A Christian text depicted the caliph Umar as deliberately protecting Christian holy sites.

Evidence

This is most dramatically seen in De statu’s description of the conquest of Jerusalem by ‘Umar. ‘Umar comes to Sophronios, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and asks to be shown a proper place to pray to God and give thanks for his granting victory to the Muslims. Sophronios takes him to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but ‘Umar responds that he does not want to pray there. Sophronios then shows him the temple built by Constantine, but ‘Umar will not pray there either; instead, he “chose a simple place near the oratory of the Christians and prayed there.” Once he completed his prayer, he explains to the patriarch why he had not wanted to pray in the Christian holy places: … If I had prayed there, the Christians would have lost those places, which would have been made oratories of my people. I did not want this to happen, but preferred that the Saracens pray in the place where I prayed. I do not want the Saracens to gather and pray to the detriment of the Christians, nor do I want one group to pray after another in the same place, for there would be too many people gathered there. I henceforth confer to this holy city this liberty, that the Saracens may not build their mosque and oratory anywhere except in the place which you assign to them.” — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1054

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the Grafting & Growth article’s theme of cross-cultural negotiation around sacred/embedded structures; Umar’s refusal to pray in the churches to preserve them parallels the stewardship logic in that piece.