Jerusalem

Jerusalem: The Biography tells the history of the city across roughly three millennia, treating Jerusalem as a political capital, sacred landscape and recurring object of imperial ambition. Montefiore moves from ancient Israel and Judah through Roman and Byzantine rule, Islamic caliphates, the Crusades, Mamluk and Ottoman government, and the modern transformations of Palestine and Israel.

Rather than presenting the city through a single religious or national tradition, the book follows rulers, families, pilgrims, soldiers and communities whose histories overlap in the same contested space. Figures such as David, Herod the Great, Saladin and Suleiman the Magnificent appear within their documented historical settings. The 2024 edition is substantially updated for recent events, but it is a revised edition of the history first published in 2011.