Contours of Conversion: The Geography of Islamization in Syria 600-1500

Contours of Conversion:
The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Thomas A. Carlson
Oklahoma State University
The Islamization of Syria, a multi-faceted social and cultural process not limited
to demography, was slow and highly variable across different locales. This article
analyzes geographical worksten in Arabic, one in Persian, and one in Hebrew
as well as the earliest Ottoman defters of the province to outline the process of
Islamization in Syria from the Islamic conquest in the seventh century to the Ottoman conquest in the sixteenth. Geographical texts cannot be mined as databases,
but when interpreted as literature they provide often detailed information regarding the foundation of mosques, the slow conversion of multi-religious shrines, and
areas within Syria known for particular religious affiliations.
introduction
When Khlid b. al-Wald invaded Syria in 13/634, the region was inhabited by a religiously
mixed population with multiple kinds of Christianity present alongside Judaism and paganism. When the Ottoman sultan Selim I conquered Mamluk Syria nine centuries later in
922/1516, the regions religious diversity looked distinctively more Muslim, with Sunnis of
four legal schools sharing the land with Druze, Nuayrs, Ismailis, and Twelver Shiites, in
addition to reduced populations of Christians and Jews. The process of Islamization whereby
regions such as Syria slowly shifted from areas without Muslims to those where Muslims
formed the majority is one of the more dramatic transformations of the medieval world.
Both the mechanisms and the contours of Syrias Islamization are poorly understood.
In part this is due to the absence of surviving demographic data before the Ottoman tax
census records of the sixteenth century. After Selim Is conquest, the bulk of Syria was
divided between provincial governments (sg. eyalet) based in Aleppo, Tripoli, and Damascus, although portions of eastern Syria around al-Raqqa were assigned to Ruh (modern
Urfa), while areas historically regarded as northern Syria were incorporated into the eyalet of
Dlqdir or the Ramanid principality.1 The tax registers (sg. defter) produced by the new
provincial governments, many of which survive, identify religious minorities due to the differential taxation applied to non-Muslims.2 These records demonstrate that in the sixteenth
century the Muslim population of Syria formed an overwhelming majority in the countryside
Earlier versions of this article were greatly improved by suggestions from Michael Cook, the late Patricia Crone,
Peter Brown, Christian Sahner, the Princeton Islamic Studies Colloquium, and the JAOS anonymous reviewers.The
author records his gratitude for their corrections and recommendations, while acknowledging that all remaining
errors are his own.
1. An account of the Ottoman conquest is found in Bakhit 1982b: 134.
2. Scholarship on the Ottoman defters remains uneven. The 1536 census records of Aleppo have been published
(ener and Dutolu 2010); I have not found any edition or analysis of defters from Tripoli. Analyses of the defters
from Damascus and Ajln, two of the nine districts (sg. sanjak) of the province of Damascus, have been published
in Bakhit 1982b; Bakhit and Hamud 1989 and 1991. Fifteen defters for four additional sanjaks of the province of
Damascus were analyzed in Cohen and Lewis 1978. Finally, Bakhit 1982a is a synthesis of the Christian portion of
the non-Muslim population of the province of Damascus as a whole.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)
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and a large majority in most towns and cities.3 Much scholarly debate centers upon how
quickly the majority of the population adopted Islam.
But demographic change was only one component of a multi-faceted process of Islamization in Syria. Many medieval Muslim jurists seem to have regarded widespread conversion to
Islam as irrelevant to Islamic society, while increased enforcement of regulations upon nonMuslims to demonstrate the superiority of Islam appears more important to their notion of
Islamization. The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik b. Marwn (r. 6586/685705) is generally
credited with replacing Byzantine coins with aniconic Islamic coins and with building the
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, showing that state-sponsored Islamization had numismatic
and architectural implications. Governmental Islamization was only one component of the
broader, and far slower, process by which Syria became in some sense more Islamic. That
process transformed urban environments, as mosques replaced churches, synagogues, and
temples as the foci of cities.4 Islamization included the conversion of landscapes, as monasteries fell into ruin and Muslim shrines sprang up instead.5 Concepts of areas as primarily
one religion or another shifted with Islamization, as did social expectations regarding typical
relationships between members of different religious groups. Islamization was a complex and
multi-dimensional process that spanned many centuries.
This lengthier process was also not one-directional. Muslims converted to Christianity as well as vice versa. Ruined non-Muslim religious sites could sometimes be rebuilt.6
Al-Muqaddas (fl. late tenth century) acknowledged that despite his high praise for Syrias
many advantages, some [of its people] have apostasized.7 Yqt al-amaw (d. 626/1229)
mentioned a village named Imm between Aleppo and Antioch, in which today everyone is
Christian, but he quotes the Risla of Ibn Buln from the eleventh century to say that two
centuries earlier it had a mosque.8 In certain contexts Islam was not the only religion supported by the state, as Muslim rulers sometimes provided stipends to Jewish and Christian
religious authorities in addition to the ulema.9 Furthermore, the Byzantine reconquest and
the Crusades reintroduced non-Muslim rule to portions of Syria from 358/969 to 690/1291,
so that even state support for Islam could not be taken for granted. Indeed, under Frankish
rule a large enough number of Muslims sought to become Christian that canon law needed
3. Multiple tax registers were compiled at different times for different portions of Syria, making it impossible to
speak of proportions of the total population of the region at one time. Tapu defteri 401 for the district of Damascus
in ca. 950/1543 seems to indicate a population approximately 90% Muslim, 9% Christian, and 1% Jewish, based
on tables in Bakhit 1982b: 3789. The tax registers do not record total population, but rather households (khna)
and bachelors (mujarrad) for each religious group. Thus, proportions of the population are necessarily approximate,
depending on the unknown average number of people per household in each community. Most scholars use a figure
of about five people per household to estimate total population, but as long as the household size did not vary significantly across religious boundaries, the precise multiplier should not greatly affect calculations of the proportion
of a population that was non-Muslim.
4. The classic studies of urbanism in Islamic society are Kennedy 1985; Lapidus 1967. For a more complete
historiography to 1994, and a critique of Islamic city as a category, see Haneda and Miura 1994.
5. The lengthy process of the conversion of holy sites is discussed by Talmon-Heller 2007b: 18890.
6. The twelfth-century Andalusi traveler Ibn Jubayr (1981: 25354; 1952: 32324) reported the conversion of a
traveling companion in Syria to Christianity. A fifteenth-century Trkmen ruler of the qqyunl confederation is
credited with building a church in eastern Anatolia (Sanjian 1969: 205).
7. Al-Muqaddasi 1994: 139; 1906: 152.
8. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 4: 177 (the date of 540/1145 for the Risla is incorrect, being about a century too
late).
9. For an example of Fimid financial support for Palestinian Jews in the late tenth century, see Gil 1992: 551. For
an example of Zang giving a pair of church bells to a Syrian Orthodox church in al-Ruh, see Chabot 1917, 2: 136.
Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500
Fig.1. Cities, towns, and villages of medieval Syria.
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to be developed in order to handle difficult social questions regarding marriage and slavery
in such cases.10 As Benjamin Kedar concludes, in the Frankish Levant, passages from Islam
to Christianity and vice versa were not rare at all.11
The boundaries of Syria in medieval Arabic geographical thought were different from
today. Yqt presented the most common definition of this region as extending from the
Euphrates to the town of al-Arsh on the Egyptian coastline southeast of Gaza, and from the
Arabian desert to the Mediterranean Sea (see map on previous page).12 This definition leaves
open how far into modern Turkey the region was thought to extend, and before the Byzantine reconquest of the tenth century the northwestern border of Syria was simply considered
to be the boundary of Byzantine control, sometimes even including Malaya on the upper
Euphrates as the northern edge of Syria.13 On the other hand, Yqt does not include any
major city north of Manbij and Aleppo, noting only in passing the border regions (thughr)
of al-Maa, arss, Adhana, and Marash.14 This article will take as the northern border
of Syria the Taurus Mountains of southeastern Anatolia, excluding Malaya but including the
border towns mentioned by Yqt.
The classic study of Islamization remains Richard Bulliets Conversion to Islam in the
Middle Period (1979). Bulliet analyzed biographical dictionaries to graph the adoption of
specifically Muslim names in several different regions across the Islamic world, making certain approximate assumptions about length of generations and age of conversion. He argued
that these distinctively Islamic names first appear within a lineage for a convert to Islam or
for his children, and graphing the incidence of Islamic names for the ulema in a biographical
dictionary gives a curve (p. 19) that can be taken as the conversion curve for the region as
a whole.15 The result is a summative S-curve that displays the Muslim proportion of the
population as monotonically increasing, whose slope represents the rate of conversion, first
slow, then increasing to a midpoint, and then decreasing to level off again as the number of
late adopters decrease. He suggests (pp. 109, 112) that conversions peaked from the lateeighth to the mid-tenth century, and that the rise of Shiite groups such as Druze, Nuayrs,
and Ismailis was occasioned by the late conversion of mountain Christians. Nevertheless, he
acknowledges (pp. 110, 112) that his proposed conversion curve is difficult to correlate with
the political, social, or religious history of Syria, and he concludes, Syria does not present
a tidy, easily understandable picture.
10. Kedar 1985: 326.

11. Kedar 1997a: 196.
12. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 3: 355.
13. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 154; 1964b, 1: 16465.
14. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 3: 354.
15. Alwyn Harrison (2012: 38) suggested that Bulliets graphs are often misunderstood to refer to the total
population, when in fact they refer only to the percentages of those who would convertof the ultimate unquantifiable total of converts and therefore There is thus no way to extrapolate any quantifiable data regarding conversion,
or to identify the point at which Muslims became a numerical majority and the ahl al-dhimma a minority. This
interpretation picks up on certain nuances of Bulliets language, but Bulliet himself (1979: 1) seems to slip into
identifying the conversion curve with broader demographics, for example in his conclusion of a causal relationship
between the conversion of a majority of a regions population and the dissolution of central Islamic government in
that region (emphasis mine). It is also unclear how the stage in the conversion process to which Bulliet frequently
ascribes causal force would be comparable across countries if in one region it represented a large majority of the
population and in another conversion rates dwindled after the Muslim population reached around 20%. Michael
Morony (1990: 13637, 138) critiques Bulliets use of the conversion curve as a cause rather than a consequence,
but asserts that Bulliets curves represent the conversion of the population as a whole, albeit with some reservations.
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Somewhat more recently, Nehemia Levtzion (1990: 290) summarized what is known
about the contours of the Islamization of Syria and Palestine before the Ottoman conquest,
based primarily on secondary scholarship with reference to primary sources by al-Baldhur
(d. 279/892) and Michael the Syrian (d. 1199). This account derives primarily from narrative historical sources, whether used by Levtzion or by the other scholars he cites, and
although narrative sources are helpful for connecting otherwise isolated data, their interests are typically circumscribed in ways that limit their utility for the purpose of describing
regional Islamization. Michael the Syrian, for example, is interested almost exclusively in
the secular rulers and in his own denomination of Christianity, and thus says very little
about other Christian groups such as the Chalcedonians, much less the Jewish population of
Syria. Al-Baldhurs Fut al-buldn primarily collects traditions about the seventh-century
conquests, and only mentions non-Muslims to the degree that they figure in such traditions,
without any attempt to discuss the state of non-Muslims in Syria in his own lifetime. Narrative sources need to be supplemented by additional evidence to provide a wider picture of
the Islamization of Syria.
Studies of Islamization in Syria since 1990 have focused on specific themes, restricted
source materials, and narrower time frames. Bethany Walker (2013) synthesized the archaeological evidence for Islamization into the ninth century at a site in central Jordan. Uri
Simonsohn (2013) examined legal sources from the early Islamic period to clarify the process of personal conversions, especially reversed and repeated conversions. Nancy Khaleks
Damascus after the Muslim Conquest (2011) focuses on the transformation of a capital city
to the end of the Umayyad dynasty, while Amikam Elad (1995) examined pilgrimage to
holy places in Jerusalem, primarily but not exclusively in the first couple of centuries of
Islam. R. Stephen Humphreys (2010a) argued that Christianity continued to prosper under
the Umayyad dynasty, bringing together a range of literary, economic, and archaeological
sources. For a later period, the conversion of Syrias religious topography was analyzed
by Daniella Talmon-Heller (2007a) for the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, indicating that
Islamization was not merely an early Islamic phenomenon. These studies, each important for
its scope, do not provide or permit the synthesis of a trajectory of Islamization, especially
after the Umayyad period ending in 132/750.
One body of evidence that allows us to provide a first sketch of the contours of the Islamization in Syria over the longue dure, from the conquests of the seventh century to the
Ottoman annexation of Syria in the sixteenth century, consists of the geographical texts composed by administrators, travelers, and belles-lettrists describing the region of Syria in the
medieval period. An eclectic body of Islamic geographical literature, primarily in Arabic but
partly in Persian, preserves indications of the progress of Islamization at different periods.
The complexity of this literature requires methodological nuance to interpret it, but properly
understood it is a valuable body of evidence for the development of Syrian society.
This article analyzes ten Arabic geographical works, as well as one work in Persian and
one in Hebrew. On the basis of these works it sketches a trajectory of Islamization in Syria
until the Ottoman conquest. The Islamic conquest of Syria began the process of Islamization
with the rapid installation of mosques and garrisons in the major cities and along the coastline, while the first inhabitants of Syria to adopt Islam were many of the Arabs who already
lived in the region before the seventh century. By contrast, there is little evidence for rural
Islamization before the tenth century, and the evidence that exists suggests that before this
period rural Islam in Syria was primarily a nomads religion. The Byzantine conquests of the
tenth to eleventh centuries and the subsequent Crusades reintroduced Christian rule in Syria,
which resulted in certain segments of this region being known for Christian populations more
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than others, such as the area north of the Gha around Damascus and the coastline. Rule by
Christians and the confiscation of certain urban mosques may also have lent urgency to the
process of founding Muslim rural shrines, although in many cases the earliest shrines that
are known to have interested Muslims were dedicated to pre-Muslim figures, and in some
cases were maintained by Jews or Christians. When the Mamluks from Cairo expelled the
last Crusaders, they also devastated the coastline, leaving Christianity primarily attested in
northern Syria.16 Even under Mamluk rule, however, certain villages located along major
roads north of Damascus which were still entirely or predominantly Christian would have
reminded Muslim travelers that Syria was not an exclusively Muslim territory.
arabic geographical literature
The geographical literature that describes Syria under Muslim rule is an important body
of sources for the long process of Islamization.17 This literature does not form a single genre,
but rather exists in several forms. Al-Baldhurs Fut al-buldn is primarily a work of
history and traditions that describes places only by virtue of their having been conquered
by the Muslims. The geographers of the Balkh school, such as Ibn awqal (d. ca. 362/973)
and al-Muqaddas, divided their works by regions, each provided with a map. By far the
most extensive geographical work is the Mujam al-buldn of Yqt al-amaw, arranged
as a dictionary with place names in alphabetical order. The works of Benjamin of Tudela (d.
1173), Ibn Jubayr (d. 614/1217), and Ibn Baa (d. 770s/1370s) are travelogues intended
to convey geographical information. Nevertheless, the authors in the geographical discourse
utilized earlier works in different genres and freely quoted other authors, as is typical for
medieval Islamic scholarship.
Methodological Challenges
The evidence provided by the geographical literature is complicated by several factors.
Geographical works pay selective attention to certain non-Muslim groups more than others,
and therefore cannot be used to infer relative demographic strength. Thus al-Baldhurs
Fut al-buldn only mentions Syrian Jews briefly with respect to Damascus, Tripoli, im,
and Qaysriyya,18 but even after the massacre ordered by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius
in 629, Tiberias was an important center of the Jewish population.19 The greater interest in
Christians than in Jews, in al-Baldhur and later Muslim geographers, is probably due to
political opposition with the Christian empire of Constantinople rather than to demographic
realities. On the other hand, the Samaritan population of Filasn is singled out for attention
by al-Baldhur and later geographers, which likely reflects their presence exclusively in this
region.20 No indication of the relative strength between Jews, Samaritans, and Christians can
be inferred from these references.
Other features of literary texts also complicate the use of geographical works. Geographical literature often lists places, but lists of villages are necessarily not comprehensive, nor
can these lists be presumed to be representative. Furthermore, different authors have diverse
interests that influence the selection criteria, so unless the author has a clear interest in
16. The adverb is necessary: Arabic geographical texts do not devote much space to Mount Lebanon, which
continued to have a substantial Maronite Christian population to the present; see Levtzion 1990: 3067.
17. For a recent study of the literary aspects of this discourse of place, see Antrim 2012.
18. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 170, 174, 183, 187, 192; 1916: 19091, 195, 206, 211, 217.
19. Gil 1992: 810, 7071.
20. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 21517; 1916: 24445.
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recording religion, the absence of a reference to a particular religious community or expected

religious edifice does not indicate its absence from the location. For example, while Ibn
Baa frequently mentions mosques in his descriptions of the places he visited, no matter
how briefly, Yqt only infrequently refers to mosques in his geographical dictionary. The
late ninth-century historian and geographer al-Yaqb (1918: 8687) does not mention any
mosque in Syria other than the Umayyad mosque of Damascus, being primarily interested
in recording the tribal affiliations of the various Arab populations. By contrast, Benjamin of
Tudela (1907) is principally interested in recording the distance between cities and the size
of the Jewish populations that lived there. Finally, as with most fields of medieval scholarship, information included in the geographical work may have been borrowed from an earlier
source without attribution, which makes it challenging to identify the period to which any
given assertion may pertain.21 The result is that these works cannot simply be transformed
into a database on which statistical analysis can be performed; rather, each text must be read
as a literary and linguistic performance, yet one intended to communicate certain facts about
the world.22
In a way, some of these challenges turn out to be surprising opportunities for writing the
history of Islamization. Literary geographical texts sometimes indicate whether the authors
regarded certain details as surprising or typical, which partially compensates for the lack of
comprehensive or representative data. Even the adoption of earlier texts words without modification or attribution, although bearing a different relationship to the authors experience
than new composition, typically reveals what the author regards as well said and plausible
enough. Such literary phenomena provide hints to the evolving expectations and assumptions regarding the religious landscape of Syria, which are as much a part of the process of
Islamization as progressive personal conversions or architectural repurposing; yet such attitudes and conceptions would be largely absent from census records. With a nuanced literary
approach, geographical texts can be useful sources for a full-orbed account of Islamization.
the earliest stage: rural arabs and major cities
The earliest stage of Islamization of Syria reported by the geographical texts is the conversion of nomadic Arabs, resulting in a distinction between often nomadic Muslims and
primarily sedentary non-Muslims. The core of the first Muslim community in Syria was
formed by the conquering Arab armies. Al-Baldhur reported that the Muslim commanders appealed to the largely Christian Arabs who already lived in Syria on the basis of their
common ancestry, with mixed results. Jabala, the chief of the Ban Ghassn, rejected Islam
(although one account says he converted and then apostasized) and moved to territory still
under Byzantine control, while the Arabs near Qinnasrn and Aleppo proved more agreeable,
with many of them accepting Islam.23 The degree to which the Islam of the conquest period
was viewed as an Arab society is perhaps indicated by the account of the Ban Taghlib
in the region of Diyr Raba to the northeastthe tribe remained Christian, but instead of
21. Antrim (2012: 72) indicates that some geographers use sources without acknowledgment after having specifically criticized them elsewhere.
22. The performative aspect of geographical literature is cogently stated by Antrim 2012: 3. Antrim critiques
Miquel 1967 for neglecting this literary dimension and simply mining the sources for information. Guy Le Strange
(1890) had earlier synthesized the geographical literature with regard to Syria, but in dicing up the sources, he
rendered it impossible to engage with the texts as literature. In the latter trait, however, he merely follows in the
footsteps of Yqt al-amaw.
23. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 18586, 198; 1916: 209, 224.
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paying jizya it paid double the normal Muslim adaqa.24 Al-Baldhur presented the ruler as
saying, Since it is not the tax of the unbelievers (alj), we shall pay it and retain our faith.25
The chief of the Ban Ghassn is said to have made a similar offer to pay adaqa instead of
jizya, but in his case it was rejected.26 Syrian Arabs who had accepted Islam were already
sufficiently numerous for the military commander Ab Ubayda to station a garrison of them
in the city of Blis on the Euphrates within three years of the battle of Yarmk.27 It is unclear
how quickly the nomadic and semi-sedentary Arabs of Syria converted to the new religion,
but the swifter adoption of Islam by Arabs than by non-Arabs likely caused the religious
boundaries between Muslims and non-Muslims in the countryside to approximate the divide
between nomads and sedentary farmers.28
The Islamization of the sedentary population seems to have begun in major cities and
coastal towns, due to the presence of Muslim governors and garrisons.29 As presented by the
geographers of subsequent centuries, the circumstances of many cities surrender or conquest
provided a location to be used for the mosque, whether part of the citys cathedral or a new
site.30 A quarter of the main church of im was made into a mosque,31 while the cathedral
of St. John the Baptist in Damascus had a portion set aside for Muslim prayers.32 Aleppos
mosque was a new construction,33 as was that of Latakia on the coast.34 The link between
coastal garrisons and mosques is made explicit by an account reported by al-Baldhur that
the caliph Uthmn directed his cousin Muwiya, then governor of Syria, to garrison the
coastal towns, to build new mosques, and to enlarge existing mosques.35 Thus, al-Baldhur
referred to mosques in the cities of Asqaln in the days of Ibn al-Zubayr (d. 73/692), the
newly founded district capital al-Ramla by 101/720, al-Maa by 84/703, and arss by
172/788.36 He also indicated that Muwiya transferred Muslim populations to the coastal
cities of Tyre, Acre, and Antioch.37 Later geographers mentioned Jerusalems Dome of
the Rock, built by the caliph Abd al-Malik b. Marwn in 72/691-2,38 although a sizeable
24. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 24952; 1916: 28486. Richard Bulliet (1979: 106) also suggests that the early Syrian
ulema included in later biographical dictionaries were mostly Arab. However, his conclusion is based upon the
preponderance of ulema from inland as opposed to coastal Syria, and he assumes that people from an area including
Damascus should be presumed to be Arab. The precedence of the Bedouin in conversion to Islam is also indicated,
with bibliography, by Humphreys (2010a: 49).
25. Al-Baladhuri 1916: 285; 1957: 250. I have emended ittis translation.
26. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 185; 1916: 209.
27. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 205; 1916: 232.
28. Early Muslim aversion to farming is indicated by a number of hadith analyzed by M. J. Kister (1997, 4:
27086). That nomads did not overwhelmingly adopt Islam at the time of the initial conquests is indicated by the
existence of a Syrian Orthodox bishop of the Arabs consecrated in 686 who died in 724 (Tannous 2008).
29. For example, regarding the garrisons of the sea coast under Umar b. al-Khab or Uthmn b. Affn, see
al-Baladhuri 1957: 173; 1916: 195. In this regard it is revealing that several of the hadith analyzed by Kister (1997,
4: 28690) presume that Muslims are urban dwellers.
30. Walker (2013: 14849) indicates that the conversion of a church into a mosque was quite rare in central
Jordan; abandoned churches would become private residences far more commonly.
31. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 189; 1916: 201; al-Muqaddasi 1906: 156; 1994: 144; Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 2: 348.
32. Khalek 2011: 9697. Joseph Nasrallah (1992) cites the standard sources for the received narrative, although
with no critical engagement.
33. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 200; 1916: 226.
34. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 181; 1916: 204.
35. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 175; 1916: 196.
36. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 195, 226, 232; 1916: 220, 255, 262.
37. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 16061, 201; 1916: 180, 228.
38. For example, al-Muqaddasi 1906: 169; 1994: 154. A recent architectural history of the building is Grabar
2006.
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earlier mosque in the city was mentioned by a Latin pilgrim who visited the city around
680.39 Al-Haraw and Yqt al-amaw would include Bethlehem outside Jerusalem as a
city that acquired a mosque under the second caliph Umar b. al-Khab, but the fact that
al-Muqaddas did not mention such an edifice, although he was a native of the area and seems
disposed to mention all the mosques he knew, suggests that it was a more recent creation.40
How long did Christians and Muslims share sanctuaries? According to al-Baldhur,
the transformation of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Damascus into the Umayyad
Mosque took place during the reign of the caliph al-Wald b. Abd al-Malik (d. 96/715), indicating that the mosque in the capital city of the caliphate was shared for a few generations,
continuing even after the construction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.41 The cathedral
of im was divided between Christians and Muslims even longer, although it is not possible to say with certainty exactly how long on the basis of the geographical literature. Ibn
awqals statement, In [im] is a church, part of which is the Friday mosque, and half
of it belongs to the Christians,42 may indicate that it was still divided in the middle of the
tenth century. On the other hand, his pupil al-Muqaddas later in the century only refers to
the division at the time of the conquest.43 A story reported later by Yqt refers to a young
Muslim playing in the church with a ball, and it happened that the ball entered the mosque,
showing that the building was certainly divided, perhaps as late as the 170s/ca. 790.44 The
early construction of mosques in the major cities of Syria added an Islamic focus to urban
centers, but did not necessarily exclude or replace non-Muslims.45
expanding into the countryside: village mosques and rural shrines
Outside of the major cities, the slower progress of Islamization is shown by the delayed
diffusion of rural mosques and Muslim shrines. In the tenth century Ibn awqal remarked
that the region of Filasn had around twenty minbars [i.e., mosques] despite its small size.46
On the one hand, twenty mosques would cover all the major cities but only a few of the
many villages. That only very large villages possessed mosques is indicated not long afterward by al-Muqaddas, who said of Filasn, In this district are large villages with their
own mosques, and these are more populous and more flourishing than most of the cities
of al-Jazra.47 Indeed, al-Muqaddas listed twenty-one mosques in the region of Filasn.48
39. Adamnan 1958: 4243.
40. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 172; 1994: 156; al-Harawi 1953, 1: 29; 2: 70; 2004: 7677; Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990,
1: 618.
41. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 171; 1916: 19192.
42. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 162; 1964b, 1: 173.
43. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 156; 1994: 144.
44. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 2: 349.
45. Lapidus (1969: 57) asserted that in this period across the Muslim-ruled world Muslim cities were isolated
in Christian, Zoroastrian, or pagan countrysides, but this view neglects both the nomadic Arab Muslims and the
fact that cities taken over by Muslim conquerors continued to have a non-Muslim majority for an indeterminate
period.
46. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 159; 1964b, 1: 169.
47. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 176; 1994: 160, where al-Jazra is translated as the Arabian Peninsula, but the
region referred to by this phrase is more commonly upper Mesopotamia. Andr Miquels French translation (1963:
208) likewise rendered al-Jazra with reference to Arabia, and while it is the more likely interpretation, I have
reverted to transliterating the Arabic to preserve the ambiguity.
48. Al-Muqaddas mentioned mosques in al-Ramla, Djn nearby, Jerusalem, Jabal Zayt (Mount of Olives)
outside Jerusalem, Hebron, al-Yaqn outside Hebron, Gaza, Asqaln, Yf, Arsf nearby, Qaysriyya, Nbulus,
Jericho, Ammn, Ludd outside al-Ramla, Kafr Sb on the road to Damascus, qir on the road to Mecca, Yubn
800
Of these, it is clear that only two (Jabal Zayt and al-Yaqn) are properly rural, and seven
are described as being in villages (qur), namely, Hebron, Ludd, Kafr Sb, qir, Yubn,
Amaws, and Kafr Sallm.
On the other hand, Ibn awqals concessive clause (despite its small size) seems to indicate that in the diffusion of mosques Filasn was more Islamized than Ibn awqal expected,
which may hint that throughout the rest of Syria at that time there were not many village or
rural mosques. Since the number of Muslims that a mosque could serve might range from
tens to thousands, it is impossible to estimate the Muslim population of Filasn based on this
figure, but it does suggest that in the mid-tenth century only the largest villages would have
had a Muslim architectural presence.49 This suggests that after the initial conquests Islamization was a process of diffusion from the cities to the villages and countryside.
Away from the coast, the roads connecting major cities overland were meeting-places for
Muslims and non-Muslims, and thus conduits of Islamization. Al-Muqaddas listed six large
villages possessed of their own mosques, of which he located three (Kafr Sb, qir, and
Kafr Sallm) on main roads.50 Of the other three, two were also on important roads: Yubn
is between Yf and Asqaln on the coastal road, and Amaws is between al-Ramla and
Jerusalem. Of the six villages, only Ludd is not on a major road, but in the late tenth century
it was essentially a suburb of the district capital al-Ramla; according to al-Muqaddas, it
lies about a mile from al-Ramla. There is here a great mosque wherein large numbers of
people assemble from the capital, and from the villages around.51 By contrast, he reported
no mosques in villages or cities away from roads, the coast, or the outskirts of the capital
al-Ramla.
If the district of Filasn was probably the Syrian district with the greatest concentration
of mosques, al-Muqaddas is explicit that it also had a greater number of rural shrines than
other districts, especially in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, and he asserted that he had listed
most of them.52 The most striking feature of the list he gave, however, is how few of them
celebrate specifically Muslim figures.53 The majority of these shrines and holy sites pertain
to figures of ancient Jewish history who were venerated in common by Jews, Christians, and
Muslims (although often not Samaritans): Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Job, Moses, Saul,
David, Uriah, Solomon, and Jeremiah, some with multiple sites. A smaller number pertain to
Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptists father Zakariyy.54 Of distinctively Muslim sites possibly outside of major cities, he referred only to Umars mosques, which presumably would
include the mosque in commemoration of the caliph on Jabal Zayt outside Jerusalem and
al-Yaqn Mosque outside Hebron. Even his vague reference to the shrines of the prophets
near the coast, Amaws between al-Ramla and Jerusalem, and Kafr Sallm near Qaysriyya on the coastal road; see
al-Muqaddasi 1906: 16566, 16877, 182; 1994: 151, 15360, 165.
49. Humphreys (2010b: 53334) suggests a more rapid Islamization of Syria south of im than in the north or
in al-Jazra. While this may be the case, the restriction of mosques to cities and a few large villages implies regions
devoid of Muslim inhabitants. If al-Muqaddass list of mosques is comprehensive, then the city of Bayt Jibrl
between Hebron and Asqaln not only lacked a mosque, but was not within 20 km of a mosque. The hill country
between Jerusalem and Nbulus also lacked any mosques, in precisely the area found by Ellenblum (1998: 283) to
be dominated by Christian settlements two centuries later.
50. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 17677; 1994: 160.
51. Al-Muqaddasi 1994: 160; 1906: 176.
52. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 184; 1994: 167.
53. His list is found in al-Muqaddasi 1906: 151; 1994: 138.
54. Josef Meri (2002: 195201, 21012, 24350) discusses such shared shrines; Christopher MacEvitt (2008:
12630, 13234) discusses the sharing of churches between Franks and Middle Eastern Christians, which could be
every bit as awkward.
801
shows a Muslim approach to pre-Islamic history. It is therefore unclear whether the many
shrines to pre-Islamic personages were in any way distinctively Islamic, or whether they
were shared between Muslims and non-Muslims, perhaps even in the possession of the latter.
Later geographical sources record increasing numbers of shrines.55 The Persian poet and
philosopher Nir-i Khusraw, whose account of his travels tends toward brevity, indicated
that he turned aside from his travels down the coastal road in order to visit a mountain
where various prophets shrines are located between Acre and Tiberias.56 But the majority
of these religious sites were dedicated to historical figures shared by Jews, Christians, and
Muslims alike: Esau, five sons of Jacob, the father-in-law and wife of Moses, the mother of
Moses, Joshua b. Nun, Jonah, and Ezra.57 Another shrine was dedicated to the legendary
founder of Acre, namely Akk, while two others of presumably Muslim origin were dedicated
to the pre-Islamic figures Hd and Dh l-Kifl. A mosque known as the Jasmine Mosque
was situated to the west of Tiberias, while the only shrine dedicated to an earlier Muslim was
the tomb of Ab Hurayra south of Tiberias, and the Persian traveler indicated that pilgrimages to it were impossible because the children of the local Shiite population harassed wouldbe visitors.58 Even more significantly, he described and explained the Spring of the Cows
(ayn al-baqar) outside Acre without mentioning the mashhad of Al, which geographers
from Al al-Haraw onward mention there.59
Over a century later, Al al-Haraw recorded clear instances of shrines shared between
Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, he mentioned outside of the Jewish Gate of Aleppo
a stone at which votive offerings are made and upon which rosewater and sweet fragrances
are poured. Muslims, Jews and Christians hold it in regard. It is said that beneath it is the
tomb of one of the prophets ... or the saints. God knows best.60 He also referred to shrines
dedicated to pre-Islamic figures such as Joshua b. Nun, Alexander the Great, and the mother
of John the Baptist, in greater number than indicated by al-Muqaddas.61 On the other hand,
in his record of the pilgrim shrines he encountered in his travels through Syria in the late
twelfth century, shrines to figures of early Islamic history have greatly increased. In the countryside around Damascus he recorded the tombs of Diya al-Kalb (who also has a tomb near
Tiberias and a tomb at al-Fus), ujr b. Ad, Zumayl b. Raba, Raba b. Amr, Khlid b.
Sad, Sad b. Ubda al-Anr (although al-Haraw rejected the validity of this tomb), Umm
Kulthm, Mudrik, Kannz, Shaykh Sulaymn al-Drn, Ab Muslim al-Khawln, Umm
tika, and uhayb al-Rm (the last two likewise rejected by al-Haraw).62 By al-Haraws
time in the late twelfth century, the Gha around Damascus had the highest concentration of
rural shrines. By contrast, he complained that due to Crusader rule, in Ascalons cemetery
are many saints, and Successors whose tombs are unknown; the same with Gaza, Acre, Tyre
and Sidon and all of the towns of the coastal plain.63 And it is noteworthy that he was
55. For discussion of the increasing number of Muslim shrines in medieval Syria, see Talmon-Heller 2007b:
19095; Meri 2002: 25762.
56. Nasir-i Khusraw 1986: 17; 1975: 26.
57. Nasir-i Khusraw 1975: 2631; 1986: 1719.
58. Nasir-i Khusraw 1975: 2931; 1986: 1819.
59. Nasir-i Khusraw 1975: 2526; 1986: 17.
60. Al-Harawi 2004: 1213; 1953, 1: 4; 2: 9.
61. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 7, 23; 2: 14, 16, 59; 2004: 16, 66.
62. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 1113; 2: 2732; 2004: 2430. For Diya al-Kalbs other tombs, see al-Harawi 1953,
1: 20, 37; 2: 52, 87; 2004: 40, 98.
63. Al-Harawi 2004: 82; 1953, 1: 33; 2: 76.
802
unable to list any Muslim shrine in the hinterland around Aleppo, despite wishing to exalt
the city of his final patron.64
Muslim devotion to pre-Islamic figures and prayers at shrines devoted to them were not
problematic, as from a common Muslim perspective the prophets of old had preached Islam,
but the Jews and Christians had corrupted the message. Far from a religious difficulty, shared
shrines provided an opportunity for Muslims to have pilgrimage sites maintained by nonMuslims, and an opportunity for non-Muslims to convert more easily to Islam without forsaking the loca sancta and past holy figures upon which they relied. The progression of
reports from al-Muqaddas to Nir-i Khusraw to al-Haraw, however, seems to indicate that
the creation of specifically Muslim holy sites in rural areas was a slow process, perhaps only
beginning in the tenth century around the time of the Byzantine reconquest, and by no means
complete by the end of the Crusader period. In particular, the late appearance of the tombs
of Companions in rural areas even around Damascus, and often with questions regarding
their authenticity, suggests that funereal veneration of the Companions was a late stage in
the development of a specifically Islamic landscape.65 The dedication of shrines to figures
revered by multiple religions was an important step in the conversion of the rural population,
but it was five centuries before distinctively Islamic shrines are attested in most of Syrian
countryside.
syria divided: byzantine reconquest and crusader states
When Nikephoros Phokas entered Syria at the head of a Byzantine army in 350/962,
establishing Antioch as a Byzantine outpost in 358/969, Syria was already accustomed to
marauding armies. Neglected as a province after the caliphal capital moved from Damascus to Baghdad in the eighth century, by the later ninth century central Abbsid authority
was waning and Syria was contested between various Muslim rulers such as the lnids,
Ikhshdids, and amdnids. The new element introduced by the Byzantine reconquest of
northern Syria was rule by Christians in a territory from which it had been absent for over
three centuries. From the 350s/960s until the Crusader stronghold at Acre was captured by
the Mamluk armies of Egypt in 690/1291, Syria was divided between multiple Muslim and
Christian rulers, with a brief hiatus between the Byzantine loss of Antioch in 477/1084 and
the Crusader conquest of the same city in 491/1098. This division of Syria widened the gap
in Islamization between different portions of the region, reversing the coastal cities early
adoption of mosques while perhaps encouraging the development of rural Islamic shrines.
The earliest geographers to observe the Byzantine reconquest painted the invaders as little
more than raiders and deplored the sorry state of Islam that permitted them to succeed. Ibn
awqal recorded Greek attacks on im, Aleppo, Qinnasrn, Jabala, in Barzya, Antioch,
al-adath, Marash, al-Hrniyya, al-Iskandarna, and he blamed the enemys success on
failures of Muslim religious zeal.66 He lamented over Antioch,
64. Al-Harawi (1953, 1: 56; 2: 1011; 2004: 1214) mentioned various Muslim shrines in and around Aleppo
itself, but apart from a tomb in the village of Rn that he identified as belonging to Quss b. Sida al-Iyd, all of
the other shrines were dedicated to Jewish or Christian figures. Indeed, he reported that even the shrine of Rn was
alternatively identified as belonging to Christian figures.
65. For a contrary view, Nancy Khalek (2011: 123) acknowledges that a specifically Islamic sacred landscape
was slowly being built up over centuries, but contends that Tombs of fallen Companions who had served in the
conquests were the first elements of that new environment. Meri (2002: 25758) suggests that early monuments to
fallen Companions had very little connection to later medieval pilgrimage shrines.
66. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 16265, 167; 1964b, 1: 17377, 17980.
803
The enemy has overcome it and possessed it, and before its conquest it had become disordered in
the hands of the Muslims, and now it is more severely disordered and abased.... Around it there
are sultans, Bedouin, lords, and kings, for each of whom his today distracts him from attention
to his tomorrow, and what is forbidden him and his vanities distract him from what God Most
High enjoined and the governance and leadership incumbent upon him.67
The Byzantine invasion of im he credited to their confusion (khabl) and luxury

(yasr), while in Barzyas surrender he ascribed to, among other factors, their lack of
faith (qillat al-mn).68 Al-Muqaddas devoted less space to the presence of Byzantines
than his predecessor, because he consciously excluded from his description those portions
of Syria ruled by the Christians,69 but he described a climate of fear among the Muslims in
Syria: The people live in dread of the [Byzantine army], as if they were in a foreign land,
for their frontiers have been ravaged, and their border defenses shattered.70 The Muslim
geographers of the tenth century depicted the division of Syria between Christian and Muslim rulers as a religious catastrophe.
Nevertheless, these same geographers indicated that most Muslims in the areas now under
Christian rule were content to accept the new system. Ibn awqal concluded his section on
Syria with a pessimistic prediction that Byzantine rule and the jizya levied on Muslims would
lead many of the people of Syria to abandon Islam: Most of its people remained, while they
accepted jizya from them, and I think they will convert to Christianity, disdaining the humiliation of the jizya and greedy to obtain provisions for honor and comfort.71 Al-Muqaddas
confirmed Ibn awqals dire predictions: Some [of the people] have apostasized, while
others pay tribute (jizya), putting obedience to created man before obedience to the Lord
of Heaven. The general public is ignorant and churlish, showing no zeal for the [struggle],
no rancour towards enemies.72 The new Christian rulers were evidently inclined to treat
their Muslim subjects much as their Muslim predecessors had treated Christian subjects: the
term jizya probably refers to a Muslim-specific head tax, analogous to the poll tax on nonMuslims levied by the caliphs. Although the Byzantine army reportedly destroyed mosques,
such attacks seem to have occurred as an element of capturing and plundering a city, and
there is no indication that the new Christian overlords prevented local Muslim rulers from
repairing mosques.73
Muslim travelers through the Crusader states in the twelfth century adopted a curiously mixed attitude toward the Frankish rulers.74 Christian rule in lands formerly under
Muslim control was clearly regarded as a shameful fact, as Al al-Haraw complained to
Prophet Muammad when the latter appeared to him in a dream in the mosque in Asqaln
in 570/1174, before al al-Dns conquest of the city.75 Ibn Jubayr polemicized against
67. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 165.
68. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 162, 164; 1964b, 1: 173, 176.
69. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 152; 1994: 140.
70. Al-Muqaddasi 1994: 139; 1906: 152.
71. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 172.
72. Al-Muqaddasi 1994: 139; 1906: 152. The translators rendering of jihd as holy strife is problematic and
has been changed here to the more neutral term struggle. Andr Miquel (1963: 154 n. 52) interpreted this sentence
as an allusion aux Juifs et au Chrtiens, sujets protgs, in defiance of the context.
73. For example, in the city of Aleppo; see Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 163; 1964b, 1: 174.
74. For one synthesis of the evidence for Muslim subjects of the Crusader states, see Kedar 1990. Kedar (p. 145)
presumes that the majority of the population under Frankish rule was Muslim, while Christopher MacEvitt (2008:
12), who analyzes the Frankish treatment of their Eastern Christian subjects, asserts without citation that Christians
were the majority of the population in northern Syria, a term that for him includes northwestern Mesopotamia.
75. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 32; 2: 76; 2004: 82.
804
Muslims who chose to remain in lands ruled by non-Muslims: There can be no excuse in the
eyes of God for a Muslim to stay in any infidel country.76 On the other hand, both al-Haraw
and Ibn Jubayr often emphasized how little the Franks had interfered with Muslim religious
practice. Thus, al-Haraw indicated three times that the Crusaders did not damage various
aspects of the Muslim sanctuaries in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.77 Ibn Jubayr, for his part,
ascribed to Gods intervention the preservation of part of the main mosque at Acre and part
of Ayn al-Baqar outside the city.78 He also indicated that the Muslims of Tyre were treated
better than those of Acre, and that they lived under a written guarantee of safety (amn),79
while Muslim peasants enjoyed greater security under Frankish rule than they would in lands
ruled by Muslims.80 Both of these authors clearly expected greater harassment from the
Franks than they received.81
Ibn Jubayr in particular laid out the Crusaders treatment of their Muslim subjects, and
his description mirrors the treatment of Christians by Muslim rulers. When the Franks captured Acre, Mosques became churches and minarets bell-towers, but just as the Byzantine
cathedrals of Damascus and im were divided between Christians and Muslims in the seventh century, so Acres Friday mosque and the shrine at Ayn al-Baqar were shared after the
Crusaders conquest of the city.82 He explicitly likened the tax levied upon Muslims under
Frankish rule with that levied upon Christians under Muslim rule: The Christians impose a
tax on the Muslims in their land which gives them full security; and likewise the Christian
merchants pay a tax upon their goods in Muslim lands. Agreement exists between them, and
there is equal treatment in all cases.83 In his polemic against Muslims choosing to dwell
in lands ruled by non-Muslims, Ibn Jubayr alluded to the head-tax upon Muslims as the
abasement and destitution of the capitation.84 He gave the rate of the jizya as 1.25 dinars, as
well as half of the crops.85 However, a lighter tax could be assessed on travelers: Ibn Jubayr
indicated that when he first entered lands under Crusader rule, the jizya he paid was levied
primarily upon Muslims from the Maghrib, due to a prior attack by a group of western Muslims on a castle of the Franks, and that other Muslims were not taxed in this manner.86 The
Andalusi traveler had earlier marveled at the security of both Christian and Muslim travelers
despite the ongoing wars between al al-Dn and the Crusaders,87 and he was surprised,
76. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 321; 1981: 252.

77. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 2526, 29; 2: 6365, 70; 2004: 72, 76.
78. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 249; 1952: 31819.
79. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 250, 252; 1952: 319, 321.
80. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 24748; 1952: 31617.
81. These views counterbalance the evidence of Usma Ibn Munqidh, whose Kitb al-Itibr mentions nonMuslims primarily in narratives of battles with Franks. But his book is almost exclusively concerned with elites,
whether Muslim or Frankish, and battles loom large among the anecdotes related. Even Ibn Munqidh, however,
indicated that the Franks who had been in Syria longer harassed Muslims less; see Ibn Munqidh 1930: 13435, 140;
2008: 147, 153.
82. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 318; 1981: 249. Ibn Jubayrs description of sharing the mosque over Ayn al-Baqar seems
to refute al-Haraws contention (1953, 1: 22; 2: 57; 2004: 44) that the Franks intended to make it a church, but were
thwarted by Al b. Ab lib mystically killing their night-watchmen. Yqt (1990, 4: 199) likewise alluded to the
fact that Ayn al-Baqar was venerated by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, including Jews in his list of worshippers
there.
83. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 301; 1981: 235.
84. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 322; 1981: 252.
85. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 247; 1952: 316.
86. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 247; 1952: 316.
87. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 23435; 1952: 300301.
805
and horrified, at the level of social integration that could be achieved between Christians and
Muslims in Syria.
Despite Ibn Jubayrs assertions of the security of non-combatants in Syria even with the
ongoing wars, geographical texts written during Syrias divided period frequently mention
raiding by both Muslims and Christians. Ibn awqal complained of raids not only by the
Byzantine army, but also by the Bedouin who surrounded im after the Byzantine invasion.88 He indicated that Byzantine incursions led to an increased use of the inland route
from Damascus northward, where a sign of the degeneracy of the age was the dominance
of the Bedouin over the governors, and he expected all travel to cease.89 Ibn Jubayr himself
noted that the khns where travelers lodged in Syria were all heavily fortified, and that the
road between im and Damascus was largely uninhabited except for a few large villages at
the caravan stops.90 He mentioned Frankish raiding possibilities from in al-Akrd to im
or am, as well as on the road from Damascus to the coast.91 Although he presented al
al-Dns capture of Nbulus in 580/1184 as a glorious conquest for Islam, the attack on the
unwalled village was clearly more in the nature of a plundering raid.92 While both Muslim
and Crusader rulers may have avoided plundering merchant caravans, on which they found it
easier to assess commercial taxes, the rural and semi-rural settled population probably fared
worse at their hands.
Nevertheless, significant demographic shifts happened during Syrias divided period.
The Byzantine reconquest brought Greek rule back to Syria, but it also brought Armenians
who settled in northern Syria and along the Cilician coast. Ibn awqal already mentioned
that when the Byzantines conquered Malaya in 319/931, they peopled it with Armenians.93
Al-Muqaddas noted Armenian control of Jabal al-Lukkm on the northern edge of Syria.94
Two centuries later Yqt indicated Armenian control not only over Cilician cities such as
Ayn Zarb, al-Hrniyya, Ssiyya, and arss, but also a dominantly Armenian population
in the fortress of Tal Bshir two days north of Aleppo and the surrounding district of Nahr
al-Jawz between Aleppo and al-Bra (modern Birecik) on the Euphrates.95 Armenians would
remain a substantial portion of the population in this region throughout Ottoman times.
On the other hand, the Shiite population of Syria grew during and after the Shiite century, in part due to Fimid interests in Syria. Writing after the first invasions but before the
Fimid dynasty held any possessions there, al-Muqaddas mentioned Shiite populations only
in Tiberias, Ammn, half of Nbulus, and half of Qadas north of Tiberias.96 A half-century
later Nir-i Khusraw referred to the Shiite population and Egyptian garrison in Tripoli, as
well as other Shiite groups in Tyre and in the countryside west of Tiberias, where they prevented Sunni pilgrims from visiting the tomb of Ab Hurayra.97 Ibn Jubayr remarked on the
Ismaili castles in Mount Lebanon, and formerly in al-Bb between Aleppo and the Euphrates.98 Indeed, he indicated the broad diffusion of Shiites in Syria: They are more numerous
88. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 16263; 1964b, 1: 173.
89. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 165; 1964b, 1: 176.
90. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 205, 20910; 1952: 264, 269.
91. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 206, 209, 246; 1952: 265, 268, 315.
92. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 245; 1952: 314.
93. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 166; 1964b, 1: 179.
94. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 189; 1994: 172.
95. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 2: 47, 213; 3: 338; 4: 33, 201; 5: 446.
96. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 179; 1994: 16263.
97. Nasir-i Khusraw 1975: 21, 24, 3031; 1986: 13, 16, 19.
98. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 202, 206; 1952: 25960, 264.
806
than the Sunnis, and have filled the land with their doctrines.99 As an exception in northern
Syria he praised Manbij, whose population he indicated was entirely Sunni, so that through
them the town is undefiled by those dissident sects and corrupt beliefs that are found in most
of this country.100 The Ismaili castles in the mountains of western Syria and Lebanon would
become a refrain of later geographers.101
Although most Muslim geographers pay little attention to the Jewish population, the travelogue of Benjamin of Tudela gives approximate Jewish populations for many cities of Syria.
Although no other geographical work documents the presence of Jewish communities so
extensively, such indications as do exist seem to indicate a marked decline in the Jewish
population of Filasn and the coastlands in this period, relative to much larger Jewish populations in the inland portions of central and northern Syria. Thus, al-Muqaddas had complained of the greater numbers of Jews and Christians than Muslims in his native Jerusalem
in the late tenth century, but two centuries later Benjamin of Tudela indicated a population
of only 200 Jewish men in the city.102 Al-Baldhur mentioned that Muwiya had settled
Tripoli with Jews in the seventh century, but Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century
only indicated that a recent earthquake had killed many Jews and gentiles; his text does not
indicate how many Jews remained in the city.103 Al-Baldhurs figure of 20,000 Jews in
Qaysriyya, alongside 700,000 soldiers and 30,000 Samaritans, is clearly exaggerated even
beyond the extent of the likely influx of rural refugees, but Benjamin of Tudelas indication of about 10 Jewish men in the city still indicates a dramatic decline.104 No city under
Crusader rule had a larger Jewish population than Tyre, with about 500 Jewish households.105
The figures given for Jewish populations of cities still under Muslim rule stand in stark
contrast: 3,000 for Damascus, 5,000 for Aleppo, even 2,000 each for Tadmur on the edge of
the desert and Raba on the Euphrates.106 This discrepancy and the fact that the Yeshiva of
Jerusalem was headquartered in Damascus indicate a preference for medieval Syrian Jews
to relocate outside of Crusader control, resulting in a much smaller Jewish population for
coastal cities and Filasn.107
The religious character of the rural population also shifted markedly in this period. Ibn
Jubayrs remarks on Crusader rule over Muslims presumed that many of the Muslims were
peasants, a point he made explicit with regard to the population around Bniys between
Damascus and Tyre.108 Ibn Jubayrs remarks should not be taken to indicate that the rural
population throughout Syria had largely converted to Islam, however; the contrary is indicated by his reference to the entirely Christian town of Qra south of im, as well as his
99. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 291; 1981: 227.

100. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 259; 1981: 201.
101. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 2:77, 119; 3: 243; 4: 535; 5: 168; al-Dimashq 1866: 200, 2023, 208, 209; 1874:
269, 274, 28284, 286; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 4445; 1958, 1: 106; Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 22930; 2,2: 7.
102. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 167; 1994: 152; Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 22, . As for the latter, the numbers given
in the Hebrew are usually of yhm, which is ambiguous as to whether it includes women or refers only to Jewish
men. Despite the term being translated as Jews throughout, it is suggested (1907: 16 n. 2) that only male heads
of households were in view.
103. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 174; 1916: 195; Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 17, .
104. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 192; 1916: 217; Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 20, .
105. Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 18, .
106. Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 3032, 34, ,.
107. Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 30, .
108. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 24648; 1952: 31517.
807
description of the respect with which Christian peasants treated Muslim hermits.109 The
peasants veneration for Muslim holy men no doubt contributed to their progressive conversion to Islam, as did the rural shrines shared between Muslims and non-Muslims, such as
Ayn al-Baqar outside Acre mentioned by Ibn Jubayr and Yqt, the tomb of the unknown
prophet outside Aleppo, and the shrines visited by Nir-i Khusraw between Acre and Tiberias.110 The proliferation of shrines dedicated to specifically Muslim figures during this
period, such as those enumerated by al-Haraw, may have been partly due to the loss of
many urban mosques to Byzantine and Crusader conquests, but it was also partly due to
the increase of Shiite Muslims who sometimes took over an urban mosque and sometimes
dedicated rural shrines to Al b. Ab lib.111 Nir-i Khusraw described specifically Shiite
shrines around Tripoli: The people of this city are all Shiites, and the Shiites have built
nice mosques in every land. They have edifices there like caravanserais, which they call
mashhads, but no one lives in them. Outside the city of Tripoli there is not a single structure
except for a couple of mashhads.112
Nor was the convergence of religious topography limited to rural settings. Ibn Jubayr
mentioned that the main mosque of Acre was shared between Christians and Muslims,113 and
al-Haraw noted that the shrine around the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah was
administered by Greek Christians in the days of Frankish rule, although he as a Muslim
visited it.114 Earlier Nir-i Khusraw had commented that Muslims as well as Christians
and Jews came as pilgrims to Jerusalem.115 During Crusader rule the Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem was converted into a church, and al-Haraws account of his visit to the building
mentions icons of Solomon and Christ.116 Despite, or perhaps because of, this sharing of the
Umayyad edifice, al-Haraw is the earliest geographer to describe the Rock as the place from
which Muammad ascended on his night journey; Ibn awqal and al-Muqaddas had identified the stone as the Rock of Moses.117
109. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 209, 23334; 1952: 269, 300. Ellenblum (1998: 283) also concluded on the basis of
archaeological evidence that in the twelfth century Palestine still had large rural areas dominated by Christians
and other rural areas dominated by Muslims. The former included western Galilee around Acre and the hill country north of Jerusalem, while the latter included eastern Galilee and central Samaria. Kedar (1997b: 138) pointed
out that Ellenblums finding of religious segregation in Crusader-ruled Palestine is consistent with the absence of
evidence for personal ties between Muslim peasants and the Franks according to an Islamic hagiographic text. It
may, however, be objected that Kedars interpretation is an argument from silence; reporting such relationships may
not have served the hagiographers purpose.
110. See nn. 5758, 60, and 82, above. Although Ibn Jubayr (1981: 254; 1952: 324) mentions very few shrines,
he likewise mentions tombs dedicated to ancient Jewish figures around Tiberias.
111. Ayn al-Baqar outside Acre was dedicated to Al b. Ab lib, for example (al-Harawi 1953, 1: 22; 2: 57;
2004: 44). Ibn Baa (1964, 1: 39; 1958, 1: 94) mentioned a Shiite mosque in the village of Sarmn southwest of
Aleppo.
112. Nasir-i Khusraw 1986: 13; 1975: 21.
113. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 249; 1952: 318.
114. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 3031; 2: 7273; 2004: 78.
115. Nasir-i Khusraw 1975: 3435, 6263; 1986: 21, 3738.
116. Al-Harawi 1953, 1: 2425; 2: 6263; 2004: 70; Grabar 2006: 16069. The Dome of the Rock is likely the
small mosque that the Franks had converted into a church mentioned by Usma Ibn Munqidh (2008: 147; 1930:
13435), in which he would pray with permission from the Templars.
117. Ibn Hawqal 1964a: 158; 1964b, 1: 168; al-Muqaddasi 1906: 151; 1994: 138; al-Harawi 1953, 1: 24; 2: 62;
2004: 70. Miquel (1963: 14748 n. 15) supplied other possible identifications of the Rock of Moses, without ruling
out the identification as the Dome of the Rock. Indeed, al-Muqaddas (1906: 169; 1994: 154) identified a separate
Dome of the Ascent (sc. of Muammad; qubbat al-mirj) near the Dome of the Rock, while Nir-i Khusraw
(1975: 43; 1986: 26) claimed that Muammad ascended from al-Aq Mosque, which he distinguished from the
Dome of the Rock.
808
If the appearance of Muslim peasants broke down the older division between Muslim
nomads and the non-Muslim sedentary population, the partition of Syria between Christian
and Muslim rule generated new axes of Islamization between different regions within Syria.
The Byzantine reconquest and the accompanying influx of Armenians probably resulted in
the northern edges of Syria containing a higher proportion of Christians than areas further
south, such as the Gha around Damascus. Ibn Jubayr noted that most villages of the Gha
had a bathhouse, while Yqt described the village of Imm between Aleppo and Antioch as
entirely Christian in his day, although he quoted Ibn Bulns statement that it had a mosque
in the eleventh century.118 If the Byzantine reconquest introduced a north-south axis, the
Crusades resulted in an east-west distinction between coastal areas and inland. This is particularly significant since in the earlier centuries of Islam, the garrisons on the Syrian coast had
resulted in an earlier Islamization in precisely the areas where the Crusaders now ruled. But
al-Haraw complained of the inability to identify the tombs of early Muslims in the coastal
cities due to the Frankish regime.119 The noteworthiness of the level of rural Islamization in
the Gha to Ibn Jubayr may reflect the fact that Damascus was one of the few cities of Syria
not sacked by the Byzantines or the Crusaders.
the return to muslim rule in mamluk syria
The Mamluk conquests of the last Crusader states on the Levantine coast reunited Syria
under Muslim rule, although the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia continued to exist as a troublesome vassal of the sultans in Cairo until 776/1375. But three centuries of divided rule
had left Syria much more regionally diverse and the non-Muslim populations much reduced.
While Crusader rule of the coast had encouraged Christian residence there, the Mamluk
conquests were accompanied by deliberate destruction of the coastal settlements. As a result,
most references to Christians in the geographical works of the Mamluk period situate them
in northern Syria, whether in urban or rural settings. Most cities of northern Syria had a
non-Muslim population, and some large towns on major roads continued to be entirely or
primarily Christian at least into the fourteenth century.
Unlike the first Muslim conquerors of Syria over six centuries earlier, the new Mamluk
rulers did not fortify the coast, but rather depopulated it to a significant degree and rendered
it indefensible. The purpose was evidently not to prevent a new Crusader invasion, but to
prevent the Crusaders from being able to hold anything on the mainland. Thus, according to
Ibn Baa, the Mamluk sultan Baybars (r. 658676/12601277) destroyed the walls around
Antioch when he captured the city in 666/1268.120 Tripoli was demolished by the Mamluks
in 688/1289 and refounded away from the coast.121 Jubayl and Beirut may have fared somewhat better, with Ab l-Fid indicating that the former had a Friday mosque and Ibn Baa
indicating the same for the latter.122 On the other hand, the ports that were the last Crusader
strongholds, Tyre and Acre, were completely ruined after the Mamluk conquest, according
118. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 224; 1952: 288; Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 4: 177.
119. He made a similar complaint regarding Crusader-ruled Jerusalem, which he visited before it was conquered by al al-Dn (al-Harawi 1953, 1: 28, 33; 2: 68, 76; 2004: 74, 82).
120. Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 43; 1958, 1: 103.
121. Al-Dimashq 1866: 207; 1874: 282; Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 253; 2,2: 30; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 37; 1958,
1: 88. Sources disagree as to how far inland the new foundation was, between one mile (Ab l-Fid) and five miles
(al-Dimashq), which indicates that these reports are not all copied from the same source.
122. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 247; 2,2: 26; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 36; 1958, 1: 85. Ab l-Fid mentioned Beirut, but
only to quote from older sources, so his text gives no indication of its current size.
809
to Ab l-Fid, who participated in the capture of the latter.123 Between them, the formerly
important port of ayd was in the fourteenth century merely a small village, while further
south Qaysriyya, Arsf, and Asqaln were also ruined.124 Ab l-Fid seems to indicate that
the main beneficiaries of this coastal destruction were Gaza, which became the main port
for traders from the ijz, and the Cilician port of ys in the Armenian kingdom, which
became the preferred port for Christian merchants from Europe; between them, Yf was
the only port he identified as still active.125 The coastal areas, where the early Islamization
was most thoroughly reversed by the period of Crusader rule, were devastated rather than
reconverted by the conquerors from Cairo, who generally moved their governmental centers
inland.
Under Greek and Crusader rule, the coastline and northern Syria probably had a higher
proportion of Christians than other regions. After the Mamluk devastation of the coastline,
northern Syria remained the place where Christians were most frequently mentioned by
geographers. One interesting exception is al-Shawbak between Ammn and Ayla in southeastern Syria (today part of Jordan), which Ab l-Fid described as mostly inhabited by
Christians still in the fourteenth century.126 Otherwise, references to Christian populations in
Syria in the geographical works of the Mamluk period all refer to northern Syria. It is indicative in this regard that al-Dimashq describes the wildest party he knew of as Easter at am,
for which Christians would gather from all over northern Syria: im, Shayzar, Salamiyya,
Kafr b, Ab Qubays, Mayf, Maarrat al-Numn, Tzn, al-Bb, Buza, al-Fa, and
Aleppo.127 The annual festival at Dayr al-Frs outside Latakia likewise made an impression
on al-Dimashq, Ab l-Fid, and Ibn Baa.128 Urban Christian populations are indicated
at Anarss on the coast and in Damascus, where Ibn Baa recounted the combined prayer
procession of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in response to the arrival of the Black Death.129
It thus appears that most if not all of the urban centers of northern Syria had, or were plausibly reputed to have, Christian segments of the population into the fourteenth century.
Particular rural areas also became known for Christians, such as the Lake of the Christians north of Fmiya (ancient Apamea), whose eels were enjoyed by Christians, according
to al-Dimashq.130 On the other hand, Ibn Baa adapted Ibn Jubayrs description of the
villages in the Gha around Damascus, adding Friday mosques and markets to the earlier
travelers bathhouses as indicative of what most villages near Damascus possessed in the
fourteenth century.131 In rural areas, roads were important locations of non-Muslim visibility
to the Muslim population. One of the main roads from Iraq to Damascus passed through alSukhna, east of im, and when Ibn Baa passed that way in the mid-fourteenth century
123. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 243; 2,2: 20, 22; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 35; 1958, 1: 83.
124. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 239, 249; 2,2: 17, 26; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 34; 1958, 1: 81.
125. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 239, 249; 2,2: 16, 17, 27.
126. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 3: 420; Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 247; 2,2: 25.
127. Al-Dimashq 1866: 280; 1874: 408.
128. Al-Dimashq 1866: 209; 1874: 285; Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 257; 2,2: 35; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 49; 1958,
1: 115.
129. Al-Dimashq 1866: 2078; 1874: 283; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 6061; 1958, 1: 144. A major textual variant in
the text of al-Dimashq questions whether the church and monastery are in Anarss or in Anafa, a coastal village.
The translator followed a Paris manuscript that ascribed them to the coastal village of Anafa northeast of Jubayl but
still placed another early monastery in Anarss.
130. Al-Dimashq 1866: 205; 1874: 279; Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 41; 2,1: 51. Certain manuscripts of al-Dimashq
omit the reference to Christian fishermen, only referring to the eels.
131. Ibn Jubayr 1981: 224; 1952: 288; Ibn Baa 1964, 1: 63; 1958, 1: 148.
810
he described it as a fine town, most of whose inhabitants are Christian infidels.132 Closer
to Damascus, the town of Qra was described by Yqt as the first stopping point on the
straight road from im to Damascus, which is the main north-south road of central Syria.133
Yqt also indicated tersely that all of its people are Christians, while a generation earlier
Ibn Jubayr had said at greater length that the village belongs to Christians who dwell there
under treaty and in which there are no Muslims.134 In the fourteenth century Ab l-Fid
modified the description of Qras population to predominantly Christian, indicating that
this large town on a main road probably had its first Muslim inhabitants under Mamluk rule.135
Further north, the same author indicated the need to pass through the entirely Christian village of Yaghr near Antioch in order to reach the towns of Darbask and Baghrs, the former
of which had a mosque and minbar.136 As late as the middle of Mamluk rule, Muslim travelers in central and northern Syria might be forced to spend the night in villages with only a
small Muslim presence.
Following the Ottoman conquest of the early sixteenth century, tax registers survive that
permit a more detailed summary of the state of religious diversity in Syria. These records
indicate a small and almost exclusively urban Jewish population, comprising perhaps 2.6% of
the population of Aleppo in 924/1518, 6% of Damascus in ca. 950/1543, and around twenty
years earlier 11% of Sidon, 1.7% of Beirut, and 2% of Balabakk, northwest of Damascus.137
Further south, Jewish populations made up around 21% of Jerusalem in 932/1526, 24% of
afad, north of Tiberias, in the same year, 10% of Gaza in the same year, 2% of Hebron
in ca. 945/1538-9, and 6% of Nbulus in the same register.138 The centers of Jewish population partially shifted back to the coast and to Jerusalem after the end of Crusader rule, with
the addition of the newly prominent Jewish center of afad. But this shift primarily reflects
a decrease in the Jewish populations of inland Syria: the number of Jewish households in
Jerusalem in 932/1526 agrees almost exactly with the figure given by Benjamin of Tudela
over three centuries earlier.139 By contrast, the number of Jewish households in Damascus
was only a little over one-sixth what the twelfth-century traveler reported, and the Jewish
population of Aleppo was a mere 6% of Benjamin of Tudelas figure.140 Over the course of
the sixteenth century, afad would rise to prominence as the Jewish capital of Syria, until in
the 970s/1560s the city had almost twice as many Jewish households as Damascus did, and
its total population was almost evenly split between Jews and Muslims.141
The Christian population of Syria in the first century of Ottoman rule was increasingly
marginalized. In contrast to geographers reports of substantial Christian populations in north132. Ibn Baa 1964, 2: 175; 1958, 4: 916.
133. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 4: 33435.
134. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 269; 1981: 209.
135. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 229; 2,2: 6.
136. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 261; 2,2: 38.
137. Cohen and Lewis 1978: 16; ener and Dutolu 2010: 15 n. 39; Bakhit 1982b: 49. Regrettably, in most
other cases the editors of the defter of Aleppo give total figures arrived at by simply adding together households,
bachelors, religious figures, and other tax-exempt individuals. These totals could still give proportions of a population belonging to different religions, if the proportion of households to bachelors was constant, but the variability
is larger and less controlled.
138. Cohen and Lewis 1978: 94, 111, 128, 149, 161. Samaritans made up about 2.5% each of Gaza and Nbulus
in registers of 932/1526 and ca. 945/15389, respectively.
139.The defter of 932/15256 lists 199 Jewish households out of a total of 934 households, while Benjamin of
Tudela (1907: 22, )mentioned 200 Jewish men; cf. Cohen and Lewis 1978: 94.
140. Bakhit 1982b: 49; Benjamin of Tudela 1907: 30, 32, ;ener and Dutolu 2010: 15 n. 39.
141. Cohen and Lewis 1978: 161; Bakhit 1982b: 49.
811
ern Syria under the early Mamluks, the Ottoman tax register of 943/1536 for the province
of Aleppo presents a total population that was about 98% Muslim and 2% Christian. 142 In
that register, Christians were significant minorities in the areas of Jabal al-Aqra on the coast
(8%), al-Shughr south of Antioch (8%), Shayzar northwest of am (8%), and al-Quayr
south of Antioch (5%); only in the district of al-Suwayd on the Mediterranean coast southeast of Antioch did the Christian population approach the Muslim population (49%).143 A
sizeable rural village such as Zaytniyya near al-Suwayd, with 82 households and 42 bachelors, could still be 87% Christian, but the village of Yaghr, which Ab l-Fid had reported
as entirely Christian, was entirely Muslim two centuries later.144 Areas of Syria further north,
which had significant Armenian populations in the Mamluk period, were incorporated into
the Ramanid principality or the Dulqdir province and thus not included in the register for
the province of Aleppo, but the Christian population around Aleppo is far below what one
might expect from the geographers characterizations. Perhaps the instability of the fifteenth
century, when the area around Aleppo was again a frontier zone between the Mamluk rulers
in Cairo and their Trkmen neighbors to the north and east, encouraged religious minorities
to convert to Islam or emigrate to more stable regions.
Within the province of Damascus, the bulk of the Christian population was rural, although
substantial numbers of urban Christians inhabited Gaza, Jerusalem, Beirut, Balabakk, and
the city of Damascus itself.145 The town of Qra, the important stopping-place between
Damascus and im, was slightly over half Muslim by ca. 930/1523, and the surrounding
countryside was a little over 60% Muslim.146 Some villages remained entirely Christian,
and in certain towns such as al-Karak, southeast of the Dead Sea, Christians outnumbered
Muslims two to one in the middle of the sixteenth century.147 On the other hand, large areas
of the countryside were now entirely Muslim, with no non-Muslim inhabitants in the tax registers, such as almost the entire triangle from Damascus to Beirut and south to Tyre.148 The
areas where non-Muslims outnumbered Muslims were shrinking and were more remote at
the beginning of Ottoman rule than when incorporated into the Mamluk empire. The Syria
registered by the Ottoman census-takers of the sixteenth century was a Muslim land, in population as well as in government.
142. ener and Dutolu 2010: 17. The Jewish population of the city of Aleppo seems to have been deliberately omitted from this defter, since it appears with somewhat fewer than 300 households in registers from before
932/1526 and after 978/1570, but even including them would give a Jewish population of 0.5% of the province as
a whole (ibid.: 15, 17).
143. ener and Dutolu 2010: 1617. The town of al-Quayr near Antioch should not be confused with the
more famous town southwest of im, which was in the province of Tripoli. I have not been able to consult Ottoman tax registers from Tripoli.
144. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 261; 2,2: 38; ener and Dutolu 2010: 240, 266.
145. Cohen and Lewis 1978: 9394, 128; Bakhit 1982b: 49, 55, 80. Approximately as many Christian households were located in villages around Gaza and Jerusalem as in the cities themselves, as recorded by Bakhit (1982a:
5256), which must qualify the assertion of Cohen and Lewis (1978: 16) that non-Muslims were primarily towndwellers.
146. Bakhit 1982a: 22; 1982b: 37.
147. For example, the large town of qra outside Balabakk was entirely Christian with 119 households and
11 bachelors in ca. 930/1523. Al-Shawbak, which was identified as entirely Christian in the Mamluk period, had
very few Christians in the early Ottoman period; evidently many of them had relocated to Gaza (Bakhit 1982a: 32,
44, 45, 55).
148. The only exceptions in this triangle seem to be the niyas of al-Zabadn and Shf al-Baya, which had
about 20% and 10% Christian populations respectively in ca. 950/1543 (Bakhit 1982a: 41, 74).
812

conclusion
When the Umayyad prince Sulaymn b. Abd al-Malik (d. 99/717) began to construct alRamla as the new capital for the district of Filasn in the early eighth century, his expense
manager was a Christian scribe from the nearby Roman town of Ludd.149 Al-Baldhur, who
reported this story in the ninth century, evidently saw nothing out of the ordinary in a Muslim
ruler employing a skilled non-Muslim. Later geographers transformed this account in ways
that reveal the shifting place of non-Muslims, and particularly Christians, in Syrias society.
Al-Muqaddas in the late tenth century omits the reference to the Christian accountant, but
his report of the minaret of al-Ramla being built by Hishm b. Abd al-Malik (r. 10525/724
43) from marble columns that he extorted from the Christians of Ludd, who were hiding
them in preparation for enhancing their own church, presents church construction as unremarkable in the latter days of the Umayyad dynasty.150 In the early thirteenth century, Yqt
al-amaw revisited Sulaymns construction of al-Ramla, but in his account the Christian
accountant is transformed into a threatening scribe whose desire to obtain the house beside
the church is thwarted, whereupon he suggests to Sulaymn that he build al-Ramla in order
to destroy the church.151 Finally, in the fourteenth century Ab l-Fid expanded on the
animosity by stating that the Umayyad prince destroyed (akhrabah) Ludd and founded alRamla.152 Nevertheless, in the early Ottoman tax register, Ludd was approximately as large
as al-Ramla, and was still around 40% Christian.153 Even where non-Muslims continued to
be a substantial portion of the population in Syria, the non-Muslim role in the construction
of a district capital was simply erased.
Despite the hermeneutical challenges it poses, the medieval Muslim geographical literature is a rich body of source material for social history, and particularly for the history of
Islamization. These works remind us that Islamization was more than just the progressive
conversion to Islam of the populace of Syria, but included the construction or conversion
of mosques and the diffusion into the countryside. In the earliest period, Islam seems to be
the religion only of the ruling elites and garrisons in cities and coastal towns, and some of
the nomadic Arabs in the countryside. The evidence for sedentary rural Muslim populations,
and for Muslim shrines outside of the cities, begins only in the geographies of the tenth
century, and grows quickly in the subsequent period. The invasions of the Byzantines and
the Crusaders divided Syria between Christian and Muslim rule, which reversed the trend
of Islamization in areas under their rule, particularly in northern Syria and along the coast.
Frankish governance in particular seems to have encouraged Jews to settle outside of Filasn
and inland, under Muslim rule. The division of government created two axes of differential
Islamization within Syria, one north-south and the other coastal-inland. With the Mamluk
devastation of the coast in the process of conquest, geographical works of the period came
to mention Christian populations and institutions primarily in the urban and rural areas of
northern Syria. Although Islam was now as much a peasants religion as a rulers, pockets of
Syria remained entirely or largely non-Muslim to the end of Mamluk rule.
In light of the long duration process of Islamization, Bulliets conversion curve seems
too steep and too early to represent the population of Syria as a whole. This is unsurprising
149. Al-Baladhuri 1957: 195; 1916: 220.
150. Al-Muqaddasi 1906: 165; 1994: 151.
151. Yaqut al-Hamawi 1990, 3: 79. It is not clear in this account whether the scribe should still be thought of
as a Christian or not.
152. Abu l-Fida 1840, 1: 241; 2,2: 18.
153. Bakhit 1982a: 56.
813
for a graph based on the naming practices of the ancestors of ulema, which likely represent
families that have been Muslim on average longer than families without Islamic religious
experts.154 The one-dimensional increase of Muslims as a proportion of the population, an
artifact of Bulliets use of a summative S-curve, has been shown to be false for portions of
Syria that came under Byzantine or Crusader rule, and the late proliferation of specifically
Islamic rural shrines in the twelfth century, which was likely a contributing cause rather than
an effect of the conversion of the rural population, reveals that Bulliets date of 1010 (1979:
131) for the essential completion of the primary conversion process is too early. The use
of geographical works has also permitted a more locally nuanced account of the process of
Islamization within one region considered by Bulliet, showing that different parts of Syria
experienced very different trajectories of Islamization.155
This study largely supplements the work of Levtzion and enriches our understanding of
the process of conversion, where he was compelled by his sources to speak in generalities
and, with regard to Islamization in particular, primarily about shifting government attitudes.
The effect of religious spaces shared among Muslims, Jews, and Christians on the Islamization of Syria adds a new dimension to Levtzions account (1990: 29799) of conversion to
Islam largely in terms of governmental pressures and mob violence. The partial reversal of
Islamization due to Byzantine and Frankish rule also puts a significant question mark next
to his assertion (p. 299) that Middle Eastern Christians preferred Muslim to Christian rule.
Some Christians who were particularly negatively affected by Byzantine or Crusader rulers
likely did applaud the Mamluk conquests, but the areas that remained under Muslim rule
experienced rural Islamization faster than areas conquered by Christians.
Research into Islamization has often focused on trying to identify an age of conversions
in which the majority of a population had adopted Islam, sometimes even referring to the
achievement of demographic majority as a tipping point. This study has omitted any speculations regarding the date at which Islam became the religion of the demographic majority
for three reasons. One is simply the lack of evidence that could validate such speculation.
More importantly, such speculation ascribes an unwarranted significance to demographic
precision and presumes an erroneous shape of Islamization. Premodern authors remarked
on the relative size of religious groups, not with respect to large regions such as Syria, but
with respect to specific locales such as particular cities or towns.156 This is typical for phenomena that had no imperial significance but could affect daily life. However, it is difficult
to see how the experience of living in a locale with large groups of non-Muslims would be
noticeably different whether Muslims constituted 45% or 55% of the total population. No
tipping point was proposed in this study because the conversion of 50.1% of the population had no significance. That is the second reason. Thirdly, Islamization was a complex
process with different dynamics in different periods. To suggest an approximate date for a
154. The elite bias of biographical dictionaries has been pointed out by critics of Bulliet, and their complaints
discussed by Morony 1990: 138; Harrison 2012: 3839. These commentators omitted the specifically Muslim
dimension of ulema elitism, since first-generation converts to Islam were rarely included among the ulema after the
seventh century. While Harrison is correct to point out that basically all premodern literary sources are elitist, the
geographical works used in this article may be less sharply elitist than biographical dictionaries.
155. Morony (1990: 138) suggested refining Bulliets conclusions for Iran by considering intra-regional differences.
156. Tamer el-Leithy (2005: 27) pointed out both medieval Muslims general lack of interest in relative religious demography and the important but often overlooked lack of political significance associated with demographic strength. El-Leithys remarks are a very necessary corrective, even if relative demographic strength might
have had other social and cultural impacts despite medieval historians neglect, such as which holidays drew large
crowds or whether the presence of non-Muslims was considered common or bizarre.
814
Muslim demographic majority, in Syria or any sub-region, would imply that Islamization
was merely demographic, and only quantitatively different at different times. Islamization
includes demographic change, but the qualitatively different character of processes of Islamization in different periods, from early conversions of Arab nomads and garrisons of major
cities to the late medieval proliferation of Islamic shrines, cannot be reduced to proportions
of populations.
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Contours of Conversion: The Geography of Islamization in Syria 600-1500

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Contours of Conversion:

The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Fig.1. Cities, towns, and villages of medieval Syria.

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

10. Kedar 1985: 326.

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

recording religion, the absence of a reference to a particular religious community or expected

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

The Byzantine invasion of im he credited to their confusion (khabl) and luxury

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

76. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 321; 1981: 252.

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

99. Ibn Jubayr 1952: 291; 1981: 227.

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

Carlson: The Geography of Islamization in Syria, 6001500

Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.4 (2015)

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