Session 18 | Turning West – The Hellenistic Period
#70-75

#70. Introduction

Within the first decade following the death of the founder of Islam (Muhammad) in 632 CE, the Arabs were able to establish a powerful empire throughout the Near East under the leadership of the first caliphs. In Palestine, this meant a change from Christian dominance to Muslim control. This transition in government will be the focus of this lecture with special emphasis upon the Arab conquest of Jerusalem.

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#71. Omar

The Pact of Omar
Omar (alternately spelled ‘Umar) was the leader under whom the Islamic empire expanded from the Arabian peninsula into Palestine and beyond. He conquered Jerusalem in 638 CE. Provided below are two texts that outline the conditions of peace given by Omar to the people whom he defeated. The first is a general document referring to the status of Syrian Christians whereas the second outlines the terms that Omar gave to the people dwelling in Jerusalem.

Al Tabari
The author of the second piece is an Arabic historian named Al-Tabari who lived in the 10th century CE and “was a Muslim scholar of the religious sciences, a collector of hadiths, words and acts of the Prophet Muhammad, and a commentator on the Qur’an, the revelation Muhammad was given” (J.A. Williams, Al-Tabari, Vol. 1, Cambridge 1988, p. xv). Compare the content of the two documents.

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#72. Syrian Treaty

As with the defeat of Jerusalem, a treaty also served as the means by which a peaceful surrender was gained by the Muslim forces from the Byzantine inhabitants of Damascus. Another Arab historian, this one by the name of Al-Baladhuri, wrote the following text. The Encyclopedia of Islam has this to say about him:

Extract from the Encyclopaedia of Islam CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 1999 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands, via http://proxy.lib.umich.edu:2055/citrix/eislam.html

“one of the greatest Arabic historians of the 3rd/9th century. Little is known of his life. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death is directly attested. From the dates of his teachers, it is evident that he cannot have been born later than the beginning of the second decade of the 9th century A.D.; for the date of his death, Muslim authors suggest, as the latest and most likely date, ca. 892 A.D… He probably was born, and certainly spent most of his life, in Baghdad and its environs. His studies led him to Damascus, Emesa, and Antioch … The two great historical works that have survived have won general acclaim for al-Baladhuri’s reliability and critical spirit.”

Treaty

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#73. Hebron Treaty

Unlike the preceding treaty, the subsequent one was not made with the Christian leader of the besieged city but with a less authoritative group. Observe the manner in which this group takes advantage of the situation.

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#74. Muslim-Christian Relations

Pervasive in the dealings between Muslims and their Jewish and Christian neighbors was the fact that Islam respected, though not endorsed, Judaism and Christianity since Islam saw itself as the continuation of these two former faiths. The following story illustrates the respect given to Christianity. Note the phrases corresponding to this issue.

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#75. Amikam Elad

With the continuity existent between Islam and Judaism and Christianity, it is only natural that Jerusalem became a holy city in the Islamic tradition as well. In the subsequent treatment, Elad provides a discussion of the politics behind the elevation of Jerusalem as a religious center during the Umayyad period. Pay special attention to the manner in which politics and religion coincided in this time period—when was this issue seen previously in this course? (More on Muslim Pilgrimage Sites in Jerusalem)

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