Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800

Michael Ehrlich is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Bar-Ilan University. His research focuses on historical geography in the medieval Middle East.

The Islamization of the Holy Land (Islamization henceforth) tackles a topic that the author rightly describes as understudied. How did the region of historical Palestine (including sections of today’s Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as Israel and Palestine) become Muslim? The general supposition is that conversion occurred during the postcrusade period (after 1291)—an assumption that Ehrlich seeks to challenge to some extent.The problem is that the Muslim sources, not to speak of the non-Muslim ones, are quite sparse in their descriptions of conversion to Islam. Most of what the sources supply are individual, anecdotal accounts of converts. Prior to the Ottoman period (1517 forward) there are no quantified breakdowns of the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan populations that inhabited the region.Ehrlich’s work is such a breakdown, dividing the region into geographic areas, then each further into chronological periods, assessing each community’s trajectory within both of these major frameworks. Thus, the reader can easily consult and compare the various regions in their differing conversion patterns. As Ehrlich rightly states, there will never be a final agreed-upon and quantifiable date at which the region became majority Muslim. Each sub- region had varying historical experiences, to the extent these can be attested. In some areas the Muslim population increased dramatically at an early stage, while falling at a later point, and vice versa with the Christian population. Only the Samaritans suffered a universally attested and continuous decline.[...]Although there is some citation of original sources, Ehrlich favors secondary-source discussion, including many archaeological reports, and in his analysis he tends to emphasize the twin periods of early Islamic settlement (seventh to ninth centuries) and the crusader period (eleventh to twelfth centuries) in conversion patterns. This emphasis focuses the conversion and demographic-distribution discussion on catastrophic upheavals attestable in material remains and posits strong early conversion to Islam.

• IntroductionCoastal PlanGalileeSamariaJudea and JerusalemNegevDiscussion and ConclusionsLandscape IslamizationSummaryBibliography