The Muslim armies captured remaining towns in Syria in the months following the Battle of Yarmouk. They re-occupied Damascus, temporarily abandoned so as to have maximum forces at Yarmouk. The siege of Emessa/Homs took place in the winter, when the people in the town hoped that snow would force the barefoot Arabs to withdraw. They didn’t, so when spring came, the city negotiated its surrender.
Hugh Kennedy provides details of the surrender provisions, interesting in that they tell us what was considered normal at the time. The city’s residents paid tribute, but not all the same rates, so that would have been negotiated. It was personal, rather than a lump sum, as I would have assumed. This may have been part of why conversion to Islam was individually appealing, since tribute as a whole could be paid, while one man’s contribution was suspended. The city walls, churches, and mills were given special attention in the negotiation, so that none were to be torn down. A portion of one church would become a mosque; the same thing happened in Damascus. During the early years of conquest, archeological records show us various churches that shared space with Muslims, as identified by the qibla, the direction pointer toward Mecca.
Abandoned houses and land in Emesa/Homs would go to Muslim settlers, and up to half of the occupied houses were told to support Muslim guest residents. This was a way of paying Arab commanders with landed property; they sent for their families and flocks, and Syria began to be more heavily Arab from this time. Khalid decided to settle his family in one of the defeated towns that stood in a wide, green, agricultural plain. Although he continued to campaign, this became his home base. Other officers did the same, creating the foundation of the eventual Arab Muslim aristocracy of Syria.
Antioch didn’t attempt to put up a long siege resistance, although as Crusaders were later to learn, it was a city designed to be impregnable. Other towns sometimes welcomed the Muslim army as guests, with drums and cymbals. Gaza and Caesarea on the coast were among the last cities to fall. Amr, who had first approached Gaza before Yarmouk, now came back and conquered it, which positioned him to move into Egypt. Caesarea, another extremely strong port city, was hard to conquer. It may not have fallen to Arab control until 641. Tripoli, too, held out for a long time. These cities would all become major contests when the Christians tried to take them back, nearly 500 years later.
The port of Latakia is said to have been conquered with a ruse; fighting men hid in ditches, out of sight, while the main force appeared to retreat. When the townsmen brought their cattle out to pasture in the morning, the hidden men seized the gate. Hugh Kennedy says that in Latakia, the Muslims chose to build a new mosque, whereas in most of these towns, the existing church was divided. But the northern ports of Tyre, Sidon and Beirut surrendered. When Tripoli finally did fall, it was essentially also a surrender: the men were evacuated by sea, since the city was isolated by then.
The city of Jerusalem was ruled by its Patriarch, Sophronius. The army of Abu Ubaydah set up a siege in the fall of 636, and the city held out for four months. But it was clear that no imperial help was coming, and Sophronius himself had already sent the most important relics away in preparation for defeat. He asked for an unusual condition, though. He would only surrender to the Caliph himself. The Muslims may have tried to pass off someone else as Umar at first, but it became clear that only the real thing would do. So everyone sat by some of the Muslim generals made the journey to where Umar was. Umar may not have been in Medina; he may have been touring Syria’s conquered towns, setting up administrative details. Perhaps that’s why the Patriarch thought to ask for his personal involvement.
Their agreement, later called the Covenant of Umar, recognized Christians as a protected class as long as they paid their tribute/taxes. Jerusalem received special considerations, compared to Emessa/Homs. No churches in Jerusalem were to be divided, and all church property and rites were guaranteed complete safety. They were not to be forcibly converted, and neither were Jews to be placed in their city. Anyone who wished to withdraw and go to live in Byzantine territory was given safe passage. In fact, the terms encouraged them to leave, abandoning city houses and farm estates for Arabs to take over.
The point about Jews is odd, since Jerusalem was the city of the Jews. But when the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD, Jews were expelled, and apparently Roman law had formally never changed. Jews had continued to live in smaller towns and on the outskirts of Jerusalem. I can’t believe that Jerusalem was really “Judenrein,” and by the Crusades’ period, there were certainly Jewish neighborhoods. But apparently it was important to the Patriarch to get this old Roman law upheld. Perhaps Arabia’s reputation as a refuge for Jews made it seem very likely that the Muslims would bring in Jews, just as they were placing Bedouins in other cities. Indeed, later the Muslim governor imported Arabian Jews to populate coastal cities that had been largely abandoned.
Patriarch Sophronius and Caliph Umar toured the city, with the Patriarch making sure all of the necessary renovations were pointed out. Invited to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Umar refused lest the Muslims interpret this as taking it for a mosque. There was apparently nothing built on the Temple Mount; the famous Muslim Dome was not built until sixty years later. One of his top advisers was a converted Arabian Jew, K’ab ibn Adhar. K’ab suggested that the ruins of the Temple be used as the prayer qiblah that day, but Umar said no, they would turn toward Mecca, the only holy site for Muslims. However, apparently they did clear away rubbish that the Romans had been dumping on the site, and they prayed there.
During the ensuing year, as the rest of Palestine and Syria were conquered, the plague infection had its own campaign. Bubonic plague returned as “The Plague of Emmaus/Amwas” in 638. We don’t know how many of the Muslims died, but we know that Yazid and Abu Ubaydah died of plague. Yazid had been made the administrator of Syria, seated in Damascus. After his death, his younger brother Mu’awiyah became governor of Damascus. Yazid and Mu’awiya were both sons of Hind “the liver-eater” and Abu Sufyan, of the most powerful family in Mecca. As we’ll see, Mu’awiya took to power readily and resisted relinquishing any of it.
- The War of the Three Gods, by Peter Crawford.
- The Great Arab Conquests, by Hugh Kennedy