Book focuses on Moses Wilhelm Shapira, who in 1883 showed up in London with what he claimed was the world's oldest Bible scroll. Rejected as a fraud - but when the Dead Sea Scrolls are found some 70 years later, the authenticity issue is reopened. But by then no one knows where Shapira's scrolls ended up.Shapira as an unlikely antiquities vendor - based in Jerusalem in second half of 19th century. Problems with his sales of Moabite pottery. His shop in the old city is a mecca for tourists - tourism being rather a new idea in Jerusalem in those days.
The author gets into long discussions of his detective work in trying to track down the scrolls - well-written, clever - but really who cares? (I guess it did give some insight into how these artifacts - accumulated starting in 19th century - end up more or less lost or findable, as the case may be, in museum boxes - the fate of so much stuff, apparently.)
An interesting angle: the discussions, if short, about the history of the Bible - Shapira's heyday overlaps with the first scholarly analysis of the development of the Old Testament. Interesting to think that, until this time, so much rock-solid belief that e.g. the 10 Commandments were written on tablets by finger of God, etc. Religion changes a lot if one considers that the foundational texts might be affected by the hand of man (similar strands with Mormon texts, also Islam).
Jerusalem's history so interesting - like so much of that part of the world, conquerors sweep through from time to time over the millennia - so in that sense, lots of conflict. But when Shapira is active - 19th century - Jerusalem is coming off a period of relative neglect - no sign of the three-way fight among Christians, Jews, Islam that - here in 21st century - one would assume has been going on for centuries. But to get started on that topic, I'd recommend this book.
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