Wisdom's House, Heaven's Gate: Athens and Jerusalem in the Middle Ages

Taking as its starting point an investigation into the physical topography and symbolism of the two cities of Athens and Jerusalem, this book offers a cultural history of the rival superpowers—the Byzantine Empire and Fatimid Caliphate—that between them dominated the Mediterranean world during the Central Middle Ages. It shows that the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the orders of al-Hakim punctuated a century of heightened interaction resulting from changing...