Past in the Present: Temporal Discontinuity and the Loss of Jerusalem in Western Historical Writing

This chapter examines the reactions to loss of Jerusalem (1187) in Western historical writing with particular focus on perceptions of time. The loss of Jerusalem was a watershed moment that required contemporary authors to reflect on both the past, present, and future. The twelfth century historians
used the past to put the present into perspective. They compared past destructions of Jerusalem with the present; they contrasted past victories with the present defeat; and they used the past to elevate the present by stating that although Jerusalem has suffered many destructions, none was as severe as their
present loss. However, the past is more than references and comparisons. The extensive use of the Old Testament prophets and the Book of Lamentations is also based on identification and re-enactment. The chapter argues that the twelfth century narrative of the loss transcend spatial and temporal
boundaries and that the medieval historians let the Old Testament prophets take part in their contemporary narrative. With inspiration from theoretical approaches of Reinhart Koselleck and Eelco Runia, the chapter discusses the temporal discontinuity within the loss narrative and argues that a “transfer of presence” took place between Jerusalem’s historical and biblical past and the present of the twelfth century historians. The central argument is that the loss of Jerusalem in 1187 cannot be understood as an isolated event. We must consider Jerusalem’s biblical and historical past as part of the contemporary narrative.