April 15, 614 AD: The Persian Empire Captures Jerusalem

Coin of Persian King Khosrau II
Photo by: Cabinet des Medailles

In early summer of 614, King Khosrau II of the Sassanian Persian Empire captured Jerusalem and massacred its Christian population. This was a part of the Persian attempt to weaken the Byzantine Empire's strength in what became known as the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The undeclared purpose of the Persian campaign was - filling the kingdom's dwindling treasury through robbery, plunder and taxation of occupied lands.

While Jerusalem was captured by the Persians, a Jewish revolt led by Benjamin of Tiberias took place against the hated Byzantines. The many years of ongoing massacres by Christian Byzantines during their reign, pushed the Jewish population to side with the Persian Empire in its Holy Land campaign.

 

 

The Persian became victorious and the Holy Land was transferred to the hands of the Sassanian Persian Empire, an empire which some consider as the most influential of the Persian Empires in terms of modern Iranian culture. Under the Persians, Jerusalem was governed by its Jewish residents or five years – for the first time since its destruction by the Romans in 70 AD. 

Persian reign in the Levant would not last long. In 625 AD the Byzantines rallied their armies to recapture Jerusalem. The Persian rule over the Holy Land came to its end in 628 AD, with the seizing of Jerusalem by the Eastern Roman Emperor – Heraclius.

 

 

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