Notes from “Gaza a History” by Jean-Pierre Filiu
Part 4
“None of the subsequent holders of the bishopric of Gaza, which continued to be subordinate to Caesarea within the hierarchy of the Church, was able to rival the political acumen of Porphyry (d. AD 420), to whom a church was dedicated in 442 (it was most probably this church which was destroyed in October). In contrast, however, Gaza was important in Palestinian monasticism, since the region rivalled the Judaean desert in its attraction for those with monastic vocations. The fashion can be traced to the pioneer effort of Hilarion (AD 291-371), born into a wealthy family in Gaza, who was initiated by the anchorite Antony in Alexandria and founded a monastic community close to his native city. Hilarion died in Cyprus after resuming his spiritual pilgrimage. His remains, which were brought back to Gaza, became the object of popular veneration, encouraged by the instructive biography of him written by St Jerome in around 390. Today, Hilarion’s tomb is at the monastery of Umm al-Amar, on the edge of the Nuseirat refugee camp, some 13 kilometers to the south of Gaza.”[1]
“A monastic community was established to the south of the city on the site of present-day Umm al-Amar, first under the leadership of Abbot Seridos and then of his successor Aelianos. The monastery became sufficiently wealthy to support some 400 monks in addition to a large number of pilgrims – no complex of greater size existed in the Byzantine Near East closer than that of Saint Simeon, in the north of Syria. The expansion of this community enabled it to obtain favourable treatment from the government of Palestine, and it also prompted the adherence of the sons of good families. Among the most prominent of these were Dorotheus and Dositheos: the ‘Instructions’ of the former and the ‘Life’ of the latter serve as a benchmark of the spirituality of their time. Bishop Marcian, a native of Gaza, where he presided from AD 530 to 549, oversaw ambitious works in the Church of Saint Sergius, which he is credited as having built. He also instigated the construction of the churches of Saint Stephen and Saint John.”[2]
“The sophist Choricios, who composed the encomia for Bishop Marcian, is in the direct tradition of Gaza’s Hellenistic school, where philosophers and rhetoricians simply needed to profess their adherence to Christianity in order to continue their writing and dialogues, simultaneously active in Old Testament exegeses and classical apologists…Such intellectual conceits, couched in Greek between men of good society, were inaccessible to most people of Gaza, who spoke Aramaic.”[3]
“Under the Byzantine Empire Christian Gaza enjoyed a level of prosperity that seems to have been equivalent to that of the pre-Christian pagan city at the time of the Pax Romana. But this was to change from the middle of the sixth century onwards when Byzantine Syria suffered constant harassment from the Persian Sassanid Empire. In 614 the Persian ruler Khosroe finally took Jerusalem, and by 618 he had captured the whole of Palestine. In the ten years that followed, Gaza was isolated from the other Byzantine provinces until it was recaptured by Heraclitus in 629.”[4]
“The Byzantine and Persian Empires were too preoccupied with their rivalry to pay attention to the emergent power of Islam’s warriors in the heart of Arabia, and although Muhammed wrote to Heraclius and Khosroe to threaten them with jihad if they failed to convert to the newly revealed faith, it was not until the Prophet’s death in 632 and the succession of Abu Bakr, who became the Prophet’s first khalifa, or caliph (literally ‘follower’), that the first expeditions were mounted outside the Arabian Peninsula. During one of these raids, in February 634, the Byzantine defenders of Gaza suffered a serious defeat some kilometers from the city…The goal of spreading Islam by force of arms became altogether more serious when the Caliphate passed from Abu Bakr to Umar ibn Khattab in August 634. Having left his days of his caravans from Mecca to Gaza far behind him, Umar went down in history as the ‘caliph of jihad’, bound to defeat two great Empires.”[5]
“The Muslim armies first attacked the Christian territories of the north. The decisive battle was on the Yarmuk River in August 636, when the Byzantine forces were routed. Caliph Umar, eager to turn his attention to the Persian Empire, delegated the western front to the intrepid Amr ibn al-As. In June 637 Gaza was taken by storm and its garrison massacred but its population was spared. Amr then used Gaza as a base from which to press on to Egypt. While the church of Saint Eudoxia, which had been built on the ruins of the temple of Zeus, was transformed into a mosque, (which was to be dedicated to Caliph Umar after the latter’s death), the neighbouring church of Saint Porphyry was allowed to remain open for Christian worship. The population of the city appears to have accepted Islam with an enthusiasm that contrasted with the resistance that pagan Gaza had put up against Christianity. On the other hand, the surrounding countryside seemed reluctant to convert, as was evidenced by the persistence of the cultivation of vineyards despite the Islamic prohibition of alcohol. In general, the Near East was to remain largely Christian for up to two centuries after the Islamic conquest.”[6]
[1] pp. 13-14 Gaza a History, Jean-Pierre Filiu
[2] pp.14-15 Ibid
[3] p.15 Ibid
[4] p.15 Ibid
[5] pp.18-19 Ibid
[6] p.19 Ibid