Christopher’s Reviews > Jerusalem: The Biography > Status Update

In Hebrew they were called Mishkenot Sha'ananim - the Dwellings of Delight - but initially they were preyed upon by bandits and their inhabitants were so undelighted they used to creep back into the city to sleep.

The victory was bitter sweet for the Ottomans, their weak Islamic realm saved by Christian soldiers. To show his gratitude and keep the West at bay, Sultan Abdulmecid was forced, in measures known as the Tanzimat -reform- to centralize his administration, decree absolute equality for all minorities regardless of religion, and allow the Europeans all manner of once-inconceivable liberties.

It was Ibrahim who had defeated the Saudis, ravaged Greece, conquered Jerusalem and Damascus and marched victoriously almost to the gates of Istanbul.

Ten years after the Butcher's death, Caroline's courtiers were amazed by how many "persons one sees in the streets without noses."

Jerusalem was in panic: the Families armed the Jerusalemites; a mob plundered Christian monasteries; the monks had to be imprisoned for their own safety. Outside the walls, General Damas asked Bonaparte for permission to attack the Holy City.

Inside Jerusalem the rebellion had replaced one tyranny with another. Jews were forbidden to wear white on the Sabbath or Muslim headgear or to have nails in their shoes; Christians suffered similar sartorial restrictions; and both had to make way for Muslims in the streets. Outrageous fines were collected with violence.

"The Sultan made the 'King of the Jews' an offer he could not refuse: either to perform the miracle of surviving a volley of arrows or to convert to Islam. He chose conversion."

The retiling of the Dome reduired 450,000 tiles, so Suleiman's men created a tile factory next to al-Aqsa to make them, and some of his contractors build mansions in the city and stayed. The local architect founded a dynasty of hereditary architects that reigned for the next two centuries. The city must have resounded with the unfamiliar sounds of hammering masons and the clink of money.

The sultan of the day, Barsbay, outraged to discover that the Christians held such a site, traveled to Jerusalem, destroyed the Franciscan chapel and instead built a mosque inside David's Tomb. A few years later, one of his successors, Sultan Jaqmaq, seized the whole of Mount Zion for Islam.

On 18 May 1291, the Mamluks stormed the Frankish capital Acre and slaughtered most of the defenders, enslaving the rest (girls were sold for just one drachma each). The title King of Jerusalem was now united with that of King of Cyprus. But it survived only as a picturesque ornament--- and it remains so today. There ended the Kingdom of Jerusalem.