AD 638

Muslim conquest of Jerusalem

Jerusalem capitulates to the early caliphate

Baladhuri preserves two incompatible versions of who actually arranged Jerusalem’s surrender.

Probably 638, and probably not April

Modern archaeological scholarship places Jerusalem’s apparently peaceful surrender to Muslim forces in 638. The date is disputed among 636/637, 637 and 638, academic treatments generally prefer 638, and no reliable evidence fixes the surrender in April.

Neither a six-month siege nor a 20,000-man army is securely established by the sources consulted. Baladhuri himself dates the capitulation variously to AH 16 or 17.

Who negotiated, and on what terms

Baladhuri’s principal account says Amr ibn al-As was besieging Jerusalem, that Abu Ubayda later joined him, and that the inhabitants requested capitulation on condition that Caliph Umar personally confirm the terms. Umar came via al-Jabiya and issued a written settlement.

A transmitted version of his assurance protects the inhabitants, their property, their churches and their crosses, and rejects religious compulsion, while requiring payment of tribute. Baladhuri also preserves an alternative account in which Khalid ibn Thabit arranged the capitulation.

The famous scene is a late one

The story that Umar refused to pray inside the Holy Sepulchre in order to protect it comes from the Christian historian Eutychius, roughly two and a half centuries later, not from a contemporary witness. Sophronius, prominent in later Christian accounts, is not named in the earliest Muslim capitulation narrative.

Different versions of Umar’s Assurance survive, disagreeing about wording, witnesses and the status of Jewish settlement. A later Jewish chronicle says Christians and Jews bargained before Umar over whether 50, 70 or 200 Jewish households could resettle in the city.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 0638.

What the sources leave uncertain

The date is disputed among 636/637, 637 and 638; modern academic treatments generally prefer 638, and no reliable evidence fixes the surrender in April.
Neither a six-month siege nor a 20,000-man army is securely established by the sources consulted.
Baladhuri gives competing accounts of who negotiated the capitulation and dates it variously to AH 16 or 17.
The famous story that Umar refused to pray inside the Holy Sepulchre to protect it is recorded by the Christian historian Eutychius roughly two and a half centuries later, not by a contemporary witness.