In short, they transformed the structure of that sanctuary in Damascus—which the Greeks had held in the highest veneration—into what they called Kanīsat Mariḥnā, and they built in Damascus many other churches, most of them entirely new. The Christians thus remained upon their religion in Damascus and elsewhere for roughly three hundred years, until Allah sent Muḥammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Some details of his life have already been mentioned in the Sīra section of this book.
The Prophet sent a letter to the emperor of Rome in his day—the Caesar of the time—whose name was Heraclius, inviting him to Allah (Exalted is He). The exchange that took place between Heraclius and Abū Sufyān Ṣakhr ibn Ḥarb has been noted earlier. Thereafter, the Prophet dispatched his three commanders—Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, his freedman; Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib; and ʿAbdallāh ibn Rawāḥah—to al-Balqāʾ on the borders of Syria. The Byzantines sent against them a vast army that killed those commanders together with a number of their troops.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) then resolved to fight the Byzantines and to enter Syria in the year of Tabūk, but he turned back that same year because of the intense heat, the straitened circumstances, and the hardship it imposed on the people. When Allah took His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq sent armies toward Syria and toward Iraq, as we have detailed in this book, praise be to Allah. Allah granted the Muslims the complete conquest of Syria, including the city of Damascus with its districts; we have expanded on this under the account of its opening.
Once Muslim authority had been firmly established there, Allah sent down His mercy upon it and directed His bounty to it. The commander of the army—then Abū ʿUbaydah, though some say Khālid ibn al-Walīd—issued the people of Damascus a document of safety. In it they confirmed Christian possession of fourteen churches and took from them half of the church known as Kanīsat Mariḥnā. This was because Khālid had entered the city by force through the Eastern Gate, whereas the Christians had secured a pact of safety from Abū ʿUbaydah at Bāb al-Jābiyah. After some dispute they agreed that half the city would be considered conquered by treaty and half by the sword. The Muslims therefore seized the eastern half of this church, which Abū ʿUbaydah converted into a mosque—by then he had become governor of Syria after ʿUmar dismissed Khālid and appointed Abū ʿUbaydah. Abū ʿUbaydah was the first to pray in the mosque, followed by the Companions, at its eastern side, the spot known as Miḥrāb al-Ṣaḥābah (the Companions’ mihrab).
At that time the wall had not yet been opened with an arched mihrab; they merely formed their rows at that blessed spot. It appears that al-Walīd was the one who later pierced the southern wall with mihrabs. Many of the early scholars disapproved of such mihrabs, considering them a newly introduced innovation.
Muslims and Christians used to enter this sanctuary through a single gate—the upper gate on the qibla side, where the large mihrab [now inside the maqsūra] stands today. The Christians would then veer westward to their church, while the Muslims would turn right to their mosque. Out of reverence for the Companions and fear of them, the Christians could not recite their scripture aloud nor strike their bell.
During his governorship of Syria, Muʿāwiyah built the Dār al-Imārah to the south of the mosque of the Companions and erected within it a green dome, by which the entire palace became known. Muʿāwiyah resided there for forty years, as noted earlier. Matters remained as described from the year 14 AH until Dhu al-Qaʿdah of 86 AH, by which time the caliphate had passed to al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik in Shawwāl of that same year.
Al-Walīd then resolved to take the remaining portion of that church and add it to the part already in Muslim hands, making all of it one mosque. Some Muslims had been distressed by hearing the Christians reciting the Gospel and raising their voices in prayer; he therefore wished to distance them from the Muslims and to annex that space to the mosque so that it might be further enlarged.