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Jerusalem: City of the Book
A captivating journey through the hidden libraries of Jerusalem, where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words
In this enthralling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem’s libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world over, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalemites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem’s literary legacies.
By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelved by its librarians, Mack and Balint tell the untold history of how the peoples of the book have populated the city with texts. In their hands, Jerusalem itself—perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety—comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.
In this enthralling book, Merav Mack and Benjamin Balint explore Jerusalem’s libraries to tell the story of this city as a place where some of the world’s most enduring ideas were put into words. The writers of Jerusalem, although renowned the world over, are not usually thought of as a distinct school; their stories as Jerusalemites have never before been woven into a single narrative. Nor have the stories of the custodians, past and present, who safeguard Jerusalem’s literary legacies.
By showing how Jerusalem has been imagined by its writers and shelved by its librarians, Mack and Balint tell the untold history of how the peoples of the book have populated the city with texts. In their hands, Jerusalem itself—perched between East and West, antiquity and modernity, violence and piety—comes alive as a kind of labyrinthine library.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published May 14, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
didn-t-finish
July 29, 2019Sadly, this book is now archived and I am not able to read any further. From what I was able to read, it appeared to be an excellent, and interesting, resource and history on the “bookish” background of Jerusalem which reaches back literally for millennia. It doesn’t seem fair to try to rate any book this far from completion (ca 30+ % read) but I feel certain it would have been positive.
July 22, 2019
This is a book I would recommend to readers who are into religious themes, book related archeological findings in Jerusalem. The book is very well written, a definite pleasant to read, no hard Academic language at all. However, I find it a bit more to the topic of archeological findings, given the fact there are long passages about Dead Sea Ancient Scrolls (I am even lucky to see it with my own eyes in museum). It is very nice to read about that knowledge, but a more passionate book or library experience in Jerusalem in recording was I expecting.
December 23, 2019
A fascinating and painstakingly researched exploration of Jerusalem and its many libraries and archives, large and small, public and private, well-known and hidden away. The authors have delved into these invaluable archives and spoken to the librarians and archivists who safeguard them. Many manuscripts and documents have been lost or destroyed over the centuries, and it’s not surprising that access to some of the libraries is hard to obtain, but Mack and Balint valiantly persevered to uncover many incomparable treasures. There is much that is truly fascinating about what they discover but it is above all a scholarly text and I did find some of it abstruse and, it has to be said, dull at times. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive work of scholarship and detection and an important contribution to the history of the word and the history of Jerusalem.
June 26, 2019
this is a different type of biography. First it for a city and second it's more of a history of the history of the City. There is a short narrative of the history of the City and those who lived, battled and conquered it. From this short narrative you can see that the city has had few periods of peace.
The real meat of the book is about the authors trying to find where information about the life of the city over the last five thousand years. Unlike a lot of cities of the many libraries (archives) that exist in the city, many are 'hidden' and the information there is 'protected' from their use by anyone. While Mack is exploring the Old City, he is traveling all over the world to get permission to go into places where he told he can't see anything.
An example of the difficulties is the archives of the Ethiopian Church where the authors have to travel to Ethiopia to get permission to contact the Chief of the Archive in Jerusalem. Then they have to get an appointment with the head of the church in Jerusalem, who is not happy to have to see them much less show them anything. Eventually the Archivist agrees to show them some manuscripts, but under his personal guidance. That's one of the easy ones.
Most of the current archives that are in the city of Jerusalem are protected under amazing amounts of security because so many of the ancient manuscripts were pilfered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. One archive is so secretive that the archivist in charge has never been in the actual archive himself! Unfortunately, much of what was in the different European archives were pilfered by the Nazis and destroyed during the second World War.
Probably the saddest destruction, for me, came during the 1948 War of Independence by the Arab League. During the battle for the Old City, the Jordanian Army destroyed seventy-nine of the eighty synagogues that existed in the Jewish Quarter. Hundreds or thousands of records, many hundreds of years old, books and manuscripts were destroyed or burned by the Arab League forces.
So there is much to be discovered by scholars in the City but it appears that little of it will be coming into the light in the next years.
The real meat of the book is about the authors trying to find where information about the life of the city over the last five thousand years. Unlike a lot of cities of the many libraries (archives) that exist in the city, many are 'hidden' and the information there is 'protected' from their use by anyone. While Mack is exploring the Old City, he is traveling all over the world to get permission to go into places where he told he can't see anything.
An example of the difficulties is the archives of the Ethiopian Church where the authors have to travel to Ethiopia to get permission to contact the Chief of the Archive in Jerusalem. Then they have to get an appointment with the head of the church in Jerusalem, who is not happy to have to see them much less show them anything. Eventually the Archivist agrees to show them some manuscripts, but under his personal guidance. That's one of the easy ones.
Most of the current archives that are in the city of Jerusalem are protected under amazing amounts of security because so many of the ancient manuscripts were pilfered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. One archive is so secretive that the archivist in charge has never been in the actual archive himself! Unfortunately, much of what was in the different European archives were pilfered by the Nazis and destroyed during the second World War.
Probably the saddest destruction, for me, came during the 1948 War of Independence by the Arab League. During the battle for the Old City, the Jordanian Army destroyed seventy-nine of the eighty synagogues that existed in the Jewish Quarter. Hundreds or thousands of records, many hundreds of years old, books and manuscripts were destroyed or burned by the Arab League forces.
So there is much to be discovered by scholars in the City but it appears that little of it will be coming into the light in the next years.
May 23, 2020
I started reading this book with a lot of enthusiasm: the prologue was promising, the starting was delectable; I read 70 pages at a stretch at first, and then I lost my appetite. This book might be interesting to the devotee to the Holy City's histories (I'm not sure though to call this as a history book), but for a lay-person like me, this book might appear as an archival collection of facts that can easily turn into the apathetic reading experience.
But please, don't get me wrong! The authors conducted tremendous work to collect information about the hidden libraries of the Holy City and their work can easily be defended as a dissertation for Ph.D. in any reputed university. You will feel their passion on every page of this book. This book is just not for me!!!
But please, don't get me wrong! The authors conducted tremendous work to collect information about the hidden libraries of the Holy City and their work can easily be defended as a dissertation for Ph.D. in any reputed university. You will feel their passion on every page of this book. This book is just not for me!!!
October 14, 2019
Absolutely fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding the complexity of Jerusalem.
November 20, 2025
At page 173, this book offers a quotation from Anatole France: "There is no true love without some sensuality. One is not happy in books unless one loves to caress them." OK, this may be a little extreme, but this book is definitely aimed at true bibliophiles.
The two authors undertook to search out and explore all the public and private libraries and archives in Jerusalem. They live in that city and were surprisingly successful in uncovering dozens of fascinating collections, featuring rare books from Jewish, Christian and Arab sources. Some ancient manuscripts have dramatic histories - surviving fires, thefts, looting, political upheavals and various other calamities to which books are susceptible. The most famous are the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, although there are many others with equally interesting stories. Some manuscripts came from monasteries, others from immigrants fleeing Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Many carry wonderful images from centuries ago, and some are palimpsests - manuscripts written over earlier works from which the original ink has been scraped away.
Some libraries are public, while others are held in secret. Some have been well preserved, while others have been sold at auction. Their survival reflects the ways in which ancient books tend to attract guardians who treat them as treasures. Toward the end of their book, the authors suggest that Jerusalem itself is like a palimpsest, reinventing itself over again as it guards ancient traditions while undergoing endless changes.
For stories about collecting rare manuscripts in the Eastern Mediterranean almost two centuries earlier, see my review of Curzon's "Visits to Monasteries in the Levant".
The two authors undertook to search out and explore all the public and private libraries and archives in Jerusalem. They live in that city and were surprisingly successful in uncovering dozens of fascinating collections, featuring rare books from Jewish, Christian and Arab sources. Some ancient manuscripts have dramatic histories - surviving fires, thefts, looting, political upheavals and various other calamities to which books are susceptible. The most famous are the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, although there are many others with equally interesting stories. Some manuscripts came from monasteries, others from immigrants fleeing Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Many carry wonderful images from centuries ago, and some are palimpsests - manuscripts written over earlier works from which the original ink has been scraped away.
Some libraries are public, while others are held in secret. Some have been well preserved, while others have been sold at auction. Their survival reflects the ways in which ancient books tend to attract guardians who treat them as treasures. Toward the end of their book, the authors suggest that Jerusalem itself is like a palimpsest, reinventing itself over again as it guards ancient traditions while undergoing endless changes.
For stories about collecting rare manuscripts in the Eastern Mediterranean almost two centuries earlier, see my review of Curzon's "Visits to Monasteries in the Levant".
October 17, 2024
As titled, a book about the libraries, and books, in Jerusalem. Oddly enough, it was not as interesting as I hoped it would be. And the primary reason was/is there has been so much theft and looting of books, throughout history and still going on today, librarians are far more likely to hide their libraries and books then show them. Many of the best libraries and ancient books are extremely protected. Allowed to mold and decay before being allowed access to. Access refused to their libraries, to all but a few trusted individuals. And even "trusted" individuals have stolen and looted many times. Even governments can not be trusted to protect or return sacred and valuable texts. So, it's a bit depressing. And the current wars, bombing, it not helpful.
December 22, 2019
I love Jerusalem, and I love books, so I was excited to read this book, but it's not what I thought it would be. I was hoping to read about libraries and book-related sites that I could visit. The authors obviously worked hard and did a lot of research, but the main thrust of the book is manuscripts, documents, etc. that either originated in Jerusalem or were housed in Jerusalem for a time. Many of these items were either outright stolen or "appropriated" and are now in museums of private collections. Much of the discussion is about Christian documents and the old buildings which house libraries or repositories that are closed to everyone but the most senior clergymen.
December 17, 2020
Whitewashed history. The evil of the Crusades gets a sentence or two and the Arab Conquest nary a line.
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January 20, 2022027.05694 M1532 2019
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews