Chapter XX: Conquest of Palestine

A.H. XV. A.D. 636.

[Sidenote: Territorial division of Palestine.]

_Palestine_, according to the Arabs, is the tract that lies west of the Dead Sea. If a line were drawn from the top of the sea obliquely to Mount Carmel, all to the south of it would be Palestine. The zone immediately to the north of the line, including the Ghôr, or valley watered by the Jordan, is called _Ordonna_, or the province of the _Jordan_. The country still farther north is _Syria_, and that to the east of the Jordan the _Haurân_.[321]

[Sidenote: Palestine invaded.]

The first inroads of the Arabs were upon the province of the Jordan. Issuing from Arabia, their beaten course, as we have seen, was the highway to Damascus, along the pilgrim route of the present day, to the east of the Dead Sea. The base of operations was, throughout the Syrian campaign, at Jâbia, a town some little distance east of the Sea of Tiberias; from whence, as a rendezvous, columns could be forwarded, by the great military roads, either to Damascus, Báalbek, and the north; or, again, to Tiberias, the Jordan, and Palestine. Soon after the siege of Damascus and battle of Fihl, the greater part of the province of the Jordan fell rapidly under the arms of Amru and Shorahbîl. In Palestine proper, with Egypt in its rear, and Cæsarea open to reinforcements by sea, the Roman power remained, for some time longer, unbroken. The province was heavily garrisoned at Gaza, Ramleh, Jerusalem, and other places. The Patrician Artabûn, commanding in Palestine, divided his army into two parts. One guarded Jerusalem. With the other, taking his stand at Ajnadein, some distance to the west, he sought to hold the invaders advancing from Beisân, in check. This foolhardy general is said to have invited Amru to a conference, having laid an ambush by the way to slay him.[322] But he was outwitted by the wily Arab, and, before long, found himself cut off all round from his communications with Cæsarea, Jerusalem, and Ramleh. [Sidenote: Battle of Ajnadein. A.H. XV. Spring, A.D. 636.] Amru then attacked the Roman army; and a heavy and decisive engagement took place at Ajnadein. Of its details we know little, for we are simply told that ‘the battle of Ajnadein was fierce and bloody as the battle of Wacûsa.’ After great slaughter, Artabûn was driven back upon Jerusalem. Amru encamped on the battle-field, and the way was now clear to the Holy City. But he took the precaution first to secure his rear, still bristling with posts and garrisons. One after another--Gaza, Sebastia, Nablûs, Lydda, Beit-Jibrîn, and Joppa--either fell before his arms, or, without a blow, submitted to the Moslem yoke. Jerusalem and Ramleh alone held out.[323]

[Sidenote: Capitulation of Jerusalem. A.H. XV. End of A.D. 636.]

Towards Jerusalem, a city surrounded by associations almost as sacred as those of Mecca itself, Amru first directed his steps. On his approach, Artabûn, dispirited by his late defeat, and unwilling to risk the now desperate issue of a siege, retired with his army to Egypt. The Patriarch, upon this, sued for peace. But one condition he made, that Omar should come himself to the Holy City, and there, in person, settle the capitulation.[324] The Caliph, nothing loth, braved the objections of those about him, and at once set out for Syria.[325] Taking the beaten track before described, he journeyed direct for Jâbia. [Sidenote: Omar journeys to Jâbia;]It was a memorable occasion, being the first progress of a Caliph beyond the limits of Arabia. Abu Obeida, Yezîd, and Khâlid, came from the north in state, to welcome him. A brilliant cavalcade, robed in Syrian brocade, and mounted on steeds richly caparisoned, they rode forth as he approached. At the sight of all their finery, Omar’s spirit was stirred within him. He stooped down, and, gathering a handful of gravel, flung it at the astonished chiefs. ‘Avaunt!’ he cried; ‘is it thus attired that ye come out to meet me? All changed thus in the space of two short years! Verily, had it been after two hundred, ye would have deserved to be degraded.’ ‘Commander of the Faithful!’ they replied; ‘this that thou seest is but the outside; beneath it (and they drew aside their robes) behold our armour.’ ‘Enough,’ answered Omar, still much displeased; ‘go forward.’ So they fell in with his party, and alighted at Jâbia. Shortly after, the camp was startled by the appearance of a troop of strange horse. It was a deputation from Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem.[326] Terms of capitulation were soon agreed to, and the treaty, duly witnessed, was carried by the visitors back to their master; whereupon the gates of Jerusalem, and of Ramleh also, were thrown open to the Moslem leaders. Amru and Shorahbîl, thus relieved from further opposition, left their troops and presented themselves at Jâbia. Omar rode forth to meet them; and they kissed his stirrup, while he, dismounting, affectionately embraced them both.

[Sidenote: and visits Jerusalem.]

Dismissing the other generals to their respective commands, the Caliph, carrying with him Amru and Shorahbîl, resumed his journey westward, and, crossing the Jordan below the Lake of Tiberias, proceeded thus to Jerusalem. They gave him a palfrey to ride on, which pranced with jingling bells after the fashion of Syria. He disliked the motion. ‘What aileth the animal?’ he said; ‘I know not who hath taught thee this strange gait.’ So he dismounted and rode upon his own horse again.[327] Arrived at Jerusalem, the Caliph received the Patriarch and citizens with kindness and condescension. He granted them the same privileges as to the most favoured cities; imposed on the inhabitants an easy tribute, and confirmed them in possession of all their shrines and churches. Jerusalem was to the Moslem an object of intense veneration, not only as the cradle of Judaism and Christianity, but as the first _Kibla_ of Islam itself--that is, the sacred spot to which the Faithful turn in prayer; and also as the place visited by the Prophet on his mysterious journey by night to heaven.[328] At the crest of the sacred mount there is a stony projection, which the tradition of the day had marked as Jacob’s pillow. The fond imagination of the Moslems has fixed upon this as the very point in the ‘Farther Temple,’ from which the winged steed mounted by Mahomet took its upward flight; and in a depression of the rock the eye, or the hand, of faith still traces the outline of the Prophet’s foot imprinted there as he sprang into his airy saddle. It was close to this that Omar laid the foundation of the Mosque which, to this day, bears his name.[329]

[Sidenote: Christian tradition regarding Omar’s visit to Jerusalem.]

Mahometan tradition gives no further detail respecting this memorable visit. But we are told by Christian writers that Omar accompanied Sophronius over the city, visited the Jerusalem, various places of pilgrimage, and graciously inquired into their history. As the appointed hour came round, the Patriarch bade the Caliph to perform his orisons on the spot where they chanced to be, namely, the Church of the Resurrection. But he declined to pray either there or in the Church of Constantine, where a carpet had been spread for him--alleging, as the reason, that if he were to pray there, his followers would deem it their duty to oust the Christians and take possession of the church for ever afterwards, as a place where Moslem prayer had once been offered up. He also visited Bethlehem. There, having prayed in the Church of the Nativity, he gave nevertheless a rescript to the Patriarch who accompanied him on the pious errand, securing the Christians in possession of the building, with the condition that not more than one Mussulman should ever enter at a time; but the stipulation, we are told, was disregarded, and a Mosque was eventually erected there, as well as on the site of the porch of the Church of Constantine.[330]

[Sidenote: Omar returns to Medîna.]

Whatever truth there may be in these traditions, Omar did not prolong his visit to Jerusalem or its environs. Having settled the matter for which he came, he proceeded to divide Palestine into two provinces; one of which he assigned to the government of Jerusalem, and the other to that of Ramleh. He then returned by the way that he came to Medîna.[331]

[Sidenote: Causes which facilitated the conquest of Syria.]

Thus was Syria, from the farthest north to the border of Egypt, within the space of three years, lost to Christendom. One reflects with wonder at the feeble resistance offered by the Byzantine power, both military and naval, and by its many strongholds of antiquity and renown, to this sudden inroad. The affinities of the Syrian Bedouins to the Arabian nation facilitated no doubt the conquest. There was also an element of weakness in the settled population; for luxurious living had demoralised the effeminate race and rendered it unable to resist the onset of the wild and fanatic invaders. Still worse, they had no heart to fight. What patriotic vigour might have still survived, was lost in religious strife. Sects rejoiced each in the humiliation of the other; and, as is usual in such controversies, the finer the distinction, the more inveterate the hatred thereby engendered. Loyalty was thus smothered by bitter jealousies, and there are not wanting instances even of active assistance rendered to the enemy.[332] There may have been among some, even a sense of relief in the equal though contemptuous licence given, by the toleration or haughty indifference of the conquerors, to all alike. But there was a still deeper cause, and that was the growing decrepitude of the Roman empire. No vigour remained to drive back the shock of barbarian invaders. And while northern hordes could by degrees amalgamate with the nations which they overran, the exclusive faith and the intolerant teaching of Islam kept the Arabs a race distinct and dominant.

[Sidenote: The Arabs did not settle in Syria to the same extent as in Chaldæa.]

The conquerors did not spread themselves abroad in Syria, as in Chaldæa. They founded no such Arabian towns and military settlements as Bussorah and Kûfa. The country and climate were less congenial, and the beautiful scenery, of the land of brooks of water and depths springing out of valleys and hills, the land of vines and fig-trees and pomegranates, the land of oil-olive and honey, offered fewer attractions to the Arabian races than the heated sandy plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, with their desert garb of tamarisk and groves of the familiar date. They came to Syria as conquerors; and, as conquerors, they settled largely, particularly the southern tribes, in Damascus, Hims, and other centres of administration. But the body of the native Syrians remained after the conquest substantially the same as before; and through long centuries of degradation they clung, as to some extent they still cling, to their ancestral faith.

[Sidenote: Humiliation of Jews and Christians.]

We read in later days of the _Ordinance of Omar_, to regulate the conditions of Christian communities throughout Islam. But it would be a libel on that tolerant Ruler to credit him with the greater part of these observances. It is true that the stamp of inferiority--according to the Divine injunction, _Fight against the people of the Book, Jews and Christians, until they pay tribute with their hands and are humbled_[333]--was branded upon them from the first; but the worst disabilities of that intolerant Ordinance were not imposed till a later period. Introduced by degrees, these gradually became, through practice and precedent, the law of the land. At the first the exactions of the conquerors, besides the universal tribute, were limited to the demand of a yearly supply of oil-olive and other food, and the obligation to entertain Moslem travellers on their journey for three days at a time. But when the Caliphate was established at Damascus, its pomp and pride could no longer brook the semblance even of social equality, and hence the badge of an inferior race must be shown at every step. The dress of both sexes and of their slaves must be distinguished by broad stripes of yellow. They were forbidden to appear on horseback; and if they rode on mule or ass, their stirrups must be of wood, and the saddle known by knobs of the same material. Their graves must be level with the ground, and the mark of the devil placed on the lintel of their doors. Their children must be taught by Moslem masters; and the race, however able or well qualified, was proscribed from aspiring to any office of high emolument or trust. Besides the existing churches spared at the conquest, no new building must be erected for the purposes of worship; free entry into all their holy places must be allowed at the pleasure of the Moslem; no cross must remain in view outside, nor any church bells rung. They must refrain from processions in the street at Easter and other solemn seasons; and in short from anything, whether by outward symbol, word, or deed, in rivalry or derogation of the royal faith. Such was the so-called _Code of Omar_.[334] Enforced with less or greater stringency in different lands and under different dynasties, it was, and still remains, the law of Islam. One must admire the rare tenacity of the subject faith, which, with but scanty light and hope, held its ground through weary ages of insult and depression, and still survives to see, as we now may hope, the dawning of a brighter day.

[Sidenote: The East cut off from the West.]

I have spoken of the loss of Syria as the dismemberment of a limb from the Byzantine empire. In one respect it was something more. For their own safety, the Romans dismantled a broad belt of country on the borders of the now barbarian Syria. The towns and fortresses were razed, and the inhabitants withdrawn. And so the neutral zone became a barrier against travel to and fro. For all ordinary communication, whether social, religious, or commercial, the road was closed. The East was severed from the West.

[Sidenote: Silence of Byzantine historians.]

‘The abomination of desolation’ wept over by Sophronius stood in the Holy Place. The cradle of Christianity, Zion the joy of the whole earth, was trodden under foot, and utterly cut off from the sight of its votaries. And all is told by the Byzantine writers in a few short lines. The pen of the Christian annalist might well refuse to write the story of cowardice and shame.