Editorial Reviews 
Amazon.com
Jerusalem is the most famous city on the planet, a place vibrantly imagined even by people who have never been there. Karen Armstrong, author of the best-selling A History of God, shows why it might also be the most interesting, a sacred ground for rival Christians, Jews and Muslims. Much of her book is devoted to 5,000 years of history, but all of it addresses a longstanding and contemporary fascination unmatched by any other urban center. 

Book Description  
"SPLENDID . . . Eminently sane and patient . . . Essential reading for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike."--The Washington Post 

Venerated for millennia by three faiths, torn by irreconcilable conflict, conquered, rebuilt, and mourned for again and again, Jerusalem is a sacred city whose very sacredness has engendered terrible tragedy. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly praised A History of God, traces the history of how Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all laid claim to Jerusalem as their holy place, and how three radically different concepts of holiness have shaped and scarred the city for thousands of years. 

Armstrong unfolds a complex story of spiritual upheaval and political transformation--from King David's capital to an administrative outpost of the Roman Empire, from the cosmopolitan city sanctified by Christ to the spiritual center conquered and glorified by Muslims, from the gleaming prize of European Crusaders to the bullet-ridden symbol of the present-day Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Written with grace and clarity, the product of years of meticulous research, Jerusalem combines the pageant of history with the profundity of searching spiritual analysis. Like Karen Armstrong's A History of God, Jerusalem is a book for the ages. 

"THE BEST SERIOUS, ACCESSIBLE HISTORY OF THE MOST SPIRITUALLY IMPORTANT CITY IN THE WORLD."--The Baltimore Sun 

"A WORK OF IMPRESSIVE SWEEP AND GRANDEUR."--Los Angeles Times Book Review 

Synopsis  
Explains why Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim Jerusalem as a holy city and how these three different concepts of holiness have shaped the great city. By the author of A History of God. Reprint." 

About the Author  
Karen Armstrong spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun. After leaving her order in 1969, she went to Oxford University. She is the author of the bestselling A History of God. Her other books include Through the Narrow Gate, Beginning of the World, The Gospel According to Woman, Holy War, and Mohammed. Armstrong is one of the foremost commentators on religious affairs in England and is well on her way to similar status in the United States.