British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 889

CHAPTER XXII.

their property. He entered Jerusalem, accompanied by the Patriarch, in the spring of 638. Thus Islam * took possession of Palestine and of the City, which was to be retained by Moslem powers, save for a temporary expulsion in tile course of the Crusades, until the capture of Jerusalem by Viscount Allenby in December, 1917.

26. Before proceeding with this brief historical sketch, it will be convenient to review shortly the origin and growth of certain divisions in the Christian Church which had gradually arisen during a period of some two hundred years before the capture of Jerusalem by Islam.

27. As has been said, the five Patriarchates of Christendom were still united at this period, but various groups of Christians had separated themselves from this unity and formed dissident Churches of their own. The spiritual, and indeed in some cases the lineal, descendants of these groups are to be found among the smaller Christian communities in Palestine today. Doctrinal differences were, naturally, the principal causes of these secessions, but subsidiary reasons of a political and even a personal nature were not infrequently present. "Though the great heresies of the early days of Christianity, Arianism, Pelagianism, etc. did not disappear without leaving a trace, only two of them are still represented by existing churches, whose origins were in the Christological controversies of the fifth century, known respectively as Nestorianism and Monophysism"**. The Nestorians are represented today by the Assyrian Christians of Iraq and are outside the scope of this memorandum : they derive their name from Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, whose teaching was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. The Monophysites are represented by the following bodies of Christians :

Copts; Ethiopians; Syrian Jacobites ***; and Armenians, all of whom have Churches in Palestine. The following are the approximate dates on which the monophysite Churches were formed
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* The Mosque of Omar, more properly called the Dome of the Rock, one of the architectural glories of Jerusalem, was built by the Caliph Abd-el Melik during the years 688-691: the Mosque of El Aksa by his son the Caliph Walid, who ruled from 705-715. According to the Arab historian Ibn-el-Kbaldoun, the Arab rulers in the early days found it necessary to employ foreign architects and builders because the Arabs themselves were not as yet experienced in architecture. He adds that the architect and builders of the El Aksa Mosque were sent to Jerusalem at the Caliph Walid 's request by the Byzantine Emperor: there is no doubt that the Dom13 of the Rock was also built by Greek architects.

** Attwatcr: The Dissident Eastern Chnrches. Page 5.

So called from Bishop Jacob Baradi (consecrated in A.D. 543) who organized the new Church. The title which they themselves use is "Syrian Orthodox".

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