Editing History of Israel (section)

===Demographic changes===
Although the Arab conquest was relatively peaceful and did not cause widespread destruction, it did alter the country's demographics significantly.<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006">{{Cite journal |last1=לוי-רובין |first1=מילכה |last2=Levy-Rubin |first2=Milka |date=2006 |title=The Influence of the Muslim Conquest on the Settlement Pattern of Palestine during the Early Muslim Period / הכיבוש כמעצב מפת היישוב של ארץ-ישראל בתקופה המוסלמית הקדומה |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23407269 |journal=Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv / קתדרה: לתולדות ארץ ישראל ויישובה |issue=121 |pages=53–78 |jstor=23407269 |issn=0334-4657 |archive-date=5 February 2023 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205140101/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23407269 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over the ensuing several centuries, the region experienced a drastic decline in its population, from an estimated 1 million during Roman and Byzantine times to some 300,000 by the early Ottoman period. This demographic collapse was accompanied by a slow process of [[Islamization]], that resulted from the flight of non-Muslim populations, immigration of Muslims, and local [[Conversion to Islam|conversion]]. The majority of the remaining populace belonged to the lowest classes. While the Arab conquerors themselves left the area after the conquest and moved on to other places, the settlement of Arab tribes in the area both before and after the conquest also contributed to the Islamization.<ref name=":Ellenblum2010">{{Cite book |last=Ellenblum |first=Ronnie |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |title=Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-58534-0 |oclc=958547332 |quote=From the data given above it can be concluded that the Muslim population of Central Samaria, during the early Muslim period, was not an autochthonous population which had converted to Christianity. They arrived there either by way of migration or as a result of a process of sedentarization of the nomads who had filled the vacuum created by the departing Samaritans at the end of the Byzantine period [...] To sum up: in the only rural region in Palestine in which, according to all the written and archeological sources, the process of Islamization was completed already in the twelfth century, there occurred events consistent with the model propounded by Levtzion and Vryonis: the region was abandoned by its original sedentary population and the subsequent vacuum was apparently filled by nomads who, at a later stage, gradually became sedentarized |archive-date=10 July 2023 |access-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710040327/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}}<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006" /> As a result, the Muslim population steadily grew and the area became gradually dominated by Muslims on a political and social level.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /><ref>Christopher MacEvitt, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh6RNqI0uikC&pg=PA97 ''The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance,'' ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109094826/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh6RNqI0uikC&pg=PA97|date=9 January 2020}} [[University of Pennsylvania Press]], 2010, p.97 {{isbn|978-0-812-20269-4}}</ref>

During the early Islamic period, many [[Christians]] and [[Samaritans]], belonging to the Byzantine upper class, migrated from the coastal cities to northern Syria and Cyprus, which were still under Byzantine control, while others fled to the central highlands and the Transjordan. As a result, the coastal towns, formerly important economic centers connected with the rest of the Byzantine world, were emptied of most of their residents. Some of these cities—namely [[Ashkelon]], [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], [[Apollonia–Arsuf|Arsuf]], and [[Gaza City|Gaza]]—now fortified border towns, were resettled by Muslim populations, who developed them into significant Muslim centers. The region of [[Samaria]] also underwent a process of Islamization as a result of waves of conversion among the Samaritan population and the influx of Muslims into the area.<ref name="Levy-Rubin-2006" />{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}} The predominantly [[Monophysitism|Jacobite Monophysitic]] Christian population had been hostile to Byzantium orthodoxy, and at times for that reason welcomed Muslim rule. There is no strong evidence for forced conversion, or for possibility that the jizya tax significantly affected such changes.<ref>M. M. Silver, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lQQ_EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA231 ''The History of Galilee, 47 BCE to 1260 CE: From Josephus and Jesus to the Crusades,''] [[Rowman & Littlefield]] 2021 {{isbn|978-1-793-64946-1}} p.231.</ref>

The demographic situation in Palestine was further altered by urban decline under the Abbasids, and it is thought that the [[749 Galilee earthquake|749 earthquake]] hastened this process by causing an increase in the number of Jews, Christians, and Samaritans who emigrated to diaspora communities while also leaving behind others who remained in the devastated cities and poor villages until they converted to Islam.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" /> Historical records and archeological evidence suggest that many Samaritans converted under Abbasid and Tulunid rule, after suffering through severe difficulties such droughts, earthquakes, religious persecution, heavy taxes and anarchy.{{sfn|Ehrlich|2022|p=33}} The same region also saw the settlement of Arabs. Over the period, the Samaritan population drastically decreased, with the rural Samaritan population converting to Islam, and small urban communities remaining in Nablus and Caesarea, as well as in Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo and Sarepta.<ref name="Nathan-2006">{{Cite book |last=שור |first=נתן |title=ספר השומרונים |publisher=יד יצחק בן-צבי; רשות העתיקות |year=2006 |isbn=965-217-202-2 |editor-last=שטרן |editor-first=אפרים |edition=2 |location=ירושלים |pages=587–590 |language=Hebrew |trans-title=Book of the Samaritans |chapter=רדיפות השומרונים בידי העבאסים והיעלמות היישוב השומרוני החקלאי |editor-last2=אשל |editor-first2=חנן}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Muslim population remained a minority in a predominantly Christian area, and it is likely that this status persisted until the Crusader period.<ref name="Ehrlich-2022" />