 Under the Umayyads Gaza served as a minor administrative center . In 672 an earthquake struck the city but there are few details of its effects . Under the caliph @-@ appointed governors , Christians and Jews were taxed , though their worship and trade continued , as noted in the writings of the bishop Saint Willibald , who visited the city in 723 . The year 750 saw the end of Umayyad rule in Palestine and the arrival of the Abbasids , with Gaza becoming a center for the writing of Islamic law . In 767 , Muhammad ibn Idris ash @-@ Shafi 'i was born in Gaza and lived his early childhood there ; al @-@ Shafi 'i founded one of the prominent <unk> ( schools of law ) of Sunni Islam , named Shafi 'i after him . 
