The Conquest of Jerusalem by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA)

The Conquest of Jerusalem by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA)

There are several narrations regarding the date of the conquest of Jerusalem. Sāif ibn ʿUmar al-Tamīmī al-Kūfī reported that the conquest took place in 15 AH / 636 CE. However, narrators who were closer to the event in time and place—such as Yazīd ibn ʿUbaydah al-Dimashqī, Walīd ibn Muslim al-Dimashqī, Ibn al-Kalbī, al-Yaʿqūbī, and Ibn al-Baṭrīq—stated that it occurred in 637 CE. Abū Ḥafs al-Dimashqī uniquely reported the year 638 CE. The most likely scenario is that the conquest occurred after the arrival of Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA) in Jābiyah in 636 CE, for he had not entered Palestine before that year.

After Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ (RA) conquered Damascus in 15 AH / 636 CE, he sent a letter to the people of Īliyāʾ (the name for Jerusalem at the time), inviting them to embrace Islām, pay the jizyah, or prepare for battle. The people of Īliyāʾ chose to fight, so Abū ʿUbaydah dispatched the Muslim armies towards Jerusalem. The city was besieged, and its inhabitants fortified their walls and took defensive measures.

During the siege, Saʿīd ibn Zayd offered terms of peace, but they refused. When they realized that they could not withstand the Muslim forces, they declared that they would surrender the city only to the Caliph of the Muslims himself. Abū ʿUbaydah then wrote to ʿUmar (RA), informing him of their condition. ʿUmar accepted and personally set out for Jerusalem.

Upon his arrival, ʿUmar al-Fārūq (RA) entered the city humbly and peacefully, and in the presence of Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ (RA), he granted Patriarch Sophronius a covenant of safety (ʿAhd al-Amān), guaranteeing the protection of the lives, property, and places of worship of the city’s inhabitants.