Jund Filastin

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox Former Subdivision Template:History of Israel Template:History of Palestine Jund Filasṭīn (Template:Langx, "the military district of Palestine") was one of the military districts of the Umayyad and Abbasid province of Bilad al-Sham (Levant), organized soon after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s. Jund Filastin, which encompassed most of Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Tertia, included the newly established city of Ramla as its capital and eleven administrative districts (kura), each ruled from a central town.[1]

History

Muslim conquest

The Muslim conquest of Palestine is difficult to reconstruct, according to the historian Dominique Sourdel.Template:Sfn It is generally agreed that the Qurayshite commander Amr ibn al-As was sent to conquer the area by Caliph Abu Bakr,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn likely in 633.Template:Sfn Amr traversed the Red Sea coast of the Hejaz (western Arabia), reached the port town of Ayla at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, then crossed into the Negev Desert or further west into the Sinai Peninsula. He then arrived to the villages of Dathin and Badan near Gaza, where he entered negotiations with the Byzantine garrison commander. The talks collapsed and the Muslims bested the Byzantines in the subsequent clash at Dathin in February or March 634.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn At this stage of the conquest Amr's troops encamped at Ghamr al-Arabat in the middle of the Araba Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.Template:Sfn The town of Gaza was left alone, with Amr's primary objective at the time being the subjugation of the Arab tribes in the vicinity.Template:Sfn

After the Muslim armies led by Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Bosra in the Hauran in May 634 they crossed the Jordan River to reinforce Amr as he faced a large Byzantine army. In the ensuing Battle of Ajnadayn, fought at a site Script error: No such module "convert". southwest of Jerusalem in July or August, the Muslims under Amr's overall command routed the Byzantines.Template:Sfn In the aftermath of Ajnadayn, Amr captured the towns of Sebastia, Nablus, Lydda, Yibna, Amwas, Bayt Jibrin and Jaffa.Template:Sfn Most of these towns fell after minor resistance, hence the scant information available about them in the sources.Template:Sfn

Following the decisive Muslim victory against the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk (636), fought along the Yarmouk tributary of the Jordan River east of Palestine, Amr besieged Jerusalem, which held out until the arrival of Caliph Umar, to whom Jerusalem's leaders surrendered in 637.Template:Sfn The coastal towns of Gaza, Ascalon and Caesarea had continued to hold out. The commander Alqama ibn Mujazziz may have been sent against Byzantine forces in Gaza several times during and after Ajnadayn.Template:Sfn Amr launched his conquest of Egypt from Jerusalem c. Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..Template:Sfn Caesarea was besieged for a lengthy period and captured most likely by Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan in 639, 640 or 641.Template:Sfn Not long after, Mu'awiya captured Ascalon, completing the conquest of Palestine,Template:Sfn most of which had been undertaken by Amr.Template:Sfn

Early administration

Filastin became one of the four original junds (military districts) of Bilad al-Sham (Islamic Syria) established by Caliph Umar.Template:Sfn In effect the Muslims maintained the preexisting administrative organization of the Byzantine district of Palaestina Prima.Template:Sfn

The Umayyad period (661–750) was a relatively prosperous period for Filastin and the Umayyad caliphs invested considerably in the district's development.Template:Sfn According to Sourdel, "Palestine was particularly honoured in the Umayyad period".Template:Sfn The first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who held overall authority over Syria, including Palestine, from the reign of Caliph Uthman (Template:Reign), was initially recognized as caliph in a ceremony in Jerusalem.Template:Sfn

On the other hand, a change in the Syrian policy during the Abbasid period resulted in an overall decline in the region. The Levant was now further from the seat of authority as the capital relocated from Damascus to Baghdad. The new policy preferred Iraq over the Levant due to suspicion of the local Muslim population's loyalty , as they strongly identified with the Abbasid's rivals , the former Umayyad dynasty. Moreover, the Abbasids promoted trade with eastern lands such as Tang China and the Kingdoms of India. This led to neglect, political unrest, and occasionally local rebellions, one of which is the Al-Mubarqa. A process of urban decline is believed to had been accelerated by the 749 earthquake, which increased the number of Jews, Christians, and Samaritans who migrated to diaspora settlements while also leaving behind others who stayed in the devastated towns and impoverished villages until they embraced Islam.[2]

Geography

At its greatest extent, Filastin extended from Rafah in the south to Lajjun in the north, and from the Mediterranean coast well to the east of the southern part of the Jordan River. The mountains of Edom, and the town of Zoar (Sughar) at the southeastern end of the Dead Sea were included in the district. However, the Galilee was excluded, being part of Jund al-Urdunn in the north.[3] Filastin roughly comprised the regions of Samaria, Judea, and the adjacent Mediterranean coastal plain from Mount Carmel in the north to Gaza in the south.Template:Sfn

According to al-Baladhuri, the main towns of Filastin, following its conquest by the Rashidun Caliphate, were, from south to north, Rafah, Gaza, Bayt Jibrin, Yibna, Amwas, Lydda, Jaffa, Nablus, Sebastia, and Caesarea.[3] Under Byzantine rule the port city of Caesarea was the territory's capital, a natural choice as it eased communications with the capital Constantinople. After the Muslim conquest, the administrative focus shifted to the interior. Amwas was referred to as a qasaba in the early Islamic sources; the term could refer to a central town, but most likely meant a fortified camp in the case of Amwas. It served as the principal military camp of the Muslim troops, where spoils were divided and stipends paid, until it was abandoned by the troops in 639 due to the plague of Amwas.Template:Sfn From about 640 Ludd and/or Jerusalem have been determined as the capital or political-religious center of Filastin, according to modern historians.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

After the caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik founded the city of Ramla next to Ludd, he designated it the capital, and most of Ludd's inhabitants were forced to settle there. In the 9th century, during Abbasid rule, Jund Filastin was the most fertile of Syria's districts, and contained at least twenty mosques, despite its small size.[3]

After the Fatimids conquered the district from the Abbasids, Jerusalem eventually became the capital, and the principal towns were Ascalon, Ramla, Gaza, Arsuf, Caesarea, Jaffa, Jericho, Nablus, Bayt Jibrin, and Amman.[3] The district persisted in some form until the Seljuk invasions and the Crusades of the late 11th century.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Population

Template:More information At the time of the Muslim conquest, Filastin had been inhabited mainly by Aramaic-speaking Miaphysite Christian peasants.[3] Samaria, in the northern part of the district, had a large Samaritan population.[4] Two separate gradual demographic processes—cultural Arabization and religious Islamization—were initiated after the Islamic conquest.[5] It is believed that the settlements of Arabians , both before and after the Muslim conquest contributed at least partially to the pace of Arabization and Islamization.[6][7][8][9] The principal Arabian tribes which inhabited Filastin and formed its army were the Lakhm, Judham, Kinana, Khath'am, Khuza'a, and Azd Sarat.Template:Sfn However, the inhabitants of Palestine did not become predominantly Muslim and Arab in identity until several centuries after the conquest[3] with full Arabization achieved by the 9th century, and mass-Islamization not until the Mamluk period.[10]

Samaria was one of the first regions in Palestine to undergo a process of mass-conversions prior to the First Crusade. It was predominantly Samaritan and Christian during the Byzantine period, but during the early Islamic period, particularly under Abbasid and Tulunid rule, Samaria was gradually Islamized through the conversions of an indefinite yet large number of Samaritans as a result of religious persecution , high taxation, droughts , and warring , as well as migration by Arabian tribes.[10]By the end of the 10th century, the rural Samaritan population had "disappeared," and the remaining Samaritans had concentrated in urban areas, with Nablus serving as a major center, but there was also a Samaritan diaspora , establishing communities in Caesarea and Askhelon, and even beyond Palestine in Levantine cities such as Aleppo, Damascus, and Sarepta.Template:Sfn[11][4][12] The Christian Melkite community, on the other hand, underwent a process of adoption of Arabic and Arabization, but was able to avoid Islamization and preserve its religious and cultural identity for a longer period of time[5] until mass conversions to Islam in the Mamluk,[10] as well as the Ottoman periods.[13]

Governors

The governors of Jund Filastin:

Rashidun period

  • Amr ibn al-As and Alqama ibn Mujazziz al-Kinani (634–639; they were assigned as the commanders in charge of Filastin by Caliph Abu Bakr)Template:Sfn
  • Alqama ibn Mujazziz al-Kinani (639–641 or 644; when Amr left Filastin to conquer Egypt, Alqama was left as governor.Template:Sfn One version in the Islamic tradition placed his death in 641,Template:Sfn while another held that he was governor at the death of Caliph Umar in 644Template:Sfn According to one version Umar made Alqama governor of half of Filastin from his seat in Jerusalem, while Alqama ibn Hakim al-Kinani was appointed over the other half of Palestine from Ramla—Lydda is most likely meant here. This division may have been done following the plague of Amwas in 639.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn)
  • Abd al-Rahman ibn Alqama al-Kinani (c. Template:TrimScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".–645 or 646; governed for undetermined period during the reign of Umar's successor Caliph Uthman in 644–656)Template:Sfn
  • Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (645 or 646–661; appointed by Caliph Uthman after the death of Abd al-Rahman ibn Alqama; he was already governor of the junds of Dimashq and al-Urdunn under Umar was given authority over Jund Hims by Uthman)Template:Sfn

Umayyad period

Abbasid period

Fatimid period

Information about the Fatimid provincial administration in Filastin, as with the other provinces in Bilad al-Sham, is scant, and largely limited to the period of 1023–1025, which was covered by the surviving fragment of the chronicle of al-Musabbihi (d. 1029). It is not clear to what degree the governor (wali) of Filastin's capital of Ramla was responsible for the rest of the province. The governor of Ramla was in charge of the local police force, but the qadi (head judge) in the city was appointed directly by the caliph's court as was the auditor (zimmam) of the fiscal administrator (amil) of Filastin. At least one military governor (mutawali harb) of Filastin, Anushtakin al-Dizbari, is named.Template:Sfn Other cities in Filastin, including Jerusalem, Caesarea,Template:Sfn and Asqalan, also had their own governors, with the governors of Asqalan at one point holding the highest rank of any provincial governor in the Fatimid Caliphate.Template:Sfn

See also

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages; Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–900, Oxford University press 2005. p. 130. "In Syria and Palestine, where there were already Arabs before the conquest, settlement was also permitted in the old urban centres and elsewhere, presumably privileging the political centres of the provinces."
  8. ↑ Gideon Avni, The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach, Oxford University Press 2014 pp. 312–324, 329 (theory of imported population unsubstantiated);.
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ M. Levy-Rubin, "New evidence relating to the process of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim Period - The Case of Samaria", in: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 43 (3), pp. 257–276, 2000, Springer
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

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Sources

External links

Template:Districts of Islamic Syria

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