了解耶路撒冷的歷史,就明白世界為何演變至今日樣貌……
耶路撒冷曾被視為世界的中心,今日的它與過去相比更是有過之而無不及--
這座城市是亞伯拉罕諸宗教爭鬥的焦點,是信徒日增的基督教、猶太教與伊斯蘭教基本教義派的聖地,是文明衝突的戰略要衝,是無神論與信仰齟齬的前線,是讓世人魂牽夢繫的去處,是惑人的陰謀與虛構的網路傳說發生的地點。
本書作者力圖中立,依年代順序講述耶路撒冷的故事,透過男男女女--士兵與先知、詩人與國王、農民與音樂家--的生活,與創造耶路撒冷的家族來呈現這座城市的歷史。目的就是說出事實,無論它們聽起來是否刺耳…
★本書中譯版《耶路撒冷三千年》由出版。
FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2024
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL BOOK OF THE YEAR
The history of Jerusalem is the story of the world: Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths. The Holy City and Holy Land are the battlefields for today’s multifaceted conflicts and, for believers, the setting for Judgment Day and the Apocalypse. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the "center of the world" and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Why is the Holy Land so important not just to the region and its many new players, but to the wider world too? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city and turbulent region through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, amirs, sultans, caliphs, presidents, autocrats, imperialists and warlords, poets, prophets, saints and rabbis who created, destroyed, chronicled, and believed in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism, co-existence, power and myth, but also a freshly updated, carefully balanced history of the Middle East, from King David to the new powers of the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is how today’s Middle East was forged, how the Holy Land became sacred and how Jerusalem became Jerusalem--the only city that exists twice--in heaven and on earth. "Magnificent. . . . Montefiore barely misses a trick or a character intaking us through the city’s story with compelling, breathless tension." --The Wall Street Journal