Friends , I offer you this true story which is a result of my research work ! I have tried to keep it simple for easy reading, using only one third of my compiled notes . Should you type "Story of Jerusalem and the Promised Land" - on Google search , this poem has been listed on their very first web page as a permanent reference ! Hope you like it !
STORY OF JERUSALEM AND THE 'PROMISED LAND' .
STORY OF JERUSALEM AND “THE
PROMISED LAND”
**BY RAJ NANDY**
INTRODUCTION
After reading my ‘Arab Contribution to Science’ and the
downfall of Islam’s Golden Age ,
A friend had requested me to write about The Crusades !
The Mongol contribution was far greater towards Islamic
Empire’s downfall ,
For though the First Crusade besieged the Holy City of
Jerusalem making it fall ;
The subsequent Crusades to the Seljuk Turks lost all !
Now before writing about the Nine Crusades proper ;
To acquaint my readers with the historic City of Jerusalem,
is my present endeavor !
For Jerusalem is sacred to the Jews, Christian and the
Muslims alike ,
As their holy relics and shrines are housed in this Old
City’s revered sites !
But prior to narrating the story of Old Jerusalem City ,
Let me tell you about its brief Ancient History ;
And about the patriarch Abraham, whom God led to
the ‘Promised Land’!
Historical Background :
The city of Jerusalem was twice razed to the ground ;
Besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, captured and
recaptured 44 times ; surprising as it all may sound !
In an era of idolatry and multiple gods, ‘Abram’ born in
ancient city of Ur, believed in a single God !(1800BC)
So God was pleased and in a covenant with Patriarch
Abraham ,
Blessed him to become the ‘Father of Many Nations’-
in a distant ‘Promised Land’ !
Thus Abraham with his wife Sarah and nephew Lot ,
Entered the Land of Canaan as promised by God !
But when a famine ravaged the Land of Canaan ,
Abraham with his people moved onto Egypt on his own !
Having suffered there for some ungodly acts, -
His return to the Land of Canaan remains an historical fact !
Through Abraham and Sarah’s Egyptian maid Hagar,
son Ishmael was born ;
From whom descended the ‘Ishmaelites’, to become
the Twelve Arab Tribes later on !
Next with the blessings of the Lord, to Abraham and
Sarah son Isaac was born ;
And Isaac’s son Jacob fathered the Twelve Jewish Tribes,
Who became collectively known as the ‘Israelites’ !
From the ‘Tribe of Benjamin’ came King Saul, the first
King of United Israel rising tall !
From the ‘Tribe of Judah’ King David, Solomon, and
several Kings of Judah did rise , -
As proud forefathers of the Messiah - Jesus Christ !
Thus in Judaism both the Arabs and the Christians
find a common lineage ,
Yet bitter differences continue to exist even in our
present Age !
Origins of Jerusalem :
Jerusalem has been hailed by many names, gets mentioned
as ‘Rushalium’ in an ancient Egyptian text ! (2000 BC)
Also as Salem, Moriah, Jebus and Zion ; as the capital city
of the Israelites to become known !
Jerusalem as the remnant town of Salem, - is mentioned
in the ‘Book of Joshua’ Chapter Ten !
It was a Jebusite city which was conquered by King David
later on ,
And David shifted his capital to Jerusalem from Hebron !
In Jerusalem he kept the Holy Ark in a sacred Tabernacle,
For which his son King Solomon, had built the First Great
Temple !
This Sacred Ark contained the Ten Commandments ,
Which accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years
of desert wandering with Moses, - as guidance !
But since majority of the tribes were hesitant to fight the
Canaanites for their ‘promised land’,
God blessed Joshua, the successor of Moses, to lead the
Tribes to their ‘Promised Land’ !
The Turbulent History of Jerusalem :
Now cutting across several centuries of its dynamic history,
let me continue with Jerusalem’s Story !
The death of King Solomon (931 BC) ends Israel’s
Golden Age ,
And the once United Kingdom of Israel splits into Northern
and Southern states !
Ten Tribes formed the northern Kingdom of Israel, with its
capital at Samaria ;
While Jerusalem becomes the capital of the southern half
called Judea !
In unity lies strength, and in division further dissention ;
The kingdom of King David and Solomon now becomes
prey to several foreign invasions !
Jerusalem gets attacked by the Egyptians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Persians, and those Romans ,
Who had initially built, but later destroyed the Second
Jewish Temple !
The cruel King Herod Judea’s Roman protector, though
of unsound mind, was a great builder !
‘The Wailing Wall’, and most of the ruins visible today, -
Were built by the despot Herod as Archeologists say !
King Herod enlarged the Temple Mount with a massive
retaining wall around it ,
Renovated the Second Temple which finally acquired his
name !
But in 70 AD the Roman Emperor Titus , razed the Second
Temple to the ground as Historians tell us !
Jerusalem had some peace under the Christian Byzantine
Emperor Constantine ,
Who upheld Christianity, and his mother Helena inspired
the building of hallowed shrines ;
Only to be occupied by the Seljuk Turks, who desecrated
those shrines ;
Till the First Crusade in 1099 captured Jerusalem to provide
Eighty eight years of respite !
Next in 1187 the Seljuk Turk Saladin conquered Jerusalem ,
When a peace treaty with Richard ‘The Lion Heart’ allowed
the visit of its Holy Shrines by the Christians !
The British captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks
in Nineteen hundred and seventeen ;
And in 1948 the State of Israel was born, realizing
Abraham’s dream !
But surrounded by hostile enemies on all sides, Israel had
to fight for its survival as a Nation ;
And now I pause to pay my humble tribute to those valiant
Israelites, with salutation !
The Old City :
Nestled on the hollow of the hills of Judea - the city spreads
out on a plateau 800 meters above the sea ;
With its Dome shining in the sun, it dominates some five
thousand years of History !
The City stretches 0.9 square kilometers surrounded by a
retaining walls between 16 to 46 feet in height ;
Which includes more than 200 monuments and sacred sites !
Until the 1860s the old city had represented entire Jerusalem
collectively ;
Later under the initiative of the British, settlements outside
its wall began confidently !
During 1946 when Israel declared its Independence ,
The old city remained under the control of the Jordanians ;
Only to be liberated during the Six Day’s War in 1967 !
Old City Gates and Quarters :
The walls around the Old City stretch for 4.5 kilometers,
With its height varying between five to sixteen meters .
It has 43 surveillance towers and eleven Gates,
However only seven gates remain open as on date !
The current wall was built in 1538 by Sultan Suleiman
the Magnificent !
On the southern side of this wall is the Zion Gate, leading
to the Armenian Quarters, overlooking Mount Zion outside;
Where lies King David’s tomb, a holy site !
The Dung Gate leads to the Jewish Quarters from the south ,
And the way to Al-Aksa mosque inside the Temple Mount .
The Jaffa or the Main Gate is on the west with its famous
Citadel and the Tower of David built by King Herod .
This gate leads to the Christian Quarters inside , and the road
goes to the port of Jaffa outside !
A New Gate was also built further up on the north-western
side , (1898)
For entry of the German Emperor William the Second
through the Christian side !
The Damascus Gate in the middle of the Northern Wall ,
Was the largest and the most heavily defended Gate ,
Where excavations have revealed a Roman Gate beneath it !
Through this gate had entered the Holy Crusade !
Further east on the northern wall is the Herod’s Gate,
Leading to the Muslim Quarters and the ‘souk’– the Arab
markets .
On the East is the Lions Gate, with carved figure of lions
on the gate’s crest ;
For the Christian and the Jews this gate has a special
significance !
For this gate marks the walk ‘Via Dolorosa’, the path taken
by Jesus from the garden of Gethsemane to his crucifixion
site,
Where stands the Church of Holy Sepulcher built by the
Emperor Constantine !
And in 1967 the Israeli 55th Para Brigade entered through this
Lions Gate, and after a hand to hand fight with the Jordanians ;
Hoisted the Star of David on the Temple Mount to reclaim
Jerusalem !
They declared Jerusalem as their Capital City ,
Concluding a chapter of its turbulent History !
Since the time of the Crusades, Jerusalem has remained
traditionally divided into Jewish , Christian , Muslim and
Armenian sections ;
Each with its sacred Synagogues, Churches and Mosques ,
defying the City’s unification !
Yet amidst the gong of church bells, the call of muezzin ,
and recitation of the Torah ,
Old Jerusalem reverberates with a unique religious euphoria !
Sacred Monuments and Sites :
The Wailing Wall is the more popular name for that part
of Western Wall built by King Herod during 19 BC,
Around the Second Jewish Temple which he renovated ,
for the world to see !
Today only 167 feet of this exposed Wall remains, which
is 62 feet high ,
As a solitary witness to that once glorious past, which
evokes a deep sigh !
It is the holiest of Jewish shrines today where they congregate,
To pray in front of this sacred Wall and to loudly lament ;
The loss of their great Temple which was once made !
Inside the cracks in the wall many folded papers can be seen ,
Coating their petitions to God with prayers from within !
The Temple Mount is perhaps the oldest of all shrines ,
Sacred to both the Christians and the Muslims alike !
For here on a rock alter Abraham had bound his son
Isaac ,
Ready to sacrifice him when the Lord put him to test !
Here King Solomon had built the First Jewish Temple ,
Which during 587 BC, was destroyed by the King of
Babylon !
The King also took the Jews into captivity lasting nearly
seventy years ,
And Psalm 137 tells us how the Jews remembering Zion ,
On the banks of River of Babylon, - shed their tears !
That old song by ‘Bonny M’ , now rings in my ears !
This was also the site of the Second Temple destroyed
by the Romans ;
Who renamed Jerusalem as ‘Aelia Capitolina’, making the
City pagan !
Al-Aqsa Mosque or ‘the farthest Mosque’, located on the
Mount, was completed around 705 AD they say ,
Has been claimed by the Muslims as the site where their
Prophet traveled ‘during the night’ from Mecca to pray ;
And from where angle Gabriel accompanied him to
Heaven or ‘Jannat’, all the way !
So they constructed the Dome of The Rock to mark this
ascension, and around 691 AD saw its completion !
The Golden Gate on the east leading to the Temple Mount ,
Was sealed by the Muslims during 6th Century following
their fears and doubts !
For the Jew’s claim their Messiah will enter through this
Golden Gate one day,
Which unnerved the Muslims whatever one may say !
So outside the sealed gate they also built a cemetery ;
Let future events gradually unfold in Jerusalem’s Story !
Conclusion :
Now dear readers I conclude my narration, - with some
food for thought and contemplation !
‘Jerusalem’ is mentioned in the Jewish Bible 669 times ,
and 154 times as ‘Zion’. (Land of Israel)
In the Christian Bible it is mentioned 161 times; but not
once in the Hindu ‘Gita’, the Buddhist Scriptures, or in
the Koran ;
Not forgetting the fact that God is Supreme and One !
The Koran speaks only of “the furthest Mosque” where the
Prophet went to pray,
From Mecca we know Holy Medina comes on the way !
The Holy Bible is also a record of early Civilizations ,
Supported by Archaeological finds, carbon dating, and
countless excavations !
The Jewish claim to the ‘Land of Canaan’ is more than
3000 years old ,
And Israel today occupies 75% of that historic piece of
land we know, and also have been told !
The Old City in 1981 has been declared as UNESCO’s
Heritage Site ,
Let the ‘Spirit of Humanity’ overtake all religious divide !
It is true that History has evolved from the Myths and
Legends of the past ;
But it is for us to separate the wheat from the chaff !
I have done adequate research of this Ancient History ,
Now I leave it to you for drawing your own conclusions -
after reading this true Story !
Thank you readers for reading patiently ;
From Raj Nandy of New Delhi .
Let the ‘Spirit of Humanity’ overtake all religious divide ! That is a line to keep inside my heart for a very long time , thank you !
A true treat to read your STORY OF JERUSALEM AND THE 'PROMISED LAND' days, weeks, months and years of astonishing research, makes an excellent poem, RAJ ! Thank you for sharing this great research, best wishes, Sylvia FC
You have done a great research. Excellent attempt!
how exhaustive and how much efforts and time yu have spent. amazing. thanks
An excellent script for any school or uni to keep it is just one huge piece of history of Jerusalem and the promised land all sewn up together, I will read again no doubt and I like the last chapter with the title Conclusion which brings me to my own conclusion and beliefs. I am so glad the Jewish race live there now I know it is a gift from God after they endured six million murders by the Nazi plan and persecution for hundreds of years. Even poets like Shakespeare branded a Jew 'Shylock' in one of his plays...Then all the religions we all pray to the same God we are all the same Christian Jew Arab Muslim but alas its the melting pot that is still boiling today. Thanks for the time you have taken to write this great truth of history...regards
you are so imformative. Rereading I gain alot more knowledge of these events. blessings. tc..
this is very interesting. Some I have read in my Bible. The story of Abraham /Sarah and their son. Abraham/Hagar and Ishmeal. I have been told this is the reason there is so mch trouble in that part of the world still today. I want to reread this when I get a chance. thanks for sharing.
Such history I never knew! Thank you RajNandy for this bit of history shared. God bless
Long, long before the 'ishmaelites' and the ‘Israelites’ came into being, thousands and thousands years back before Christ, the 'Pandavas' and the 'Kauravas' both descending from the same lineage fought the Greatest War on earth for gaining the control of the earth and both perished...in the name of God in the name of Religion in the name of Region as well, human beings fight for owning the wealthy resources of the earth...war and quarrels are not an answer for the quest of shared peaceful living...I congratulate in your untiring efforts in coming out with such informative well analyzed historical works
I salute you for painstakingly presenting the entire history of Jerusalem in this verse sir. Thanks for sharing this wonderful historic piece.
Beautiful. Excellent subject to study and learn. Well penned
History wrapped in your words , is more beautiful !! With all these religions having their connection to this holy city , yet they still think they all are different and more worse superior than the others , so lucky to have this city and so pity to yet unable to embrace its meaning of existence !!
Raj, am totally astounded at your grasp of history and presentation in verse so effectively. I read the poem, and have stopped midway to first grasp all I have learnt of the ancient land. Honestly what is most commendable is your patience, diligence and passion in writing such picturesque, intriguing accounts in poetry form. I am filled with awe and wonder how you retain so much information in your mind. it's like taking a tour with a historian down the ages. I shall have to come agin to read the last few stanzas. Thanks
Dear Sir, I just fall short of words to speak about your poems. Here again it is the same. Great! My salutations to you for your profound knowledge and the beautiful poetic efforts you make to take us on a joyful and enlightening tour through the nooks and corners, and less frequented and unknown areas of world history and philosophy. Thank you.
This is not only a highly informative write Raj, but very beautifully written as well. I have learnt so much. My daughter sat spellbound all thru. Thanks.
Raj, thank you for the history of Jerusalem, your research is most interesting. You have told a brief history of the three religions of the book, which I enjoyed. However throughout its history these lands have been ones of conflict, even today there is division over who the lands belong to. Instead of using compassion to solve their differences both sides still resort to violence, whilst the Zionists by stealth and violence occupy more and more of what was once all Palestinian land.
Raj...This is my second visit...Such patience on your part to do the reserch and then write such a marvel of information. Thank you for sharing. Dorothy Singing Still
I am very grateful to Louis , Fay , Gita , Sandra , Nimal & our Prince , for their kind & encouraging comments , -Raj
thank you so much for the narration of the city... now i know more than the historical facts presented in the Bible... truly, there is something great and special in Jerusalem...
MY GREAT RESEARCHER YOU HAVE TAKEN US TO THE PRECIOUS CITY OF JERUSALEM!VERY GRATEFUL FOR THE PILGRIMAGE!
Thank you Raj for this excellent historic tour of Jerusalem...it is truly a work of art and priceless for anyone interested in dicovering ancient cities....
I just got back from a tour of Jerusalem! As has been the case with all of your previous literary creations, this is a precious gem in its own right. The writing style that you have used is so simple, so conversational and yet the matter that you have presented is so profound, so extensive. I agree with what Fay Slimm has to say - this is truly a marvellous historical tour and I enjoyed it immensely. This interesting and enlightening work is valid proof of the many hours that you would have spent gathering, analysing, skimming, filtering, condensing and organizing all the information and then being able to preseent it in such a reader-friendly manner. I am truly impressed after reading this piece. Your mention of the famous Boney M number "By the river of Babylon" took me down memory lane to my school days when this song was so very popular. As I had mentioned earlier, this piece will serve as excellent study material for any student of history - me included. Thanks for sharing this priceless literary work.
Your extensive research on Jersalem now composed into such interesting poetical verse is astounding Raj. The historical tour on which you take the reader involves both time and place in exciting discovery and sparkles with your graceful yet enthusiastic delivery. We are indeed privileged to have the opportunity to read this wonderous saga of Jerusalem which is of such importance in religious belief to so many. The rich and varied history of the place is amply supplied by your talented pen Raj and offers facts which not only interest but thrill the reader.So adeptly crafted an account should surely be in all the classrooms as reading matter for teacher and student. We here on P.F. are honoured to have you share this spirited result of much effort and I am so pleased to have caught this posting. Sincere thanks for both sharing with and enlightening readers by this intriguing account of the special place known as Jerusalem. I have Bookmarked this remarkable story.
you have truly researched the scriptures from all aspects and written a informative story to open the minds of all who read this. ( you should be classified as an historian for the information you gathered) i am honored to have read this. thank you for sharing.
Very interesting tribute to that oft ravaged and yet revered city, aas well as the various people groups and religions connected to it, with excellent imagery. Lovely.