Bethlehem

===Middle Ages===
[[File:1698 de Bruijin View of Bethlehem, Palestine (Israel, Holy Land) - Geographicus - Bethlehem-bruijn-1698.jpg|thumb|right|1698 sketch by [[Cornelis de Bruijn]]]]

In 637, shortly after [[Siege of Jerusalem (637)|Jerusalem was captured]] by the [[Rashidun army|Muslim armies]], [[Umar|'Umar ibn al-Khattāb]], the second [[Caliphate|Caliph]], promised that the Church of the Nativity would be preserved for Christian use.<ref name="BMH"/> A [[Mosque of Omar (Bethlehem)|mosque]] dedicated to Umar was built upon the place in the city where he prayed, next to the church.<ref name="ATT">{{cite web
|url=http://www.atlastours.net/holyland/mosque_of_omar.html
|title=Mosque of Omar, Bethlehem
|publisher=Atlas Travel and Tourist Agency
|access-date=January 22, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729223029/http://www.atlastours.net/holyland/mosque_of_omar.html
|archive-date=July 29, 2013
}}</ref> Bethlehem then passed through the control of the Islamic caliphates of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]] in the 8th century, then the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]] in the 9th century. A [[Persian people|Persian]] geographer recorded in the mid-9th century that a well preserved and much venerated church existed in the town. In 985, the [[Arabs|Arab]] geographer [[al-Muqaddasi]] visited Bethlehem, and referred to its church as the "Basilica of Constantine, the equal of which does not exist anywhere in the country-round."<ref>le Strange, 1890, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/298/mode/1up 298]–300.</ref> In 1009, during the reign of the sixth Fatimid Caliph, [[al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]], the Church of the Nativity was ordered to be demolished, but was spared by local Muslims, because they had been permitted to worship in the structure's southern transept.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-church-of-the-nativity
|title=Church of the Nativity – Bethlehem
|location=Bethlehem, West Bank, Israel
|publisher=Sacred-destinations.com
|access-date=October 29, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140216143054/http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/bethlehem-church-of-the-nativity|archive-date=February 16, 2014}}</ref>

In 1099, Bethlehem was captured by the [[First Crusade|Crusaders]], who fortified it and built a new monastery and cloister on the north side of the Church of the Nativity. The [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] clergy were removed from their [[Episcopal see|sees]] and replaced with [[Catholic Church|Latin]] clerics. Up until that point the official Christian presence in the region was Greek Orthodox. On Christmas Day 1100, [[Baldwin I of Jerusalem|Baldwin I]], first king of the Frankish [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin episcopate was also established in the town.<ref name="BMH"/>

In 1187, [[Saladin]], the Sultan of [[Egypt]] and [[Syria]] who led the [[Ayyubid dynasty|Muslim Ayyubids]], captured Bethlehem from the Crusaders. The Latin clerics were forced to leave, allowing the Greek Orthodox clergy to return. Saladin agreed to the return of two Latin priests and two deacons in 1192. However, Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was a sharp decrease of European pilgrims.<ref name="BMH"/> [[William IV, Count of Nevers]] had promised the Christian bishops of Bethlehem that if Bethlehem should fall under Muslim control, he would welcome them in the small town of [[Clamecy, Nièvre|Clamecy]] in present-day [[Burgundy]], France. As a result, the Bishop of Bethlehem duly took up residence in the hospital of Panthenor, Clamecy, in 1223. Clamecy remained the continuous '[[Titular see|in partibus infidelium]]' seat of the Bishopric of Bethlehem for almost 600 years, until the [[French Revolution]] in 1789.<ref>de Sivry, L: "Dictionnaire de Géographie Ecclésiastique", p. 375., 1852 ed, from ecclesiastical record of letters between the Bishops of Bethlehem 'in partibus' to the bishops of Auxerre.</ref>

Bethlehem, along with Jerusalem, [[Nazareth]], and [[Sidon]], was briefly ceded to the Crusader [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]] by a treaty between [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] and Ayyubid Sultan [[al-Kamil]] in 1229, in return for a ten-year truce between the Ayyubids and the Crusaders. The treaty expired in 1239, and Bethlehem was recaptured by the Muslims in 1244.<ref>Paul Reed, 2000, p. 206.</ref> In 1250, with the coming to power of the [[Mamluk]]s under [[Baibars|Rukn al-Din Baibars]], tolerance of Christianity declined. Members of the clergy left the city, and in 1263 the town walls were demolished. The Latin clergy returned to Bethlehem the following century, establishing themselves in the monastery adjoining the Basilica of the Nativity. The Greek Orthodox were given control of the basilica and shared control of the Milk Grotto with the Latins and the [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenians]].<ref name="BMH"/>