Edward Trimnell's Online Guide to the Middle East
Why is Jerusalem significant for all three religions?
For Jews, Jerusalem is the capital of the historic Hebrew kingdoms. This is the city where David and Solomon ruled, and the site of the two sacred Hebrew temples.
For Christians, Jerusalem is the place where Christ died and was resurrected.
Muslims believe that Mohammed ascended into heaven from Jerusalem. One night he was awakened from his sleep by the angel Gabriel. The two of them then flew from Arabia to Jerusalem. Mohammed ascended into heaven from the Temple Mount (the site of the ancient Hebrew temples). Once in heaven, he met Moses, Jesus, and finally glimpsed the face of God Himself.
Representatives of the three major monotheistic religions have fought over Jerusalem for centuries. The Hebrew capital was destroyed by the Romans in the wake of a Jewish revolt about one hundred years after the death of Christ.
Rome eventually Christianized, and split into the Eastern and Western Empires. For centuries, the Eastern Roman Empire (later called the Byzantine Empire) controlled Jerusalem.
In the early Middle Ages, Jerusalem fell to the first Islamic empire. But Christian crusaders captured conquered the city in 1099 and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The Muslim sultan Saladin took Jerusalem back in 1187. Jerusalem remained a predominantly Islamic city until after the fall of Muslim Ottoman Empire in the 1920s.