Editing Gaza City (section)

===Early Islamic period===
[[File:Umm ar-Rasas mosaic Gaza.png|thumb|right|Depiction of a Gaza building in the Byzantine [[Umm ar-Rasas mosaics]], circa 8th century AD during the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]]]

In {{circa|638}} Gaza was captured by [[Rashidun Caliphate|Arab Muslim]] forces under [[Amr ibn al-As]], in the years following the [[Battle of Ajnadayn]] between the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the [[Rashidun Caliphate]] in central Palestine.<ref>Kennedy, 2007, p. 88.</ref> It was captured by Amr's forces about three years later. Believed to be the site where [[Muhammad]]'s great-grandfather [[Hashim ibn Abd Manaf]] was buried, Gaza was not destroyed and its inhabitants were not attacked by Amr's army despite the city's stiff and lengthy resistance, though its Byzantine garrison was massacred.<ref name="Filiu18-19">Filiu, 2014, pp. 18–19.</ref>

The arrival of the Muslim Arabs brought significant changes to Gaza; at first some of its [[Church Building|churches]] were transformed into [[mosques]], including the present [[Great Mosque of Gaza]] (the oldest in the city), which was later rebuilt by Sultan [[Baibars]], who endowed it with a huge manuscript library containing over 20,000 [[manuscript]]s in the 13th century.<ref name="Filiu18-19" /> A large segment of the population swiftly adopted Islam,<ref name="Filiu23">Filiu, 2014, pp. 23.</ref><ref name="Ring and Salkin2">Ring and Salkin, 1994, p. 289.</ref> and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] became the official language.<ref name="Ring and Salkin2" /> In 767 [[Al-Shafi'i|Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i]] was born in Gaza and lived his early childhood there; he founded the [[Shafi'i]] religious code, one of the four major [[Sunni Muslim]] schools of law (''[[fiqh]]'').<ref name="Gil">Gil, 1992, p.292.</ref> Security, which was well-maintained during early Muslim rule, was the key to Gaza's prosperity. Although [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] was banned in Islam, the Jewish and Christian communities were allowed to maintain [[wine]] [[viticulture|production]], and [[grape]]s, a major cash crop of the city, were exported mainly to [[Egypt]].<ref name="Sharon17-18">Sharon, 2009, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=P2LtyFVNJmcC&pg=PA17 17]-18</ref>

Because it bordered the [[desert]], Gaza was vulnerable to warring [[nomad]]ic groups.<ref name="Sharon17-18" /> In 796 it was destroyed during a [[Civil War in Palestine (793-796)|civil war]] between the [[Arab]] tribes of the area.<ref name="Dowling2">Dowling, 1913, p. [https://archive.org/stream/gazacityofmanyba00dowlrich#page/37/mode/1up 37]</ref> However, by the 10th century, the city had been rebuilt by the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]]; during [[Abbasid]] rule, the geographer [[al-Muqaddasi]] described Gaza as "a large town lying on the highroad to Egypt on the border of the desert."<ref>[[al-Muqaddasi]] quoted in le Strange, 1890, p. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/442/mode/1up 442]</ref> In 978, the [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimids]] established an agreement with [[Alptakin]], the Turk ruler of Damascus, whereby the Fatimids would control Gaza and the land south of it, including Egypt, while Alptakin controlled the region north of the city.<ref>Gil, 1992, p.349.</ref>