SunniIslam is a majorreligion inPalestine, being the religion of the majority of thePalestinian population.Muslims comprise 85% of the population of theWest Bank, when includingIsraeli settlers,[1] and 99% of the population of theGaza Strip.[2] The largest denomination among Palestinian Muslims are Sunnis, comprising 85% of the total Muslim population.
During the 7th century, the ArabRashidunsconquered the Levant, succeeded by subsequent Arabic-speaking Muslim dynasties like theUmayyads,Abbasids and theFatimids,[3] marking the onset ofArabization andIslamization in the region. This process involved both resettlement by nomadic tribes and individual conversions.[4][5] In the case of theSamaritans, there are records of mass conversion due to economic pressure, political instability and religious persecution in the Abbasid period.[6]Sedentarization facilitated a more rapid Islamization compared to the slower pace of individual conversions among the local populace.[4][5][7] Sufi activities[5] and changes in social structures and the weakening of local Christian authorities under Islamic rule[8] also played significant roles.
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Some scholars suggest that by the arrival of theCrusaders, Palestine was already overwhelmingly Muslim,[9][10] while others claim that it was only after the Crusades that Christianity lost its majority, and that the process of mass Islamization took place much later, perhaps during theMamluk period.[6][11]
Islam was first brought to theregion of Palestine during theEarly Muslim conquests of the 7th century, when theRashidun Caliphate under the leadership ofʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb conquered theShaam[note 2] region from theByzantine Empire.[15]
The Muslim army conquered Jerusalem, held by the Byzantine Romans, in November, 636. For four monthsthe siege continued. Ultimately, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, agreed to surrender Jerusalem to Caliph Umar in person. Caliph Umar, then at Medina, agreed to these terms and traveled to Jerusalem to sign the capitulation in the spring of 637. Sophronius also negotiated a pact with Caliph Umar, known as the Umariyya Covenant or Covenant of Omar, allowing for religious freedom for Christians in exchange forjizyah (Arabic:جِـزْيَـة), a tax to be paid by conquered non-Muslims, called "dhimmis." Under Muslim Rule, the Christian and Jewish population of Jerusalem in this period enjoyed the usual tolerance given to non-Muslimmonotheists.[16][17]
Having accepted the surrender, Caliph Umar then entered Jerusalem with Sophronius "and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities". When the hour for his prayer came, Umar was in the Anastasis, but refused to pray there, lest in the future the Muslims should use that as an excuse to break the treaty and confiscate the church. The Mosque of Omar, opposite the doors of the Anastasis, with the tall minaret, is known as the place to which he retired for his prayer.
Jerusalem is Islam's third holiest city afterMecca andMedina inSaudi Arabia.[18] Although theQur'an does not clarify from where exactlyMuhammadascended to Heaven, theAl-Aqsa (Temple Mount) of Jerusalem is believed by Muslims to be the location. According to the tradition, during a single night around the year 621CE, theIslamic prophetMuhammad was carried by his mythological steed "al-Burāq" fromMecca to theTemple Mount inJerusalem. According to the tradition, from there he ascended to heaven where he spoke withAllah. This widely accepted Islamic belief is a source of the religious and spiritual importance of theDome of the Rock and the adjacental-Aqsa Mosque.[19]
According to the historianJames Parkes, during the first century after the Muslim conquest (640–740), the caliph and governors ofSyria and theHoly Land ruled entirely over Christian and Jewish subjects. He further states that apart from theBedouin in the earliest days, the only Arabs west of the Jordan were the garrisons.[20]
Bishop Arculf, whose account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 7th century, De Locis Sanctis, written down by the monk Adamnan, described reasonably pleasant living conditions of Christians in Palestine in the first period of Muslim rule.[citation needed] The caliphs of Damascus (661–750) were tolerant princes who were on generally good terms with their Christian subjects. Many Christians (e.g.,St. John Damascene) held important offices at their court. TheAbbasid caliphs at Baghdad (753–1242), as long as they ruled Syria, were also tolerant of the Christians. Harun Abu-Ja-'afar, (786–809) sent the keys of the Holy Sepulchre to Charlemagne, who built a hospice for Latin pilgrims near the shrine.[citation needed]
Some scholars believe that Islam became the majority religion in Palestine in the 9th century, with acculturation of the locals intoArab identity and whenArabic became thelingua franca.[10] In theMiddle East and North Africa in general and Palestine in particular, indigenous peoples in various regions who until then spoke mostlyAramaic,Coptic andBerber languages, began adoptingArabic due to its significance as a liturgical language of theQuran. The shift took place with an extended period ofbilingualism, which lasted until the 12th century in Palestine and as late as the 17th century inEgypt.[21][22][23]
Rival dynasties and revolutions led to the eventual disunion of the Muslim world. During the 9th century, Palestine was conquered by theFatimid dynasty, centered in Egypt. During that time the region of Palestine became again the center of violent disputes followed by wars, since enemies of the Fatimid dynasty attempted to conquer the region. At that time, theByzantine Empire continued trying to recapture the territories they previously lost to the Muslims, including Jerusalem.
During the Fatimid era, the cities of Jerusalem andHebron became prime destinations for Sufi wayfarers.[24] The creation of locally rootedSufi-inspired communities and institutions between 1000 and 1250 were part and parcel of the conversion to Islam.[24]
The sixth Fatimid caliph,Caliph Al-Hakim (996–1021), who was believed to be "God made manifest" by theDruze, destroyed theHoly Sepulchre in 1009. This powerful provocation started the near 90-year preparation towards theFirst Crusade.[25]
The Samaritan community dropped in numbers during the various periods of Muslim rule in the region. The Samaritans could not rely on foreign assistance as much as the Christians did, nor on a large number ofdiaspora immigrants as did the Jews. The once-flourishing community declined over time, either through emigration orconversion to Islam among those who remained.[26] According to Milka Levy-Rubin, many Samaritans converted underAbbasid andTulunid rule.[26]
In 1099, the ChristianCrusaders, with the support of theRoman Catholic Church, launched theFirst Crusade campaign with the aims of regaining control ofJerusalem from theFatimid Caliphate, and helping theByzantine Empire fight theSeljuk Turks. During the campaign, the Crusaders launched an assault on the city of Jerusalem, captured it in July 1099, massacred many of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, and established the first ChristianKingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders transformed theDome of the Rock into the "Shrine of the Lord" (Templum Domini) and theAl-Aqsa mosque into the "Hall of Solomon" (Templum Solomonis). For the local Muslim population, the reaction to the events was to try to find an accommodation with the Crusaders, whereas the larger Muslim world typically looked upon the events with indifference.[27][28][29][30]
In 1187, theAyyubid SultanSalah ad-Din captured the region after defeating the Crusader states in theBattle of Hattin.[31] As a direct result of the battle, Islamic forces once again became the dominant power in the region, re-conqueringJerusalem and several other Crusader-held cities.[32] In 1189, the first lodge for Sufi ascetics was established at theAl-Khanqah al-Salahiyya Mosque in Jerusalem, which had been a palace of theLatin Patriarch prior to the reconquest of the city.[24]
The Christian defeat led to aThird Crusade aimed to regain the lost territories in the Holy Land.Richard I of England launched a siege upon the city ofAcre after which he conquered the city and killed 3,000 Muslims. After a second victory won in theBattle of Arsuf, the Crusaders arrived to Jerusalem, but withdrew without trying to conquer the city. Following another military clash inJaffa, which wasn't won by either side,Saladin andRichard the Lionheart signed theTreaty of Ramla in June 1192. Under the terms of the agreement, Jerusalem would remain underMuslim control but the city would be open toChristian pilgrims. The treaty reduced the Latin Kingdom to a strip along the coast from Tyre toJaffa.
In 1250, the Ayyubid Egyptian dynasty was overthrown by slave ("Mamluk") regiments, and a new dynasty - theMamluks - was born. On September 3, 1260, at theBattle of Ain Jalut held in theJezreel Valley, the Muslim Egyptian Mamluks underBaibars defeated theMongols and stopped their advance. His successorAl-Ashraf Khalil completed the victory by sweeping the last of the Crusaders out of Palestine.
In 1291, the forces of theMamluk Sultan of Egyptal-Ashraf Khalil forced along siege upon the city of Acre, which was the finalChristian landhold in the Holy Land. The Mamluks captured the city on May 18, 1291, killing most of the Christian local inhabitants, thus ending the secondCrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem.[33]
The Mamluks were to rule Palestine for the following two centuries (1291–1516). The Muslim population became the majority, and many Muslim shrines were built such asMaqam al-Nabi Yamin,Maqam al-Nabi Musa,Maqam al-Nabi Rubin and many more shrines that Muslims described as a burial sites ofProphets,Sahabas and even what they considered holy Muslim martyrs from Crusader and pre-Crusader times. Some historians[who?] say that the shrines were built to make a good strategic positions for Muslims (for exampleNabi Musa was built on the road fromJerusalem toJericho).[citation needed]
The Mamluks, ruling from Damascus, brought some prosperity to the area, particularly to Jerusalem, with an extensive programme involving the building of schools, hospices for pilgrims, the construction of Islamic colleges and the renovation of mosques.Mujir al-Din's extensive writing about 15th century Jerusalem documents the consolidation and expansion of Islamic sites in the Mamluk era.[34]
The ascendency of theBurji over theBahri Mamluks, together with recurrent droughts, plagues and pestilence like theBlack Death and taxation to cover the costs of wars against Crusaders and Mongols (the last of which was "Tamurlane's horde") brought about both growing insecurity and economic decline. By the end of their reign, with the decay of internal control and massive population losses due to plagues, Bedouins moved in to take advantage of the decline in defenses, and farmers abandoned their lands. They sacked Ramla in 1481 and annihilated a Mamluk army that had been raised in Gaza to repel them.[35][36] By the end of the 15th century, Jerusalem's population amounted to approximately 10,000, mostly Muslims, with roughly 1,000 Christians and 400 Jews.[37]
On August 24, 1516, at theBattle of Marj Dabiq, the Ottoman Empire forces defeated the Mamluk sultanate forces and thus the Ottomans became the new rulers of theLevant. On October 28, they defeated the Mamluk forces once more in theBattle of Yaunis Khan and they annexed the region of Palestine. By December of that year the entire region of Palestine was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.[citation needed] As a result of the Ottoman advance during the reign ofSelim I,[38] the SunniOttoman Turks occupied the historic region of Palestine. Their leadership reinforced and ensured the centrality and importance of Islam as the dominant religion in the region. Swamps with the risk of malaria made it difficult to settle and farm on the coastal plains and in the valleys throughout most of the Ottoman era.[39]
In 1834,a popular uprising erupted against the rule ofWāli Muhammad Ali. The main cause of the uprising was indignation at being drafted by the Egyptian army. At first the rebels managed to take over many cities, includingNablus,Jerusalem andHebron. In response, Egyptian military leaderIbrahim Pasha commanded an army force of 40,000 people against the rebels and managed to put an end to the rebellion, conqueringGaza,Ramleh,Jaffa,Haifa, Jerusalem andAcre. Ibrahim Pasha, in wresting control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, clashed with the regional ambitions of the European Great Powers and, in order to assuage their unease, he reversed Ottoman policy and opened the country up to both foreigners and non-Muslim populations. Despite the brevity of Egyptian overlordship, since the great powers restored the fortunes of the Ottomans and their sovereignty over Palestine, the long-term effect was to lay the groundwork for the development of extensive European activities and interests in Palestine.[40]
In 1860, theMosque of Omar was built in the Christian city ofBethlehem. It is the only mosque in Bethlehem's old city.[41]
In 1917, at the end of theFirst World War, theBritish Empire conquered the region of Palestine from theOttoman Empire. TheUnited Kingdom was granted control of Palestine by theVersailles Peace Conference which established theLeague of Nations in 1919 and appointedHerbert Samuel, a formerPostmaster General in theBritish cabinet, who was instrumental in drafting theBalfour Declaration, as its firstHigh Commissioner in Palestine. The British occupation of the region brought an end to hundreds of years of successive Muslim rule in the region of Palestine.
The gradual increase in the number of Jews in Palestine led to the development of a proto-Arab-Palestinian national movement, influenced and inspired by Muslim leader and Mufti of JerusalemHaj Amin al-Husseini.Zionism, the ideology advocating the creation of aJewish state in Palestine, was increasingly identified as a threat by the Muslim-Arab population in Palestine. Thisanti-Zionist trend became linked to a fierce anti-British resistance (like in the1920 Palestine riots and during the 1936–39Arab Revolt).
TheHigh Commissioner of Palestine,Herbert Samuel, issued an order in December 1921 establishing a Supreme Muslim Council with authority over all the Muslimwaqfs andsharia courts in Palestine. In addition, in 1922 the British authorities appointedHaj Amin al-Husseini as theMufti of Jerusalem. Until the1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine took place, the Council operated as the Governing body of the Arab community under the British Mandate, and co-operated with the British government in Palestine. All along its operation, the Supreme Muslim Council advocated an active resistance against the Jewish "Yishuv", supporting the Arab underground anti-British movements in the country.[42]
On May 14, 1948, one day before the end of theBritish Mandate of Palestine, the leaders of theJewish community in Palestine led by prime ministerDavid Ben-Gurion, made adeclaration of independence, and thestate of Israel was established. Contingents ofEgyptian,Syrian,Jordanian, andIraqi armies invaded Israel, thus starting the1948 Arab–Israeli War. The nascentIsraeli Defense Force repulsed the Arab nations from part of the occupied territories, thus extending its borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition.[43] By December 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of theJordan River. The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called theWest Bank (occupied by Jordan), and theGaza Strip (occupied by Egypt). Prior to and during this conflict, 700,000[44] Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to becomePalestinian refugees, in part, due to apromise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when the war is won.[45]
The British transferred the symbolicIslamic governance of the land to theHashemites based inJordan, and not to theHouse of Saud. The Hashemites thus became the official guardians of the Islamic holy places of Jerusalem and the areas around it. Following the Jordanian rule of the West Bank during the war, KingAbdullah I of Jordan removed Amin al-Husayni as Grand Mufti and appointed SheikhHussam ad-Din Jarallah as the newGrand Mufti of Jerusalem on 20 December 1948. TheSupreme Muslim Council was eventually disbanded in 1951 by the Jordanian authorities.[citation needed] On July 20, 1951 king Abdullah of Jordan was assassinated while visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque. The assassination was carried out by a Palestinian from theHusseini clan. The Palestinian gunman, motivated by fears that king Abdullah would make a separate peace with Israel, fired three fatal bullets into the King's head and chest.[citation needed]
After the conquest of theTemple Mount during theSix-Day War, the Chief Israeli Rabbinate announced that Jewish people are forbidden of entering the Temple Mount. Since 1967, Israel controls the security on the Temple Mount, but theMuslim Waqf controls administrative matters, taking responsibility for the conduct of Islamic affairs just as it did during the Jordanian rule.[46][47]
Ellenblum posits that Islamization stemmed from both nomadic resettlement and individual conversions.[4][5] Levtzion, Vryonis and Avni emphasize the role of sedentarization,[4][5][7] noting its facilitation of rapid Islamization compared to the slower pace of individual conversions among the local populace.[4][5] Additionally, scholars like Michael Erlich highlight the impact of changes in social structures and the weakening of Christian authorities due to deurbanization under Islamic rule on the Islamization process.[8] One possible exception is the mass conversion of Samaritans to Islam.[6]
According to Erlich, Palestine's Islamization was mainly a result ofurbanization andde-urbanization processes in Palestine under Muslim rule. During theByzantine period, Palestine boasted more than thirty cities, or settlements with abishop's see. Most of these cities declined under Muslim rule, and eventually disappeared; some of these became villages or townships, others were completely destroyed. This resulted in many cases in a weakening or complete disappearance of the localecclesiastical administration. Over time, most of the local population converted to Islam. During this period, onlyNablus andJerusalem maintained their urban status, which is why, according to Erlich, religious minorities (Samaritans,Jews andChristians, respectively) survived there.[8]
Today, Islam is a prominent religion in both Gaza and the West Bank. Most of the population in theState of Palestine are Muslims (85% in the West Bank and 99% in the Gaza Strip).[48][49]
Sunnis constitute 85% of Palestinian Muslims,[50] of which the predominant madhab isHanafi, which is one of the four schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam.Salafism took root in Gaza in the 1970s, when Palestinian students returned from studying abroad at religious schools in Saudi Arabia. A number of Salafi groups in Gaza continue to receive support and funding from Riyadh.[51]
From 1923 to 1948, there were seven villages inMandatory Palestine in which the population was predominantlyShia Muslim (also known asMetawali):Tarbikha,Saliha,Malkiyeh,Nabi Yusha,Qadas,Hunin, andAbil al-Qamh.[52] These villages were transferred from the French to the British sphere as a result of the border agreement of 1923. All of them were depopulated during the1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of them went into Lebanon and their former locations are now in northernIsrael. The 1931 census counted 4,100Metawalis in Palestine.[53]
Since 1979, due to Iran's influence, some Palestinian Sunnis have converted to Shia Islam. IsraeliHaaretz reported in 2012 thatHamas's fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza caused the organization to crack down on Shiite organizations, including charities.[54] Nevertheless, becoming Shiite is a growing trend in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of Sunnis, bothIslamic Jihad activists and ordinary people, are known to have converted.[54] TheSabireen Movement was created in 2014 by some Shi’ites that left theIslamic Jihad.[55]
According to the Pew Research Center,non-denominational Muslims constitute 15% of the Palestinian Muslim population.[50]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)From the data given above it can be concluded that the Muslim population of Central Samaria, during the early Muslim period, was not an autochthonous population which had converted to Christianity. They arrived there either by way of migration or as a result of a process of sedentarization of the nomads who had filled the vacuum created by the departing Samaritans at the end of the Byzantine period [...] To sum up: in the only rural region in Palestine in which, according to all the written and archeological sources, the process of Islamization was completed already in the twelfth century, there occurred events consistent with the model propounded by Levtzion and Vryonis: the region was abandoned by its original sedentary population and the subsequent vacuum was apparently filled by nomads who, at a later stage, gradually became sedentarized
According to Kedar, at the arrival of the Crusaders the distribution of the Muslims would therefore have varied from area to area. While some parts of Palestine were still mainly occupied by their former inhabitants, in others most of the residents were Muslim. Kedar's approach is followed by Ellenblum, who describes the spread of Islam in Palestine as the result of both resettlement by nomadic tribes and individual conversion. The coexistence of these two processes has also been described by Levtzion. Together with Speros Vryonis, who studied the importance of the process of sedentarization for the Islamization of Anatolia, Levtzion pointed out that whereas Islamization of areas due to sedentarization was a rapid process, conversely the spread of Islam among the local population through individual conversion was slow. ... Research on the topic has also highlighted the role played by Sufis and prominent local families in the spread of Islam in Palestinian villages once inhabited by Christians. This is the case for example with Dayr al-Sheykh and Sharafāt, both near to Jerusalem.
The western coastline and the eastern deserts set the boundaries for the Levant ... The Euphrates and the area around Jebel el-Bishrī mark the eastern boundary of the northern Levant, as does the Syrian Desert beyond the Anti-Lebanon range's eastern hinterland and Mount Hermon. This boundary continues south in the form of the highlands and eastern desert regions of Transjordan.
To theArabs, this same territory, which the Romans considered Arabian, formed part of what they calledBilad al-Sham, which was their own name forSyria. From the classical perspective however Syria, including Palestine, formed no more than the western fringes of what was reckoned to be Arabia between the first line of cities and the coast. Since there is no clear dividing line between what are called today theSyrian andArabian deserts, which actually form one stretch of arid tableland, the classical concept of what actually constituted Syria had more to its credit geographically than the vaguer Arab concept of Syria as Bilad al-Sham. Under theRomans, there was actually aprovince of Syria, with its capital atAntioch, which carried the name of the territory. Otherwise, down the centuries, Syria likeArabia andMesopotamia was no more than a geographic expression. InIslamic times, the Arab geographers used the name arabicized asSuriyah, to denote one special region of Bilad al-Sham, which was the middle section of the valley of theOrontes river, in the vicinity of the towns ofHoms andHama. They also noted that it was an old name for the whole of Bilad al-Sham which had gone out of use. As a geographic expression, however, the name Syria survived in its original classical sense inByzantine and Western European usage, and also in theSyriac literature of some of theEastern Christian churches, from which it occasionally found its way intoChristian Arabic usage. It was only in the nineteenth century that the use of the name was revived in its modern Arabic form, frequently as Suriyya rather than the older Suriyah, to denote the whole of Bilad al-Sham: first of all in theChristian Arabic literature of the period, and under the influence ofWestern Europe. By the end of that century it had already replaced the name of Bilad al-Sham even inMuslim Arabic usage.
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