Siege of Tyana

Siege of Tyana

Arab-Byzantine border area

date	707-708 or 708-709
place	Tyana , Southeast Cappadocia
output	Arab victory

Parties to the conflict
Byzantine Empire	Umayyads
Commander
Theophylactus Salibas Theodoros Karteroukas	Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik al-Abbas ibn al-Walid

The siege of Tyana took place in 707–708 or 708–709 in retaliation for the heavy defeat of the Umayyad army under Maimun the Marada against the Byzantine Empire in 706. The Arab army invaded the Byzantine area and besieged the city in the summer of 707 or 708 AD In fact, all relevant Greek, Arabic and Syrian sources have different dates. Initially, Tyana successfully withstood the siege, while the besieging Arabs suffered great hardship as winter fell. The next spring, Emperor Justinian II sent a relief army, but it was defeated by the Umayyads. This forced the city to give up. Despite the surrender conditions, the city was looted and largely destroyed; the residents were enslaved, leaving the city deserted.

background

In 692/693 the Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (ruled 685-695 and 705-711) and the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik (ruled 685-705) broke the armistice that had ruled between their two empires since 679 after the Muslim attack on the Byzantine capital Constantinople had failed. The Byzantine Empire had drawn from this armistice great financial and territorial benefits, which had been increased by the diversion of the caliphate by an intra-Muslim civil war (680–692). In 692 the Umayyads emerged victorious from this conflict. Abd al-Malik deliberately embarked on a series of provocative measures in order to be able to resume the war, while Justinian, confident of his earlier successes, responded in the same way. Eventually the Umayyads declared that the Byzantines had broken the treaty and invaded their territory. They defeated an imperial army in the battle of Sebastopolis in 693 . The Arabs also quickly regained control of Armenia and continued their attacks on eastern Asia Minor , culminating in the second attempt to conquer Constantinople (716–718). In addition, Justinian II was deposed in 695, after which a twenty year period of internal instability led the Byzantine Empire to the brink of decline.

Arab campaign against Tyana

Part of these campaigns was the invasion of a certain Maimun al-Gurgunami ("Maimun of the Marada "), who sacked Cilicia and was defeated near Tyana by a Byzantine force under the command of a certain Marianus . The date of this expedition is unclear; although the main source, al-Baladhuri , places it under the aegis of Abd al-Malik (who died in 705), it is estimated at 706 by today's historians. According to Baladhuri, that Maimun was a slave to the sister of the Caliph Muawiyah , who fled to the Mardaites , a group of Christian rebels in northern Syria. After the suppression of the uprising, General Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik , who had heard of his courage, freed Maimun and gave him command of some troops. After his death, Maslama swore to avenge him.

Therefore Maslama began another campaign against Tyana with his nephew al-Abbas ibn al-Walid as sub-commander. The chronology of this company is also unclear: the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes puts it in the year 708/709 AD, possibly also 709/710, Arabic sources put it in 706/707 or 707/708. Therefore, the exact date of the siege remains unclear.

The Arabs besieged the city and shot at its walls with machines. They were able to destroy parts of the walls, but they failed to take the city. The defenders were able to repel several assault attacks. The siege dragged on into winter and the Arabs began to suffer from food shortages. In the spring, however, Emperor Justinian II, who had ascended the Byzantine throne again in 705, sent a relief army under Theodoros Karteroukas and Theophylactos Salibas to liberate Tyana. Byzantine sources report that the regular troops were accompanied by armed peasants, numerous but completely inexperienced. This could point to the desperate situation of the Byzantine army, which can be traced back partly to the purge of the officer corps by Justinian after his accession to the throne and partly to the losses suffered in the battle with the Bulgarians .

When the relief army approached Tyana it was attacked by the Arabs and put to flight by them in the ensuing battle. According to Theophanes, this was due to the disagreement between the two Byzantine strategists. The Byzantines lost several thousand soldiers in the battle, and thousands more were taken prisoner. The Arabs captured the Byzantine entourage and captured all the provisions they had brought with them for the besieged city, which enabled them to continue the siege. The residents of Tyana were now desperate and began surrender negotiations. The Arabs promised them free retreat and after nine months of siege the city surrendered. Theophanes reports that the Arabs broke their promise and enslaved all residents, but this is not mentioned in any other source. After looting the city, the Arabs razed it to the ground.

consequences

After Tyana's sacking, Abbas and Maslamah split their forces and continued to plunder Byzantine territory. The primary sources give 709 or 710 as the date, either immediately after the siege or a year later. Abbas sacked Cilicia and from there reached Dorylaion on his march west , while Maslama conquered the fortresses Kamuliana and Herakleia Kybistra near Tyana, or, according to a different interpretation of the Arabic sources, sacked Herakleia Pontike and Nicomedia , with some of his troops even sacking Chrysopolis opposite Constantinople should have. The Arab raids continued over the next few years, even during the siege of Constantinople from 717–718 by Maslama with a huge force. After the failure of this second attempt against the Byzantine capital, the forays into Asia Minor continued, but were now devoted to looting and gaining prestige rather than expansion. Although the Umayyads were still able to gain control of Cilicia and Melitene in the wars of the 8th century and destroyed Byzantine fortresses like Tyana, they could never establish themselves permanently west of the Taurus Mountains , which consequently marked the Byzantine-Arab border for the next two centuries .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Haldon (1997), pp. 69-72; Howard-Johnston (2010), pp. 499-500; Lilie (1976), pp. 99-112; Stratos (1980), pp. 19-34.
2. ↑ Haldon (1997), pp. 72, 76, 80-83; Howard-Johnston (2010), pp. 507-510; Lilie (1976), pp. 110, 112-122.
3. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 140; Treadgold (1997), pp. 345, 346.
4. ↑ Brooks (1898), p. 203; Lilie (1976), p. 116; Stratos (1980), pp. 144-145.
5. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 116; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 525; Stratos (1980), p. 145.
6. ↑ Brooks (1898), p. 192; Lilie (1976), p. 117 (Note # 40); Mango & Scott (1997), p. 525; Stratos (1980), p. 147.
7. ↑ Lilie (1976), pp. 116-117; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 526; Stratos (1980), p. 145.
8. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 117; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 526; Stratos (1980), pp. 145-146.
9. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 117 (Note # 41)
10. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 117; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 526; Stratos (1980), p. 146.
11. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 117; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 526; Stratos (1980), pp. 146-147.
12. ↑ Lilie (1976), p. 118; Mango & Scott (1997), p. 526; Stratos (1980), pp. 147-148.
13. ↑ Lilie (1976), pp. 139-142, 187-190.

swell

• Cyril Mango , Roger Scott (Eds.): The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor. Byzantine and Near Eastern history AD 284-813 . Oxford 1997 (annotated English Theophanes translation).

literature

• EW Brooks: The Arabs in Asia Minor (641-750), from Arabic Sources . In: Journal of Hellenic Studies . 18, 1898, pp. 182-208.
• John F. Haldon: Byzantium in the Seventh Century . 2nd Edition. Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-31917-X .
• James Howard-Johnston : Witness to a world crisis . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-920859-3 .
• Ralph-Johannes Lilie : The Byzantine reaction to the expansion of the Arabs. Studies on the structural change of the Byzantine state in the 7th and 8th century . Munich 1976, DNB 760500789 .
• Andreas N. Stratos: Byzantium in the Seventh Century. Volume V: Justinian II, Leontius and Tiberius, 685-711 . Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1980, ISBN 90-256-0852-3 .