The Holy Land in the Middle Ages: Six Travelers' Accounts

by St Jerome, NÃÂÂsir-I-Khusrau, Benjamin of Tudela

Overview

This completely revised and updated edition presents texts written by medieval Christian, Muslim and Jewish travelers to the Holy Land, including:

St. Jerome, The Pilgrimage of Holy Paula, c.382 CE

Paula & Eustochium, Letter to Marcella on the 
Holy Places, 386

Mukaddasi of Jerusalem, Description of Palestine, 985

Diary of a Journey through Syria and Palestine, 1047

Theoderich of Würzburg, Guide to the Holy Land, c.1172

Benjamin of Tudela, Description of the Holy Land, 
from his Itinerary, c.1173

The Holy Land in the Middle Ages also features:

over 400 pages

nearly 100 black & white and color photos, historical drawings, and prints

7 building plans

Gazetteer of places, buildings, and holy sites

Gallery of 9 City Views of Jerusalem from the 6th to 
the 16th century

Gallery of 8 Maps of the Holy Land from c.1200 to 1630

Maps of the Holy Land and Jerusalem

In a region often caricatured by the images and rhetoric of crusade and jihad, it's important to realize that through most of its medieval history the Holy Land was host to countless curious and devout travelers of all three faiths. They sailed to the same ports, walked and rode the same roads, lodged in the same cities and towns and visited and revered the same secular and sacred sites. The Holy Land in the Middle Ages offers important texts documenting these centuries of peaceful co-existence.

There has been a revival of "crusade studies" in recent years, sometimes marked by contentious claims of "clash of civilizations," the deeply violent nature of the religions of the book and the ineluctable structures of colonialism and militarism. But the following accounts offer a different narrative: of devotion that goes beyond religious labels, of a mixture of peoples and faiths that left room for curiosity and for a practical tolerance of the other. As the following pages reveal, the narrators of these works were less interested in issues of religious contention, territorial domination or cultural hegemony and more in the history, legends, art and architecture, the sounds, smells and tastes, the peoples, products and goods, and in the topography and sacred geography of the Holy Land.

410 pages. Index, bibliography. Over 100 illustrations in color and b&w.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599103136
Publisher:	Italica Press
Publication date:	12/10/2016
Series:	Italica Press Historical Travel
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.84(d)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
The Pilgrimage of the Holy Paula and the Letter of Paula and Eustochium
Introduction
The Pilgrimage of the Holy Paula by St. Jerome
The Letter of Paula and Eustochium to Marcella about the Holy Places
The Description of Syria and Palestine by Mukaddasi
Introduction
The District of Palestine by Mukaddasi
Diary of a Journey through Syria and Palestine by Nâsir‑i‑Khusrau
Introduction
Preface
Diary of a Journey through Syria & Palestine by Nâsir‑i‑Khusrau
Guide to the Holy Land by Theoderich of Würzburg
Preface to the First Edition
Preface
Introduction
Prologue
Guide to the Holy Land by Theoderich of Würzburg
The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela
Introduction
Excerpt from the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela
Gazetteer
Bibliography
Reference Works
Primary Sources
Secondary Works
Maps and Views of the Holy Land
Detail of Map of the Holy Land, c.1140.
Sallust-Type Map, c.1200.
View of the Holy Land by Abraham and Jehuda Cresques, 1375.
View of the Holy Land by Bernhard von Breydenbach, 1486
World Map with Jerusalem at the Center, 1581.
Map of the Holy Land by Marino Sanudo, 1611.
Maps and Views of Jerusalem
Madaba Map of Jerusalem, c.570.
Plan of Jerusalem, c.1200.
Plan of Jerusalem, c.1200.
Map of Jerusalem by Nicolas of Lyra, c.1270-1349.
View of Jerusalem by Nicolas, of Lyra, c.1270-1349.
View of Jerusalem, c.1455.
View of Jerusalem by Conrad Grünenberg, 1487.
View of Jerusalem by Hartmann Schedel, 1493.
Destruction of Jerusalem by Hartmann Schedel, 1493.
Imaginary View of Jerusalem by Sebastian Brant, 1515.
View of Jerusalem by Sebastian Muenster, 1550.
View of Jerusalem by Sebastian Muenster, 1550.
View of Jerusalem by Noe Bianchi, ante 1569.
Map of Jerusalem by Benedictus Arias Montanus, 1572.
Woodcut Map of Jerusalem, c.1580.
Map of Jerusalem by Electus Zwinner, 1661.
Plans of Important Buildings
Plan of Jerusalem.
Plan of Solomon's Temple.
Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Plan of the Dome of the Rock.
Plan of El Aksâ Mosque, c.985.
Plan of El Aksâ Mosque, 1888.
Plan of the Temple Mount.
Plan of the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Index