Jerusalem: Early History to 1900

Despite incomplete archaeological work, it is evident that the Jerusalem area was settled at least as far back as the 5th millenium b.c. In the late Bronze Age (2000–1550 b.c.), it was a Jebusite (Canaanite) stronghold. David captured it (c.1000 b.c.) from the Jebusites and walled the city. After Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah in the 10th cent. b.c., Jerusalem became the spiritual and political capital of the Hebrews. In 586 b.c. it fell to the Babylonians, and the Temple was destroyed.

The city was restored to Hebrew rule later in the 6th cent. b.c. by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. The Temple was rebuilt (538–515 b.c.; known as the Second Temple) by Zerubbabel, a governor of Jerusalem under the Persians. In the mid-5th cent. b.c., Ezra reinvigorated the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The city was the capital of the Maccabees in the 2d and 1st cent. b.c.

After Jerusalem had been taken for the Romans by Pompey, it became the capital of the Herod dynasty, which ruled under the aegis of Rome. The Roman emperor Titus ruined the city and destroyed the Temple (a.d. 70) in order to punish and discourage the Jews. After the revolt of Bar Kokba (a.d. 132–35), Hadrian rebuilt the city as a pagan shrine called Aelia Capitolina but forbade Jews to live on the site.

With the imperial toleration of Christianity (from 313), Jerusalem underwent a revival, greatly aided by St. Helena, who sponsored much building in the early 4th cent. Since that time Jerusalem has been a world pilgrimage spot. Muslims, who believe that the city was visited by Muhammad, treated Jerusalem favorably after they captured it in 637, making it the chief shrine after Mecca. From 688 to 691 the Dome of the Rock mosque was constructed.

In the 11th cent. the Fatimids began to hinder Christian pilgrims; their destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher helped bring on the Crusades. Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099 and for most of the 12th cent. was the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1187, Muslims under Saladin recaptured the city. Thereafter, under Mamluk and then Ottoman rule, Jerusalem was rebuilt and restored (especially by Sulayman I); but by the late 16th cent. it was declining as a commercial and religious center.

In the early 19th cent., Jerusalem began to revive. The flow of Christian pilgrims increased, and churches, hospices, and other institutions were built. Jewish immigration accelerated (especially from the time of the Egyptian occupation of Jerusalem by Muhammad Ali in 1832–41), and by 1900, Jews made up the largest community in the city and expanded settlement outside the Old City walls.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
• Early History to 1900
• Cultural and Educational Institutions
• The New City and Other Districts
• The Old City
• Bibliography

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