Europe and the Mediterranean

 

Jerusalem

RAMON LLULL IN JERUSALEM

Although it is not known with certainty if Ramon Llull came to Jerusalem, it is likely that he did in 1302, after leaving Armenia Minor. According to some sources, he had travelled to the Holy Land in 1265. In any case, Jerusalem has a strong presence in several of Llull’s works, especially in the Liber de Fine, where he designs a crusade that never happened, suggesting the Al-Andalus and North of Africa route to reach the Holy City.

JERUSALEM, THEN AND NOW

Jerusalem, capital of Palestine, is situated on a plateau, 700 meters above the Mediterranean Sea. Already in the 14th century BC its name (Urusalim) appears in the Al-Amarna tablets. Conquered and reconquered many times in the 2nd century AD the Romans expelled the Jews and prohibited their return. In the Late Middle Ages was seized from the Arabs by the Crusaders (1099), who established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in 1187 eventually fell into the hands of Saladin. In 1561 passed to the Ottoman Empire, then a British colony and, as from 1965 in under de facto administration of Israel, the state of which is the official capital.

Jerusalem has monuments and shrines of the three great monotheistic faiths. From Judaism, the Wailing Wall, that had belonged to the ancient temple destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. Among the Islamic monuments stand out the mosques of Umar and Al-Aqsa (11th century) and the Dome of the Rock. As for the Christian elements, the most notable are the buildings around the Calvary or Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre and the Monastery of Holy Cross (founded in the 6th century). The ancient city of Jerusalem is a major pilgrimage and tourism center which was declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981.

 

Ramon Llull quotations

 
«Do not live off others and you will live free»
 

Messages about Ramon Llull

 
Ramon Llull was seen as a precursor of the combinatorial thinking, basic in modern computing.
 

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