The history of Jerusalem was shaped not only by geographic, economic, political and military factors but by a whole range of ideas, images and emotions that were tied to it by people of different backgrounds in different periods, even though many of them never even saw the city. The course will cover different aspects of life in Jerusalem under the Ottoman and the British empires and will raise questions about the real and the imagined in Jerusalem and about its importance in the region and for the empires that ruled it. How did the inhabitants of the city live? What made up their cultural world? What was the nature of the relations between different social groups?  Finally, in what ways living in the city differs from imagining it. In addition, we will familiarize ourselves with historiographical controversies and methodological questions pertaining to historical sources and their use.