Where Is the Heart of the World

My next chapter is devoted to the location of Jerusalem on European medieval mind maps.

This is the second part (out of four) of Unit 2, titled The Saga of All My Sons, from my book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East".

The site of Jerusalem on the sixth century Madaba Map

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madaba_Map

The T-O maps, whose function we cleared up in the previous discussion, centered Jerusalem amid the circle of lands.

Image 1: Jerusalem, the Holy City from the sixth century Madaba map mosaic (1)

They did it, following in the footsteps of the Hebrew Bible, which draws a convincing picture of the Holy City located at the heart of the world. Ezekiel, the prophet and the enthusiastic creator of this vision, copies the Lord’s very words, announcing: “This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her”. (2)

The idea of the centrality of Jerusalem was deeply implanted into the Jewish thought. The Book of Jubilees promotes the three holy places, including Mount Zion, defining it as “the center of the navel of the earth”. (3)

The Rabbinic Judaism zooms on the middle point of the earth, visualizing it as a series of concentric circles of holiness; each inner ring is endowed with diminishing spatial value against its increasing spiritual worth. The Midrash Tanhuma Qedoshim argues that the Land of Israel focuses on Jerusalem, the latter on the Jewish Temple, which in turn shrinks to the Holy of Holies, the Ark, and eventually to the Foundation Stone, which is the kernel of the world’s creation. (4)  

There was nothing unusual in favoring one’s homeland as the center of the world and determining its most sacred site as the midpoint.   The Greek geographer Agathemerus ascribes the same trend to his countrymen: "the ancients drew the inhabited earth as round, with Hellas in the middle, and Delphi in the middle of Hellas, since it holds the navel of the earth." (5)

Western clerics carried on this concept even further, linking it to the construct of the three landmasses. St. Jerome’s “Commentary on Ezekiel” defines the City of Peace as “the navel of the earth”, that is perceived both as the center of the lands and the focal point of its habitable premises: "from the eastern parts it is surrounded by… Asia, from the western parts, by… Europe; from the south… Africa; from the north… by all the nations of the Black Sea. It is therefore situated in the midst of the peoples.” (6)

In his speech at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II refers to Jerusalem as the cradle of the Christian faith and the focus of the Christian mission, hailing it the "navel of the world" and the "paradise of delights". The bishop of Rome matches the city’s contemporary low profile under the canopy of the Muslim rule with the tribulations of Jesus:  "This spot the Redeemer of mankind has made illustrious by His advent, has beautified by His sojourn, has consecrated by His Passion, has redeemed by His death, has glorified by His burial. (7) According to the papal interpretation, the life of Jesus had added a new dimension to the Holy City, upgrading it from the middle point on the globe to its spiritual center.