Umayyad invasions of Asia Minor (720–740)

720–721

In 720/21, an Umayyad force under Al-Walid ibn Hisham al-Mu'ayti invaded Byzantine territory and advanced as far west as Pisidian Antioch. The Arabs attacked the city, but the operation ended in failure, with the withdrawal of al-Mu'ayti's forces. An Umayyad incursion into Sophene, led by Umar ibn Hubayra in the same year, achieved some success, gaining a victory in a battle or siege at an unspecified location, taking 700 captives. In 721, an Umayyad force, under al-Abbas ibn al-Walid, attacked Byzantine holdings in western Cilicia. Al-Walid was able to capture Dalisandos, but his own army sustained very heavy casualties before the fort fell. Al-Walid returned to Umayyad territory, having reportedly captured 20,000 people in the course of the campaign.^[4]

However, these Umayyad invasions were counteracted by renewed offensive operations launched by the Byzantine navy. In 721, a Byzantine fleet sailed southwards, targeting the economic hub of Umayyad Egypt. This seaborn raid was successful, and the Byzantines devastated significant parts of the coastline.^[5]

722–723

In 722, Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman led an army into Western Asia Minor, while the former governor of Medina, Uthman ibn Hayyan al-Murri, campaigned near the Byzantine - Umayyad frontier further east. Neither attack had notable achievements. A more successful invasion was conducted by Marwan ibn Muhammad the in the following year of 723. Detailed descriptions by the sources have not survived, but Marwan captured the fortress of Kamacha and then advanced into Cappadocia, where he took the city of Iconium.^[6][4]

724

One of the commanders leading Umayyad incursions in 724 was Sa'id ibn Abd al-Malik. His forces included significant numbers of Syrian troops. His expedition however was met with greater resistance by the Byzantine thematic forces than before. At an unknown location, a Byzantine army won a victory over Abd al-Malik and forced him to withdraw. The Umayyads sustained heavy casualties from this defeat, and during the retreat the Byzantines managed to cut off an Arab detachment under Kathir ibn Rabi'a and annihilated it, though Rabi'a himself was able to escape with a few of his men. This event was followed by an infamous incident, wherein the Byzantines dismembered over 1,000 Umayyad soldiers, likely prisoners taken in the fighting.^[7][8]

Another Umayyad incursion in 724, led by Marwan ibn Muhammad and Sa'id ibn Hisham, was met with more success. The Arabs campaigned against Byzantine frontier defences near Melitene, and struck toward the fort of Nuwasa, a location on the Upper Euphrates. The Umayyads were able to catch the defenders by surprise, before significant numbers of non-combatant civilians could be evacuated from the location. The fortress was successfully stormed and the men of the garrison were massacred, while some women and children within were carried off as spoils of war.^[7][8]

725–726

The commander of the main Umayyad incursion in 725 was Mu'awiya ibn Hisham, who would go on to lead several subsequent sawa'if raids in the following years. However, his campaign in 725 made little progress, as it was met by scorched earth strategies employed by the Byzantines. They destroyed pastures in advance of the Umayyads, so that the Arabs would have difficulty sustaining the horses and beasts of burden of their army. Umayyad detachments retaliated by spreading out and burning abandoned villages and crop fields in their vicinity, but they inflicted limited damage, and were unable to make strategic headway on this occasion.^[7]

An invasion in late 725 brought better results for the Umayyads. Again commanded by Mu'awiya, the Arabs invaded with a large army, including a 4,000-strong detachment of recruits from Hijaz, as well as an elite unit named Waddahiyya. This expedition saw a number of settlements fall to the Arabs, and a column under the command of the veteran Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik even stormed and sacked Caesarea of the Anatolikon Theme on 13 January 726. Umayyad operations in these years were not limited to terrestrial offensives. By the year 726, possibly in response to the Byzantine attack on Egypt in 721, the Umayyads had bolstered the strength of their own navy. Consequently, an Umayyad fleet, under the command of the Jaziran Maymun ibn Mihran, was able to raid Byzantine possessions in Cyprus.^[9]

727

The Umayyad invasion of Asia Minor in 727 was an ambitious undertaking involving a massive army, and was again led by Mu'awiya ibn Hisham and Abdallah al-Battal. The total strength of the Umayyad force was recorded to be 100,000 strong, and was divided into two columns to engage different targets simultaneously: a vanguard of 15,000 men under al-Battal, and a main body of 85,000 men commanded by Mu'awiya.^[a] This incursion yielded initial success, as al-Battal conducted a lightning raid into Paphlagonia, where he took the city of Gangra by surprise and sacked it. Al-Battal then turned southwest and advanced towards the headquarters of the Opsikion Theme, Nicaea. The Umayyad vanguard caught the garrison of the city by surprise and blockaded the stronghold. However, al-Battal was not able to capture the settlement immediately, and thus settled for a blockade, while he awaited rendezvous with the main column under Mu'awiya. When Mu'awiya's main body rejoined with al-Battal's column, the unified Umayyad army subjected Nicaea to a full-scale siege. En route to Nicaea, Mu'awiya may have captured the fortress of Ateous (called Tabya in Arabic sources), though this victory appears to have been pyrrhic for the Umayyads, as their main army incurred severe casualties, which may have affected the outcome of the siege.^[10]

The two Umayyad commanders invested Nicaea for 40 days with assaults and siege engines, which eventually succeeded in breaching parts of the fortifications. However, the Umayyads could not successfully storm the stronghold despite these efforts. The siege was of such intensity that some of the Nicaeans fled the city across Lake İznik, but the presence of this lake also allowed soldiers and supplies to be sent by boat to reinforce the garrison of the city. Ultimately, the Umayyads were repulsed after sustaining heavy casualties, and broke off their siege at Nicaea. Following this campaign, the Umayyads diverted resources to the Transcaucasus, where Maslama faced mounting attacks by the Khazars.^[9][11]

728–729

Although the Byzantines had achieved a celebrated victory in their defence of Nicaea in 727, Mu'awiya's advances were only temporarily halted. The Umayyad attacks resumed in vigor the following year, with a punitive expedition led by Mu'awiya and Abdallah al-Battal, who advanced against the lands of the Armeniakon Theme in northeastern Asia Minor. The two commanders successfully captured the forts of Semaluos and al-Mawla. Naval operations also continued in 728, with either Abd Allah ibn Uqba al-Fihri or Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj al-Sakuni, conducting a seaborn expedition. The results of these ventures are unknown.^[12]

The sons of the caliph conducted a two-front pronged attack into Anatolia in 729, with Arab forces under Sa'id ibn Hisham entering Cappadocia again, while Mu'awiya campaigned in Eastern Anatolia. Sa'id marched as far as Caesarea, which had been captured by Maslama three years earlier. However, the Byzantines had used the time to refortify and restore the defences of the city, and as a result the garrison withstood the Umayyad invasion. Further east, Mu'awiya's expedition may have also faired poorly, though both al-Hisham brothers were able to reach the safety of Umayyad territory following their campaign. Another naval operation accompanied the terrestrial offensives in 729, under the leadership of Abdallah ibn Abi Maryam. The target and result of his attack is not recorded in surviving sources.^[13][14]

730

Mu'awiya was the likely leader of another invasion of Anatolia in 730, although Theophanes the Confessor names Maslama as the commander. The attack was directed toward Charsianon, a fortress in the Anatolic theme, and was successful in capturing it. According to Theophanes, a traitor among the ranks of the men inhabiting Charsianon betrayed the fort to the Arabs and sealed its fate. Charsianon fell at some point in September or October 730, after which the Umayyads directed their attack into Cappadocia where they also destroyed the minor fort of Farandiyya. However, the Umayyads faced setbacks on other frontiers in 730, as the governer of Armenia, Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah, was defeated and killed, while attempting to repulse a Khazar incursion, at the battle of Marj Ardabil.^[15][16][13]

731

In 731, the Umayyads prepared an expedition which would be conducted under the command of the frontier warrior Abdallah al-Battal and 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Bukkt. This campaign initially attained success in piercing deep into Byzantine territory. However, the Umayyad army was then confronted by the Byzantines and brought to battle, in which the Arabs were defeated. After their forces were routed, 'Abd al-Wahhab launched a counterattack to cover the Umayyads' escape, but was killed along with his men.^[17]

732

The Umayyads renewed their attack in the summer of 732, despite their defeat in the prior year. Al-Battal once again participated, alongside Mu'awiya ibn Hisham. The Arabs advanced as far as Akroinon, where they were engaged by a Byzantine detachment led by a commander named Constantine. This time, the Byzantines sustained a defeat and Constantine was taken prisoner by the Umayyads.^[18]

Following their initial success, the Umayyads appear to have suffered a reversal. According to Elijah of Nisibis, the forces of the caliphate split, so that a part of their army returned to Province of Syria with the prisoners, while the other half continued their raid. The army that remained in Anatolia was confronted by another Byzantine army which engaged it in a second battle. This time, the Byzantines defeated the Arabs, partially offsetting the earlier Umayyad victory.^[b] Later in the year, Mu'awiya's brother Sulayman ibn Hisham commanded a summer expedition into Cappadocia. His army reached as far as Caesarea, but attained no lasting success beyond the acquisition of plunder.^[19][20]

733–735

In late 733, a raid led by Mu’awiyah advanced as far as Paphlagonia, where he possibly sacked a minor settlement and plundered the region up to the suburbs of Akroinon.^[c] In the same year, Leo III pursued an alliance with the Khazar khagan against their common enemy, arranging a marriage between his son, Constantine, and the khagan's daughter, Tzitzak.^[21][20]

Mu'awiya led another attack into Asia Minor in the summer of 734, but had little success. The effectiveness of the Umayyad military operations along the Thughur may have been debilitated by the outbreak of plague in Syria. In 735, the invading Umayyad advanced deep into Byzantine territory, with Mu’awiyah’s column marching as far as Sibora in Pontus, while another detachment reached the vicinity of Sardis in the Thracesian Theme. However, these attacks carried limited strategic impacts. According to historian Peter Crawford, the range of these attacks may reflect the increasing potency of Byzantine fortifications and defensive strategies at the time, as the Umayyad armies were forced to advance ever deeper into Anatolia to find suitable targets for plunder, rather than attempt costly assaults against the strongholds of Eastern Anatolia.^[16]

736

In 736, offensives were conducted by the Umayyads against the Byzantines in both in Anatolia and Armenia. Mu'awiya conducted another attack into Anatolia, while his brother Sulayman marched into Armenia. The presence of two caliphal sons indicates the use of significant amounts of resources towards these expeditions. However, neither of these attacks appears to have brought significant strategic gains for the Umayyads.^[22]

The Umayyads also intensified their attacks against the Byzantines by sea. Nafi ibn Abi Ubayda ibn Uqba al-Fihri prepared the Egyptian fleet with large numbers of troops, and sailed it to Anatolia, where he besieged an unnamed Byzantine city. However, the resistance of the garrison proved too formidable, and the Umayyads were forced to withdraw. On their return, a greater disaster befell the Umayyads when the Byzantine fleet intercepted and heavily defeated the Arab armada. News of this defeat prompted Caliph Hisham to dismiss the governor of Egypt, who he deemed inadequate in conducting military operations. He was aware of the danger the Byzantine navy posed by exploiting its victory over Uqba al-Fihri to raid the economically vital province of Egypt, and thus sought a militarily capable governor to adequately organise the coastal defences of the province.^[23][16][d]

737

The year 737 saw Umayyad attention partially divert from Anatolia in order to confront the Khazars in the Caucasus. The Umayyad governor of Armenia, Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan, launched an ambitious campaign across the Darial Gorge, which ultimately culminated with an Umayyad victory against the Khazars near the Volga River.^[24]

Although these operations partially occupied the Caliphate, other Arab armies remained engaged with the Byzantines, as Mu'awiya led another expedition into Asia minor, raiding Byzantine territory in Cappadocia, and as far as the fortress of Baluniya. Although plunder was collected, his column made no major achievements during the offensive. On his return from, Mu'awiya stopped to undertake a hunt in the wilderness of Eastern Anatolia. However, during this trip he fell from his horse, and the accident proved fatal for the caliph's son. However, Mu'awiya's death may have had a reinvigorating effect on the morale and resources of Umayyad troops in Anatolia, who went on to achieve significant successes in their invasions of 738 and 739.^[25][16]

738

Though Mu'awiya died in 737, his brothers, Sulayman and Maslama ibn Hisham, continued the attacks in the following years. In 738, Sulayman conducted a campaign which gained success by capturing the fortress of Sideroun. The Umayyads were able to force the garrison to surrender and took many prisoners from the engagement, including the son of a prominent patrician. Sulayman returned in triumph to Arab territory, with the spoils his army had collected.^[16]

Pushing their initiative against Byzantium further, the Umayyads under Maslama conducted a large-scale attack into Anatolia in 739. Maslama invaded Cappadocia and devastated the Byzantine holdings there, before piercing further west into the territory of the Opsikion Theme. There, he captured and sacked the city of Ancyra.^[16]

740

In 740, likely encouraged by the relative success of the Umayyad invasions of 738 and 739, Caliph Hisham placed his son Sulayman in overall command of a major expedition into Anatolia, which according to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, totalled 90,000 men. This army was divided into three columns, with the force of 10,000 lightly armed men, under al-Ghamr ibn Yazid, sent to raid the western coast of Anatolia, and the 20,000 force, under Abdallah al-Battal and al-Malik ibn Su'aib, sent to follow after, towards Akroinon. The main force of around 60,000 men, under Sulayman himself, entered Cappadocia and advanced toward the fortress of Tyana.^[26] Sulayman besieged the city, but ultimately failed to capture it, and thus withdrew after raiding the countryside. However, the column under Al-Battal suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of Akroinon, with most of its soldiers falling, along with both of its commanders.^[27]