Jerusalem. The Biography

messianic Last Emperor would smash the enemies of Christianity and then hand power to Jesus who would rule until Judgement Day.
    The Christians demanded vengeance on the Jews, but Heraclius refused until the monks took the sin of his broken oath to the Jews upon themselves as a fast of atonement. Heraclius then expelled any remaining Jews; many were massacred; he later ordered the forcible conversion of all Jews.
    Far away to the south, the Arabians had noticed not so much Heraclius’ victory as his weakness. ‘The Romans have been defeated,’ declared Muhammad, the leader who had just united the Arabian tribes, in what became the sacred text of his new revelation, the Koran. While Heraclius was in Jerusalem, Muhammad despatched a raid up the King’s Highway to probe Byzantine defences. The Arabs encountered a Byzantine detachment – but they would soon return.
    Heraclius would not have been too alarmed: the divided Arab tribes had been raiding Palaestina for centuries. The Byzantines and Persians had both hired Arab tribes as buffer states between the empires, and Heraclius had fielded large squadrons of Arab cavalry in his armies.
    The next year, Muhammad sent another small detachment to attack Byzantine territory. But he was now old and his spectacular life was near its end. Heraclius left Jerusalem and headed back to Constantinople.
    There seemed little to fear. 8

ISLAM
     
    Glory to Him who made His servant travel by night from the sacred place of worship to the furthest place of worship.
    The Koran,17.1
    The Apostle of Allah, accompanied by Gabriel, was transported to Jerusalem where he found Abraham and Moses and the other Prophets.
    Ibn Ishaq,
Sirat Rasul Allah
    A ruler was not considered a caliph unless he reigned over both the Holy Mosque [Mecca] and the Jerusalem Mosque.
    Sibani,
Fadail
    One day in Jerusalem is like a thousand days, one month like a thousand months, and one year like a thousand years. Dying there is like dying in the first sphere of heaven.
    Kaab al-Ahbar,
Fadail
    A sin committed [in Jerusalem] is equal to a thousand sins and a good deed there to a thousand good deeds.
    Khalid bin Madan al-Kalai,
Fadail
    Allah, may he be praised, said of Jerusalem. You are my Garden of Eden, my hallowed and chosen land.
    Kaab al-Ahbar,
Fadail
    O Jerusalem,I shall send you my servant Abd al-Malik to rebuild and adorn you.
    Kaab al-Ahbar,
Fadail

630–60
     
    MUHAMMAD: THE NIGHT JOURNEY
     
    Muhammad’s father died before he was born and his mother died when he was just six. But he was adopted by his uncle, who took him on trading trips to Bosra in Syria. There he was taught about Christianity by a monk, studied the Jewish and Christian scriptures, coming to venerate Jerusalem as one of the noblest of sanctuaries. In his twenties, a wealthy widow named Khadija, much older than he, employed him to manage her caravan trading and then married him. They lived in Mecca, the home of the Kaaba and its black stone, the sanctuary of a pagan god. The city thrived on the pilgrims attracted by this cult and by caravan trading. Muhammad was a member of the Quraysh tribe, who provided its leading merchants and custodians of the sanctuary, but his Hashemite clan was not one of the more powerful.
    Muhammad, described as handsome with curly hair and beard, possessed both an all-conquering geniality – it was said that when he shook someone’s hand he never liked to be the one to let go first – and a charismatic spirituality. He was admired for his integrity and intelligence – as his warriors later put it, ‘He was the best among us’ – and he was known as al-Amin, the Reliable.
    As with Moses, David or Jesus, it is impossible now for us to divine the personal essence of his success, but like them, he came at the time he was needed. In the Jahiliya, the Time of Ignorance before his revelation, ‘there was nobody more destitute than we were,’ wrote one of his soldiers later. ‘Our religion was to kill one another and raid. There were those among us who would bury their daughters alive not wanting them to eat our food. Then God sent us a well-known man.’
    Outside Mecca was the Cave of Hira where Muhammad liked to meditate. In 610, according to tradition, the Archangel Gabriel visited him there with his first revelation from the one God who had chosen him to be his Messenger and Prophet. When the Prophet received God’s revelations, his face was said to become flushed, he fell silent, his bodylying limp