Rashidun
The Surrender of Jerusalem to 'Umar
The 'Umariyya covenant and the keys of Aelia, 16 AH
16 AH / 637 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Jerusalem (Aelia / Iliya), the Temple esplanade
31.7781, 35.2358 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
In the sixteenth year after the Hijra (637 CE), the year after the Muslim victory at the Yarmuk broke the Byzantine field army in Syria, the city of Jerusalem, known in this period by its Roman name Aelia (Arabic Iliya), surrendered to the Caliph 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (radiyallahu 'anhu). The principal Sunni accounts are in al-Tabari's Tarikh and al-Baladhuri's Futuh al-Buldan, with the fullest topographical treatment in the later Jerusalem history of Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi, al-Uns al-Jalil bi-Tarikh al-Quds wa-al-Khalil; the Byzantine side is reflected in the Greek chronicle tradition (Theophanes) and the Melkite chronicle of Eutychius (Sa'id ibn al-Bitriq). After a period of siege the Christian patriarch Sophronius agreed to surrender the city by treaty but, according to the tradition, would hand it over only to the caliph in person; 'Umar (RA) travelled from Madinah and entered the city in conspicuous humility, in plain travel-worn dress, and granted the inhabitants a covenant of protection, the famous 'Uhda 'Umariyya, guaranteeing the lives, property, and churches of the Christian population and the freedom of their worship in return for tribute. The tradition relates that when 'Umar (RA) was present at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the hour of prayer he declined to pray inside it, lest later Muslims should claim the church on the strength of his prayer, and prayed outside instead. He was then guided to the long-derelict Temple esplanade, abandoned and used as a refuse dump since the Roman destruction, had it cleared, and prayed at the site the Muslims identified with al-Masjid al-Aqsa, the "farthest place of prayer" named in the opening verse of Surat al-Isra' and the destination of the Prophet's Night Journey. A simple prayer-house was established there; the monumental Dome of the Rock and the great al-Aqsa mosque would be built only decades later under the Umayyads (from 72 AH / 691 CE onward). This scene depicts the moment of the peaceful handover and the clearing of the bare esplanade, with the city's Byzantine churches and late-antique walls intact and the platform still open to the sky.
What you see
A great empty rectangular platform of massive dressed-stone retaining walls dominates the city, the Herodian Temple esplanade (the Haram), but bare. There is NO golden dome and NO al-Aqsa mosque: the Dome of the Rock would not be built for another half-century, so the rock and the open terrace lie under the sky.
A walled hill-city of pale limestone on a high Judean ridge, with deep valleys falling away on three sides and the bare hills of the wilderness rolling east toward the Jordan. This is the topography of Jerusalem, not a coastal or riverine city.
Domed Byzantine churches rise across the city, the great rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre most prominent, the Christian Aelia of the Eastern Roman empire. The city walls are the late-antique line, NOT the much later Ottoman walls of Suleiman that visitors see today.
At a city gate, the keys of Jerusalem and a written covenant are being handed from the Christian patriarch to the leader of the Muslim army. The exchange is ceremonial and peaceful: a negotiated surrender of the holy city, not a storming.
The caliph himself has come in person to receive the city, the tradition records him arriving in plain, travel-worn garments on a simple mount, in deliberate humility, to the astonishment of the Roman officials accustomed to imperial pomp.
The neglected, refuse-strewn state of the great platform is being cleared, the tradition records that 'Umar (radiyallahu 'anhu), guided to the site, had the long-abandoned esplanade swept clean and prayed there, marking the Muslim restoration of the sanctuary that the Qur'an calls al-Masjid al-Aqsa, the farthest place of prayer.
The clear light of the Judean uplands lies over the city. The surrender belongs to the sixteenth year after the Hijra (637 CE), the year after the great victory at Yarmuk opened Syria and Palestine to the Muslim armies.
Primary sources
al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk (10th c.): The principal Sunni narrative of the surrender of Jerusalem, 'Umar's (RA) journey to receive it, and the granting of the covenant. The text-critical anchor for the event and its dating to 16 AH.
al-Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan (9th c.): Early Sunni conquest history. Preserves the terms of the surrender and the covenant of protection for the inhabitants of Aelia.
Further reading & cross-references
Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi, al-Uns al-Jalil bi-Tarikh al-Quds wa-al-Khalil (15th c.): The standard Sunni history of Jerusalem and Hebron. Used for the topography of the city at the conquest, the state of the Temple esplanade, the episode at the Holy Sepulchre, and the clearing of the Haram.
Eutychius (Sa'id ibn al-Bitriq), Nazm al-Jawhar (10th c.): Melkite Christian Arabic chronicle of Alexandria. Used as a non-Muslim cross-reference for the surrender, the role of Sophronius, and the episode of 'Umar (RA) declining to pray inside the Holy Sepulchre. Confirms detail; does not frame the religious tone.
Theophanes the Confessor, Chronographia (early 9th c.): Greek Byzantine chronicle. Cross-reference for the Byzantine loss of Jerusalem after Yarmuk and the chronology of the Syrian-Palestinian conquest. Used for confirmation of date and place only.
Standing Herodian fabric of the Haram esplanade and the late-antique city (extant): The massive Herodian retaining walls of the Temple platform survive; the pre-Umayyad, pre-Crusader, pre-Ottoman state of the city constrains the reconstruction, bare platform, Byzantine churches, late-antique walls, no Dome of the Rock.
Guess places like this in GeoSiyer
Drop into a 360° scene from Islamic history and pin where — and when — it happened.
Play GeoSiyer