Most of us know that in 1493 Christopher Columbus sailed the "deep blue sea." But one of his key motivations for sailing west to secure the riches of India never made it to our childhood textbooks. It can be found in a section of his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella that is often redacted: "before the end of the world all prophecies have to be fulfilled - and the Holy City has to be given back to the Christian Church." It is usually taught that the Spanish monarchs commissioned Columbus to beat the Portuguese in the search for the west route to India. But what is left out is that the drive behind the commissioning was they felt exactly the same way as Columbus - they needed more gold to fund a new Crusade to the Holy Land.
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| Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore |
That is just a tiny sampling of the fascinating history found in Jerusalem - from King David to
the Six Day War; from the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the concurrent rise of Jewish and Arab nationalism to the Israel-Palestine conflict - woven throughout Montefiore's
the Six Day War; from the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the concurrent rise of Jewish and Arab nationalism to the Israel-Palestine conflict - woven throughout Montefiore's
