to try Pelagius; he was acquitted. In the sixth century the city was renamed Georgiopolis after St. George, a soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian, who was born there between 256 and 285 AD.Church of St. George is named for him.
Arab period
After the Muslim conquest of Palestine by Amr ibn al-'As in 636 AD, Lod which was referred to as "al-Ludd" in Arabic served as the capital of Jund Filastin ("Military District of Palestine") before the seat of power was moved to nearby Ramla during the Umayyad Caliphate of Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-716. Afterward, the population of al-Ludd was relocated to the newly-found city of Ramla. With the relocation of its inhabitants and the construction of the White Mosque in Ramla, al-Ludd lost its importance and fell into decay.
The city was visited by the local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in 985, during the Abbasid Caliphate and was noted for its Great Mosque which served the residents of al-Ludd, Ramla and the nearby villages. He also wrote of the city's "wonderful church (of St. George) at the gate of which Christ will slay the Antichrist."
Crusader and Ayyubid period
The Crusaders occupied the city in 1099 and named it St. Jorge de Lidde. It was briefly conquered by Saladin, but retaken by the Crusaders in 1191. For the English Crusaders, it was a place of great significance as the birthplace of Saint George. The Crusaders made it the seat of a Latin rite diocese, and it remains a titular see. According to the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, there was one Jewish family living there in 1170.
In 1226 Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited al-Ludd and stated it was part of the Jerusalem District during Ayyubid rule.
Ottoman era
The missionary Dr. William M. Thomson visited Lydda in the mid 19th century, describing it as a "flourishing village of some 2,000 inhabitants, embosomed in noble orchards of olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry,
