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relic of the Holy Cross was taken off to Persia in tri-
umph. The Jews as a reward for their help were al-
lowed to do as they liked in the city. But their
triumph did not last long. In 622 Heraclius marched
across Asia Minor, driving back the Persians. In 627
he invaded Persia; Chosroes fled, was deposed, and
murdered in 628 by his son Siroes. In the same year
the Persians had to submit to a peace which deprived
them of all their conquests. The Persian soldiers
evacuated the cities of Syria and Egypt which they
had conquered, the relic of the True Cross was given
back. In 629 Heraclius himself came to Jerusalem
to venerate the Cross. This is the origin of the Feast
of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September:
see the lessons of the second nocturn on that day).
The emperor as a punishment for the treason of the
Jews renewed the old law of Hadrian forbidding them
to enter the city.
After the Persian assault on the town, even before the Romans reconquered it, Modestus, Abbot of the monastery of St. Theodosius in the desert to the south, acting apparently as vicar for the captured patriarch, had already begun to restore the shrines. It was impossible under Persian rule to restore the splendour of Constantine's great Martyrion. Modes- tus therefore had to be content with a more modest group of buildings at the Holy Sepulchre. He re- stored the round Anastasis, much as it had been be- fore, except that a conical roof replaced the old cupola. The custom of orientating churches had now become universal; so a new apse was made at the east (where the entrance had been) for the altar. Doors were pierced in the round wall north and south of this apse. The Anastasis, formerly a shrine sub- sidiary to the great basilica, now became the chief building. Modestus restored the little chapel of the Crucifixion, originally built by Melania, but did not attempt to rebuild any part of the basilica (Martyrion) except the crypt of the Invention of the Holy Cross. The whole esplanade around these buildings was enclosed by a wall and so made into a great atrium. During the next centuries a great number of chapels were built here to contain various relics of the Passion. Heraclius when he reconquered the city rebuilt the walls and restored many more of the ruined shrines. From his time to the Arab con- quest Christian Jerusalem enjoyed a short period of peace and prosperity. St. Sophronius (634-63S or 644), who saw that conquest, was one of the more famous patriarchs of Jerusalem. In his time Mono- thelism had arisen as one more of the many hopeless attempts to conciliate the Monophysites. Sophronius distinguished himself as an opponent of this new heresy. He was born in Damascus and had been a monk of the monastery of St. Theodosius. In defence of the Faith against the Monothelites he had travelled through Syria and Egypt and had visited Constanti- nople. As patriarch in 634 he wrote a synodal letter m defence of the two wills in Christ that is one of the most important documents of this controversy (Mansi XI, 461 sq.). In 636 he had to give up his city to the Moslems.
(5) From the Arab Conquest to the First Crusade (636-1099).— The Moslems in the first zeal of their new faith proceeded to invade Syria. Caliph Abu-bakr (632-634) gave the command of the army to Abu-'Ubaidah, one of the original Ashab (com- panions of Mohammed in his flight, 622). They first took Bosra. In July, 633, they defeated Hcraclius's army at Ajnadain near Emesa; in 634 they stormed Damascus and again defeated the Romans at Yarmuk. Emesa fell in 636. The Moslems then consulted ('aliph Omar (634-644) as to whether they should march on Jerusalem or Ciesarea. By 'All's advice they received orders to take the Holy City. First they sent Mo'awiyah Ibn-Aliu-Sufyan with 5000 Arabs to surprise the city; soon afterwarrls it was
invested by the whole army of Abu-"Ubaidah. It was
defended by a large force composed of refugees from
all parts of Syria, soldiers who had escaped from
Yarmuk and a strong garrison. For four months the
siege continued, every day there was a fierce assault.
At last, when all further resistance was hopeless, the
Patriarch Soplu'onius (who acted throughout as the
head of the Christian defenders) appeared on the walls
and demanded a conference with Abu-'Ubaidah. He
then proposed to capitulate on fair and honourable
terms; the Christians were to keep their churches and
sanctuaries, no one was to be forced to accept Islam.
Soplironius further insisted that these terms should
be ratified by the caliph in person. Omar, then at
Medina, agreed to these terms and came with a single
camel to the walls of Jerusalem. He signed the capit-
ulation, then entered the city with Sophronius "and
courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning
its religious antiquities" (Gibbon, ci, ed. Bury,
London, 1898, V, 436). It is said that when the hour
for his prayer came he was in the Anastasis, but re-
fused to say it there, lest in future times the Moslems
should make that an excuse for breaking the treaty
and confiscating the church. The Mosque of Omar
(Jami'Saidna'Omar), opposite the doors of the Anas-
tasis, with the tall minaret, is shown as the place to
which he retired for his prayer. Under the Moslems
the Christian population of Jerusalem in the first
period enjoyed the usual toleration given to non-
Moslem theists. The pilgrimages went on as before.
The new government did not make Jerusalem the
political centre of Palestine. This was fixed at Lydda
till the year 716, then at Ar-Ramla (Ramleh). But
in the Moslem view, too, Jerusalem, the city of David
and Christ, to which Mohammed was taken mirac-
ulously in one night (Koran, Sura. XVII), which had
been the first Qibia of their religion, was a very holy
place, third only after Mecca and Medina. They call
it Beit al-mukaddas, Beit al-makdis (now generally
Al-Kuds).
In the reign of Caliph 'Abd-al-malik (684-705, the fifth Ommaid caliph, at Damascus) the people of Irak revolted and got possession of the Hiiaz. In order to give his followers a substitute for the hara- man (Mecca and Medina), which they were prevented from visiting, he resolved to make Jerusalem a centre of pilgrimage. He, therefore, set aliout to adorn the place of the Temple with a splendid mosque. It ap- pears that the Cliristians had left the place where the Temple had once stood untouched. Omar visited it and found it filled up with refuse. In his time a large square building with no architectural pretension was put up to shelter the True Believers who went there to pray. In 691 'Abd-al-malik replaced this by the ex- qui-site "Dome of the Rock " (Qubbct-es-Sachra), built by Byzantine architects, that still stands in the middle of the Temple area. This is the building long known as the Mosque of Omar, falsely attriliutinl to him. It is an eight-sided building crowned with a dome, cov- ered outside with marble and most beautiful many- coloured tiles, certainly one of the most splendid monuments of architecture in the world. It stands over a great flat rock, probably the place of the old altar of holocausts. 'Abd-allah al-Iman al-Mamiin (Caliph, 813-833) restored it. The dome fell in an earthquake and was rebuilt in 1022. The Crusaders (who turned it into a church) thought this was the original Jewish Temple; hence the many round temple-churches built in imitation of it. Raphael in his "E.spousal of the Blessed Virgin" has painted it, as well as he could from descriptions, in the back- ground as the Temple. The whole of the Temple area became to Moslems the "illustrious Sanctuary" (Haram-ash-sherif) and was gradually covered with colonnades, minbars (pulpits), and smaller domes. At the south end Justinian's basilica became the "most remote Mosque" (Al-Masjid-al-aqsa, Sura
