Nazareth is the largest city in the Galilee region of northern Israel and the "Arab capital of Israel". Its name comes from the Hebrew word neser, meaning "branch", referencing the Book of Isaiah's prophecy that "from Jesse's roots a branch will bear fruit". Fulfilling the prophecy, Nazareth - at the time an undistinguished backwater town - was the childhood home of the Jewish prophet Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem in 4 BC and raised in Nazareth after his family's return from their Egyptian exile. During Jesus' time, Nazareth had a population of 400 and had one public bath. The term "Nazarene" is still used by Arabs to describe Jesus' followers, the Christians (nasrani in Arabic). It remained a strongly Jewish settlement during the Roman period, and, by the 4th century, Nazareth, Tiberias, Diocaesarea, Sepphoris, Nazareth, and Capernaum had no Samaritan or Christian residents. It remained Jewish until the 7th century AD, but, in 630 AD, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius expelled the Jews from the town after it was rumored that they had helped the Sassanid Persians with massacring the local Christians; Nazareth became an all-Christian settlement. In 721, the Islamic caliph Yazid II destroyed the church at the house of Saint Joseph where Jesus had been raised as a child, accusing it of being a false idol. During the 720s AD, the local Christians were forced to save up enough money to prevent the destruction of the church at Mary's former home; the local synagogue was converted into a mosque by the local Muslim Arabs. In 1099, during the First Crusade, Tancred of Hauteville conquered Galilee and established his capital at Nazareth, and it returned to Muslim control in 1187 following the Battle of Hattin. In 1263, the Mamluk sultan Baibars destroyed the Christian buildings in Nazareth and declared the site as off-limits to Latin Christian clergy, and it became a poor Eastern Christian village. It was not until the 14th century that the Franciscan monks were permitted to return, but they were again evicted in 1584. In 1620, a new church was built at the Grotto of the Annunciation, but the Franciscan monks were often kidnapped and held for ransom by the local Bedouin tribes. During the early 18th century, the Arab sheikh Zahir al-Umar encouraged immigration to Nazareth, and he protected the local Christian community and authorized the construction of a church in 1730, which was replaced by a larger building in 1967. A Greek Orthodox church was built in 1767, but tensions between the Christian villagers and Muslim villagers from the surrounding villages intensified during the reign of Jazzar Pasha in the late 18th century. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte briefly captured Nazareth and considered making Andoche Junot its duke. During the rule of the Khedivate of Egypt, Nazareth was opened to European missionaries and traders, and, by the late 19th century, Nazareth had a strong Arab Christian presence and a growing European community. After World War I, most of the Arab villages in the Jezreel Valley were replaced by new Jewish communities, and, during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt, the village's Christian and Muslim population sided with the uprising. During the Arab-Israeli War, Nazareth became a refuge for Palestinian refugees fleeing from the Haganah's capture of Tiberias, Haifa, and Baysan. During the 1950s and 1960s, Nazareth became a center of Palestinian nationalism and the communist Maki party. In 1964, Pope Paul VI made the first ever papal visit to the Holy Land, visiting Nazareth. The demographics of Nazareth soon changed as well. In 1922, Nazareth had a population of 7,424, with 66% being Christian, 33% Muslim, and 1% Jewish. By 1946, Nazareth had 15,540 residents, 60% of whom were Christians and 40% of whom were Muslims. By 2009, Nazareth was 69% Muslim and 30.9% Christian, and it was the largest Arab city in Israel.
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