Palestine/Jerusalem after Yarmouk

 

The majority of the population of Palestine was christian, there were no pagans and very few jews. Actually the archbishop of Jerusalem said he would only give the city to the muslims for certain conditions one of them was preventing jews from ever entering the city. Muslims refused since jews had a right to it and it was later agreed that they should stay outside the city for a limited period. The only place where jews did infact make a majority was Nablus or Flavia Neapolis where Samaritans were a majority. The Romans made sure that jews were decimated after their rebellion and the numbers claimed by the jews of a loss of some 1 million people is actually not far from the truth.

 

After Islam came, the majority of the people of Palestine continued to be christian and Islamisation was not a government policy nor conversion was wide spread. Arab tribes already lived in the Area, negev, jordan and southern Syria, for nearly a millenium before Islam came but after the conquest, certain christian Arab tribes decided to move to those areas and even till the 16th century, christian arab tribes were the majority in and around the dead sea. Plagues, wars and internal strife changed the demography and by the time of the crusaders, palestine was as populated, if not more populated, than anytime before and the majority were muslims. It was the crusades that reduced the population. Now actually religion tells more about the ethnicity than what most people think. Greek orthodox and former greek orthodox are exclusively Arab and they are direct descendent of Arab tribes that were christian, many were bedouin till the beginning of the last century. Muslim palestinians are a bit more complex but depending where they live one can make a rough estimate of their ethnicity. Most people in the north of Palestine aren't Arab.

 

Anyway, here is a link to a very prominant journal I hope you will be satisfied:

 

 

 

AL-Jassas