State of Palestine

Declared 1988; widely but not universally recognised (status contested).

☾ The Coming of Islam

The conquest of Jerusalem and the early sanctuaries

Islam reached Palestine with the Arab conquest of the 630s; Jerusalem (al-Quds) came under Muslim rule around 637, and the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock (691) on the Ḥaram al-Sharīf, near al-Aqṣā — among the holiest sites in Islam.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Muslim majority in a land holy to three faiths

Palestinians are predominantly Sunni Muslim, with a long-established Christian minority; Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike, and its holy places carry deep significance across the three Abrahamic traditions.

Demographic shares are approximate; Chronicle describes religious history and does not adjudicate contemporary political disputes.

At a glance