of the final status issues dividing Palestinians and Israelis. ‘Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem’ includes a series of studies that place JOCI within its historical setting and explain the theoretical context of Track Two diplomacy. The book then proceeds to present the Initiative's culminating documents, which outline in detail its proposed Special Regime governance model. Until now, the proposals have remained unpublished and available only to a limited audience of key stakeholders. Presenting the information in an accessible format, this book will contribute positively to the wider conversation on Jerusalem, especially with respect to the longstanding conflict over control and governance of this holy city. It will therefore be of value to several audiences, from the policy-making community to the various traditions found in academia.

Crusading as a subject has expanded in recent years to include new fields of enquiry. This book examines how crusading historiography includes new areas and new definitions, focusing on two fundamental issues in current writing: why people went on crusades and what forms the western settlement in the Near East took. Crusading and the Crusader States explains how the idea of holy wars came into being and why they took the form that they did – a clash between western and Islamic societies that dominated the Middle Ages.

Fictional account of the experiences of Louis De Garonne, a member of the Order of the Knights Templar, and his pursuit of the Holy Crusade in Jerusalem.