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The Arab conquest of Jerusalem was bloodless. Tradition has it that the Patriarch Sophronios surrendered the city to Omar, the commander of the Arab forces. In return the Patriarch was granted a writ of privileges which guaranteed the right of Christians to maintain their holy places and pursue their customs unhindered. At the end of the 7th century Jerusalem was recognized as the third holiest city in Islam, after Mecca and Medina, and as a destination for pilgrimage. The Temple Mountwas identified by Muslims as the place Muhammed reached in his Night Voyage and from which he ascended to heaven.
During the first century of Islamic rule in Jerusalem, the Omayyad Dynasty ruled in the country. Abd Al-Malik ibn Al Marwan, a leading caliph of the dynasty, built the Dome of the Rock, inaugurated in 691 as one of the two symbols of Jerusalem in the eyes of Muslims. The other was Al-Aqsa mosque on the southern edge of the Temple Mount. South of the Temple Mount the Omayyads erected a network of palaces and public buildings extending over a broad area.
 It was a shortlived efflorescence. The Omayyad Dynasty was wiped out and succeeded by the Abbasids, who transferred their capital from nearby Damascus to distant Baghdad and imposed a fanatical regime that was a far cry from the enlightened government of the Omayyads. Jerusalem's political and economic importance, which in part had derived from its proximity to the center of power, now declined. The population shrank and with it the size of the city.
Still, Jerusalem's importance as a religious center was not affected. Under Arab rule Jews were permitted to reside in the city. The Jewish community developed rapidly and soon claimed a central position among the communities of the region. The three monotheistic religions continued to perceive Jerusalem as a holy city, yearned for it and went on pilgrimage to the sacred sites within its walls.
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Visit the Sites of the Early Muslim Age