Islam was destined not only to change the character of the Holy Land but to play an important role in human history from then right up until the present.
SHOOT: If we look at the actual time periods during which various groups occupied the Holy Land, 1400 years of occupation is hard to dismiss. Unless of course one makes a dismissive statement like, "Well, God gave us this land and we're His chosen people, you're not."
In the seventh century disaster struck the Holy Land. First came the Persian invasion in 611. Jerusalem was captured in 614, many churches throughout the land were destroyed and the Persians carried off what had had been claimed to be the True Cross. In 628 the Byzantine forces recaptured Palestine and even restored the True Cross to Jerusalem. Only ten years later, in 638, Jerusalem fell to the Muslim Arabs. Thus for the four hundred years after the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem, the Holy Land was first Romanized and then Christianized. The arrival of the new religion of Islam brought a dramatic change which was to shape the Holy Land for the next fourteen hundred years. The new religion of Islam founded by Muhammad spread with lightning speed. Within the short space of forty years it dominated the whole of the Middle East from Egypt to India.
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