The story of the Holy Land, encompassing the three millennia that saw the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each chapter is written by a leading scholar.

H. G. M. Williamson was until recently Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University. His expertise in the texts of the Old Testament is complemented by his active participation in the archaeology of the Biblical period in the Holy Land.
Robert G. Hoyland is Professor of Late Antique and Early Islamic Middle Eastern History at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. His books include Arabia and the Arabs (Routledge, 2001) and In God's Path (OUP, 2015). He has embarked upon the excavation of the city of Partavi/Barda'a in modern Azerbaijan.

• Introduction


• 1: Avraham Faust: The Birth of Israel


• 2: Lester L. Grabbe: Iron Age: Tribes to Monarchy


• 3: André Lemaire: Israel and Judah: c. 931-587 BCE


• 4: H. G. M. Williamson: Babylonian Exile and Restoration: 587-325 BCE


• 5: John J. Collins: The Hellenistic and Roman Era


• 6: Konstantin Klein: A Christian Holy Land: 284-638 CE


• 7: Milka Levy-Rubin: The Coming of Islam


• 8: Carole Hillenbrand: The Holy Land in the Crusader and Ayyubid periods: 1099 - 1250


• 9: Nimrod Luz: The Holy Land from the Mamluk Sultanate to the Ottoman Empire: 1260-1799


• 10: Robert Fisk: From Napoleon to Allenby: the Holy Land and the wider Middle East


• 11: Robert G. Hoyland and Peter Walker: Pilgrimage


• 12: Richard S. Hess and Denys Pringle: Sacred Spaces and Holy Places


• 13: Adam Silverstein: Scripture and the Holy Land


• Further Reading


• Index