Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Ninth Station outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, churches, synagogues, Torah scrolls and other non-Muslim religious artifacts and buildings in and around Jerusalem, were destroyed starting on 28 September 1009 on the orders of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, known by his critics as "the mad Caliph"[1] or "Nero of Egypt".[2] His son, the Fatimid Caliph Al-Zahir, allowed the Byzantines to rebuild the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1027–28. The construction of a much diminished ensemble was wrapped up by 1048.[3] This was the second of the two times the church was seriously damaged, the first being in 614 during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628.

A diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre showing traditional site of Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus
  1. ^ Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (23 February 2012). Keys to Jerusalem: Collected Essays. OUP Oxford. pp. 245–. ISBN 978-0-19-964202-1.
  2. ^ Ahmed (Sheikh.) (1974). Muslim Architecture: From the Advent of Islam in Arabia to the Rise of the Great Ummayad Khilafat in Spain. Pakistan Institute of Arts and Design of Book-Production. p. 51.
  3. ^ Lev, Yaacov (1991). State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. New York: E.J. Brill. p. 40. ISBN 978-90-04-09344-7.