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Holy Land map features:
• Information about the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• Illustration of Jerusalem with historical sites noted
• A Crossroads of Empire inset - the conquest and occupation of the region through the ages
• Traces the journeys of Abraham, Paul, and Mohammad
• Historical information about inhabitants of the region
• Sites are noted by historical period, from Stone and Bronze Ages (CA 500,000 to 1200 B.C.) to the Islamic Period (A.D. 640 to 1917)
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(1989 information)
One God, Three Faiths
Canaan, Hebron, Jericho, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee–these venerable names have a mystical ring, so rich are their associations with the land held sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Encompassing the heart of the Holy Land, the Promised Land of the Bible extends “from Dan even to Beer-sheba” (Judges 20:1) and from the Mediterranean to beyond the River Jordan.
Human presence here reaches back at least half a million years. But not until relatively recently, in Bronze Age Canaan, did a people first reject pagan worship of many gods and begin a spiritual journey guided by belief in the power of one God. From Judiaism, the earliest form of this revolutionary monotheism, rose Christianity and Islam; today worldwide there are 1.6 billion Christians, 860 million Muslims and 13 million Jews.
These religions share common origins and fundamental principles, among them respect for human life. As in centureis past, their followers remain locked in a bitter rivalry for possession of this spiritual homeland–a struggle waged with a tragic loss of human life.
SPREADING THE WORD
Judaism, the oldest of the three “religions of the book,” embraces a strict code of ethics based on an ancient conviction that humanity is unique in tis ability to choose between good and evil. The roots of Judaism can be traced to the traditional patriarch of Abraham, thought to have lived almost 4,000 years ago.
The Book of Genesis describes God's commanding Abraham to go to a new land and promising him that future generations would inherit that land. to Moses God revealed the Ten Commandments, which constitute part of the Torah, or Teaching, as set forth in the first five books of the Bible (editor note: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). Supplementing the Torah are oral traditions, known as the Mishnah and the Talmud, and interpretations of Scripture, or Midrash.
During the Roman era the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth gave birth to a movement that eventually inspired the Western world. The new faith reached out vigorously to Gentiles, or non-Jews. Missionaries answered their Messiah's call to “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, andof the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).
Christianity draws heavily on Judaism, even retaining the Hebrew Scriptures as the part of its Bible known as the Old Testament. The four New Testament Gospels reveal Christianity's divergence from Judaism–in its belief in the Ressurrection, for example–and give different interpretations of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Both the Old and New Testaments make use of historical tradition to sustain their distinctive tenets and practices.
In A.D. 610 Muhammad, a Meccan merchant, received his calling from God to preach a new faith. Muhammad united the nomadic tribes of Arabia and set the stage of Islam's explosive spread.
“Islam” means submission to God (Allah). Although Muslim recognize Judaism and Christianity, they consider Muhammad the lst and most perfect prophet: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
Muslims believe that their sacred book, the Koran, was divinely revealed to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel. The Sunna, which consists of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet, supplements the Koran.
Within two centuries after Muhammad's death, various legal schools had emerged to interpret the Sharia, or Islamic law. Different interpretations of the Prophet's life and associated historical events have given rise to many sects, yet all Muslims see themselves as united under God.
IN AND AROUND THE HOLY CITY
“Holier and more notable than all the other cities and places throughout the world”–thus did Jerusalem strike a European pilgrim in the 12th century and million like him since. For Jews and Christians, Jerusalem is indeed the holiest place; for Muslims, only Mecca and Medina shine brighter in the firmament of Islam. The plethora of synagogues, churches, mosques, and holy sites in and around Jerusalem reveals the deep imprint of the three religions.
For multitudes of pilgrims, scholars and curious travelers, Jerusalem presents a dazzling mosaic of ancient and modern, holy and secular. People have lived here for more than 4,000 years, and the plan of the Old City, surrounded by a wall built on earlier foundations by Suleyman the Magnificent in the mid-1500s, has changed little since the second century A.D.
David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom about 1000 B.C.; Solomon, David's successor, built a temple that would confirm the city as the focus of monotheism–and the scene of its most impressive structures.
Among them is the raised platform of the Herodian Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haran esh Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). The Western Wall is Judaism's holiest shrine, and the Dome of the Rock, completed by and Umayyad caliph in 691 on the traditional site of Muhammad's ascension, is sacred to Muslims. Some Christian buildings, including the most hallowed Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were rebuilt by the crusaders over the ruins of structures erected during the Byzantine era.
THE EXACT LOCATION of biblical Emmaus remains a mystery. It may have been at the site of Imwas, an Arab village destroyed as a result of the 1967 war. During the crusader period Emmaus–where the resurrected Christ first appeared (Luke 24:13)–was associated with sites at both present-day Abu Ghosh and Al Qubaybah. Emmaus could have been nearer Jerusalem, at a place where Roman soldiers were retired after the Jewish Revolt of A.D. 66-70.
“HE DID NOT neglect ot make his own memory secure,” wrote Flavius Josephus of Herod the Great. Many of Herod's extravagant building projects remain visible though one of this crowning achievements, the Temple in Jerusalem, has been almost enrirely lost to history.
Herod built or rebuilt numerous fortress-palaces, among them Masada, Machaerus, and Alexandrium, atop high hills. A white marble staircase gave access to the circular citadel Herodium, reputed to be Herod's burial place; a palace complex at the foot of the hill included a reservoir and swimming pool. He erected a sumptuous winter palace at Tulul Abu al Alaiq and a hippodrome nearby at Tall es Samrat, both defended by the fortress of Kypros.
AT THE SITE of old Jericho, Tall as Sultan, archaeologists have peeled back layers of settlement dating from about 10,000 to the sixth century B.C. During the Hellenistic period a new Jericho arose to the south. In A.D. 724 the Umayyad caliph, Hisham, began work on a winter palace at Khirbat al Mafjir. Leveled by an earthquake, its ruins showcase early Islamic architecture.
CROSSROADS OF EMPIRES
By 1450 B.C. Egypt's pharaohs had subjugated the Canaanites in what is now called the Holy Land. Within three centuries migrating tribes of Israelites were battling Philistines along the coast; the Bible describes King David's victory and the glittering empire of Solomon, who died about 930. The martial Assyrians overpowered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C.
Tje Assyrian capital, Nineveh, fell to the Babylonians in 612 B.C., and in 586 King Nebuchadrezzar conquered Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. An alliance of Medes and Persians under Cyrus captured Babylon in 539 B.C.; the Holy Land capitulated soon after. Much of the Hebrew Bible was compiled during the 200 years of tolerance and prosperity under the Persians.
Within two years after invading Persia in 334 B.C., Alexander's Greek and Macedonian army swept across the Holy Land. After his death in 323, his generals Ptolemy and Seleucus carved up the eastern part of the Greek Empire, and the Holy Land was caught in a vise. The Seleucids wrested Jerusalem from the Ptolemies in 198 B.C.: ruler Antiochus IV tried to stamp out Judaism.
With Pompey's capture of Jerusalem in 63 B.C. the strong arm of Rome pulled the Holy Land into the Western sphere. Two major Jewish revolts challenged Roman rule, under which Jesus of Nazareth had been sentenced to death for sedition. After the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century A.D., Christianity became a legal religion in the Byzantine world.
By 640 Muslim armies had driven Byzantine Christians from the Holy Land. The Umayyad caliphs expanded Islam in North Africa and carried the faith as far as Spain and India. In 750 they succumbed to the Baghdad-based Abbasid dynasty. Subsequent fragmention of the Islamic realm enabled the crusaders to establish the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099.
Based in Egypt, the Ayyubid dynasty under the Kurdish sultan Saladin included Syria in a might Islamic empire. Saladin battled the crusaders with the help of soldier-slaves called mamluks, who overthrew their masters in 1250. The Mamluks drove out the last crusaders in 1291. In the early 1500s the Ottoman Turks overwhelmed the Holy Land.
Under a 1920 mandate Britain installed monarchies in Iraq and Transjordan; it administered Palestine directly. France governed Syria and Lebanon. When Britain withdrew from Palestine in 1948, Israel proclaimed itself a state. Wars have since left Israel in control of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. The Sinai was returned to Egypt by 1982.
ABRAHAM - The father of the Israelites, Abraham is said to have migrated with his family from Ur of the Chaldees in the Euphrates Valley to Canaan nearly 4,000 years ago. At Shechem God guaranteed the continuity of Abraham's line.
As livestock herders in search of grazing land, the Hebrew families descended from Abraham are said to have found their way to Egypt. The earliest reference to the Israelites outside the Bible is an Egyptian inscription, dating from about 1220 B.C., from a temple in Thebes. It reports that “Israel is laid waste.”
JESUS - Born a Jew in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, Jesus was baptized by John about A.D. 27. Although Jesus preached mainly around the Sea of Galilee, his disciples diffused his message of divine love. About A.D. 30 the Romans crucified Jesus outside Jerusalem.
MUHAMMAD - The Meccans rejected Muhammad's brand of monotheism, and 622 he left for Medina, where he organized his followers. Conquering Mecca in 630–from then on the Prophet's birthplace was Islam's holiest city–Muhammad died in Medina in 632.
PAUL - Paul grew up a zealous Jew but was miraculously converted to Christianity on his way to Damascus. He evangelized much of Greece and Asia Minor, and writings about Paul or attributed to him make up a third of the New Testament.
CANAANITES had lived at strategic Lachish for almost 2,000 years when the Israelites under Joshua seied it in the late 13th century B.C. lachish fell to the Assyrians in 701 B.C. and was later razed by the Babylonians.
Gibeon was almost 1,800 years old by the time Joshua's Israelites arrived. Bethel, an Israelited city of Canaanite origins, was destroyed by unknown invaders in the sixth century B.C.
HOLY SITES of Islam–many also sacred to Jews and Christians–are widespread. At Hebron the Cave of Machpelah is said to hold the tombs of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ramla, founded by Arabs in A.D.715-16, preserves the Great Mosque and the White Mosque. A church-cum-mosque in Lod illustrates the duality of the traditional tomb of St. George, revered by some Muslims as al Khadir.
The 13th-century mosque and cenotaph of Maqam an Nabi Musa marks the burial place of Moses in Islamic tradition. At An Nabi Samu'il a mosque proclaims the Prophet Samuel's resting place; the Bible refers to his burial place as Ramh (1 Samuel 25:1).
BYZANTINE Christian monks chose isolation as the ultimate test of their faith. By the sixth century the wilderness east of Jerusalem contained about 130 Orthodox retreats. The Monastery of St. George and Dayr mar Saba are spectacular, other include Souka, founded by St. Chariton at Khareitun Caves; Al Mird, converted from a fortress; and Khan al Ahmar, established by St. Euthymius.
