Just before sunset on Thursday, 6 December 1033 CE, a powerful earthquake struck Palestine. The precise timing derives from an eyewitness letter preserved in the Cairo Geniza, written in Ramla, where the shock was directly experienced and followed by continued shaking for days. According to Solomon ben Zemah, people “went out from their houses into the streets because they saw the walls bending and yet intact,” while beams “became separated from the walls and then revert[ed] to their former position.” As the shaking intensified, collapse became widespread. Solomon ben Zemah reports that “strong buildings collapsed and new houses were pulled down,” with many dying beneath the ruins and survivors abandoning their homes entirely. He stresses the universality of the disaster, noting that “like people like priest, like servant like master” all fled together. The event is dated to “ Thursday, 12 Tevet, suddenly before sunset,” and affected “not only Ramla but the whole of Filastin .” A closely related Hebrew tradition, preserved by Benjamin of Tudela, reinforces the picture of sudden, violent destruction at sunset. He states that “the people evacuated their houses in order to flee into the streets,” as “the walls collapsed, floors cracked, well-built houses collapsed, new buildings fell down, [and] people died, buried under the ruins.” Survivors, he adds, abandoned their possessions entirely, seeking only safety, while buildings that remained standing were “cracked and were unsteady.” People were driven into a panic. These events, he concludes, “occurred at sunset” and “struck Ramla and all of Palestine violently.”

Independent Arabic testimony from Antioch corroborates the scale of destruction. Yahya of Antioch states that “half the houses in Ramla collapsed, as well as various parts of the walls,” and that “there were many victims.” A Greek tradition preserved in an unpublished Greek Manuscript in Analecta Ierosolymitikis Stachiologias reports that “part of the Dome in Jerusalem fell, and half of the wall of Ramlah, and a countless multitude died.”

A Persian perspective appears slightly later, filtered through travel literature rather than eyewitness reportage. Nasir-i Khusrau records an inscription stating that on Muharram 15, A.H. 425 (10 December 1033), there was “an earthquake of great violence, which threw down a large number of buildings,” yet claims that “no single person sustained any injury,” illustrating how epigraphic memory may mute casualties.

Later Arabic historians also preserve the event. Ibn al-Athir notes that “almost a third of the dwellings collapsed,” killing many, while Ibn al-Jawzi records that inhabitants “spent eight days outside” as a third of the town and its great mosque were destroyed. Writing in Cairo centuries later, as-Suyūṭī reiterates that “a third of the town of ar-Ramla was destroyed,” after which the population returned once calm was restored.