Editing Umar (section)

=== Visit to Jerusalem in 637 ===
Umar's visit to [[Jerusalem]] is documented in several sources. A recently discovered Judeo-Arabic text has disclosed the following anecdote:<ref name="Simha Assaf 1946, pp. 20-21"/>

"Umar ordered Gentiles and a group of Jews to sweep the area of the Temple Mount. Umar oversaw the work. The Jews who had come sent letters to the rest of the Jews in Palestine and informed them that Umar had permitted resettlement of Jerusalem by Jews. Umar, after some consultation, permitted seventy Jewish households to return. They returned to live in the southern part of the city, i.e., the Market of the Jews. (Their aim was to be near the water of ''[[Siloam|Silwan]]'' and the [[Temple Mount]] and its gates). Then the Commander Umar granted them this request. The seventy families moved to Jerusalem from Tiberias and the area around it with their wives and children".

It is also reported in the name of the [[Eutychius of Alexandria|Alexandrian Bishop Eutychius]] (932–940) that the rock known as the Temple Mount had been a place of ruins as far back as the time of the [[Helena (empress)|Empress Helena]], mother of Constantine the Great, who built churches in Jerusalem. "The Byzantines" he said, "had deliberately left the ancient site of the Temple as it was and had even thrown rubbish on it so that a great heap of rubble formed". It was only when Umar marched into Jerusalem with an army that he asked [[Ka'ab al-Ahbar]], who was Jewish before he converted to Islam, "Where do you advise me to build a place of worship?" Ka'ab indicated the Temple Rock, now a gigantic heap of ruins from the temple of Jupiter.<ref>''The History of al-Tabari'', vol. XII, Albany, [[SUNY Press|State University of New York Press]], 2007, pp. 194–195</ref> The Jews, Ka'ab explained, had briefly won back their old capital a quarter of a century before (when Persians overran Syria and Palestine), but they had not had time to clear the site of the Temple, for the ''Rums'' (Byzantines) had recaptured the city. It was then that Umar ordered the rubbish on the ''Ṣakhra'' (rock) to be removed by the Nabataeans, and after three showers of heavy rain had cleansed the Rock, he instituted prayers there. To this day, the place is known as ''ḳubbat es ṣakhra'', the [[Dome of the Rock]].

According to lexicographer [[David ben Abraham al-Fasi]] (died before 1026), the Muslim conquest of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] brought relief to the country's Jewish citizens, who had previously been barred by the Byzantines from praying on the [[Temple Mount]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Al-Fasi |first=D. |author-link=David ben Abraham al-Fasi |title=The Hebrew-Arabic Dictionary of the Bible, Known as 'Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Alfāẓ' (Agron) |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |editor=Solomon L. Skoss |volume=1 |page=xxxix – xl (Introduction) |date=1936 |language=he |oclc=745093227}}</ref>