Byzantine-Muslim Wars

At issue: Christian vs. Muslim influence in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean

Date: 750-1035

Location: Near East and eastern Mediterranean

Combatants: Byzantines vs. ʿAbbāsids, Syrians

Principal commanders:Byzantine, Leo IV (750?-780), Nicephorus I (d. 811), Theophilus (d. 842), Basil I (812?-886), Nicephorus II Phocas (c. 912-969), John I Zimisces (925-976), Basil II (957/958-1025); 4Abbasid, Hārūn ar-Rashīd (765/766-809), al-Maʾmūn (786-833), al-Muʿtaṣim (794-842); Syrian, Sayf ad-Dawlah (916-967)

Principal battles: Thessalonica, Syracuse, Taormina, Dazimon, Syracuse, Ragusa, Bari, Toronto, Calabria, Cyprus, Candida, Cilicia, Jerusalem

Result: The success of the Byzantines at containing Muslim expansion in Anatolia prevented the expansion of Islam into the Balkans and limited Muslim naval success in the Mediterranean

Background

The great Byzantine victory at the Siege of Constantinople (717-718) did not end the Arab threat to Byzantium. Raids into Anatolia continued for a number of decades, including the sack of Caesarea (726). A major invasion by the caliph Hisham in 739 was soundly defeated at Acroinum by the aging Leo III, hero of the Siege of Constantinople.

Action

The collapse of the Umayyad caliphate into civil war in the 740’s encouraged Constantine V Copronymus to reconquer Cyprus (746) and parts of Anatolia and Armenia (747-751). However, the establishment of the strong ʿAbbāsid caliphate in the Near East (750) prevented further Byzantine advances. The new ʿAbbāsid caliphs were not as expansionistic as the Umayyads and were regularly plagued with rebellions, coups, court intrigues, and occasional civil wars, sapping their military strength. The ʿAbbāsids nonetheless undertook regular raids and occasional major invasions of Anatolia for the next century, keeping the Byzantines largely on the defensive on the eastern front. A more or less stable military boundary eventually developed in Anatolia, stretching from the city of Tarsus on the Mediterranean, northeast along the line of the Taurus Mountains to the southeast corner of the Black Sea. Although frequently breached by raids and occasional major invasions, no permanent conquests occurred on either side of this border for more than two centuries.

Byzantine emperor Leo IV engaged in a round of raids (776-778), but his death in 780 left a nine-year-old son under the regency of his wife Irene. With coup attempts and rebellion distracting the Byzantines, the caliph al-Mahdī sent his heir apparent Hārūn ar-Rashīd with an army of 95,000 men on a major invasion of Anatolia. Although harassed by the Byzantines, he marched victoriously to Chrysoupolis on the Bosphorus, where he had an indecisive encounter with the Byzantines (781-782). A truce followed in which the Byzantines agreed to pay an annual tribute of 190,000 gold pieces. From 787 to 789, caliph Hārūn undertook his second campaign against Anatolia, again reaching the Bosphorus before he was bought off by a renewed annual tribute. The factious Byzantine aristocracy overthrew the empress Irene in favor of the general Nicephorus I (802-811), who faced rival claimants to the throne. Hārūn’s forces exploited this civil war, with raids in 803 and 804. The main Arab army was compelled to campaign in the east in 805, leaving Nicephorus, now secure on the throne, to raid Arab territory and sack Tarsus. Hārūn and his armies returned in 806 in his third Anatolian campaign. Mobilizing an alleged 135,000 men, he plundered throughout Anatolia, again reaching the Bosphorus and receiving tribute in return for a truce.

The death of Hārūn plunged the ʿAbbāsid caliphate into a devastating civil war of succession (809-819), which began the process of the fragmentation of the empire. At the same time, the Byzantines were involved in civil wars and warfare on the Bulgar frontier in the Balkans. Thus, for a number of decades, the Anatolian frontier was relatively quiet.

The Byzantine civil wars of the early ninth century left their navy seriously weakened, allowing Arab fleets from Spain and North Africa (both now independent of the ʿAbbāsids) to invade Sicily (827) and Crete (828). Crete was quickly overrun, remaining as a base of operations for pirates who plundered the Aegean for more than a century, notably participating in the notorious sack of Thessalonica (903). Two major Byzantine attempts to retake the island in 911 and 949 both met with disaster. It was finally reconquered by a huge force of 307 warships and 77,000 men (960-961). The Arab conquest of Sicily continued until the fall of Syracuse in 878 and Taormina in 902. It remained an Arab stronghold until the Norman Conquest (1061–1072). Arab naval power remained dominant throughout the Mediterranean until the late tenth century, with Arab fleets sacking many coastal cities, including the suburbs of Rome (846), and establishing bases at Bari, Taranto, and other cities in southern Italy.

In the meantime, war was renewed in Anatolia. By 830, the new ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn had defeated his enemies and invaded Anatolia with the explicit intention of capturing Constantinople. The steady progress of his army into central Anatolia was cut short by the caliph’s untimely death (833). The successor, al-Muʿtaṣim, withdrew the army from Anatolia to face a rebellion of the Khurramites, a radical Muslim sect in Iran. Many of the Khurramites, eventually 30,000 soldiers, defected to the Byzantines, converted to Christianity, and were enrolled in the Byzantine army as the “Persian Regiment” to continue their fight against the hated ʿAbbāsids. Reinforced with these new troops, in 837, the emperor Theophilus invaded northern Syria with 70,000 men—the largest Byzantine army fielded in nearly two centuries—and returned to Constantinople in triumph with immense plunder. However, al-Muʿtaṣim’s army finally crushed the Khurramite Rebellion in 837, freeing it for action against the Byzantines. In 838, he invaded Anatolia with 50,000 men, including 10,000 of his new Turkish Mamlūks serving as elite mounted archers. He crushed the Byzantines at the Battle of Dazimon (July, 838), where the Persian Regiment deserted Theophilus, proclaiming their leader as a rival emperor. The Arabs advanced into Anatolia, sacking Ancyra and besieging and sacking Amorium. Only the destruction of his fleet in a storm and a new rebellion in his domains forced al-al-Muʿtaṣim to withdraw.

This was to be the last great Arab invasion of Anatolia. Although raids continued in the early 840’s, the ʿAbbāsid caliphate began to disintegrate shortly after the death of al-Muʿtaṣim in 842. A succession of rebellions and coups were exacerbated by Turkish Mamlūks manipulating puppet caliphs to usurp power. Under strong governors, many provinces used the chaos to become independent. Muslim Spain had never recognized the ʿAbbāsids, while North Africa became functionally independent under the Aghlabid governors (from 801). Eastern Iran likewise became increasingly autonomous under the Tahirid governors (from 821), and Egypt under the Tulunids (from 868), who thereafter occupied much of Palestine and Syria. A massive slave revolt, the Zanj Rebellion, overran much of southern Iraq from 869-883. Arabia rebelled under the Qaramita Shīʿite bedouins in 897, who remained powerful throughout the tenth century. From 902, the Buyids, a martial clan from Daylam in northern Iran, overran most of Iran. In 945, they captured Baghdad and the ʿAbbāsids were reduced to puppets controlled by their Buyid overlords. Throughout this period, the ʿAbbāsid caliphs were incapable of mounting any major threat to Byzantium.

The collapse of the ʿAbbāsids permitted the Byzantines to undertake major offensive action in the Middle East for the first time in two centuries. The Byzantines still faced serious threats on the Balkan and Italian fronts but were now in a position to raid the coast of Egypt (853-854), sack Damietta (859), and inflict a major defeat on the Arabs in northern Mesopotamia (855). Arab border armies counterraided into Cappodocia, reaching the Black Sea ports of Sinope (859) and Amisus (862), but Byzantine armies sent by Michael III in 862 decisively defeated the Arabs and Paulician rebels in Anatolia.

The Byzantine military resurgence began in earnest under Basil I (867-886). His major emphasis was restoring Byzantine power against Arab principalities in southern Italy. Basil was least successful in defending Sicily. His fleet was defeated while attempting to relieve an Arab blockade of Syracuse (868). Malta fell to the Arabs in 870, followed by the storming of Syracuse in 878. Elsewhere in Italy, however, Basil’s forces was more successful. They relieved the Arab siege of Ragusa (868) and captured Bari (875), Toronto (880), and parts of Calabria (880). In the east, he defeated the Cretan Arab fleet (873) and captured Cyprus (875). On land, Basil’s forces raided eastern Anatolia, capturing Samosata (873). Cilicia and northern Mesopotamia were likewise pillaged (879). Under Basil’s successors, the reconquest of Armenia became a real possibility. Campaigns from 901 to 902 allowed the permanent occupation of parts of western Armenia. These victories were followed by campaigns from 926 to 928 that captured additional territory and placed the strong Arab principality of Melitene under tribute; it fell after an extended siege in 934—the first major Muslim city reconquered by the Byzantines.

These Byzantine offensives were often met by Muslim counterraids from the by now autonomous border principalities that had fragmented from the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. The most important were the principalities of Tarsus, Miletene, and above all the Ḥamdānid Dynasty of northern Mesopotamia and Syria under the leadership of Sayf ad-Dawlah. However, his military resources could not match those of the entire Byzantine empire, and his position steadily eroded. The overall momentum clearly favored the Byzantines.

The great Byzantine conquests against the Muslims (956-1025) began under the brilliant military leadership of Nicephorus II Phocas, first as general (956-963) and later emperor (963-969). Nicephorus destroyed one of Sayf ad-Dawlah’s major bases at Adata (957), and an Arab army was defeated in Armenia (958). Thereafter, Nicephorus led the massive successful reconquest of Crete and the Siege of Candida (960-961), thereby greatly increasing Byzantine maritime power. On becoming emperor, Nicephorus turned his attention to the eastern frontier. Cilicia was conquered after a two-year campaign (964-965), and northern Syria was raided (966). The death of Sayf ad-Dawlah in 967 left the Arab defense of Syria in disarray, allowing Nicephorus to conquer the coast of Syria to Tripoli, sack Hama and Homs (968), and capture Antioch after a year-long siege (969). While making plans to advance on Damascus and Jerusalem, he was murdered by his general John I Zimisces, who usurped the throne (969-976).

The Byzantines were fortunate that John I Zimisces was as great a general as Nicephorus II Phocas. He brought Aleppo into submission, temporarily conquered Damascus and much of Syria and Lebanon, and campaigned into Galilee in preparation for the reconquest of Jerusalem (975). However, the Byzantine advance faltered on the doorsteps of Jerusalem because of the arrival of a powerful new empire on the Near Eastern scene: the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt. Unlike the decaying and moribund ʿAbbāsid caliphate, the Fatimids were a dynamic, militaristic, and expansionist dynasty. Having usurped power in Tunisia in 909, they conquered most of North Africa, taking Egypt in 969 and establishing their new capital at Cairo. From there, they advanced rapidly into Palestine and southern Syria (from 969), where they countered the Byzantine offensive.

The last of the great Byzantine military emperors was Basil II, whose succession was marred by a period of civil war (976-989), forestalling any major campaigns against the Muslims. Because much of his military attention was devoted to the Bulgarian wars in the Balkans, Basil’s policy in Syria focused on maintaining control of Aleppo and Antioch against repeated Fatimid incursions (983, 992, 995, 999). Although Palestine and Syria remained in a state of chaos for several decades, the Fatimids had gained the upper hand by the end of the century.

Aftermath

In seventy-five years of generally victorious campaigning, the Byzantines had reconquered eastern Anatolia, Armenia, northern Syria, and several ports of Italy from the Arabs, and were in their strongest military position in nearly four centuries. Following the death of Basil II, however, the Byzantine military began a steady decline under the mismanagement of the empress Zoe and civilian court factions. At the same time, in the east, a new Muslim military power, the Seljuk Turks, was advancing through Iran toward Baghdad and would soon begin the Muslim conquest of Anatolia following their great victory at Manzikert (1071).

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