C. The period of great sufferings for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem lasted over a millennium despite the goodwill which the pillager of Jerusalem, Omar Ibn Al-Hattab, displayed to the Christians and their Patriarch, saint Sophronios. Caliph Omar by personal decree (ahtiname) recognized the Patriarch of “the imperial nation” (namely the Greeks), the position of leader of the nation and spiritual leader of all the Christians of Palestine, even of the heterodox, as well as the legation of honour among all the Christian leaders, granting him guarantees of goodwill, security and freedom from taxation on behalf of future muslim leaders. However, his successors, high handed Arab leaders, proved to be very tough. The Christian community started to become afflicted by intense efforts of islamization and anti-Hellenic cleansing.

Despite the unfavourable external conditions, the spiritual life continued to be cultivated by the persecuted Christians and the Church of Jerusalem played a significant role in the defeat of the heresies of Monothelitism and of the Iconomaches as well as what had appeared for the first time (808AD) in Jerusalem, the frankopapist heresy of the “filioque”. Among the many renown theologians, worthy of mention was the Patriarch, saint Sophronios (+638) and the Sabbait hieromonk saint John Damascene (+784) one of the top and unrecurring in the ecclesiastic history persons of theology and hymnography.

The 9th century as the 8th, was characteristic for its persecutions against the Christians and the looting of the shrines, churches, monasteries and of the simple faithful, while civil conflicts were added among the various Arab parties and oppressive steps instituted among which were the prohibition of icon processions and the teaching of Greek, so that for the flock, the use of the Greek language was limited to the worship within the Churches. Also added were the recurring desecrations and destructions of the Church of the Resurrection and the rest of the sacred places, the exiles and murders of Patriarchs and many more. The height of all sufferings was brought about by Caliph Al Hakim who let loose a persecution (1007AD), which was the worst of all up to then. Beyond the demeaning of the Christians and the looting of sacred treasures, the Church of the Resurrection and the surrounding monasteries were ruined, as was the Shrine of Saint George at Lyddia, while at the height of the persecution the Sacristy of the Resurrection was looted and the process of islamization was imposed through horrible tortures. A slight improvement occurred by the successor of Hakim, Al Zahir, when the Emperor of Constantinople, Constantine Monomachos (1042-1055AD) also contributed significantly in the restoration of the Church of the Resurrection and the rest of the holy Places. Anyhow, the Church was tested again by the strong juxtapositions among the Arabs and the rising power of the Seljic Turks. A minor change in this state of affairs was brought about by the appearance of the Crusaders in 1099, who, at the instigation of the Popes and the Kings of the West, through fire and iron were slicing the eastern Roman “Byzantine” Empire and creating small Latin Kingdoms, thus finally reaching Jerusalem.