During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52

times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.[1] The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th
millennium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world.[2]

Given the city's central position in both Israeli nationalism and Palestinian nationalism, the
selectivity required to summarise more than 5,000 years of inhabited history is often[3][4]
influenced by ideological bias or background (see Historiography and nationalism). For example,
the Jewish periods of the city's history are important to Israeli nationalists, whose discourse
states that modern Jews descend from the Israelites and Maccabees,[Note 1][Note 2] while the Islamic
periods of the city's history are important to Palestinian nationalists, whose discourse suggests
that modern Palestinians descend from all the different peoples who have lived in the region.[Note
3][Note 4]
As a result, both sides claim the history of the city has been politicized by the other in
order to strengthen their relative claims to the city,[3][4][9][3][10] and that this is borne out by the
different focuses the different writers place on the various events and eras in the city's history.

1 Ancient period

1.1 Proto-Canaanite period

1.2 Canaanite and New Kingdom Egyptian period

1.3 Independent Israel and Judah (House of David) period

1.4 Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires period

1.5 Persian (Achaemenid) Empire period

2 Classical antiquity

2.1 Hellenistic Kingdoms (Ptolemaic/Seleucid) period

2.2 Hasmonean Period

2.3 Roman Jerusalem period

2.4 Roman Aelia Capitolina period

2.5 Post-Crisis Roman and Early Byzantine Empire period

3 Middle Ages

3.1 Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates period

3.2 Fatimid Caliphate period

 3.3 Kingdom of Jerusalem (Crusaders) period

3.4 Ayyubid, Bahri Mamluk and Burji Mamluk period

4 Early modern period

4.1 Early Ottoman period

5 Modern era

5.1 Decline of the Ottoman Empire period

5.2 British Mandate period

5.3 Partition between Israel and Jordan

6 Division between Jordan and Israel (19481967)

7 State of Israel

Independent Israel and Judah (House of David) period

According to the Bible, the Israelite history of the city began in c. 1000 BCE, with King David's
sack of Jerusalem, following which Jerusalem became the City of David and capital of the
United Kingdom of Israel.[11] According to the Books of Samuel, the Jebusites managed to resist
attempts by the Israelites to capture the city, and by the time of King David were mocking such
attempts, claiming that even the blind and lame could defeat the Israelite army. Nevertheless, the
masoretic text for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth,
sending his forces through a "water shaft" and attacking the city from the inside. Archaeologists
now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring the only known location from which water
shafts lead into the city is now known to have been heavily defended (and hence an attack via
this route would have been obvious rather than secretive). The older Septuagint text, however,
suggests that rather than by a water shaft, David's forces defeated the Jebusites by using daggers
rather than through the water tunnels coming through the Gihon spring.[15] There was another
king in Jerusalem, Araunah, during, and possibly before, David's control of the city, according to
the biblical narrative,[16] who was probably the Jebusite king of Jerusalem.[17] The city, which at
that point stood upon the Ophel, was, according to the biblical account, expanded to the south,
and declared by David to be the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel. David also, according to
the Books of Samuel, constructed an altar at the location of a threshing floor he had purchased
from Araunah; a portion of biblical scholars view this as an attempt by the narrative's author to
give an Israelite foundation to a pre-existing sanctuary.[18]

Later, according to the biblical narrative, King Solomon built a more substantive temple, the
Temple of Solomon, at a location which the Book of Chronicles equates with David's altar. The
Temple became a major cultural centre in the region; eventually, particularly after religious
reforms such as those of Hezekiah and of Josiah, the Jerusalem temple became the main place of
worship, at the expense of other, formerly powerful, ritual centres, such as Shiloh and Bethel.
Solomon is also described as having created several other important building works at Jerusalem,
including the construction of his palace, and the construction of the Millo (the identity of which
is somewhat controversial). Archaeologists are divided over whether the biblical narrative is
supported by the evidence from excavations.[19] Eilat Mazar contents that her digging uncovered
remains of large stone buildings from the correct time period, while Israel Finkelstein disputes
both the interpretation and the dating of the finds.[20][21]

When the Kingdom of Judah split from the larger Kingdom of Israel (which the Bible places near
the end of the reign of Solomon, c. 930 BCE, though Israel Finkelstein and others dispute the
very existence of a unified monarchy to begin with[22]), Jerusalem became the capital of the
Kingdom of Judah, while the Kingdom of Israel located its capital at Shechem in Samaria.
Thomas L. Thompson argues that it only became a city and capable of acting as a state capital in
the middle of the 7th century.[23]

Both the Bible and regional archeological evidence suggest the region was politically unstable
during the period 925732 BCE. In 925 BCE, the region was invaded by Egyptian Pharaoh
Sheshonk I of the Third Intermediate Period, who is possibly the same as Shishak, the first
Pharaoh mentioned in the Bible who captured and pillaged Jerusalem. Around 75 years later,
Jerusalem's forces were likely involved in an indecisive battle against the Neo-Assyrian King
Shalmaneser III in the Battle of Qarqar. According to the bible, Jehoshaphat of Judah was allied
to Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel at this time.

The Bible records that shortly after this battle, Jerusalem was sacked by Philistines, Arabs and
Ethiopians, who looted King Jehoram's house, and carried off all of his family except for his
youngest son Jehoahaz.

Two decades later, most of Canaan including Jerusalem was conquered by Hazael of Aram
Damascus. According to the Bible, Jehoash of Judah gave all of Jerusalem's treasures as a
tribute, but Hazael proceeded to destroy all the princes of the people in the city. And half a
century later, the city was sacked by Jehoash of Israel, who destroyed the walls and took
Amaziah of Judah prisoner.

By the end of the First Temple Period, Jerusalem was the sole acting religious shrine in the
kingdom and a centre of regular pilgrimage; a fact which archaeologists generally view as being
corroborated by the evidence,[citation needed] though there remained a more personal cult involving
Asherah figures, which are found spread throughout the land right up to the end of this era.[22]