Jerusalem: The Biography

MAMLUK

Before the end of the world, all prophecies have to be fulfilled – and the Holy City has to be given back to the Christian Church.

Christopher Columbus, Letter to King Ferdinand and

Queen Isabella of Spain

And she [the Wife of Bath] had thrice been to Jerusalem.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

In Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls truly sacred.

Ibn Taymiyya, In Support of Pious Visits to Jerusalem

The practice [of the Holy Fire] is still going on. There occur under the eyes of Muslims a number of hateful things.

Mujir al-Din, History of Jerusalem and Hebron

The Greeks [are] our worst and atrocious enemies, the Georgians are the worst heretics, like the Greeks and equal in malice; the Armenians are very beautiful, rich and generous, [and] the deadly enemies of the Greeks and Georgians.

Francesco Suriano, Treatise on the Holy Land

We beheld the famous city of our delight and we rent our garments. Jerusalem is mostly desolate and in ruins and without walls. As for the Jews, the poorest have remained [living] in heaps of rubbish, for the law is that a Jew may not rebuild his ruined house.

Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro, Letters