From the seventh century onwards the population of the Near East gradually became Muslim. Nevertheless, other religious communities continued to exist, maintaining an enduring presence in the region, despite being surrounded by Muslims and by people becoming Muslims.

This book argues that the causes that led to the conversion of most of the Holy Land's population, as well as the survival of some religious communities, are essentially social and geographic in nature, rather than theological, and that two parallel processes were the main catalysts of Islamization: de-urbanization and urbanization.