Feb 4th response

I found the discussion of how Muhammad's ideas and Islam relate to Islam and Christianity interesting. Along these same lines, Armstrong discusses how Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in Jerusalem together for the first time in chapter 12. I appreciated the discussion of how the the Jewish and Muslim people collaborated on building projects. I found the more collaborative nature of the times discussed in chapter 12 refreshing. But then came the chapter on the Crusades, which returns Jerusalem to being the location of gruesome conflict and upheaval. If anything, I wished Armstrong had gone a little deeper in her discussion about what characteristics led to times of collaboration versus times of conflict.