British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 888

CHAPTER XXII.

the middle of the VIth century and is in general in a good state of preservation.

23. It is unfortunately not possible within the ambit of this note to do more than mention in passing the reconstruction and enlargement of the Basilica of the Nativity at Bethlehem by the Emperor Justinian (A.D. 527-569), who has an immortal title to fame not only as ruler and jurist but as the builder of the Church of the Holy Wisdom (St. Sophia) in Constantinople. Justinian also built or restored a number of other churches and monasteries in the Holy Laud which there is no space to enumerate here.

2!. But the period of Byzantine rule in Palestine was soon to pass away. It had already been challenged shortly before the middle of the VIth century by Chosroes I, the King of Persia. The danger was at first averted by a series of brilliant victories won by Justinian and his successors, Tiberius II and Maurice, but in A.D. 604 Chosroes II invaded Syria, where he conducted a nine years' campaign culminating in the capture of Damascus in A.D. 613, and in the following year he invaded Palestine. He captured Jerusalem on the 20th May, 614, burnt a great number of churches, including the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, massacred over 33 ,000 Christians and carried the Patriarch Zacharias and a few of the surviving Christians into captivity. The Persians occupied Palestine for fourteen years, until the defeat of Chosroes by the Emperor Heraclius I at Nineveh (near Mosul) in A.D. 627 compelled them to make terms and evacuate the Holy Land shortly after the death of Chosroes in the following year. The Patriarch Zacharias had died in captivity : his successor was St. Modestus, who at once set to work rebuilding the Holy Places which had been destroyed : his work was continued by his successor St. Sophronius, who became Patriarch in 636.

25. But an adversary far more formidable than the Persian King was at the gates, for the religion taught by Mohammed (A.D. 571-632) was spreading far and wide and the armies of Islam under the Caliph Omar, after a victorious campaign against the Imperial forces which culminated in the defeat of the Byzantine troops at the battle of the River Yarmnuk , were marching upon the Holy Land. The Patriarch Sophronius made vigorous preparations foe resistance, but when it became clear that no aid was to be expected from Constantinople, he approached the Caliph with an offer to treat for the capitulation of Jerusalem. Omar showed himself a chivalrous conqueror and guaranteed to the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem their lives, their churches and

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