Jerusalem is the beholder of a violent, yet religious, past. It is the holy center for three of the world’s major religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. It was the center for many battles and the motivation for the Crusades. The Crusades were the cause for much blood shed and marked the beginning of a long war between Islam and Christianity. However, most of the focus in history of this holy center begins with the Crusades and continues there after, so this is where the essay will be focused: the times and history of Jerusalem before the Crusades.
The city of Jerusalem is located in modern day Israel and was established around 4000 BC. The early history of Jerusalem is up to debate between the records kept by the various texts and accounts left by early inhabitants. It was inhabited by the Jebusites for a long period before Abraham, or any other occurrences that gave Jerusalem its early background. It is said to have been ruled by an ally of Abraham, Melchizedek, until King David, around 1000 BC, took over the city and founded it as a homeland for the Jews. This began the first official reign of a religion over the city, for no religious significance nor reign had control over the city.
Jerusalem became the capital of King David’s empire, and for a period of time, under his son’s rule, it was a major trade city and was very significant among the surrounding peoples. After King David died in 970 BC, his son, Solomon, took over and fabricated the first Temple in this holy city run by the Jewish people and functioning upon their beliefs. This temple became known as the great temple as it was added upon over multiple years by varying skilled architects. Solomon’s rule brought the city success, but after his death Davidic ruler...
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...hich triggered the Roman decision to rebuild Jerusalem as a non- Jewish Roman territory. It remained a regular territory with no religious rule until the Byzantines conquered it in 330 A.D. and instated it as a Christian city. The Jewish people weren’t allowed to live within the city. About 300 years later, the Persians took over the city from the Byzantines and it was ruled by these pre-Islamic rulers until 629 A.D. The Byzantines took back over, but only began to rebuild the once again Christian city when the Caliph Omar invaded Jerusalem and began occupying the city in 638 A.D. This was the beginning of the Crusades.
Jerusalem has had a long and horrible history with many different political and religious occupations leading up to the Crusades and even after. Jerusalem is a very important city in human history amongst its various leaders and various occurrences.
...y within its borders, though practitioners of Christianity were not permitted the same civil and political privileges allowed to the Muslim inhabitants of the empire. The account provided by Fulcher of Chartres, though illustrating an extremely brutal, uncaring, merciless and unflattering depiction of Christian Crusaders, seemingly provides an unbiased and objective chronicle of the Siege of Jerusalem.
The first crusade was held only in order to fulfill desire of the Christians of the recapturing the center of the Christian faith-Jerusalem, which has been controlled by the Muslim nation for more than 400 years. This military campaign was followed with severe cruelty and harsh actions against Muslims which cannot be justified with anything but religious and material interest.
In the end of the eleventh and middle of the thirteenth century there were nine wars between muslims and christians that are now called the crusades.All nine wars were meant to take over the holy land (what is now israel) from the muslims.The most successful of those battles was the first and second.The worst of the crusades was the fourth crusade.The Crusades didn’t have a positive effect on trying to take over the holy land.Document 1 states that ”the Crusades failed their chief goal: the conquest of the Holy Land.This is important because the crusades didn’t achieve their main goal and they weren’t recognized as much as the first crusades.Document 1 states that the left a bitter legacy in their quest to take the holy land..This is important
How did the Crusades affect the Christians, Muslims, and Jews? The crusades impacted them all greatly for they were all a key part of the Crusades. Occasionally A religion may get a positive consequence but most of the time it was a negative one. Why did they all want Jerusalem? They all wanted it because it had a religious value to them. For the Jews, it was their spiritual city where the great temple once stood. For the Christians, it was where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. Last but not least for the Muslims it was where Muhammad rose to heaven during the night journey.
Jericho was an important city in the Old Testament. The city was overtaken and devastated several times. However, it was always reoccupied -- sometimes quickly and other times very slowly. Herod the Great, Cleopatra, and Augustus are some of the mighty rulers that once took claim of some or all of Jericho. Many Galileans would travel through the Jordan valley and go by Jericho on their route to Jerusalem. By taking this course, they could avoid passing through Samaritan territory (Metzger and Coogan, 1993).
Salvation of the Christians can be said to have been one of the motives of the crusades, thereby strengthening the religious case. Pope Urban, a religious figure, call for the first crusade in 1095 shows that salvation might have been the major motive for the calling. Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the ninth and tenth centuries flourished (Trotter, 1987), and now that this was being threatened, the religious leaders felt the need to protect their followers. It has been documented that there was a general tendency among Latin Chroniclers to perceive Muslim presence around Jerusalem as violation of Christian holy places, they thus mounted the crusades on a religious ground to purify the lands from defilements by the Muslims (Syracuse University Press, 2001, p. 5).
Jerusalem or Zion, is where the church of Jesus Christ got their stard. But in apostolic time a different city came to overshadow Jerusalem in some respects. The city of Antioch, capital of the Roman province of Syria.
However, this place of worship was not meant to last for the Israelites. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar II, captured Jerusalem and set fire to the Great Temple. The Temple wasn’t the only thing destroyed. According to the article, Babylonian Exile written by Jeffrey Spitzer, “the palace and all of the houses of Jerusalem were burnt, the w...
It’s 1095, and the Seljuk Turks, a Muslim empire, have control of the Holy City of Jerusalem. Not only that, but they are terrorizing Christians that wish to pilgrimage to where Jesus Christ had lived. The Byzantine Empire, home of the Eastern Christians, start to fear the worst. Their Emperor, Emperor Alexius, calls for help in the West where Pope Urban II is leader. Urban makes a speech to his people, explaining how they must take back the Holy Land, for their brethren, and for their Lord. So the crusaders left, driven by religious devotion.
In 1095, Jerusalem was a flourishing city that was the main powerhouse for three religions; all three religions wanted complete control over the holy land. These three religions were Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and all three religions were known to use Jerusalem as a place of religious reasons. But in turn, the best part about Jerusalem was the political power it held. Pope Urban’s demand for power and Jewish Israel’s desire to control Palestinians are the factors in the political conflict over the holy land.
The United Monarchy took place between 1020 and 921 B.C.E. It was the transition between a tribal society and an actual form of government. In this monarchy, Samuel appointed Saul to be the first King. Saul was replaced by King David and eventually was followed by Solomon. This era was the most documented era throughout Biblical history. During this time period, David was God’s right hand man. Jewish people believed that the Messiah was once a living King somewhere in the Davidic bloodline. They believe the Messiah in the Bible was a human King. The word Messiah means “anointed one”. David is the one who brings together loose tribes into a government. He institutes many new things like scribe culture and census records. This becomes known as the prototype for the ideal Jewish monarch. He establishes the city of Jerusalem or the “City of David”. His legacy becomes a major theme in Jewish history. Through him, the First temple was built for worship and for sacrifice in 950 B.C.E. This temple was extremely important to the Jewish people. It was the center for worship and politics for the kingdom of Judah. The Babylonians e...
To the pre-diasporic Jews, Jerusalem had more reasons of importance than there are stars in the sky. No single place is more important to Judaism than Jerusalem; the city encompasses all that there is to be both a Jew and a member of that nation. To the Jews, Jerusalem is the land promised to them by God (Genesis 12:1-9). Many talmudic scholars also believe that the spiritual center of the city, the Temple Mount, is also Mount Moriah, which is where Abraham sacrificed Isaac to God and the Covenant between God and Abraham began (Hoppe, p.6). The temple mount is also, of course, where Solomon built his Temple to God, and where Herod rebuil...
Main Events in the history of Jerusalem. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2011, from Century One Educational Bookstore: http://www.centuryone.com/hstjrslm.html
This essay is going to discuss the ancient city of Jerash (Gerasa) that is in modern day Jordan, with particular emphasis on the Christian community and their churches. Along with the rise of the Christian community in Jerash, there was rapid increase of the building of multiple churches in the fifth and sixth centuries, and why this may have occurred in such a small amount of time. This culminated in the last church being erected just before 611 AD, which was before the city started on a slow decline beginning with a Persian invasion. Next the essay will discuss the Muslim invasion which happened after the Persian invasion and how this impacted on the Christian community within Jerash. Following on from this there appears to have been natural disasters which speeded up the decline of Jerash and the city’s fortunes and ending with the total abandonment by the 12th century.