History of Jerusalem during the Early Muslim period

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al-Muqaddasi
.

The history of Jerusalem during the Early Muslim period covers the period between the capture of the city from the

Seljuks
and different other regional powers, only to finally lose it to the Crusaders.

The second caliph,

al-Aqsa Mosque, as well other religious and administrative structures, gates, and roadworks. Their successor Sulayman (r. 715–717) likely resided in Jerusalem at the beginning of his reign, but his founding of the nearby city of Ramla
came at the political and economic expense of Jerusalem in the long term.

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    Overview

    Throughout the Early Muslim and Crusader periods, up until Saladin's conquest of 1187, Jerusalem retained a sizable Christian majority, which only ceased to exist once Saladin removed the Frankish population in 1187.[1][2][3]

    During the early centuries of Muslim rule, especially under the Umayyad (661–750) and

    al-Muqaddasi
    (born 946) devoted many pages to its praises in his most famous work, The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Climes. Jerusalem under Muslim rule, however, did not achieve the political or cultural status enjoyed by the capitals Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo etc.

    With the decline of the Carolingian Empire, which split up in 888, a period of anti-Christian persecution by the Muslims began. However, the recovered Byzantines filled this void and as the Empire expanded under the Byzantine Crusades, Christians were again allowed to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

    Rashidun period (630s–661)

    Domination of the countryside

    Southern

    Feast of the Nativity due to the presence of Arab raiders.[6][5] According to one reconstruction of the Islamic tradition, a Muslim advance force was sent against Jerusalem by Amr ibn al-As on his way to Ajnadayn.[7] By 635 southern Syria was in Muslim hands, except for Jerusalem and the Byzantines' capital of Palestine, Caesarea.[8] In his homily of the Theophany (Orthodox Epiphany), c. 636–637, Sophronius lamented the killings, raids, and destruction of churches by the Arabs.[6]

    Siege and capitulation

    Main article: Siege of Jerusalem (636–637)

    It is unclear when Jerusalem was precisely captured, but most modern sources place it in the spring of 637.

    Jabiya, the Muslims' principal camp in Syria, in 637–638. The modern historians Fred Donner and Hugh N. Kennedy assess that he came to address multiple administrative matters in the newly conquered province.[9][10] While in Jabiya, Umar negotiated Jerusalem's surrender with a delegation from the city, as the Patriarch insisted on surrendering to the Caliph directly rather than his commanders.[10]

    The earliest known Muslim tradition of Jerusalem's capture was cited in the history of

    al-Ya'qubi (d. 898) and Eutychius of Alexandria (d. 940), holds that a treaty was agreed between the Muslims and Jerusalem's inhabitants, though the terms were largely the same as those cited by al-Baladhuri.[11] The 10th-century history of al-Tabari, citing the 8th-century historian Sayf ibn Umar, reproduces the capitulation agreement in detail, though parts of it may have been altered from the time it was made.[13] Although Goitein considered Sayf's account "worthless" on account of Sayf's general unreliability,[11] the historians Moshe Gil and Milka Levy-Rubin have argued that the tradition was largely authentic.[14][15] The agreement for Jerusalem was generally favorable for the city's Christian inhabitants, guaranteeing the safety of their persons, their property, and churches, and allowing them the freedom of worship in return for payment of the jizya (poll tax). Byzantine troops and other residents seeking to evacuate the city were given security assurances from the time they left Jerusalem until they reached their point of departure from Palestine.[16] Gil assessed that Umar adopted a lenient approach so that the inhabitants could continue their way of life and work and thus be able to subsidize the Arab tribesmen garrisoned in Palestine.[14]

    The treaty cited in al-Tabari, and later Christian sources, contained a stipulation barring Jewish residency alongside the city's Christians,[11] a continuation of a ban started in the days of Emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138) and renewed in the days of Emperor Constantine (r. 306–337).[17] Among them was the history of Michael the Syrian (d. 1199), who wrote that Sophronius negotiated the ban on Jews residing in Jerusalem.[18] (see below).[14]

    Several later Muslim and Christians accounts, as well as an 11th-century Jewish chronicle, mention a visit to Jerusalem by Umar. One set of accounts held that Umar was guided by Jews who showed him the Temple Mount.

    Ka'aba in Mecca was the sole qibla;[11] Jerusalem had been the original qibla of the early Muslims until Muhammad changed it to the Ka'aba.[5] The Muslim and Jewish sources reported that the Temple Mount was cleaned by the Muslims of the city and its district and a group of Jews. The Jewish account further noted that Umar oversaw the process and consulted with Jewish elders; Gil suggests the Jewish elders may be a reference to Ka'b al-Ahbar.[20] The Christian accounts mentioned that Umar visited Jerusalem's churches, but refused to pray in them to avoid setting a precedent for future Muslims. This tradition may have been originated by later Christian writers to promote efforts against Muslim encroachments on their holy places.[11]

    Post-conquest administration and settlement

    Jerusalem is presumed by Goitein and the historian Amikam Elad to have been the Muslims' main political and religious center in

    Lydda, each city having its own governor and garrison.[21] An auxiliary force of tribesmen from Yemen was posted in the city during this period.[11] Amr ibn al-As launched the conquest of Egypt from Jerusalem in c. 640,[22] and his son Abd Allah transmitted hadiths about the city.[23]

    Christian leadership in Jerusalem entered a state of disorganization following the death of Sophronius c. 638, with no new patriarch appointed until 702. Nonetheless, Jerusalem remained largely Christian in character throughout the early Islamic period.[11] Not long after the conquest, possibly in 641, Umar allowed a limited number of Jews to reside in Jerusalem after negotiations with the Christian leadership of the city. An 11th-century Jewish chronicle fragment from the Cairo Geniza indicated that the Jews requested the settlement of two hundred families, the Christians would only accept fifty, and that Umar ultimately decided on the settlement of seventy families from Tiberias.[24] Gil attributed the Caliph's move to his recognition of the Jews' local importance, by dint of their considerable presence and economic strength in Palestine, as well as a desire to weaken Christian dominance of Jerusalem.[14]

    At the time of the conquest, the Temple Mount had been in a state of ruin, the Byzantine Christians having left it largely unused for scriptural reasons. The Muslims appropriated the site for administrative and religious purposes. This was likely due to a range of factors. Among them was that the Temple Mount was a large, unoccupied space in Jerusalem, where the Muslims were restricted by the capitulation terms from confiscating Christian-owned property in the city. Jewish converts to Islam may have also influenced the early Muslims regarding the site's holiness, and the early Muslims may have wanted to demonstrate their opposition to the Christian belief that the Temple Mount should remain empty. Moreover, the early Muslims may have had a spiritual attachment to the site before the conquest. Their utilization of the Temple Mount provided a vast space for the Muslims overlooking the whole city.[25] The Temple Mount was likely used for Muslim prayer from the beginning of Muslim rule, due to the capitulation agreement's prohibitions on Muslims using Christian edifices. Such usage of the Temple Mount may have been authorized by Umar.[11] The traditions cited by the 11th-century Jerusalemites al-Wasiti and Ibn al-Murajja note that Jews were employed as caretakers and cleaners of the Temple Mount and the ones employed were exempt from the jizya.[19]

    The earliest Muslim settlement activity took place south and southwest of the site, in thinly populated areas; much of the Christian settlement was concentrated in western Jerusalem around

    al-Muqaddasi to have earmarked the revenues of Silwan's bountiful vegetable gardens on the city's outskirts, which would have been Muslim property per the capitulation terms, to the city's poor.[11]

    Umayyad period (661–750)

    Sufyanid period (661–684)

    Caliph

    First Muslim Civi War and forged a pact against him with the former governor of Egypt and conqueror of Palestine, Amr ibn al-As, in Jerusalem in 658.[29]

    According to the near-contemporary

    Ghassanid may have helped organize the Jerusalem ceremonies.[34]

    Mu'awiya's son and successor to the caliphate,

    al-Akhtal, were attempts to promote his own legitimacy as caliph among the Muslims.[36]

    Marwanid period (684–750)

    Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik
    in 691/92

    The Umayyad caliph

    Beisan and his Jerusalemite mawla (non-Arab convert to Islam) Yazid ibn Salam.[40][41] The construction of the Dome of the Chain on the Temple Mount is generally credited to Abd al-Malik.[42]

    Abd al-Malik and his practical viceroy over Iraq,

    Bab al-Wad and Abu Ghosh.[48] The fragment of an eighth milestone, likely produced soon after Abd al-Malik's death, was found at Ein Hemed, immediately west of Abu Ghosh.[49] The road project formed part of the Caliph's centralization drive, special attention being paid to Palestine due to its critical position as a transit zone between Syria and Egypt and Jerusalem's religious centrality to the Caliph.[50][51]

    Extensive building works took place on the Temple Mount and outside of its walls under Abd al-Malik's son and successor al-Walid I (r. 705–715).[46] Modern historians generally credit al-Walid with the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, though the mosque may have been originally built by his Umayyad predecessors; according to the latter view, al-Walid was nonetheless responsible for part of the mosque's construction.[52] The Aphrodito Papyri indicate that laborers from Egypt were sent to Jerusalem for terms ranging between six months and one year to work on the al-Aqsa Mosque, al-Walid's caliphal palace, and a third, undefined building for the Caliph.[53] Elad holds that the six Umayyad buildings excavated south and west of the Temple Mount may include the palace and undefined building mentioned in the papyri.[46]

    Al-Walid's brother and successor Sulayman (r. 715–717), who had served as the governor of Jund Filastin under al-Walid and Abd al-Malik, was initially recognized as caliph in Jerusalem by the Arab tribes and dignitaries. He resided in Jerusalem for an unspecified period during his caliphate,[54] and his contemporary, the poet al-Farazdaq, may have alluded to this in the verse "In the Mosque al-Aqsa resides the Imam [Sulayman]".[55] He constructed a bathhouse there, but may not have shared the same adoration for Jerusalem as his predecessors.[54] Sulayman's construction of a new city, Ramla, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Jerusalem, came at Jerusalem's expense in the long-term, as Ramla developed into Jund Filastin's administrative and economic capital.[56]

    According to the Byzantine historian Theophanes the Confessor (d. 818), Jerusalem's walls were destroyed by the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, in 745. At that time, the Caliph had suppressed the Arab tribes in Palestine opposed to him for joining the revolt of the Umayyad prince Sulayman ibn Hisham in northern Syria.[57]

    Muslim pilgrimage and rituals in the Umayyad period

    Under the Umayyads the focus of Muslim ritual ceremonies and pilgrimage in Jerusalem was the Temple Mount and to a lesser extent the Prayer Niche of David (possibly the

    Umra or Hajj pilgrimages to Mecca. Muslims who could not make the pilgrimage, and possibly Christians and Jews, donated olive oil for the illumination of the al-Aqsa Mosque.[59] The bulk of the Muslim pilgrims to Jerusalem were presumably from Palestine and Syria in general, though several came from distant parts of the Caliphate.[60]

    Abbasids, Tulunids and Ikhshidids (750–969)

    The Umayyads were toppled in 750 by the Abbasid dynasty, which afterward ruled the Caliphate including Jerusalem, with interruptions, for the next two centuries. This period is the least documented of the early Muslim period in general. Known building activity was concentrated in the Temple Mount area and was characterized by repairs of structures damaged in earthqauakes. The caliphs al-Mansur (r. 754–775) and al-Mahdi (r. 775–785) ordered major reconstruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque after earthquake damage.[61]

    After the first Abbasid period (750–878), the Tulunids, a mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin, managed to independently rule over Egypt and much of Greater Syria, including Palestine, for almost three decades (878–905). Ahmad ibn Tulun, the founder of the Egypt-based dynasty, consolidated his rule over Palestine between 878 and 880 and passed it on to his son at his death in 884. According to Patriarch Elias III of Jerusalem, Ibn Tulun finished a period of persecution against Christians by naming a Christian governor in Ramla (or perhaps Jerusalem), the governor initiating the renovation of churches in the city. Ibn Tulun had a Jewish physician and generally showed a very relaxed attitude towards dhimmis, and when he lay on his deathbed, both Jews and Christians prayed for him.[62] Ibn Tulun was the first in a line of Egypt-based rulers of Palestine, which ended with the Ikhshidids. While the Tulunids managed to preserve a high degree of autonomy, the Abbasids retook control over Jerusalem in 905, and between 935 and 969 it was administered by their Egyptian governors, the Ikhshidids. During this entire period, Jerusalem's religious importance grew, several of the Egyptian rulers choosing to be buried there.[63]

    Abbasid rule returned between 905 and 969, the first 30 years of which was direct rule from Baghdad (905–935), and the rest was through the

    Ikhshidid governors of Egypt (935–969).[64] The mother of Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932) had wooden porches built under all the city gates and repaired the Dome of the Rock.[61]

    The Ikhshidid period was characterised by acts of persecution against the Christians, including an attack by the Muslims on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 937, with the church set on fire and its treasure robbed. The tensions were connected with the renewed threat posed by the encroaching Byzantines, and on this background the Jews joined forces with the Muslims. In 966 the Muslim and Jewish mob, instigated by the Ikhshidid governor, attacked again the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the resulting fire causing the collapse of the dome standing over the Tomb of Jesus and causing the death of Patriarch John VII.[65]

    Fatimids and Seljuks (970–1099)

    The start of the first

    Sunni madrasas and his interaction with Jews and Christians in the years 1093–95.[68]

    Between 1071 and 1076, Palestine was captured by

    Tutush,[75] who subsequently established firmer 'Abbasid authority in the area.[72] After Atsiz other Seljuk commanders ruled over Jerusalem and used it as a power base in their unceasing wars.[76] A new period of turbulence began in 1091 with the death of Tutush's governor in Jerusalem, Artuq and the succession of his two sons, who were bitter rivals. The city changed hands between them several times, until August 1098, when the Fatimids, seizing the opportunity presented by the approach of the First Crusade, regained control of the city and ruled it for a less than a year.[72][77][74]

    Jewish community in the 11th century

    The Jewish population suffered great hardship during the tumultuous years of Turkish rule, even the Jerusalem yeshiva, the central institution of Jewish law in Palestine, being forced to move to Tyre sometime after 1078, in the wake of the rebellion against Atsiz, although there is no information on whether the Jews did take part in it along with the Muslim citizens.[64]

    According to

    German Jews lived in Jerusalem during the 11th century. The story is told that a German-speaking Palestinian Jew saved the life of a young German man surnamed Dolberger. So when the knights of the First Crusade came to besiege Jerusalem, one of Dolberger's family members who was among them rescued Jews in Palestine and carried them back to Worms to repay the favor.[78] Further evidence of German Jewish communities in the holy city comes in the form of halakic questions sent from Germany to Jerusalem during the second half of the 11th century.[79]

    Christian community in the 11th century

    As the Byzantine borders expanded into the Levant in the early 11th century, the limited tolerance of the Muslim rulers toward Christians in the Middle East, began to wane. The

    Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of all churches throughout the Muslim world starting with those in Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Resurrection, revered by all Christians of the time as the site of Christ's crucifixion and burial
    , was among the places of worship destroyed, but permission was later given for its rebuilding.

    The suffering and privation caused by the decades of bellicose Turkish rule lead some local Christians to expect the imminent coming of the End of Days, and as a consequence of the permanent war footing, the mainly Fatimid-held ports of Palestine turned away the pilgrims' ships arriving from Europe in 1093, a situation which contributed to the start of the First Crusade.[80] Altogether, although information is very scarce, it seems that the Turcomans favoured the Jacobites and Latins over the Greek Orthodox, who were seen as close to the Byzantine Empire, a constant enemy.[81]

    See also

    References

    1. ^ Armstrong, Karen (16 July 2000). "No One People Owns Jerusalem". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
    2. ^ Avni 2014, p. 336.
    3. ISBN 9780708317723
      . Retrieved 29 July 2020. Before the Muslim conquest, the population of Palestine was overwhelmingly Christian, albeit with a sizeable Jewish community.
    4. ^ Donner 1981, p. 129.
    5. ^ a b c Goitein 1986, p. 323.
    6. ^ a b Shoemaker 2021, pp. 51–52.
    7. ^ a b Donner 1981, p. 151.
    8. ^ a b Shoemaker 2021, p. 52.
    9. ^ Donner 1981, pp. 151–152.
    10. ^ a b Kennedy 2007, p. 91.
    11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Goitein 1986, p. 324.
    12. ^ Donner 1981, pp. 321, note 281.
    13. ^ Levy-Rubin 2009.
    14. ^ a b c d Gil 1997, p. 73.
    15. ^ Levy-Rubin 2009, pp. 80–81.
    16. ^ Levy-Rubin 2009, pp. 74–76.
    17. ^ Levy-Rubin 2009, p. 80.
    18. ^ Donner 1981, p. 322, note 287.
    19. ^ a b Levy-Rubin 2009, p. 81.
    20. ^ a b Gil 1997, p. 71.
    21. ^ Luz 1997, pp. 30–31.
    22. ^ Lecker 1989, p. 30, note 61.
    23. ^ Lecker 1989, p. 30.
    24. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 70–71.
    25. ^ a b Grabar 1986, p. 340.
    26. ^ a b Gil 1997, p. 122.
    27. ^ Blankinship 1993, p. 159, note 843.
    28. ^ Marsham 2013, p. 103.
    29. ^ Elad 1999, p. 23.
    30. ^ Marsham 2013, p. 96.
    31. ^ a b Marsham 2013, p. 97.
    32. ^ Marsham 2013, p. 94.
    33. ^ Marsham 2013, p. 101.
    34. ^ Marsham 2013, pp. 103–104.
    35. ^ Gil 1997, p. 78.
    36. ^ Shahid 2009, pp. 69–70.
    37. ^ a b Elad 1999, p. 24.
    38. ISBN 978-1-4051-5807-7
      . Retrieved 16 July 2020.
    39. ISBN 978-900417327-9
      . Retrieved 16 July 2020.
    40. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 19, 36.
    41. ^ Rabbat 1993, p. 70.
    42. ^ Elad 1999, p. 47.
    43. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 25–26.
    44. ^ Sharon 1966, pp. 368, 370–372.
    45. ^ Sharon 2004, p. 95.
    46. ^ a b c Elad 1999, p. 26.
    47. ^ Bacharach 2010, p. 7.
    48. ^ Sharon 2004, pp. 94–96.
    49. ^ Cytryn-Silverman 2007, pp. 609–610.
    50. ^ Sharon 1966, pp. 370–372.
    51. ^ Sharon 2004, p. 96.
    52. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 36–39.
    53. ^ Elad 1999.
    54. ^ a b Elad 1999, pp. 27–28.
    55. ^ Rabbat 1993, p. 74, note 18.
    56. ^ Goitein 1986, p. 326.
    57. ^ Gil 1997, p. 87.
    58. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 62–63.
    59. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 63–64.
    60. ^ Elad 1999, pp. 63–65.
    61. ^ a b Goitein 1986, p. 341.
    62. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 306ff. and p. 307 n. 71, p. 308 n. 73.
    63. Fatimid Dynasty
      had his remains solemnly conveyed from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 448/1056-57.
    64. ^ a b c d Gil 1997, p. 420.
    65. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 324–325.
    66. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 336–337, 409–410.
    67. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 412–415.
    68. ^ Gil 1997, p. 417-418.
    69. ^ Gil 1997, p. 409-411.
    70. ^ Gil 1997, p. 409.
    71. ^ Gil 1997, p. 410.
    72. ^
      ISBN 9780700715763. Retrieved 29 July 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
      )
    73. ^ a b c Gil (1997), p. 412.
    74. ^
      ISBN 978-0-472-03120-7
      . Retrieved 23 September 2020.
    75. ^ Gil 1997, p. 413.
    76. ^ Gil 1997, p. 412-414.
    77. ^ Gil 1997, p. 413-414, 420.
    78. ^ "Seder ha-Dorot", p. 252, 1878 ed.
    79. ^ Epstein, in "Monatsschrift", xlvii. 344; Jerusalem: Under the Arabs
    80. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 412–416.
    81. ^ Gil 1997, pp. 414–416.

    Bibliography

    Further reading
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