Early Islamic Civilizations: Printable Documents
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Umayyad Conquest (636)
Khalid ibn-al-Walid led the Muslim army to conquer new Islamic territories. In this excerpt, he gives guarantees to conquered populations.
In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is what Khalid ibn-al-Walid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus if he enters therein: he promises to give them security for their lives, property and churches. Their city wall shall not be demolished, neither shall any Moslem be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give to them the pact of Allah and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs and the believers. So long as they pay the poll tax, nothing but good shall befall them.
from History of the Arabs
Umayyad Architecture (985)
This description of the Mosque of Damascus reveals the controversy about the amount of money used to build such a monument.
The Mosque of Damascus is the fairest of any that the Muslims now hold ... [T]he whole area is paved with white marble ... [A]bove this ... to the very ceiling, are mosaics of various colours and in gold, showing figures of trees and towns and beautiful inscriptions, all most exquisitely and finely worked.
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It is said that there was spent on this Mosque the whole revenue of Syria for two ... years.
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Of old times, when Omar ibn Abd al Aziz came to the Khalifate ... he said: "I consider the wealth that is in the Mosque at Damascus to be of excess, and if it were expended on other matters it would be more fitting. Verily, that which may be spared should be taken and returned to the public treasury. And I will strip off these marbles and mosaics ..." Now the people of Damascus were greatly perturbed thereat; and at this same time it so happened that there arrived at Damascus ten ambassadors from the king of the Greeks, and they begged permission to enter and visit the Mosque ... The envoys passed through the court ... and they raised their eyes to look at the Mosque. Then their chief ... replied, "Verily, I had told the assemblies of the people of Rumiyyah ... that the Arabs and their power would remain but a brief space; but now, when I see what they have built, I know that ... their (dominion) will reach to length of days."
from Palestine under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land