Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets from the Days of Abraham to the Beginnings of Modern Times

by F.E. Peters

This remarkable portrayal of Jerusalem has become a favorite of many readers interested in this city's dramatic past. Through a collection of firsthand accounts, we see Jerusalem as it appeared through the centuries to a fascinating variety of observers—Jews, Christians, Muslims, and secularists, from pilgrim to warrior to merchant. F. E. Peters unites these moving eyewitness statements in an immensely readable narrative commentary.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion

656 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 1985

Reviews

[Bryce Van Vleet · Rating 3 out of 5]

First the land, then the city. It could hardly have been otherwise with the nomadic Hebrews, a tiny cluster of tribes that possessed as yet only a name.

This book had been haunting me. I was studying in the library last week when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught this beautiful and engaging spine (David Roberts). This isn't atypical: my school library has a lot of interesting reads. And yet, as I sat at home reading from my own collection, listening to rain outside, this is the book I came back to. It stuck out so clearly in my mind I could hardly get away from it. When I returned to study today, I thought I might as well get it. The first line had me hooked but I became less and less interested as the pages drove on.

Thinking it may have been the first chapter (mainly an explanation of The Holy Land through the eyes of the Old Testament/Torah, of which I am familiar), I skimmed and skipped ahead to chapter 2. This pattern continued for quite some time before I finally gave up and skimmed the rest of it, pausing mainly to read sections that caught my eye.

What so many seemed to have liked about this book, I did not. I read a lot of "dry" non-fiction for school and work so when I read non-fiction in my personal time, I like it to have more of a narrative. This was a very "bare-bones" account of The Holy Land. As a result, it just didn't quite fit my style. It's exactly as advertised: a bird's eye view of this complicated land as seen from Abraham and on. It's a great book if you're into bare-boned history, but it was a bit too dry for my personal tastes.

Note: I mainly skimmed this so I will not be adding it to my "read" pile for this year so as to not affect my reading challenge. For my personal information, I read this February 27, 2018.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jerusalem the Contested City by FE Peters is particularly good in some ways, but a bit frustrating in others. It is a survey, and a rather good one, covering from the beginning and biblical literature right up until Israel's war for independence. But the topic selection is a little unclear to me, and the course doesn't seem to actually want to wrestle with the contested nature of the city in recent times. For instance, I enjoyed the Mark Twain sojourn, but I would much rather have it cut or abridged if it meant we could talk a bit more about Jerusalem after the 1940s. Maybe we could have something about Jerusalem as it is today? Maybe??

Which is a shame, because what Peters opts to discuss is almost always filled with useful information. I just found the omissions rather... glaring the more I think about them.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peters' content is much stronger than his lecturing. The most interesting part of this to me was the more modern history of Jerusalem.

(Note: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book. 3 = Very good; 4 = Outstanding {only about 5% of the books I read merit this}; 5 = All time favorites {one of these may come along every 400-500 books})

[Elizabeth Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating audiobook! Too much history to remember it all!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned so much listening to this. Going to listen to others in the series. It’s actually a series of lectures by college professors. My brain needs to work!

[Bill Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems like even a basic primer like this one would lend a lot of common knowledge to stand as a base for any argument or discussion to come about the region. With an investment of about 8 hours you can possess several times the knowledge on this subject that Trump has (and he gets to possibly start the next war with diplomatic flubs in this region).
Everything in the big three religions begins and ends within a short distance from this city; probably just coincidence that those particular illiterate profits spent their lives wandering circles around the sand out there.
One of a group of lectures series I'll take on in the run up to reading the Bible.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the clearest and most understandable histories of the region of Palestine, and provides an excellent description of the basis of and validity of the claims to historical Jerusalem by the three major religions. Each religion has ruled over the region at various periods of history, and there have been recent claims and counter claims from both Jewish and Muslim groups as to which group has the most legitimate claim on the area. Recent political proposals have been made to declare Jerusalem an "international" city, open to all, or to divide the city between east and west sections, one being controlled by Jerusalem, and one half being a Muslim controlled area. If you find yourself undecided as to which of these options is best, you should find this book helpful in making a fair decision.

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, though I had some quibbles in some of his early sections which made me wonder what else he was getting just slightly wrong later on. However, I feel like I have a better sense of both the actual city of Jerusalem and the metaphorical place as well. I loved that he kept going off on random tangents in the middle of the sessions; it made me giggle and it was more fun to listen.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great at depicting why Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe Jerusalem to be a holy place. Well researched and interesting read.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading an old favorite and going there in my mind.