Jerusalem: The Biography

* Jews and most Christians would not have had a problem with the earliest versions of the Muslim statement of faith – the shahada – which read ‘There is no God but God’, as it may not have been until 685 that they added ‘Muhammad is the apostle of God’. Jewish and Muslim names for Jerusalem overlap: Muhammad called Palestine ‘The Holy Land’ in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Jews called the Temple Beyt ha-Miqdash (the Holy House) which the Muslims adapted: they called the city herself Bayt al-Maqdis. The Jews called the Temple Mount Har ha-Beyt (the Mount of the Holy House); Muslims initially called it Masjid Bayt al-Maqdis, the Mosque of the Holy House, and later also Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. Ultimately Muslims had seventeen names for Jerusalem; Jews claimed seventy, and both agreed ‘a multiplicity of names is a sign of greatness’.