The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, located in Jerusalem, is one of the most sacred sites in Christianity, believed to be the site of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. In the early 11th century, the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who ruled over a significant portion of the Islamic world, ordered the church to be completely destroyed. This unprecedented action took place amid a broader context of religious intolerance and persecution against Christians, particularly during the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The caliph's motivations were deeply rooted in both political considerations and the Islamic tradition that sought to assert dominance over non-Muslim faith communities. The demolition included hacking down the church’s foundations to bedrock, which symbolically and literally marked a significant shift in the control over sacred spaces in Jerusalem.

The destruction was part of Al-Hakim's notorious policies that often targeted various Christian communities, leading to heightened tensions in the region. The site of the Holy Sepulchre had long been a focal point for Christian pilgrimage, and its destruction not only impacted local practices but also reverberated throughout Christendom. It became a rallying point for responses from Christians across Europe, contributing to an increasing awareness of the need for military and political action regarding the Holy Land. Consequently, this event was one of the precursors to the later Crusades, when European Christians sought to reclaim sacred sites from Muslim control, motivated in part by the memory of the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre.