Fall of Jerusalem to the caliphate

conquest · 638 · Jerusalem

In 638, after a long siege, the patriarch Sophronius surrendered Jerusalem to the caliph Umar in person, securing terms for the Christians and their churches. The Holy Sepulchre remained in Christian hands; the city of the Resurrection began its long life under the crescent.

The holy places under Islamic rule, with terms for Christian worship that shaped centuries.

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