Gaza was once destroyed over a watermelon!
It’s true!
In my previous newsletter, I mentioned that Gaza was abandoned during Crusader Times. This wasn’t the first time the city stood empty and ruined.
Throughout her long history, Gaza was destroyed many times. Alexander the Great killed all the men of Gaza and sold all the women and children into slavery in 332 BCE. The Judean king Alexander Janus forced the people of Gaza to convert to Judaism after conquering the city and killing its leaders in 100 BC. The Mongol horde massacred everyone and everything in 1260 CE. Yes, Gaza was never a stranger to violence. However, none of its many ruinations had a sillier reason than the Arab destruction of the city in 8th century CE.
The first thing that you need to know is that two Arab tribes, Qays and Yaman, both alike in dignity, have feuded for over a 100 years all over the Caliphate. In fact, these tribes kept feuding well into the 19th century under Ottoman rule, but that’s a different story. Say one thing for these guys, say they know how to hold grudge.
It all began in 792, when a member of the al-Qays tribe from Jund Filastin (modern Israel) came to grind wheat in al-Balqa in Jund al-Urduun (modern Jordan) and stole some watermelons on the way. Now, Bedouins aren't famous for their de-escalation technique so this minor offense rapidly spiraled into a full-fledged civil war in the Bilad al-Sham province.
Casualties began to mount as tribes from the Golan Heights joined the war as allies of the Yamani coalition. The entire region was reduced to anarchy. The roads became impassable due to attacks by Bedouin bands. Arab tribes resumed raiding the Christian monasteries of the Judean Desert that were until recently under imperial protection.
The St. Chariton Monastery was robbed. Dozens of monks at Mar Saba were murdered. The monasteries of St. Cyriacus, St. Theodosius, and St. Euthymius were all raided and looted.
Caliph Harun al-Rashid viewed this as a rebellion and dispatched a large army headed by his Persian vizier Jafar al-Barmaki to restore order to the wayward district, which the latter accomplished after much bloodshed and destruction. Sadly, this seems to be the only way anyone can bring peace to this region. By the time the dust settled, 1,400 people were dead and several cities, including Gaza lay in ruins.
This Arab civil war came to be known as the War of the Watermelon. And now it seems we’re having another!