Subject and Scope

This book is a study of the historical and archaeological evidence for the social history of the Christian communities in Palestine during the transition from Byzantine Christian rule to Arab Islamic rule in the seventh, eighth, and early ninth centuries. Such a subject rapidly becomes unmanageable unless closely defined, and in this study it has been necessary to limit discussion to the main developments as these directly affected the Christian communities in the region. In particular, I will consider such issues as the shifting attitudes and policies of the Byzantine, Sasanian, and Arab governments, the course and impact of the Sasanian and Islamic invasions, and such controversies as Monothelitism and Iconoclasm, insofar as these involved and affected the Christians of Palestine. I will also have occasion to discuss more general trends: monasticism, pilgrimage, and conversion to Islam.

This study does not and cannot aim to give equal consideration to all matters worthy of attention. It is not, for example, a study in the history of theology; hence, theological developments, disputes, and writings, though of indubitable importance, are considered only to the extent that they have some bearing on social history. Nor can it consider in detail Jewish and Samaritan history, topics that warrant full study in their own right . Finally, while the history of the Christian communities comprises an integral part of the more general social, political, and economic history of the period, these broader considerations will not be examined here in more than tangential fashion.

The geographical scope of this study I specify with the term Palestine, but more precisely it consists of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which covered the Byzantine provinces of Palaestina Prima, Secunda, and Tertia, and a portion of the Patriarchate of Antioch that included the province of Arabia and the southern part of the province of Phoenicia Maritima south of the Litani River. Under Arab rule, this territory comprised the junds of Filastin and al- U rdunn and the southern part of the jund of Dimashq. In modern terms this area approximately follows the boundaries of Israel and Jordan and includes parts of the Sinai peninsula, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria. There is no adroit English term that adequately delineates this region: southern geographical Syria, or its Arabic equivalent, southern Bilad al-Sham, would be most accurate, but both are too cumbersome to be used here.