On the partition of the empire, in A.D. 395, Palestine naturally fell to the share of the emperor of the East. Froin this onwards for more than 200 years there is a period of comparative quiet in Palestine ; the only history it displays being that of the develop ment of pilgrimage and of the cult of holy places and of relics, varied by occasional persecutions of the Jews. The elaborate building operations of Justinian (527-565) must not be forgotten. The "Golden Gate" of the Temple area and part of the church which is now the El-Aksa Mosque at Jerusalem, are due to him.
This interval of tranquillity came abruptly to an end in 611, when Chosroes II. (q.v.), king of Persia, made an inroad into Syria ; joined by the Jews, anxious to revenge their misfortunes, he swept over the country, carrying plunder and destruction wherever he went. Jerusalem was taken ; the Holy Sepulchre church was destroyed and its treasures carried off ; the other churches were likewise razed to the ground ; the patriarch was taken prisoner. Thus for a time the province of Syria with Palestine was lost to the empire of Byzantium.
The Emperor Heraclius reconquered the lost territory in 628. But his triumph was short-lived. A more formidable enemy was already on the way, and the final wresting of Syria from the feeble relics of the Roman empire was imminent. (L. ST. ; F. M. S.) Rise of Islam.—The separate tribal units of Arabia, more or less impotent when divided and at war with one another, received for the first time an indissoluble bond of union from the prophet Mohammed, whose perfect knowledge of human nature (at least of Arab human nature) enabled him to formulate a religious system that was calculated to command an enthusiastic ac ceptance by the tribes to which it was primarily addressed. His successor, Abu Bekr, called on the tribes of Arabia to unite and to capture the fertile province of Syria from the Christians.
Heraclius had not sufficient time to prepare to meet this new foe, and was defeated in his first engagement with Abu Bekr. (For the general history of this period see CALIPHATE.) The latter seized Bostra and proceeded to march to Damascus. He died, however, before carrying out his design (A.D. 634), and was suc ceeded by Omar, who, after a siege of 7o days entered the city. Other towns fell in turn, such as Caesarea, Sebusteh (Samaria), Nablus (Shechem), Lydd, Jaffa.
Meanwhile Heraclius was not idle. He collected a huge army and in 636 marched against the Arabs. The latter retreated to the Yarmuk River, where the Byzantines met them. Betrayed, it
is said, by a Christian who had suffered personal wrongs at the hands of certain of the Byzantine generals, the army of Heraclius was utterly defeated, and with it fell the Byzantine empire in Syria and Palestine.
After this victory Omar's army marched against Jerusalem, which after a feeble resistance capitulated. The terms of peace, though on the whole moderate, were of a galling and humiliating nature, being ingeniously contrived to make the Christians ever conscious of their own inferiority. Restrictions in church-build ing, in dress, in the use of beasts of burden, in social intercourse with Muslims and in the use of bells and of the sign of the cross were enforced. When these terms were agreed upon and signed Omar, under the leadership of the Christian patriarch Sophronius, visited the Holy Rock (the prayer-place of David and the site of the Jewish temple). This he found to be defiled with filth, spread upon it by the Christians in despite of the Jews. Omar and his followers in person cleaned it, and established the place of prayer which, though later rebuilt, has borne his name ever since. Dissensions and rivalries soon broke out among the Muslim leaders, and in 66r Moawiya, the first caliph of the Omayyad dynasty, transferred the seat of the caliphate from Mecca to Damascus, where it remained till the Abbasids seized the sov ereignty and transferred it to Baghdad (75o). Rivals sprang up from time to time. In 684 Caliph Abdalmalik (`Abd el-Melek), in order to weaken the prestige of Mecca, set himself to beautify the holy shrine of Jerusalem, and built the Kubbet es-Sakhrah, or Dome of the Rock, which still remains one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. In 831 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored ; but about zoo years later it was again destroyed as a result of the revolt of the Carmathians (q.v.), who in 929 pil laged Mecca. This produced a Muslim exodus to Jerusalem, with the consequence mentioned. The Carmathian revolt, one of the first of the great splits in the Muslim world, was followed by others: in 936 Egypt declared its independence, under a line of caliphs which claimed descent from Fatima, daughter of the prophet (see FATIMITES) and in 996 Hakim Bi-amrillah mounted the Egyptian throne. This madman caused the church of the Holy Sepulchre to be entirely destroyed : and giving himself out to be the incarnation of Deity, his cult was founded by two Persians, Darazi and Hamza ibn Ali, in the Lebanon; where among the Druses it still persists (see DRusEs).