He next drafted a second covenant for the inhabitants of Ludd ⦗1⦘ and the surrounding populace, levied the jizya upon them, and brought them under the same terms accepted by the people of Iliyāʾ. The Arṭabūn fled to Egypt and remained there until ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ conquered it; he then escaped to the coast and began commanding some detachments that fought the Muslims. A man from Qays eventually captured him, whereupon the Arṭabūn cut off the Qaysī’s hand, yet the Qaysī killed him and recited:

If Arṭabūn of the Greeks laid ruin here,
still—praise to God—there is good to reap within;
And if Arṭabūn of the Greeks severed it,
I left his very limbs strewn there in shreds.

When the people of Ramla and the neighboring districts had concluded their treaty, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasna came on until they reached al-Jābiyah, where they found the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, mounted. As they approached, they both dismounted, knelt, and kissed his knees; ʿUmar embraced them both, may Allah be pleased with him.

Sayf ⦗2⦘ relates: ʿUmar then set out from al-Jābiyah toward Bayt al-Maqdis. His horse had grown exhausted ⦗3⦘, so they brought him a barded horse, which he mounted; but when it began to prance ⦗4⦘ he dismounted, struck it on the face, and said, “May Allah not teach the one who taught you—this is arrogance!” He never again rode such a horse, either before or after that day. Iliyāʾ and its territory were conquered at his hands—except for Ajnādīn, taken by ʿAmr, and Caesarea, taken by Muʿāwiya.

Such is the account of Sayf ibn ʿUmar, yet other foremost historians differ, maintaining that the conquest of Jerusalem occurred in the year 16 AH.

Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾidh reports, through al-Walīd ibn Muslim, from ʿUthmān ibn Ḥiṣn ibn ʿAllān; Yazīd ibn ʿUbayda said: “Bayt al-Maqdis was conquered in the year 16 AH, and in that year ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived at al-Jābiyah.”

Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī ⦗5⦘ narrates from Duḥaym, from al-Walīd ibn Muslim: “He returned again in the year 17 AH, turning back from Sarʿ ⦗6⦘. He then came once more in the year 18 AH; the commanders gathered before him and handed over whatever wealth had accumulated with them. He divided it, organized the armies, founded garrison-cities, and returned to Madinah.”

Yāqūb ibn Sufyān ⦗7⦘ says: “The conquests of al-Jābiyah and Bayt al-Maqdis occurred in the year 16 AH.” Abū Maʿshar likewise stated: “Then—”