Jerusalem and Its Environs: Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, 1800-1948 (Israel Studies in Historical Geography)

Jerusalem and Its Environs illustrates the history of urban and rural development of Jerusalem from the 1800s to the mid-twentieth century, during which the city endured 120 years of Ottoman rule and three decades of British military and mandatory government.

Ruth Kark and Michal Oren-Nordeim trace the city's interaction with its rural hinterland until the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, when Jerusalem became socially and geographically divided in two. The authors explain how Arabs eventually occupied Jewish quarters and neighborhoods and Jews ultimately settled in Arab Muslim and Christian neighborhoods. By examining a variety of primary sources -- documents in the Central Zionist Archives, published memoirs, maps, and aerial photographs -- the authors are able to establish and verify connections between the documentation and the actual sites.

The detailed examples documenting specific quarters and neighborhoods and the numerous maps, plans, and photographs make this volume invaluable to researchers, teachers, and students of geography, urban planning history, Middle East and Jewish Studies, as well as Palestinian residents of the Old City and the new Muslim neighborhoods.