S1221 Historical Geography of a Cosmopolitan City: Jerusalem as a Holy City for Jews, Christians and Moslems (S1221)

Most of the Mediterranean cities were at some point, cosmopolitan cities where Christians, Jews and Moslems lived together. The cultural and economy richness of these cities brought different people to live in them. Contrast to this, the city of Jerusalem, which was established 3,800 years ago, was, and still is, the Holy city of three major religions of today – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This uniqueness character was established through the history of the last 3,000 years and Jerusalem became still one of the major religious and cultural sites of our world. More then this, as the city of Jerusalem was settled through a long period, under different cultures and regimes, each of them built the city according to its way of urban building, the historical geography of Jerusalem can present a chain of different cities, built on the same site, by different builders. Thus, the Canaanite city was rebuilt by King David and his successors till its destruction by the Babylon's in 586 BC. Later it was built according to the Hellenistic style by the Jewish kings, influence by the Roman technical knowledge used by Herod the Great After its destruction Jerusalem was rebuilt as a Roman city, shaped later by the Christian Roman Emperors. The Moslems, who ruled the city between 638 – 1099 gave it a Moslem shape will the Crusaders, in their short 88 regime, gave Jerusalem a Christian look The Moslem Mameluks and the Ottomans Turks reshaped Jerusalem to the Moslem way of cityscape while the Thirty years of British Regime (1917-1947) gave it a modern European view.. Remains of those cities are still in situ in Jerusalem and they can present an active laboratory for urban development. Thus a cosmopolitan city were established, a city in which nearly half of the world is attaching to.

The course will deal with the different built up area of Jerusalem by different religious and secular regimes through the ages. It will present the different culture that influence Jerusalem and will present the connection between the spiritual and the actual life in Jerusalem during its unique history.

 

The course is based on lectures, student reading and discussion, film and other video presentations. The students will have an examination for final grade.