CHAPTER XI
Palestine
Places conquered by ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi. Abu-Ḥafṣ ad-Dimashḳi from learned sheikhs:—The first conflict between Moslems and Greeks took place in the caliphate of abu-Bakr in the province of Palestine, the one in chief command over the Moslems being ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi. Later on in the caliphate of abu-Bakr, ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi effected the conquest of Ghazzah, then Sabasṭiyah[1] and Nâbulus [Neapolis] with the stipulation that he guaranteed to the inhabitants the safety of their lives, their possessions and their houses on condition that they pay poll-tax, and kharâj on their land. He then conquered Ludd [Lydda] and its district, and then Yubna [Jabneh or Jabneel], ʿAmawâs [Emmaus] and Bait-Jabrîn[2] [Eleutheropolis] where he took for himself an estate[3] which he named ʿAjlân after a freedman of his. He then conquered Yâfa [Jaffa] which according to others was conquered by Muʿâwiyah. ʿAmr also conquered Rafaḥ and made similar terms with it.
The conquest of Jerusalem. As ʿAmr was besieging Îliyâʾ, i. e., Jerusalem in the year 16, abu-ʿUbaidah after reducing Ḳinnasrîn and its environs, came to him, and according to a report, sent him from Jerusalem to Antioch whose people had violated the covenant. ʿAmr reduced the
