Column Transfers, New Buildings, and Textual Strategies: Christians and Muslims in Early Medieval Lydda and Jerusalem

In the Syro-Palestinian region, Muslims approached the Christian sacred landscape in apparently contradictory modalities. On the one hand, they paid reverence to the great sanctuaries that had attracted pilgrims since late antiquity. On the other hand, they began to strive to create a new hierarchy in the sacred landscape, a new order with separate Muslim sites as the main focus of attraction. This reconfiguration was a long process that involved different strategies, which included the tentative transfer of marble columns, the foundation of new sacred buildings, and the circulation of textual traditions praising Muslim sacred history. This article focuses on the case studies of the Sanctuary of St. George in Lydda and the complex of Christian buildings located east of the city walls of Jerusalem.