Jerusalem

====Early Muslim period====
{{main|History of Jerusalem during the Early Muslim period|History of Jerusalem during the Middle Ages|l2 = the Middle Ages}}
[[File:Jerusalem-2013(2)-Temple Mount-Dome of the Rock (SE exposure).jpg|thumb|The [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] [[Dome of the Rock]] mosque, commissioned in late 7th century AD. It is designated as a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]], and called "Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/01/29/arafats-gift |title=Arafat's Gift |first=Jeffrey |last=Goldberg |author-link=Jeffrey Goldberg |date=29 January 2001 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=11 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714192414/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/01/29/arafats-gift |archive-date=14 July 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

[[File:Umm ar-Rasas Church of St. Stephen Jerusalem 2785.jpg|thumb|A depiction of Jerusalem in the Byzantine [[Umm ar-Rasas mosaics]], identified as Hagia Polis in Greek, the Holy City, during the time of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] in 785.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1CpfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA313 |title=New Rome: The Empire in the East |author=Paul Stephenson |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2022 |isbn=9780674659629 |access-date=26 October 2023 |archive-date=26 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231026161042/https://books.google.com/books?id=1CpfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA313 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

After the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant]], Byzantine Jerusalem was taken by [[Umar ibn al-Khattab]] in 638 CE.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dan Bahat]] |title=The Illustrated Atlas of Jerusalem |url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedatlas00baha |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedatlas00baha/page/n61 71] |year=1996 |publisher=Carta |isbn=978-965-220-348-9}}</ref> Among the first [[Muslims]], it was referred to as ''Madinat bayt al-Maqdis'' ("City of the Temple"),<ref>Ben-Dov, M. ''Historical Atlas of Jerusalem''. Translated by David Louvish. New York: Continuum, 2002, p. 171</ref> a name restricted to the Temple Mount. The rest of the city "was called Iliya, reflecting the Roman name given the city following the destruction of 70 CE: ''Aelia Capitolina''".<ref>Linquist, J.M., ''The Temple of Jerusalem'', Praeger, London, 2008, p. 184</ref> Later the Temple Mount became known as ''al-Haram al-Sharif'', "The Noble Sanctuary", while the city around it became known as ''Bayt al-Maqdis'',<ref>Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem. With Contributions by Mohammad al-Asad, Abeer Audeh, Said Nuseibeh. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 112</ref> and later still, ''al-Quds al-Sharif'' "The Holy, Noble". 

The [[Islamization]] of Jerusalem began in the first year [[Hijri year|A.H.]] (623 CE), when Muslims were instructed to face the city while performing their daily prostrations and, according to Muslim religious tradition, Muhammad's night journey and ascension to heaven took place. After 13 years, the direction of prayer was changed to Mecca.<ref>''In the Lands of the Prophet'', ''Time''-Life, p. 29</ref><ref name=Watt1974>{{cite book |author=William Montgomery Watt |title=Muhammad: prophet and statesman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLN2hNidLw4C&pg=PA113 |access-date=29 December 2011 |date=7 February 1974 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-881078-0 |pages=112–13 |archive-date=18 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218083735/https://books.google.com/books?id=zLN2hNidLw4C&pg=PA113 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 638 CE the Islamic [[Caliphate]] extended its dominion to Jerusalem.<ref name=Gilbert7>Gilbert (1978), p. 7.</ref> With the Muslim conquest, Jews were allowed back into the city.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of Palestine, 634–1099 |url=https://archive.org/details/historypalestine00gilm |url-access=limited |last=Gil |first=Moshe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=February 1997 |isbn=978-0-521-59984-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historypalestine00gilm/page/n96 70]–71}}</ref> The [[Rashidun]] caliph [[Umar|Umar ibn al-Khattab]] signed a treaty with Christian Patriarch of Jerusalem [[Sophronius of Jerusalem|Sophronius]], assuring him that Jerusalem's Christian holy places and population would be protected under Muslim rule.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A History of the Crusades:The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem |last=Runciman |first=Steven |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1951 |volume=1 |pages=3–4 |no-pp=true |isbn=978-0-521-34770-9}}</ref> 

Christian-Arab tradition records that, when led to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites for Christians, the caliph Umar refused to pray in the church so that Muslims would not request conversion of the church to a mosque.<ref>[[Steven Runciman]], ''A History of the Crusades'', (3 vols. 1951–1954, Cambridge University Press), Penguin Books, 1965 vol. 1, pp. 3–4, citing [[Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria|Eutychius]], [[Michael the Syrian]] and Elias of Nisibin. The many sources conserving the story are summarized in Hugues Vincent, [[Félix-Marie Abel|F. M. Abel]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=bCixXwAACAAJ Jérusalem Nouvelle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327021319/https://books.google.com/books?id=bCixXwAACAAJ |date=27 March 2024 }}, 1914 tome 2, pp. 930–932,</ref> He prayed outside the church, where the [[Mosque of Omar (Jerusalem)|Mosque of Umar (Omar)]] stands to this day, opposite the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 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.<ref name=YShalem>{{cite web |last=Shalem |first=Yisrael |title=The Early Arab Period – 638–1099 |publisher=Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, [[Bar-Ilan University]] |url=http://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_8.html |access-date=20 July 2008 |archive-date=16 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151216173527/http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/rennert/history_8.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

When the Arab armies under [[Umar]] went to ''Bayt Al-Maqdes'' in 637 CE, they searched for the site of [[Temple Mount|''al-masjid al-aqsa'']], "the farthest place of prayer/mosque", that was mentioned in the [[Quran]] and [[Hadith]] according to Islamic beliefs. Contemporary Arabic and Hebrew sources say the site was full of rubbish, and that Arabs and Jews cleaned it.<ref>Rivka Gonen, ''Contested holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem'', Ktav Publishing House, 2003, p. 85; ''The History of al-Tabari'', vol. XII, Albany: State University of New York Press 2007, pp. 194–95.</ref> The [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan|Abd al-Malik]] commissioned the construction of a shrine on the Temple Mount, now known as the Dome of the Rock, in the late 7th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament |last=Hoppe |first=Leslie J. |publisher=Michael Glazier Books |date=August 2000 |isbn=978-0-8146-5081-3 |page=15}}</ref> Two of the city's most-distinguished Arab citizens of the 10th-century were [[Al-Muqaddasi]], the geographer, and [[Al-Tamimi, the physician]]. Al-Muqaddasi writes that Abd al-Malik built the edifice on the Temple Mount in order to compete in grandeur with Jerusalem's monumental churches.<ref name=YShalem/>

Over the next four hundred years, Jerusalem's prominence diminished as Arab powers in the region vied for control of the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bu.edu/mzank/Jerusalem/p/period4-3.htm |last=Zank |first=Michael |publisher=Boston University |title=Abbasid Period and Fatimid Rule (750–1099) |access-date=1 February 2007 |archive-date=10 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910035229/http://www.bu.edu/mzank/Jerusalem/p/period4-3.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Jerusalem was captured in 1073 by the [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk]] Turkish commander [[Atsiz ibn Uvaq|Atsız]].<ref>[http://www.islamansiklopedisi.info/ Islam encyclopaedia] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226061225/http://www.islamansiklopedisi.info/ |date=26 December 2018 }} {{in lang|tr}} Vol. 26 pp. 323–27</ref> After Atsız was killed, the Seljuk prince [[Tutush I]] granted the city to [[Artuk Bey]], another Seljuk commander. After Artuk's death in 1091 his sons [[Sökmen of Artukids|Sökmen]] and [[Ilghazi]] governed in the city up to 1098 when the [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimids]] recaptured the city.

A messianic [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] movement to gather in Jerusalem took place at the turn of the millennium, leading to a "Golden Age" of Karaite scholarship there, which was only terminated by the Crusades.<ref>David E. Sklare, 'Yūsuf al-Bașīr: Theological Aspects of his Halakhic Works,' in Daniel Frank (ed.) ''The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society & Identity'', E. J. Brill, 1995, pp. 249–270. p. 249. They were known as ''avelei șion'' (Mourners of Zion) or ''Shoshanim'' (Lilies(among the thorns))</ref>