Revolt against Heraclius

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the... Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 763,800 residents over an area of 125.1 km² . Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters.
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The Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628 was the final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the Byzantine Empire and... the Sassanid Empire of Iran. The previous Roman–Persian War of 572–591 had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice had helped the Sassanian king Khosrau II regain his throne. In 602 Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas. Khosrau proceeded to declare war, ostensibly to avenge Maurice's death. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East and eastern Europe: in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, and even before the walls of Constantinople itself. While the Persians proved largely successful during the first stage of the war from 602 to 622, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, and parts of Anatolia, the ascendancy of emperor Heraclius in 610 led, despite initial setbacks, to the Persians' defeat. Heraclius' campaigns in Persian lands from 622 to 626 forced the Persians onto the defensive and allowing his forces to regain momentum. Allied with the Avars, the Persians made a final attempt to take Constantinople in 626, but were defeated there.
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The Siege of Jerusalem in 614 was part of the final phase of the Byzantine-Sassanid Wars. The Persian Shah Khosrau II appointed his generals to... conquer the Byzantine controlled areas of the Near East, establishing a strategic alliance with the Jewish population of the Sassanid Persia. Following Persian advances into Syria in the previous year, Shahrbaraz's next target was Jerusalem, the capital of Palaestina Prima. Providing direct access to the Mediterranean Sea, the city would have also provided a strategic location for the Persian Empire to begin constructing a naval fleet, thereby threatening Byzantine hegemony in the Mediterranean. Reinforced by the Jewish army from Persia and local Jewish rebels under Benjamin of Tiberias, the Persian army laid siege to Jerusalem. After 21 days of relentless siege warfare, Jerusalem's walls yielded and the decisive Persian victory resulted in the territorial annexation of Jerusalem, and eventually all of Palaestina Prima. Following the victory in Antioch, a joint Sassanid-Jewish army, commanded by Shahrbaraz, arrived in Palaestina Prima and conquered Caesaria Maritima, the administrative capital of the province.
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