 Gaza was rebuilt by Roman General Pompey Magnus , and granted to Herod the Great thirty years later . Throughout the Roman period , Gaza maintained its prosperity , receiving grants from several different emperors . A 500 @-@ member senate governed the city , which had a diverse population of Greeks , Romans , Jews , Egyptians , Persians and Nabateans . Conversion to Christianity in the city was spearheaded and completed under Saint Porphyrius , who destroyed its eight pagan temples between 396 and 420 CE . Gaza was conquered by the Muslim general Amr ibn al- ' As in 637 CE , and most Gazans adopted Islam during early Muslim rule . Thereafter , the city went through periods of prosperity and decline . The Crusaders wrested control of Gaza from the Fatimids in 1100 , but were driven out by Saladin . Gaza was in Mamluk hands by the late 13th @-@ century , and became the capital of a province that stretched from the Sinai Peninsula to Caesarea . It witnessed a golden age under the Ottoman @-@ appointed Ridwan dynasty in the 16th century . 
