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126 exhibition reviews Jerusalem, 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. Metropolitan Museum, New York. September 26, 2016– January 8, 2017. Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb. Catalogue: Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb, eds., Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People under Heaven. New York: Metropolitan Museum, 2016. 352 pp., 354 Illus. $75. To the eternal question, “Is it good for the Jews?” only tion by Stefano Carboni on Venice and Islam, this one answer—a resounding negative—can be given current international collaboration attempts to high- regarding the tumultuous period covered by this lav- light medieval exchanges in both peace and conflict.1 ish, highly conceptual museum exhibition dedicated to The catalogue dust jacket proclaims that “Medieval the hotly contested city of Jerusalem across the time Jerusalem was a vibrant international center, home to of the Crusades, (fig. 1). Following on from four other multiple cultures, faiths, and languages. Harmonious Metropolitan Museum medieval blockbusters, three and dissonant voices . .” However, unlike the cosmo- of them organized by Helen Evans and dedicated to politanism and often open exchange celebrated in Byzantine art, the last a trans-Mediterranean exhibi- those earlier installations, this exhibition highlights parochialism. It celebrates individual religious tradi- tions largely in isolation, rather like those normal separate-but-equal art galleries of the Met’s permanent collections (recently so spectacularly enhanced by their re-installed pan-Islamic presentation). How could any exhibition on Jerusalem in almost any age—including the present—be any different? No piece of real estate has ever been the focus of such emotional energy and pious fervor. But never was the irreconcilable conflict of Jerusalem’s claimants more intense than in the era of the Crusades. Fully a quarter of the loans come from the divided city of Jerusalem itself: Franciscan, Orthodox, Arme- nian, Islamic, and Israeli possessors of sacred objects participated in mounting the displays. The organizers’ introduction makes the period ingathering sound more like a shared pilgrimage site than a duel to the death over possession of everyone’s distinctive Holy City. Conquered in 1099 by European Christians answering a papal recruitment call by Urban II in 1095, the city was later reconquered by (or “fell to,” depending on one’s viewpoint) Islamic forces from Egypt in 1187 under the command of the legendary general, Saladin/Salah ad- Din (even the choice of name indicates the orientation of the speaker), who founded the Ayyubid dynasty in the Levant and North Africa. Ruled thereafter from Egypt by Mamluk sovereigns, the city remained in Fig. 1. Mosque Lamp of Sultan Barquq, 1382–1399, Egypt or Syria, glass with gold and enamel, 133/4 × 101/2 in. (34.7 × 26.8 cm). possession of Muslims until the twentieth century. Victoria and Albert Museum, London (321–1900) Image: © Victoria Even today the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the and Albert Museum, London. major Christian pilgrimage site in the Old City, actually 1 “The Glory of Byzantium,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261–1557) (Metropolitan Museum York, March 11–July 6, 1997, Helen Evans and William Wixom, of Art: New York, 2004); “Byzantium and Islam, Age of Transition eds., The Glory of Byzantium. Art and Culture of the Middle Byzan- (7th–9th Century),” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March tine Era, A.D. 843–1261 (Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 14–July 8, 2012, Helen Evans and Brandie Ratliff, eds., Byzantium 1997); “Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261–1557),” Metropolitan and Islam, Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 23–July 4, 2004, Helen Evans, ed., Museum of Art: New York, 2012); “Venice and the Islamic World © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2017 IMAGES DOI: 10.1163/18718000-12340067 Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 04:07:24PM via free access exhibition reviews 127 has a Muslim administrator, who referees the fiercely nos. 38–39) as well as Christian pilgrims, such as the contested interior spaces among Orthodox, Roman fifteenth-century visitors Felix Fabri and Bernhard von Catholic, Coptic, Armenian, and even Ethiopian and Breydenbach (whose vividly illustrated guidebook, Syriac claimants. Those groups get some individual which appeared in Mainz in 1486, also conveys the attention in this exhibition’s catalogue in essays on the experience of the region and its diverse inhabitants larger subject of patronage: Armenians (Helen Evans), in images; cat. no. 20; map of Jerusalem and greater Franciscans (Xavier John Seubert), and Muslim women Palestine, fig. 2).2 The exhibition and catalogue stress (Yusuf Natsheh). Yet their conflicting interests produce this regional pluralism, highlighted in a joint essay by not pluralism but mutual antagonism. A (now almost the organizers (65–75). Many of the objects on display mythical) wooden ladder, left standing on the facade are religious souvenirs (essay by Avinoam Shalem, wall under Ottoman rule in the nineteenth century, 23–25), most far more substantial than the tchotchkes still cannot be moved or removed because of the bitter on sale in modern Jerusalem for contemporary pilgrims denominational disputes it could provoke. of all stripes. Of course, Jews still make their own declarations However downplayed as a central theme, the of allegiance to this city, proclaiming, “Next year in Crusades are not ignored entirely. Just as they do Jerusalem” at the conclusion of every Passover Seder throughout the catalogue, the organizers introduce (this line is shown in the exhibition via the Catalonian this section, near the mid-point of the exhibition, Barcelona Haggadah, ca. 1360–1370; cat. no. 139). with a joint essay, “Holy War and the Power of Art.” For far longer Jews have also recited the words of Apart from “pluralism,” their other topics are trade and Psalm 137:5, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem . .” But tourism, sacred art, and patronage. Of course, any ex- these are mental concepts, not in most cases actual hibition focused on objects, especially objets d’art, can experiences of the city from the sites of Diaspora in scarcely summon contemporary medieval imagery of Europe. Even Karaite Jews appear in the population violence and cruelty, though weapons and depictions mix, especially from the period before the Christian of arms (such as the entire tomb figure of a knight, 211, conquest, so they are also included in a brief essay cat. no. 108) do figure in this display (194–223). But as by Meria Polliack (79–81, cat. nos. 30–34), who notes the organizers point out, the concept of a “holy war” that their largest community today is, indeed, back for Christians (essay by James Carroll, 203–205) and of in Israel. “jihad” for Muslims crystallized around the momentous Yet increased travel during this contested period conflict of the Crusades in this very period. Their essay did permit visits by non-Muslims, even including even invokes Maimonides on the subject of righteous Maimonides (essay by David Kraemer, 82–83; cat. war, as he made a case for destruction of idolatry Fig. 2. (cat. 20). Written by Bernhard von Breydenbach (1440?–1497?), designed by Erhard Reuwich (ca. 1455–ca. 1490), and published by Peter Schöffer the Elder (1425–1503), “View of Jerusalem,” in, Journey to the Holy Land (Peregrinatio in Terram sanctam), 1486, woodcuts on paper. H. 125/8 in. (32 cm), W. 91/8 in. (23 cm), D. 13/8 in. (3.5 cm). Mainz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (19.49.3). (Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.) 828–1797,” Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, October 2 2006– 2 Elizabeth Ross, Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book: February 18, 2007, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March Breydenbach’s Peregrenatio from Venice to Jerusalem (University 27–July 8, 2007, Stefano Carboni, ed., Venice and the Islamic World Park: Penn State, 2014), 167–183. 828–1797 (Yale University Press: New Haven, 2007). Downloaded from Brill.com10/10/2021 04:07:24PM via free access 128 exhibition reviews in his Mishneh Torah, as well as Nachmanides, who by way of his cousin Baldwin II, ruler of the Latin advocated divine sanction for Jewish communities in Kingdom.5 The importance of St. George as the ideal the Land of Israel (198–199). But this kind of artificial crusader warrior is vividly imaged by a refined icon of balance smacks of television news hours, seeking rep- the mounted saint with a young boy from Mytilene, resentatives of each side of a dispute, regardless of the whom he rescued from the Saracen foe (cat. no. 119; actual imbalance of their cases or any real true-false British Museum, London).6 issues of factuality. They even argue that haggadot But what is really essential for this exhibition is to pictures could show Jewish warrior figures, as in the show the surviving crusader presence in the Holy Land illustration of the Red Sea crossing in the Rylands in the form of architecture and its decoration, still one Haggadah (fig. 71; John Rylands University Library, of the most striking features of its historical legacy in Manchester). the modern Israeli landscape. There is little mention But this again looks like special pleading about the here of the mighty Acre/Akko fortress on the north Jews, especially in comparison to truly contemporary coast or even closer sections of the Judean setting, warfare depictions, such as those seen in the Morgan such as the Hospitallers’ Church in Abu Ghosh, the site Picture Bible from Paris (1244–1254; cat. 109; Morgan of the post-Resurrection Emmaus encounter. But the Library, New York), a work most likely produced for Church of St. Anne (cat. fig. 78; made into a madrasa the French crusader, King Louis IX; ironically, in this with an inscription by Saladin, cat.