The following article will deal with Islamic sealings from Umayyad jund al-
Urdunn and jund Filasṭīn. A few things have to be said as we start. The
Umayyad period stretches from 41-132 H/661-750 C.E. This period is hardly
reflected in the historical sources that were written at the earliest some a
hundred and fifty to two hundred years after the events, during the ‘Abbasid
period. Some sources mentioning the Umayyad period were even written in
later periods such as during the Ayyubid or Mamluk periods. These sources
were composed in remote provinces such as Iraq or Iran far from south Bilād
al-Shām. Thus we find in them hardly any evidence for the historical events of
jund Filasṭīn and jund al-Urdunn or hardly any details of the administration of
those parts of the Umayyad empire. Many sources have to be checked in
order to find some of what had happened, or in order to find some details of
the administrative information connected to these parts of the empire. We
then have to look for new evidence for the administrative information. Our
source is Umayyad sealings.
The field of Umayyad lead sealings of Palestine is a relatively new
field of research. These were published by the current author in the last
few years. They mention names of caliphs1, a name of a governor2, or a
place name3, another sort mentions a religious formula
