Few people know their history quite like Simon Sebag Montefiore. The internationally bestselling historian has tackled everything from Stalin and the Romanovs to Jerusalem and the entire story of humanity, with his books translated around the world.
His latest, , turns to the making of the modern Middle East, tracing the forces and figures that have shaped the region over the past 125 years. But what does a historian who has spent his life immersed in the past read himself? Here, Montefiore shares the five history books that have shaped his life and writing.
The Jewish War by Josephus
“This is the greatest historical reportage and history writing of all time. It tells the story of the kingdom of Judea under the Maccabean kings and then the Herodians, the dynasty of Herod the Great who rebuilt the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
“Like some of the best historians, Josephus was a participant in the events of which he wrote because the book then covers the succession of Herod’s son and the rule of the Romans in Judea, which ultimately led to the Jewish Revolt of 66AD, in which Josephus was a commander, and the siege and fall and destruction of Jerusalem and the demolition of the Temple.
“It is an extraordinary achievement, an eyewitness account but also a masterpiece of history and storytelling.”
Penguin Classics, £10.99
Citizens by Simon Schama
“This is one of the history books that made me want to write history myself. Simon Schama is not only a brilliant academic historian but also one of the great stylists in prose and an intoxicating narrative maestro.
“His account of the French Revolution is not only totally gripping, it is also unafraid of complexity in its analysis of the forces that made the Revolution. It gradually narrates how the revolution started within the elite of the and then moves steadily towards the radicalism and then brutal slaughter of the Terror.
“All the time we are fascinated and dazzled by Schama’s pyrotechnical display and masterclass of how to do this. All these years later it is still THE book to read on the French Revolution.”
Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great by Isabel de Madariaga
“This is the book that inspired me to write my first history book, Catherine the Great & Potemkin, when it suggested that the life of Prince Potemkin had not been properly recognised and deserved a real biography.
“I read this when I was studying history at Cambridge – Russian history and enlightened despotism – and I remembered it. When I was a war correspondent in the Caucasus during the fall of the USSR, I had a few dangerous moments and decided it was time to write history instead.
“This amazing partnership of Catherine and the Prince became my first subject. I wrote to Madariaga, who was the brilliant and imperious academic expert on Catherine, and author of this superb book. She welcomed me, she taught me how to write history and particularly Russian history and I remember her lessons every day and I am still grateful to her. The book itself remains unsurpassed.”
Islam and the Crusades by Usama ibn Munqidh
“The ever amazing and charming memoir-cum-literary-reflections of an aristocratic Arab knight in the time of the Crusades, this fascinated me and revealed a totally new version of this period that is so different from the clichéd conventional wisdoms: I recommend it to everyone.
“Usama was a swashbuckling warrior noble who was the scion of an Arab family that ruled at times great estates and fortresses in what is now Syria but by the time of the Crusades was ruling just one town, which they soon lost to the various Seljuk or Turkish conquering warlords of the time.
Usama fought for Zangi and for Saladin and for many others and regularly visited the Crusaders in Jerusalem and Acre and knew the Kings of Jerusalem. It is wonderful and, again, I used it a lot in my book.”
Penguin Classics, £12.99
The Storyteller of Jerusalem by Wasif Jawhariyyeh (edited by Salim Tamari, Issam Nassar)
“Here is a key work of Palestine and Judea in the early 20th Century – from Ottoman times to 1948 and the Nakba of Palestinians. It is the diary of an extraordinary and wonderful person, a dashing and playful bon vivant, an oud-playing aesthete who tells the story in his daily journal of what life was like in Jerusalem under Ottoman rule.
“The whole period is often told in terms of such tragedy and solemnity it is surprising to learn what fun Wasif was having, partying with the Palestinian Arab noble grandees, the Ottoman pashas, the many beautiful women who loved them, some Arab, some Jewish, some Russian even. He leaves a colourful account of the orgies and tyranny of the Ottoman autocrat Jemal Pasha during the First World War; then chronicles the rising tensions between Arabs and Jews; and finally recounts the real story of 1948 and how his family fled Jerusalem. It is an essential text for my new book The Cauldron.“
Interlink Books, £23.99
‘The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East’ by Simon Sebag Montefiore is out now (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25)