The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem [Paperback]

Kanan Makiya (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 2002

The Rock of Jerusalem is one of the world’s most spiritually resonant and politically contentious sites: where Adam first stepped upon leaving Paradise, Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac, Jesus preached, and Muhammad began his night journey to heaven,. Sorting through the rubble of the three competing faiths, Kanan Makiya has woven a vivid tapestry from centuries of legend and belief to imagine the origins of Islam’s first monument, the Dome of the Rock. A narrative of mythic power, The Rock offers a grand tour of seventh-century Jerusalem and–by reminding us of how much Jews and Muslims once shared–serves as a bracing talisman for our times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Makiya, an award-winning writer and filmmaker, triumphs in this inspired and lyrical book that is equal parts history and novel. His focus is the Rock of Jerusalem, claimed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike as the site of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son. The narrator, Ishaq, relates his father Ka'b's esteem for the Rock and his service to Islam's caliph by designing the Dome of the Rock, the shrine that envelops the rock and commemorates Solomon's temple. Makiya's narrative weaves together centuries-old stories from all three major religious traditions' holy books and other historical accounts. The novelization is pure magic, as Makiya brings history to life for contemporary readers. As Ishaq describes how Jews, Christians and Muslims in unison built and maintained the Dome of the Rock, Makiya presents his thesis that, before Judaism, Christianity, and Islam became the separate religions they are today, they were first different paths on the same road. The Rock itself symbolizes this connection, keeping the peace "by holding the burden of memory [of Abraham's faith] in balance." Conservative Muslims may find elements to dislike: Makiya implies that some hadiths (the sayings of Muhammad) were created as propaganda years after Muhammad's death, and has the narrator express regret that the Rock is encompassed within the Dome. However, most readers will appreciate the overall point, which is that the three major monotheistic religions once coexisted peacefully in a fluid synergy, free of political hatreds.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* There was a time, impossible as it may seem, when one could be a Muslim and a Jew, simultaneously embracing the Hebrew Scriptures and the prophecy of Muhammad. One such historical figure was K'ab, a seventh-century Jewish convert to Islam who never abandoned Judaism. In history, K'ab was an advisor to the fourth caliph of the Islamic empire. In this wonderful novel, narrated by K'ab's son Ishraq, he is much more. In the wake of the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem, K'ab teaches the Islamic world about the Jewish holy sites, especially the Rock on the mountain from which Muhammad ascended to heaven, on which Jesus overturned the tables, and to which Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed. Later, Ishraq designs a mosque on that mountain--Mount Zion--the mosque that became the Dome of the Rock, a flashpoint for religious and ethnic tensions ever since. This is historical fiction at its most ambitious and successful. It fully immerses the reader in the world of seventh-century Jerusalem, exploring historical relationships and events with a sensitivity that nonfiction couldn't hope to conjure. Anyone seeking an engaging introduction to early Islamic history would be hard-pressed to make a more compelling and accurate choice than this novel. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (August 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375700781
• ISBN-13: 978-0375700781
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crossing the Bridge of Intolerance, February 15, 2003

By 

nizar alshubaily (Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem (Paperback)

Kanan Makiya succeeds where many other authors failed. A historical novel about the interplay of religions. Like Amin Maalouf, Kanan writes eloquently and with great authority about a subject difficult to most readers. He destroys long held views about identity and shows the human underneath the religious dogma.

A truly wonderful work, I felt I was there and close to the characters, I had a difficulty in putting the book down, and I was upset at having finished it. I reread many segments.

Please keep writing kanan, please keep enlightening us, so that more people can cross the bridge of intolerance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entwining Islam, Judaism and Christianity, July 10, 2006

By 

hopefulskeptic (Hot Springs Village, AR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem (Paperback)

'I recommend Makiya's novel to anyone having a serious intent to gain a better understanding of the cultural divide between the "western world" and the middle eastern Islamic world. In spite of being only 261 pages of story telling, it can be a deep read from time to time if you read critically - the notes on the sources he used run 65 pages. Mr Makiya has used the historical fiction approach to connecting Islamic history and religious traditions to Judaic and early Christian history and religious traditions. He used this approach in order to present a comprehensible story to readers who are not scholars in the histories of these religions. For readers raised in a Christian culture, his story provides the connecting links between the three religious traditions and, of course, begs the question "Why have the religions that built on a common base so often been such fierce enemies? Ask the veterans of the US Civil War the same question. Mr Makiya does not directly answer this question, he leaves the answer to the reader, perhaps because each culture involved will have a different answer. It is culture that determines how a people will interpret a given set of religious "facts" to promote its perceived needs and cultures change very, very slowly.

The author's knowledge extends far beyond the Jewish Bible, the Koran and the Christian New Testament into that bewildering morass of traditional lore associated with these religions,
principally that of Islam and Judaism. I am in no position to criticize the details of his construction but it seemed to me to be stronger on Islam and Judaism than on early Christianity,perhaps because I know more about the latter religion. Although centered on the history of Islam from the time of Mohammed to when Islam conquered Jerusalem and built the Dome of the Rock, the story does not shirk telling about the unsavory as well as the uplifting events in the history of Islam.

An obvious labor of love, the author waxes poetic at many points in the narrative, introducing the reader to Islamic and Judaic poetry as well as his own. "Western" readers often do not appreciate how much more the cultures of the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean are based on their histories and religions than are the current cultures of the European-derived peoples.

Although one reviewer has criticized the author for not making the characters alive enough, I disagree. He seems to me to have hit a good balance between making his characters live and give the story continuity but not letting their stories obscure the emergence of Islam into a region deeply infused with Judaic and Christian sentiments and histories. One criticism that I do have - the author did not run the religious histories back beyond Abraham to Melchizedek, king of Salem (now known as Jerusalem) and the emergence of the Israelite religion from a more ancient tradition. The seeds of monotheism grew in many places - Akhnaten's Egypt, Melchizedek's Salem, the intellectuals of classical Greece, etc.

One thing in the book was of special interest to me - the history of Jews in Yemen. I knew that Jews were represented in pre-Christian trade in the areas of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean - there are stories of people claiming Jewish descent in Northeastern Africa, Southeastern Africa and India - but I did not know that there was a series of Judean kings of Yemen. One of the main characters of the book is K'ab who was a Yemenite Jew converted to Islam. Happy history hunting.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A "novel" which educates, rather than entertains.,, August 27, 2002

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem (Paperback)

Theologians and serious religious scholars may be fascinated by this academic study of the seventh century interrelationships of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (Coptic, Orthodox, and Roman) and the holy sites in Medina, Mecca, and Jerusalem. Less a novel than a thesis, the book uses the characters as mouthpieces for historical research rather than as living humans: they remain flat and lacking in those unique personal characteristics which make fictional characters come alive and communicate with the reader.

In prose which is as archaic and poetic as the Bible, the Torah, and/or the Koran, the author uses Ka'b, a Jew who becomes a trusted advisor of the Muslim Caliph Umar, to tell the early religious stories and legends, sometimes common to all three religions, which infuse the Holy Land, its religious sites, and shrines. Because Ka'b is a teacher, he can preach to his subjects, including the reader, with impunity. While this is effective in conveying a great deal of information about the history of these sites, it perpetuates the distance between the reader and the subject matter and does not allow for the kind of identification with a character which can make this information come alive and remain with the reader.

The formality of the style and the enormous amount of abstraction in the story-telling sometimes make the actual sequence of events difficult to follow. Events affecting these sites are described, but the reasons behind them are not always clear--unless, of course, you already have a great deal of knowledge of the people and places important to all three religions and understand their historical practices and traditions. This scholarly work succeeds in showing the common threads of the three major religions and their common interests in the holy sites as they existed in the seventh century. It is less successful in providing keys to the disputes which surround these sites in the present day. Mary Whipple