The Arabs (AD 637-1260)

The Arabs (AD 637-1260)

History of Palestine

Sensing the futility of defending the Holy Land against the Arabs, Roman Emperor Heraclius carried away the True Cross of Christ to Constantinople. Marooned in Aaelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) with an Arab army besieging its walls, the future looked bleak indeed for its Patriarch, Sophronius. However, news reached him that the Arabs had not put Damascus to the sword. The Patriarch therefore despatched messengers to Omar ibn-al-Khattab, the third "Caliph" (successor to the prophet Mohammed) and supreme commander of the Arab armies, expressing his willingness to surrender Jerusalem to him.

Omar was a devout and modest man, and he rode from Syria across the pleasant hills of Galilee, accompanied only by a single servant, with whom he took turns in riding the camel.

He joined his army before Jerusalem in AD 637, and signed its surrender terms-which called for the protection of the Christians, their property and churches. This marked the first time in which Jerusalem was spared slaughter and destruction by a conquerer.

Omar then proceeded to search for the Rock on which Mohammed had prayed. The Holy Rock was at length discovered under debris and, after uncovering and clearing the site, Omar ordered that no prayers be made there until it had been cleansed by three falls of rain.

Caaesarea, the Roman capital of Palestine, was the last to fall in AD 640; having withstood an Arab siege because it was supplied by sea. Palestine finally became an integral part of the Arab World; its integration into the Arab world being a natural ending to a long series of Arab incursions into the land ever since the dawn of history.

Dissensions and rivalries soon broke out among the Muslim leaders. In Jerusalem, in AD 661, Moawiya proclaimed himself Caliph of the Ommayad dynasty (Moawiya belonged to the Ommayad family). He transferred the seat of the caliphate from Medina in the Arabian desert to Damascus and, like wildfire, Arab armies overran territories extending from Spain to Turkestan in Central Asia. In AD 691, the Caliph Abdel Malik ibn-Marwan constructed a mosque over the Holy Rock. This Dome of the Rock mosque is one of the Islam's holiest sites, and still remains one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

In AD 750, Arabs calling themselves Abbasids seized power from the Ommayads, and transferred the capital of the Arab World to Baghdad. The Arabs were now the sole representatives of civilization. In contrast to the barbarism which had spread over Europe by the invasion of nothern peoples, the Arabs went back to Greek philosophy, and opened up new paths to the study of nature.

The Ommayad period was filled with wars of invasion, far-away expeditions and striking triumphs. Under the Abbasids, men's minds were filled with new ideas, and writings of all kinds sprang into being. Arabic became the medium of learning for the Middle East. To the caliph Abu Jafar al-Mansur belongs the credit for encouraging the studies of exact sciences; astronomy, chemistry and medicine were advanced, and algebra invented. But it was the word with which the Arabs prided themselves, as they sat listening to poetry and to such legendary stories as "A thousand and One Nights."

The Abbasy caliphs, however, relied heavily on Persian and Turkish elements, and when the Caliph Mootasim chose to employ only Turks as his palace guards, the Turks gradually gained the upper hand in the fabulous and plush Arab palaces. By AD 850 the Turks were in complete control of the puppet caliphs. Revolts broke out in Palestine, Syria and Egypt; as the people protested and refused the authority of the Turks, and the Abbasid authority over Palestine became nominal.

In AD 966 Fatimid Arabs (named after Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed) occupied Egypt and Palestine. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimids, and ewhen Hakim bi-amr-Allah mounted the Fatimid throne he caused the church of the Holy Sepulchre to be entirely destroyed, an act which excited indignation throughout the West.

In the year 1070 Seljuk Turks from Turkestan in Central Asia invaded Palestine. These rugged Muslim horsemen began harassing the Christian pilgrims; and the lamentable accounts which the pilgrims gave on their return to Europe of the insults and oppression they had suffered, gave birth to the romantic notion of capturing the Holy Land. Although the Fatimids of Egypt reoccupied Palestine in 1098, they lost it a year later to the Crusaders.