Belagerung von Jerusalem (637)

The Siege of Jerusalem was a part of a military conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate, which took place in 637. It began when the Rashidun army, under the command of Abu Ubaidah, besieged Jerusalem in November 636. After six months, the Patriarch Sophronius agreed to surrender, under the condition that he submit only to the Rashidun caliph. Caliph Umar came personally in April 637 to receive the submission of the city. The Muslim conquest of the city solidified Arab control over Palestine, control which would not again be threatened until the Crusades in the late 11th through the 13th centuries. Thus, it came to be regarded as a holy site by Islam as well as Christianity and Judaism. After the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, Jews were allowed to live and practice their religion freely in Jerusalem by Caliph Umar, after nearly 500 years of expulsion from the Holy Land by the Romans.

Prelude

Jerusalem was an important city of the Byzantine province of Palestina prima. Just 23 years prior to the Muslim conquest, in 614 it fell to an invading Sassanid army under Shahrbaraz during the last of Byzantine-Sassanid Wars. The Persian looted the city and are said to have massacred 90,000 Christians inhabitants of the city. It is believed that the Jews, who were oppressed in their Roman-controlled homeland, aided the Persians. The True Cross was captured and taken to Ctesiphon as a battle-captured holy relic, it was later bought back to Jerusalem by Emperor Heraclius once he was victorious against the Persians.

Prophet Mohammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Caliph Abu Bakr, who established sovereignty over Arabia after series of campaigns known as Ridda Wars. Once Arabia was consolidated he started a war of conquest in the east by invading Iraq, then a province of the Sassanid Persian Empire, and on the western front his armies invaded the Byzantine Empire.

In 634 Abu Bakr died and was succeeded by Umar who continued his war of conquest. Emperor Heraclius, in May 636 launched a major expedition to roll back the lost territory, but his army was defeated decisively at the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, after which Abu Ubaidah, the Muslim Commander in Chief of the Rashidun army in Syria, held a council of war in early October 636 CE to discuss the future plan. Opinions of objectives varied between the coastal city of Caesarea and Jerusalem. Abu Ubaidah could see the importance of both these cities, which had so far resisted all the Muslim attempts at capture. Unable to decide the matter, he wrote to Caliph Umar for instructions. In his reply the caliph ordered the Muslims to capture the later. Abu Ubaidah accordingly marched towards Jerusalem from Jabiya, with Khalid ibn Walid and his Mobile guard leading the advance. The Muslims arrived at Jerusalem around early November, and the Byzantine garrison withdrew into the fortified city.

Siege

After the Byzantine defeat at Yarmouk, Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius repaired the defenses of the city. However, the town had already been well fortified after Heraclius recaptured it from the Persians. The Muslims had so far not attempted any siege of the city, but all the routes to the city were under the potential danger of the Arab forces since 634. Although it was not encircled, it was in a state of a siege since the Muslims captured the neighboring forts of Pella and Bosra. Especially after the Battle of Yarmouk the city was severed from the rest of Syria and was presumably being prepared for a siege that seemed inevitable. When the Muslim army reached Jericho, Sophronius collected all the holy relics, including the True Cross and secretly sent them to the coast to be taken to the Constantinople. The Muslim troops besieged the city some time in November 636. The weary Muslim troopsVorlage:Cref, instead of starting a costly siege warfare, decided to press the siege until the Byzantines would run short of supplies and a bloodless surrender could be negotiated.

The details of the siege are not recorded in historyVorlage:Cref and it appears to be a closed but bloodless siege. The Byzantine garrison could not expect any help from the humbled regime of Heraclius. After a siege of four months, Sophronius offered to surrender the city and pay the jizya (tribute) on condition that the caliph come to Jerusalem to sign the pact and accept the surrender. It is said that when Sophronius' terms became known to the Muslims, Sharhabil ibn Hassana, one of the Muslim commanders, suggested that instead of waiting for the caliph to come all the way from Madinah, Khalid ibn Walid should be sent forward as the caliph, as he was very similar in appearance to Umar. The subterfuge however did not work. Rather Khalid was too famous in Syria, or there may have been Christian Arabs in the city who had visited Madinah and had seen both Umar and Khalid, noting the differences. Consequently, the Patriarch of Jerusalem refused to negotiate. When Khalid reported the failure of this mission, Abu Ubaidah wrote to caliph Umar about the situation, and invited him to come to Jerusalem and accept the surrender of the city.

Surrender

The present day building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Sophronius invited caliph Umar to offer Salah.

Umar arrived in the Palestine in early April 637 and first went to Jabiya, where he was received by Abu Ubaidah, Khalid and Yazid, who had traveled with an escort to receive him. Amr was left as commander of the besieging Muslim army. Upon Umar's arrival in Jerusalem, a pact known as The Umariyya Covenant was drawn up. It surrendered the city and gave guarantees of civil and religious liberty to Christians in exchange for jizya. On behalf of the Muslims it was signed by caliph Umar and witnessed by Khalid, Amr, Abdur Rahman bin Awf and Muawiyah and in late April 637, Jerusalem was officially surrendered to the caliph. Umar allowed Jews to live in Jerusalem, it was first time after almost 500 years of oppressive rule of Romans that Jews were allowed to enter and worship freely in their holy city. It has been recorded in the annals of Muslim chronicles that at the time of the Zuhr prayers Sophronius invited Umar to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Umar, fearing that accepting the invitation might endanger the church's status as a Christian temple and that Muslims might break the treaty and turn the temple into a mosque, declined. After staying for 10 days at Jerusalem, the caliph returned to Medina.

Aftermath

Dome of the Rock was constructed by Ummayad Caliph Abd al-Malik.

Following the Caliph's instructions, Yazid proceeded to Caesarea and once again laid siege to the port city. Amr and Shurahbil marched to complete the occupation of Palestine and Jordan, a task that was completed by the end of the year. Caesarea however could not be taken till 640, when at last the garrison laid down its arms before Muawiyah I, then a governor of Syria. Abu Ubaidah and Khalid, with an army of 17,000 men, set off from Jerusalem to conquer all of northern Syria, which ended with the conquest of Antioch in late 637. In 639 the Muslims invaded and conquered Egypt.

During his stay in Jerusalem, Umar was led to the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount, the Rock from where, according to the Muslim traditions, Prophet Mohammad ascended atop of, with Angel Gabriel, to heaven in his night journey to heaven "Isra and Mi'raj" just less than 20 years ago. Umar cleared the refuses and debris from the expected site of the Holy of Holies, a large rock was revealed, then more of it was exposed by more cleaning. Umar built a fence around it and ordered building a mosque near by.

According to the Gaullic bishop Arculf, who lived in Jerusalem from 679 to 688, the Mosque of Umar was a rectangular wooden structure built over ruins which could accommodate 3,000 worshipers. Later on this Rock, the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik commissioned the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the late 7th century. The 10th century historian al-Muqaddasi writes that Abd al-Malik built the shrine in order to compete in grandeur with city's monumental churches. Over the next four hundred years Jerusalem's prominence diminished as Arab powers in the region jockeyed for control. Jerusalem remained under the Muslim rule until it was captured by Crusaders in 1099.

Sources

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