Historical Background

In the early seventh century, a charismatic, prophetic figure named Muhammed began to attract a following in the Arabian Peninsula. In 622, warned of an assassination plot, Muhammed fled from Mecca to Medina. His flight, called in Arabic the Hegira (or Hejira), marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar (which dates events after 622 as A.H. or After [the] Hegira). After Muhammed died in 632, four elected caliphs succeeded him as leaders of the new religion of Islam. Almost immediately after Muhammed's death, his followers began to spread Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula through a series of military campaigns. Beginning in 634, Muslim tribes began to take over parts of Palestine. Jerusalem apparently surrendered peacefully in 638. Caesarea, the last major city in Palestine to fall to the Muslims, capitulated after a seven-month siege, after the Byzantine emperor withdrew support by way of the sea. Palestine was taken by the Muslims during the reign of the caliph Omar (634–644). Although for a long time scholars believed that the Muslim conquest of Palestine was accompanied by widespread destructions followed by a rapid decline in prosperity, recent research indicates that Palestine continued to flourish under early Islamic rule.

Islam spread quickly as the Muslims extended their control over most of the Near East (except for Asia Minor, which remained under Byzantine rule), Egypt, North Africa, and eventually Spain. After the death of the fourth caliph, the Umayyad dynasty was established, whose members ruled over the vast, newly created empire from 661 to 750. The Umayyads chose Damascus, Syria, as their capital. The Umayyads sponsored many building projects around Palestine, including a series of desert palaces such as Khirbat al-Mafjar near Jericho, and a large congregational mosque in Damascus. Jerusalem benefited especially from Umayyad patronage. The Umayyad dynasty was overthrown in 750 by the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the Muslim empire to Baghdad.