Jerusalem: The Biography

Thanks to Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites; to Father Athanasius Macora of the Catholics, Father Samuel Aghoyan, Armenian Superior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Father Afrayem Elorashamily of the Copts, Syriac Bishop Severius, Syriac Father Malke Morat.

I am grateful to Shimon Peres, the President of the State of Israel, and Lord Weidenfeld, both of whom shared memories and ideas; to Princess Firyal of Jordan for her memories of Jordanian Jerusalem; and to Prince and Princess Talal bin Muhammad of Jordan.

Thanks to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh for his advice and for checking the text on his mother Princess Andrew of Greece and his aunt Grand Duchess Ella; and to HRH the Prince of Wales. I am especially grateful for access to their private family archives to the Earl of Morley and to the Hon. and Mrs Nigel Parker for their charming hospitality.

Yitzhak Yaacovy was the man who introduced me to Jerusalem: survivor of Auschwitz, fighter in the 1948 War of Independence, man of letters, young aide in Ben-Gurion’s office, he was the long-serving Chairman of the East Jerusalem Development Company under Mayor Teddy Kollek.

The envoys of both the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority were immensely generous in time, ideas, information and conversation: thanks to Ron Prosor, the Israeli Ambassador to London, Rani Gidor, Sharon Hannoy and Ronit Ben Dor at the Israeli Embassy; Professor Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority Ambassador in London.

William Dalrymple and Charles Glass were both extremely generous throughout this project with ideas, materials and reading-lists. The Jerusalem Foundation was incredibly helpful: thanks to Ruth Chesin, Nurit Gordon, Alan Freeman and Uri Dromi, Director of Mishkenot Shaanim. No one helped as much with academic and other contacts as John Levy of the Friends of Israel Educational Foundation and of the Academic Study Group, and Ray Bruce, veteran television producer.

Thanks to Peter Sebag-Montefiore and his daughter Louise Aspinall for sharing Geoffrey Sebag-Montefiore’s papers; to Kate Sebag-Montefiore for research into William Sebag-Montefiore’s adventures.

Thanks for help, advice, encouragement to: Amos and Nily Oz, Munther Fahmi at the American Colony Bookshop, Philip Windsor-Aubrey, David Hare, David Kroyanker, Hannah Kedar, Fred Iseman, Lea Carpenter Brokaw, Danna Harman, Dorothy and David Harman, Caroline Finkel, Lorenza Smith, Professor Benjamin Kedar, Yaov Farhi, Diala Khlat, Ziyad Clot, Youssef Khlat, Rania Joubran, Rebecca Abram, Sir Rocco and Lady Forte, Kenneth Rose, Dorrit Moussaeff and her father Shlomo Moussaeff, Sir Ronald and Lady Cohen, David Khalili, Richard Foreman, Ryan Prince, Tom Holland, Tarek Abu Zayyad, Professor Israel Finkelstein, Professor Avigdor Shinan, Professor Yair Zakovitch, Jonathan Foreman, Musa Klebnikoff, Arlene Lascona, Ceri Aston, Rev. Robin Griffith-Jones, the Master of the Temple, Hani Abu Diab, Miriam Ovits, Joana Schliemann, Sarah Helm, Professor Simon Goldhill, Dr Dorothy King, Dr Philip Mansel, Sam Kiley, John Micklethwait, editor of the Economist, Gideon Lichfield, Rabbi Mark Winer, Maurice Bitton, the Curator of Bevis Marks Synagogue, Rabbi Abraham Levy, Professor Harry Zeitlin, Professor F. M. al-Eloischari, Melanie Fall, Rabbi David Goldberg, Melanie Gibson, Annabelle Weidenfeld, Adam, Gill, David and Rachel Montefiore, Dr Gabriel Barkey, Marek Tamm, Ethan Bronner of the New York Times, Henry Hemming, William Sieghart. Thanks to Tom Morgan for help with the research.

Thanks to my agent Georgina Capel and my international rights agents Abi Gilbert and Romily Must; to my British publishers Alan Samson, Ion Trewin and Susan Lamb, my brilliant editor Bea Hemming at Weidenfeld; and to Peter James, the master of copy-editors; to my most longstanding publishers: Sonny Mehta at Knopf; in Brazil to Luiz Schwarz and Ana Paula Hisayama at Companhía das Letras; in France, Mireille Paoloni at Calmann Lévy; in Germany, Peter Sillem at Fischer; in Israel, Ziv Lewis at Kinneret; in Holland, Henk van ter Borg, at Nieuw Amsterdam; in Norway, Ida Bernsten and Gerd Johnsen at Cappelens; in Poland, Jolanta Woloszanska at Magnum; in Portugal, Alexandra Louro at Alêtheia Editores; in Spain, Carmen Esteban at Crítica; in Estonia, Krista Kaer of Varrak; and in Sweden, Per Faustino and Stefan Hilding at Norstedts.

My parents Dr Stephen and April Sebag-Montefiore have been superb editors of all my books. Above all I want to thank my wife Santa, who has been the patient, encouraging and loving sultana of this long process. Santa and my children Lily and Sasha have, like me, undoubtedly suffered the full effects of the Jerusalem Syndrome. They may never recover, but they probably know more about the Rock, the Wall and the Sepulchre than many a priest, rabbi or mullah.

NOTES ON NAMES,

TRANSLITERATIONS AND TITLES