Jerusalem

   The conversion of Constantine I (q.v.) and his mother Helena (q.v.) to Christianity transformed Jerusalem. When Helena visited the city in 326 she discovered a tomb she identified as the Holy Sepulchre of Christ, and a nearby rock she identified as Golgotha. Constantine I built a basilica (q.v.), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as a basilica on the Mount of Olives, and one in Bethlehem. Julian's (q.v.) attempt to rebuild the Jewish Temple was only a pause in the rapid transformation of the city into a center of Christian pilgrimage. Athenais-Eudokia (q.v.) was also a great benefactor, as was Justinian I (q.v.). In 451 at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon (q.v.) the city became one of the five patriarchates (q.v.). In 614 the Persians (q.v.) captured the city and carried off the True Cross (q.v). Herakleios (q.v.) recaptured the city and returned the relic (q.v.) in 629, but in 638 the patriarch Sophronios (qq.v.) was forced to surrender Jerusalem to the Arabs (q.v.). Thereafter, it remained in Muslim (q.v.) hands for over five centuries, becoming a major Muslim pilgrimage site with commemorative architecture that included the Dome of the Rock. The caliph al-Hakim (qq.v) destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009. Later in the 11th century Jerusalem changed hands between the Seljuks and Fatamids (qq.v.) until the First Crusade (q.v.) conquered it in 1099. Thereafter, it became the capital of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin (q.v.) reconquered it for Islam (q.v.) in 1187. The Crusaders ruled it again from 1229-1243, after which it fell again to the forces of Islam.