October 18, 1009: Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah orders the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

On this day, we commemorate the 1009 A.D. destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre [Grk: Ναός του Παναγίου Τάφου] in Jerusalem.

On October 18, 1009 A.D., Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt.

An agreement was reached in wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Romaic (Byzantine) Empire in 1027–28.

The new Caliph, Ali Az-Zahir (Al-Hakim's son), agreed to allow the Church to be rebuilt and redecorated.

Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople finally completed the rebuilding in 1048 at a massive expense.

Today, the broader complex around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Simultaneously, control of the Church itself is shared among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements that have remained essentially unchanged for over 160 years and some for much longer.

The main denominations sharing property over parts of the Church are the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic, and, to a lesser degree, the Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Ethiopian Orthodox.

By The Greco-Syrian Nation.