Once there, he noticed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a massive complex built in the 330s by Constantine over the site of Christ’s crucifixion and burial. As the conquering caliph entered Christendom’s most sacred site—clad “in filthy garments of camel-hair and showing a devilish pretense,” to quote Theophanes—Sophronius, looking on, bitterly remarked, “Surely this is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing in the holy place.”
