The Darial Gorge is a river gorge on the border between Russia and Georgia . It is at the east base of Mount Kazbek , south of present-day Vladikavkaz . The gorge was carved by the river Terek , and is approximately 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) long. The steep granite walls of the gorge can be as much as 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) tall in some places. The Georgian Military Road runs through the gorge.
156-536: Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Arab–Khazar wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Khazar Khaganate and successive Arab caliphates in the Caucasus region from c. 642 to 799 CE. Smaller native principalities were also involved in the conflict as vassals of the two empires. Historians usually distinguish two major periods of conflict,
312-602: A long period of turmoil . The Arabs began a sustained offensive against Byzantium that would eventually culminate in the great assault on the Byzantine capital, Constantinople , in 717–718. In the same period, the Caliphate tightened its grip on the Christian principalities of Transacaucasia. After the suppression of a large-scale Armenian rebellion in 705, Armenia, Iberia and Albania finally came under direct Arab rule as
468-542: A second Arab civil war was raging in Arabia and Syria resulting in a series of four caliphs between the death of Muawiyah in 680 and the ascension of Abd al-Malik in 685, and was ongoing until 692 with the death of the rebel leader. The Saracen Wars of Justinian II (r. 685–695 and 705–711), last emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty , "reflected the general chaos of the age". After a successful campaign he made
624-523: A "Roman lake", to Arab expansion, and began a centuries-long series of naval conflicts over the control of the Mediterranean waterways. 500 Byzantine ships were destroyed in the battle, and Emperor Constans II was almost killed. Under the instructions of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan , Muawiyah then prepared for the siege of Constantinople . Trade between the Muslim eastern and southern shores and
780-522: A Khazar garrison of 1,000 men and their families. Leaving al-Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i at Derbent, Maslama advanced north. Although details of this campaign may be conflated in the sources with the 728 campaign, he apparently took Khamzin, Balanjar, and Samandar before being forced to retreat after a confrontation with the main Khazar army under the khagan . Leaving their campfires burning, the Arabs withdrew in
936-493: A Khazar invasion. In 729/30, al-Jarrah returned to the offensive through Tiflis and the Darial Pass. Ibn al-Athir reports that he reached the Khazar capital, al-Bayda on the lower Volga, but no other source mentions this; modern historians generally consider this improbable, possibly resulting from confusion with other events. Al-Jarrah's attacks were followed by a massive Khazar invasion (reportedly 300,000 men), which forced
1092-463: A Muslim army north to Tabuk in present-day northwestern Saudi Arabia , with the intention of pre-emptively engaging the Byzantine army, however, the Byzantine army had retreated beforehand. Though it was not a battle in the typical sense, nevertheless the event represented the first Arab encounter against the Byzantines. It did not, however, lead immediately to a military confrontation. There
1248-455: A common tactic among nomads. The Arabs broke through, storming the city on 21 August 722. Most of Balanjar's inhabitants were killed or enslaved, but a few (including its governor) fled north. The booty seized by the Arabs was so large that each of the 30,000 horsemen—clearly an exaggeration by later historians—in the Arab army reportedly received 300 gold dinars . Al-Jarrah is said to have ransomed
1404-513: A large army north in 652, aiming to take Balanjar. The town was besieged for several days, with both sides using catapults, until the arrival of a Khazar relief force and a sortie by the besieged forces ended in a decisive defeat for the Arabs. Abd al-Rahman and 4,000 of his troops were killed, and the rest fled to Derbent or Gilan in northern present-day Iran. Due to the First Muslim Civil War and priorities on other fronts,
1560-480: A major Arab military outpost and colony, before he was replaced by Marwan ibn Muhammad (the future caliph Marwan II ) in 732. A period of relatively localized warfare followed until 737, when Marwan led a massive expedition north to the Khazar capital Atil on the Volga . After securing the submission of the Khazar ruler, the khagan , the Arabs withdrew. The 737 campaign marked the end of large-scale warfare between
1716-505: A major army reform with lasting effect: the establishment of the themata , the large territorial commands into which Anatolia, the major contiguous territory remaining to the Empire, was divided. The remains of the old field armies were settled in each of them, and soldiers were allocated land there in payment of their service. The themata would form the backbone of the Byzantine defensive system for centuries to come. After his victory in
SECTION 10
#17327733517321872-633: A man who became known to history and legend as Count Julian . As the first tide of the Muslim conquests in the Near East ebbed off, and a semi-permanent border between the two powers was established, a wide zone, unclaimed by either Byzantines or Arabs and virtually deserted (known in Arabic as al-Ḍawāḥī , "the outer lands" and in Greek as τὰ ἄκρα , ta akra , "the extremities") emerged in Cilicia , along
2028-676: A naval power of their own, and they conquered and destroyed the Byzantine stronghold of Carthage between 695 and 698. The loss of Africa meant that soon, Byzantine control of the Western Mediterranean was challenged by a new and expanding Arab fleet, operating from Tunisia. Muawiyah began consolidating the Arab territory from the Aral Sea to the western border of Egypt. He put a governor in place in Egypt at al-Fustat , and launched raids into Anatolia in 663. Then from 665 to 689
2184-508: A navy, manned by Monophysitise Christian , Copt and Jacobite Syrian Christian sailors and Muslim troops. This resulted in the defeat of the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655, opening up the Mediterranean. The shocking defeat of the imperial fleet by the young Muslim navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655 was of critical importance: it opened up the Mediterranean, hitherto
2340-471: A new North African campaign was launched to protect Egypt "from flank attack by Byzantine Cyrene ". An Arab army of 40,000 took Barca , defeating 30,000 Byzantines. A vanguard of 10,000 Arabs under Uqba ibn Nafi followed from Damascus . In 670, Kairouan (modern Tunisia ) was established as a base for further invasions; Kairouan would become the capital of the Islamic province of Ifriqiya , and one of
2496-550: A number of other, heavily embellished attacks by Sa'id on improbably large Khazar armies; in one, Barjik was reportedly killed in single combat with the Umayyad general. Generally considered "romance rather than history", according to British orientalist Douglas M. Dunlop , they may be contemporary, but imaginative, retellings of Sa'id's campaign. According to Blankinship, "The various battles fought and rescues of Muslim prisoners achieved by Sa'id in these sources seem to all go back to
2652-589: A peace during this period, which Muslim sources ignore or explain as a short-lived ruse by Marwan to buy time for preparations and mislead the Khazars about his intentions. In the meantime, Marwan consolidated his rear. In 735, the Umayyad general captured three fortresses in Alania (near the Darial Pass). The Arabs also seized Tuman Shah, the ruler of a North Caucasian principality who was restored to his lands by
2808-465: A period of quiet began. Sa'id al-Harashi replaced Marwan as governor of Armenia and Adharbayjan in spring 733, but undertook no campaigns during the two years of his governorship. Blankinship attributes this inactivity to the exhaustion of the Arab armies and draws a parallel with the 732–734 quiet phase in Transoxiana , where the Arabs had also experienced a series of costly defeats at the hands of
2964-456: A pincer movement, but this idea is rejected as far-fetched by more recent scholars. Wasserstein objects to Obolensky's proposition as a scheme of extraordinary ambition which hinges on two untenable assumptions: that the Muslims had concluded that a direct assault against Byzantium was without prospects of success, and that they had more detailed geographical knowledge than can be demonstrated for
3120-517: A renewed offensive against Constantinople. In Byzantium, the general Leo the Isaurian (r. 717–741) had just seized the throne in March 717, when the massive Muslim army under the famed Umayyad prince and general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik began moving towards the imperial capital. The Caliphate's army and navy, led by Maslama, numbered some 120,000 men and 1,800 ships according to the sources. Whatever
3276-562: A series of wars from the 7th to 11th centuries between multiple Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire . The Muslim Arab Caliphates conquered large parts of the Christian Byzantine empire and unsuccessfully attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople . The frontier between the warring states remained almost static for three centuries of frequent warfare, before the Byzantines were able to recapture some of
SECTION 20
#17327733517323432-431: A single battle near Bajarwan". Sa'id's unexpected success angered Maslama; Łewond writes that Sa'id had won the war and received what glory (and booty) there was to be had. Sa'id was relieved of his command in early 731 by Maslama and imprisoned at Qabala and Bardha'a, charged with endangering the army by disobeying orders, and was released (and rewarded) only after the caliph intervened on his behalf. Noonan points out that
3588-462: A son of Caliph Abd al-Malik ( r. 685–705 ), in Adharbayjan and up to Derbent. Further attacks on Derbent are reported by different sources in 708 by Muhammad ibn Marwan , and the following year by Maslama, but the most likely date for Derbent's recovery by the Arabs is Maslama's 713/14 expedition. The eighth-century Armenian historian Łewond reports that Derbent was in the hands of
3744-537: A strategic perspective, it is more probable that the Byzantines encouraged the Khazars to attack the Caliphate to relieve mounting pressure on their eastern frontier in the early eighth century. Byzantium profited from the diversion of Muslim armies northwards during the 720s and 730s, and the Byzantine–Khazar entente resulted in another marriage alliance between future emperor Constantine V ( r. 741–775 ) and Khazar princess Tzitzak in 733. Gaining control of
3900-543: A time of civil war in the Muslim world) was more successful, capturing much booty and many prisoners and killing the presiding princes of Iberia ( Adarnase II ) and Armenia ( Grigor I Mamikonian ). At the same time, the North Caucasian Huns also launched attacks on Albania in 664 and 680. In the first incursion, Prince Juansher was obliged to marry the daughter of the Hunnic king. Modern scholars debate whether
4056-492: A truce with the Arabs, agreeing on joint possession of Armenia , Iberia and Cyprus ; however, by removing 12,000 Christian Mardaites from their native Lebanon , he removed a major obstacle for the Arabs in Syria, and in 692, after the disastrous Battle of Sebastopolis , the Muslims invaded and conquered all of Armenia. Deposed in 695, with Carthage lost in 698, Justinian returned to power from 705 to 711. His second reign
4212-524: Is no contemporary Byzantine account of the Tabuk expedition, and many of the details come from much later Muslim sources. It has been argued that there is in one Byzantine source possibly referencing the Battle of Mu´tah traditionally dated 629, but this is not certain. The first engagements may have started as conflicts with the Arab client states of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires: the Ghassanids and
4368-428: Is unclear, and references to 300,000 men in the invasion of 730 are clearly exaggerated. Historian Igor Semyonov observes that the Khazars "never entered into battle without having a numerical advantage" over their Arab opponents, which often forced the latter to withdraw. According to Semyonov, this attests to the Khazars' skill in logistics and their ability to gather accurate information about their opponents' movements,
4524-699: The Apocalypse would follow. Starting with Peroz I ( r. 457–484 ), the shahs of the Sasanian Empire built a line of stone fortifications to protect the vulnerable frontier on the Caspian shore. When completed under Khosrow I ( r. 531–579 ), this stretched over 45 kilometres (28 mi) from the eastern foothills of the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. The fortress of Derbent
4680-528: The First Arab Siege of the city. Constantine IV (r. 661–685) however used a devastating new weapon that came to be known as " Greek fire ", invented by a Christian refugee from Syria named Kallinikos of Heliopolis , to decisively defeat the attacking Umayyad navy in the Sea of Marmara , resulting in the lifting of the siege in 678. The returning Muslim fleet suffered further losses due to storms, while
4836-550: The First Arab–Khazar War ( c. 642 – c. 652 ) and Second Arab–Khazar War ( c. 722 – c. 737 ); the wars also involved sporadic raids and isolated clashes from the mid-seventh century to the end of the eighth century. The wars were a result of attempts by the nascent Rashidun Caliphate to secure control of the South Caucasus (Transcaucasia) and North Caucasus , where
Arab–Khazar wars - Misplaced Pages Continue
4992-476: The Ghassanids , a Byzantine vassal kingdom. Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr , the first Caliph with undisputed control of the entire Arabian Peninsula after the successful Ridda wars , which resulted in the consolidation of a powerful Muslim state throughout the peninsula. According to Muslim biographies, Muhammed, having received intelligence that Byzantine forces were concentrating in northern Arabia with intentions of invading Arabia, led
5148-544: The Jazira . Maslama's appointment is considered by modern historians to attest to the importance placed by the caliph on the Khazar front, since he was not only a member of the rulingy dynasty, but also one of the most distinguished generals of the Umayyad empire. Nevertheless, Maslama remained in the Jazira for the time being, more concerned with operations against the Byzantines. In his stead, he sent al-Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i to
5304-673: The Kingdom of Georgia . There was a battle point between the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde , then indirectly controlled by Safavids and Qajar state , until it was captured by Russian Empire after annexation of Kingdom of Georgia in 1801–1830. It remained a strategic Russian forepost under Russian control until the dismemberment of the Soviet Union . The Darial Pass was historically important as one of only two crossings of
5460-669: The Lakhmids of Al-Hirah . In any case, Muslim Arabs after 634 certainly pursued a full-blown offensive against both empires, resulting in the conquest of the Levant , Egypt and Persia for Islam. The most successful Arab generals were Khalid ibn al-Walid and 'Amr ibn al-'As . In the Levant, the invading Rashidun army were engaged by a Byzantine army composed of imperial troops as well as local levies. According to Islamic historians, Monophysites and Jews throughout Syria welcomed
5616-647: The Macedonian dynasty , exploiting the decline and fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate , the Byzantines gradually went on the offensive, and recovered much territory in the 10th century, which was lost however after 1071 to the Seljuk Turks . Following the failure to capture Constantinople in 717–718, the Umayyads for a time diverted their attention elsewhere, allowing the Byzantines to take to
5772-645: The Near East . This is reflected in the popular belief in ancient and medieval Middle Eastern cultures that Alexander the Great had barred the Caucasus with divine assistance against the mythical hordes of Gog and Magog . According to historian Gerald Mako, the latter were stereotypical "northern barbarians" as conceived by the settled civilizations of Eurasia: "uncivilized savages who drank blood, who ate children, and whose greed and bestiality knew no limits". If Alexander's barrier failed and Gog and Magog broke through,
5928-649: The Roman province of Mauretania where he was finally halted. As the historian Luis Garcia de Valdeavellano explains: In their struggle against the Byzantines and the Berbers, the Arab chieftains had greatly extended their African dominions, and as early as the year 682 Uqba had reached the shores of the Atlantic, but he was unable to occupy Tangier, for he was forced to turn back toward the Atlas Mountains by
6084-676: The Sassanid Empire conquered and annexed Iberia . The control of the Darial Pass switched to the Western Turkic Kaganate in 628, when Tong Yabgu Kagan signed a treaty with Iberia, transferring over to the Kaganate the control of all its cities and fortresses, and establishing free trade. Control of Darial Pass switched to the Arab Rashidun Caliphate in 644. Afterwards, it was controlled by
6240-495: The Third Perso-Turkic War . The Turks sacked Derbent in 627, broke through the local Sasanian defences, and joined the Byzantines in their siege of Tiflis . When the Byzantine emperor Heraclius ( r. 602–641 ) invaded Persia proper in the next year, 40,000 Turks joined him. Their contribution was decisive for ending the war in a Byzantine victory. For a short while afterwards, as Sasanian power collapsed,
6396-460: The Türgesh (another Turkic steppe power). Marwan reportedly criticised the policy followed in the Caucasus to Caliph Hisham, recommending that he be sent to deal with the Khazars with an army of 120,000 men. When Sa'id asked to be relieved due to failing eyesight, Hisham appointed Marwan to replace him. Marwan returned to the Caucasus c. 735 , determined to launch a decisive blow against
Arab–Khazar wars - Misplaced Pages Continue
6552-639: The Umayyads came to power under Muawiyah I . Under the Umayyads the conquest of the remaining Byzantine and northern Berber territories in North Africa was completed and the Arabs were able to move across large parts of the Berber world, invading Visigothic Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar , under the command of the allegedly Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad . But this happened only after they developed
6708-615: The 650s onwards, Arab navies entered the Mediterranean Sea , which became a major battleground. Both sides launched raids and counter-raids against islands and coastal settlements. The Rashiduns were succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, who over the next fifty years captured Byzantine Cyrenaica and launched repeated raids into Byzantine Asia Minor . Umayyad forces twice placed Constantinople under siege, in 674 to 678 and 717 to 718 , but were unable to capture
6864-586: The Abassids as the major Arab power; they halted the Byzantine reconquests although border conflicts continued. The frontier remained stable until the Seljuk Turks began to take territory from both the Arabs and Byzantines in the 1040s and 1050s, forming the Seljuk Empire and beginning the Byzantine–Seljuk wars . The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sasanian wars of the 6th and 7th centuries and
7020-546: The Abbasid state entered a period of decline and fragmentation. Simultaneously, the Byzantines began a resurgence under their emperors of the Macedonian dynasty . From c. 920 to 976, the Byzantines pushed Arab forces back, recovering some of their lost territories in northern Syria and Armenia. The Emirate of Crete was reconquered in 961. By the end of the 10th century the Fatimid Caliphate had replaced
7176-803: The Alans" in Persian . The Alans held the lands north of the pass in the first centuries AD. It was fortified in ancient times both by the Romans and Persians ; the fortification was variously known as the Iberian Gates or the Caucasian Gates . It was also frequently mistakenly referred to as the Caspian Gates in classical literature. The pass is mentioned in the Georgian annals under
7332-414: The Arab fleet suffered further casualties to storms and an eruption of the volcano of Thera . The first wave of the Muslim conquests ended with the siege of Constantinople in 718, and the border between the two empires became stabilized along the mountains of eastern Anatolia. Raids and counter-raids continued on both sides and became almost ritualized, but the prospect of outright conquest of Byzantium by
7488-567: The Arabs and aid them against the Caucasian peoples if he and his followers were relieved of the jizya , a poll tax imposed on non-Muslims. Shahrbaraz's proposal was accepted and ratified by Caliph Umar ( r. 634–644 ). Al-Tabari reports that the first Arab advance into Khazar lands occurred after the capture of Derbent. Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabi'a reached Balanjar with no losses, and his cavalry advanced up to 200 parasangs —about 800 kilometres (500 mi)—north, as far as al-Bayda on
7644-563: The Arabs as liberators, as they were discontented with the rule of the Byzantines. The Roman Emperor Heraclius had fallen ill and was unable to personally lead his armies to resist the Arab conquests of Syria and Roman Paelestina in 634. In a battle fought near Ajnadayn in the summer of 634, the Rashidun Caliphate army achieved a decisive victory. After their victory at the Fahl , Muslim forces conquered Damascus in 634 under
7800-470: The Arabs at the city of Tarku but, apart from a series of single combats by champions , the two armies did not engage for several days. The imminent arrival of Khazar reinforcements under the general Alp' forced Maslama to quickly abandon his campaign and retreat to Iberia, leaving his camp with all its equipment behind as a ruse. In response, in 709 or c. 715 , the Khazars invaded and raided Albania with an army claimed to be 80,000 strong. In 717,
7956-534: The Arabs did not again attack the Khazars until the early eighth century. Despite the re-establishment of Arab suzerainty after the end of the civil war, the tributary South Caucasus principalities were not yet firmly under Arab rule and their resistance (encouraged by Byzantium) could not be overcome. For several decades after the initial Arab conquest, considerable autonomy was left to local rulers; Arab governors worked with them, and they had small forces of their own. The Khazars refrained from large-scale interventions in
SECTION 50
#17327733517328112-544: The Arabs had reached Armenia. Arabic and Armenian sources differ considerably on the details and chronology of the Arab conquest of Armenia, but by 655, the Armenian princes had capitulated, and both the Byzantine and Persian halves of Armenia had been subjugated. Arab rule was overthrown during the First Muslim Civil War (656–661), but after its end the Armenian princes returned to their tributary status in
8268-446: The Arabs recaptured Derbent and the southern Khazar capital of Balanjar; these successes had little impact on the nomadic Khazars, however, who continued to launch devastating raids deep into the South Caucasus. In a major 730 invasion, the Khazars decisively defeated Umayyad forces at the Battle of Ardabil , killing al-Jarrah; in turn, they were defeated the following year and pushed back north. Maslama then recovered Derbent, which became
8424-485: The Arabs to again retreat south of the Caucasus and defend Albania. It is unclear whether the Khazar invasion was through the Darial Pass, the Caspian Gates, or both. Different commanders are mentioned for the Khazar forces; Arab sources say that the invasion was led by Barjik (the khagan 's son), and Łewond identifies Tar'mach as the Khazar commander. Al-Jarrah apparently dispersed some of his forces, withdrawing his main army to Bardha'a and then to Ardabil . Ardabil
8580-503: The Araxes and drove them north of the river, but the Arab position was clearly precarious. Maslama assumed personal command of the Khazar front in 727. The Arab commander was faced for the first time with the khagan himself, as both sides escalated the conflict. Maslama took the offensive, probably reinforced with Syrian and Jaziran troops. He recovered the Darial Pass (which had been apparently lost after al-Jarrah's 724 expedition) and pushed into Khazar territory, campaigning there until
8736-413: The Byzantine Exarchate of Africa . Tripolitania was conquered, followed by Sufetula , 150 miles (240 km) south of Carthage , and the governor and self-proclaimed Emperor of Africa Gregory was killed. Abdallah's booty-laden force returned to Egypt in 648 after Gregory's successor, Gennadius, promised them an annual tribute of some 300,000 nomismata . Following a civil war in the Arab Empire
8892-419: The Byzantine Empire and weakening its armies in the following decades. The Byzantine navy briefly won back Alexandria in 645, but lost it again in 646 shortly after the Battle of Nikiou . The Islamic forces raided Sicily in 652, while Cyprus and Crete were captured in 653. However, Crete reverted to Eastern Roman rule until the 820s. In 647, a Rashidun-Arab army led by Abdallah ibn al-Sa’ad invaded
9048-456: The Byzantine authorities in Egypt and Mesopotamia purchased an expensive truce, which lasted three years for Egypt and one year for Mesopotamia. Antioch fell to the Muslim armies in late 637, and by then the Muslims occupied the whole of northern Syria, except for upper Mesopotamia , which they granted a one-year truce. At the expiration of this truce in 638–639, the Arabs overran Byzantine Mesopotamia and Byzantine Armenia , and terminated
9204-429: The Byzantines at bay, as well as the corresponding retaliatory Byzantine raids, eventually became established as a fixture of Byzantine–Arab warfare for the next three centuries. The outbreak of the Muslim Civil War in 656 bought a precious breathing pause for Byzantium, which Emperor Constans II (r. 641–668) used to shore up his defences, extend and consolidate his control over Armenia and most importantly, initiate
9360-412: The Byzantines is illustrated by Joannes Zonaras ' words: "[...] since then [after the fall of Syria] the race of the Ishmaelites did not cease from invading and plundering the entire territory of the Romans". In April 637 the Arabs, after a long siege, captured Jerusalem , which was surrendered by Patriarch Sophronius . In the summer of 637, the Muslims conquered Gaza , and, during the same period,
9516-422: The Byzantines refraining from actively campaigning there. Given the common threat of the Khazar raids, the Umayyads found the Armenians (and the neighbouring Georgians ) willing allies against the Khazars. The 20th-century Byzantinist Dimitri Obolensky suggested that the Arab expansion in the Caucasus was motivated by a desire to outflank the Byzantine defences from the north and envelop the Byzantine Empire in
SECTION 60
#17327733517329672-431: The Byzantines usually avoided, and into a series of costly assaults, before turning the deep valleys and cliffs into a catastrophic death-trap. Heraclius' farewell exclamation (according to the 9th-century historian Al-Baladhuri ) while departing Antioch for Constantinople , is expressive of his disappointment: "Peace unto thee, O Syria, and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!" The impact of Syria's loss on
9828-402: The Caliphate receded. This led to far more regular, and often friendly, diplomatic contacts, as well as a reciprocal recognition of the two empires. In response to the Muslim threat, which reached its peak in the first half of the 8th century, the Isaurian emperors adopted the policy of Iconoclasm , which was abandoned in 786 only to be readopted in the 820s and finally abandoned in 843. Under
9984-407: The Caucasus front. Al-Harith spent his first year consolidating Muslim rule in Caucasian Albania: he campaigned along the Cyrus against the regions of al-Lakz and Khasmadan, and was probably also preoccupied with supervising that year's census. The following year, Barjik launched a major invasion of Albania and Adharbayjan. The Khazars laid siege to Warthan with mangonels . Al-Harith defeated them on
10140-498: The Christian northern shores almost ceased during this period, isolating Western Europe from developments in the Muslim world: "In antiquity, and again in the high Middle Ages, the voyage from Italy to Alexandria was commonplace; in early Islamic times the two countries were so remote that even the most basic information was unknown" (Kennedy). Muawiyah also initiated the first large-scale raids into Anatolia from 641 on. These expeditions, aiming both at plunder and at weakening and keeping
10296-418: The Huns acted independently or as Khazar proxies, but several historians consider Hunnic ruler Alp Iluetuer a Khazar vassal; if so, Albania was under a form of indirect Khazar rule during the 680s. The Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I ( r. 661–680 ) tried to counter Khazar influence by inviting Juansher to Damascus twice, and the 683/685 Khazar raid may have been a reaction to those invitations. According to
10452-449: The Huns at that time; the 16th-century chronicle Derbent-nameh says that it was defended by 3,000 Khazars, and Maslama captured it only after a resident showed him a secret underground passage. Łewond also says that the Arabs, realizing that they could not hold the fortress, razed its walls. Maslama then drove deeper into Khazar territory, trying to subdue the North Caucasian Huns (who were Khazar vassals). The Khazar khagan confronted
10608-427: The Khazar sphere of influence". Relations between the two powers remained relatively quiet until the early eighth century, when the stage for a new and more intense round of conflict was set. At the turn of the century, Byzantine political authority was marginalized in the Caucasus: the civil war in the Caliphate ended in 693, and the Umayyads were able to inflict significant defeats on the Byzantines, who descended into
10764-429: The Khazars and the North Caucasian Huns on the autonomous principalities of the South Caucasus during the 660s and 680s. The conflict between the Khazars and the Arabs (now under the Umayyad Caliphate ) resumed after 707 with occasional raids back and forth across the Caucasus Mountains , intensifying after 721 into a full-scale war. Led by the prominent generals al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah and Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik ,
10920-423: The Khazars and the Muslim principalities of the Caucasus continued until the collapse of the Khazar state in the late 10th century, but it never matched again the intensity and scale of the eighth-century war. The Arab–Khazar wars were part of a long series of military conflicts between the nomadic peoples of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the more settled regions south of the Caucasus . The two primary routes over
11076-409: The Khazars are to be identified with Turks who raided Sasanian Persia in the late 6th century, but again the evidence is unreliable, being derived from much later Arabic sources. Modern scholarship generally holds that the Khazars first campaigned in the South Caucasus during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , as subjects of the Western Turkic Khaganate , who allied with the Byzantine Empire in
11232-587: The Khazars later moved their capital further north to Atil (Arabic al-Bayda ) in the Volga Delta . Like other Near Eastern peoples, the Arabs were familiar with the legend of Gog and Magog, who appear in the Quran in the Arabicized form Yaʾjuj wa-Maʾjuj . After the Muslim conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries, their perceptions incorporated many of the cultural concepts of their new subjects. This
11388-403: The Khazars raided Adharbayjan in force. With the bulk of the Umayyad army, under the command of Maslama, occupied at the siege of Constantinople, Caliph Umar II ( r. 717–720 ) reportedly could only spare 4,000 men to confront 20,000 invaders. The Arab commander Hatim ibn al-Nu'man nevertheless defeated and drove back the Khazars. Hatim returned to the caliph with fifty Khazar prisoners,
11544-493: The Khazars upon his return, and the Arabs abandoned their baggage train and fled through the Darial Pass to safety. After this campaign, Maslama was replaced yet again by al-Jarrah. Despite his energy, Maslama's campaigns failed to produce the desired results; by 729, the Arabs had lost control of the northeastern parts of the South Caucasus and were again on the defensive, with al-Jarrah having to defend Adharbayjan against
11700-546: The Khazars were already established since the late 6th century. The first Arab invasion began in 642 with the capture of the strategically important city of Derbent that guarded the eastern passage of the Caucasus along the Caspian Sea , and continued with a series of minor raids, ending with the defeat of a large Arab force led by Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabi'a outside the Khazar town of Balanjar in 652. Large-scale hostilities then ceased for several decades, apart from raids by
11856-447: The Khazars' 7,000. Advancing north, the Arab army captured the settlements of Khamzin and Targhu and resettled their inhabitants elsewhere. Finally, the Arab army reached Balanjar. The city had had strong fortifications during the first Muslim attacks in the mid-seventh century, but apparently, they had been neglected; the Khazars defended their capital by surrounding the citadel with a wagon fort of 300 wagons tied together with ropes,
12012-477: The Khazars, but was apparently unable to launch anything but local expeditions for some time. He established a new base of operations at Kasak, about twenty parsangs (roughly 120 km or 75 mi) from Tiflis and forty from Bardha'a, and his initial expeditions were against minor local potentates. Agapius of Hierapolis and the 12th-century historian Michael the Syrian record that the Arabs and Khazars concluded
12168-479: The Muslims of the Caucasus and the Khazars remained largely peaceful thereafter and the Caucasus became an avenue of trade linking the Middle East to Eastern Europe; peace was interrupted by two Khazar raids in the 760s and in 799 resulting from failed efforts to secure an alliance through marriage between the Arab governors (or local princes) of the Caucasus and the Khazar khagan . Occasional warfare between
12324-558: The Muslims to continue their military expansion into North Africa; between 643 and 644 'Amr completed the conquest of Cyrenaica . Uthman succeeded Caliph Umar after his death. According to Arab historians, the local Christian Copts welcomed the Arabs just as the Monophysites did in Jerusalem. The loss of this lucrative province deprived the Byzantines of their valuable wheat supply, thereby causing food shortages throughout
12480-613: The South Caucasus was abandoned, and the region returned to Sasanian influence by 632. The collapse of the West Turkic khaganate led to the independence of the Khazars, then living in the Middle Volga region, and their emergence as an imperial power in their own right between the 660s and 680s, when they defeated Old Great Bulgaria and expanded into the North Caucasus. In the Caucasus, the Khazars came into contact with
12636-404: The South Caucasus, Mesopotamia and Anatolia , but they were, according to historian Peter B. Golden , not aimed at conquest. Rather, Golden writes, they were "typical of nomads testing the defenses of their sedentary neighbors" and a means of gathering booty, the acquisition and distribution of which was fundamental to tribal coalitions. According to Golden, for the Khazars the strategic stake of
12792-534: The Turks exercised some control over Caucasian Iberia (approximately present-day Georgia ), Caucasian Albania (the modern Republic of Azerbaijan ) and Adharbayjan (modern Iranian Azerbaijan ), while Armenia, the southwestern half of the South Caucasus, was in Byzantine hands. However, after the assassination of Tong Yabghu , the Western Turkic khagan , around 630, the extension of Turkic control into
12948-557: The Volga, the future Khazar capital. This dating, and the improbable claim that the Arabs suffered no casualties, have been disputed by modern scholars. Based at Derbent, Abd al-Rahman launched frequent raids against the Khazars and local tribes over the following years, but they were of small scale and no details about them are recorded in the sources. Disregarding the caliph's instructions for caution and restraint, Abd al-Rahman or (according to Baladhuri and Ya'qubi ) his brother Salman led
13104-464: The actual date) of the 722 Balanjar campaign. The Khazars raided south of the Caucasus in response, but in February 724, al-Jarrah decisively defeated them in a days-long battle between the rivers Cyrus and Araxes . The new caliph, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ( r. 724–743 ), promised to send reinforcements but failed to do so. In 724, al-Jarrah captured Tiflis and brought Caucasian Iberia and
13260-433: The area of Derbent (whose Muslim garrison was still holding out) at the news of his approach. Learning that the local Lezgin chief was in contact with the Khazars, al-Jarrah set up camp on the river Rubas and announced that the army would remain there for several days. Instead, he arrived at Derbent in a night march and entered it without resistance. From there, al-Jarrah launched raiding columns into Khazar territory ahead of
13416-497: The army lost many men to the thematic armies who attacked them on their route back. Among those killed in the siege was Eyup , the standard bearer of Muhammed and the last of his companions; to Muslims today, his tomb is considered one of the holiest sites in Istanbul. The setback at Constantinople was followed by further reverses across the vast Muslim empire. As Gibbon writes, "this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds,
13572-483: The bulk of his army. His army met a Khazar army at the river al-Ran, one day's march north of Derbent, after joining the columns. According to the Derbent-nameh , al-Jarrah had 10,000 men (of whom 4,000 were vassal princes); al-Tabari cites the Arab strength as 25,000. The Khazars, commanded by Barjik (one of the Khazar khagan 's sons), reportedly numbered 40,000. The Arabs were victorious, losing 4,000 men to
13728-426: The caliph as a client. Marwan campaigned the following year against Wartanis, another local prince, whose castle was sacked, and its defenders killed despite their surrender; Wartanis tried to flee but was captured and executed by the inhabitants of Khamzin. Marwan also subdued the Armenian factions who were hostile to the Arabs and Ashot III, their client. He then pushed into Iberia , driving its ruler to seek refuge in
13884-432: The campaign also experienced heavy rain and mud. Highly reminiscent of descriptions of Maslama's 728 and 731 expeditions, the veracity of Ibn A'tham's account is doubtful. Ibn Khayyat reports that Marwan led a far more limited campaign on the region just north of Derbent, retiring there for the winter. Marwan was more active in the south, appointing Ashot III Bagratuni as the presiding prince of Armenia; this effectively gave
14040-639: The civil war, Muawiyah launched a series of attacks against Byzantine holdings in Africa, Sicily and the East. By 670, the Muslim fleet had penetrated into the Sea of Marmara and stayed at Cyzicus during the winter. Four years later, a massive Muslim fleet reappeared in the Marmara and re-established a base at Cyzicus, from there they raided the Byzantine coasts almost at will. Finally in 676, Muawiyah sent an army to invest Constantinople from land as well, beginning
14196-428: The command of Khalid ibn al-Walid . The Byzantine response involved the collection and dispatch of the maximum number of available troops under major commanders, including Theodore Trithyrius and the Armenian general Vahan, to eject the Muslims from their newly won territories. At the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, however, the Muslims, having studied the ground in detail, lured the Byzantines into pitched battle, which
14352-498: The conflict was control of the Caucasus passes. According to historian Boris Zhivkov, on the other hand, the Khazars contested the extension of Arab rule over Albania. Zhivkov considers that the Khazars laid special claim to the province, based on the ephemeral control exercised there by the Western Turks after the last Byzantine–Sasanian war. The sources do not provide details of the composition or tactics of Khazar armies, and
14508-427: The conquest of Palestine by storming Caesarea Maritima and effecting their final capture of Ascalon . In December 639, the Muslims departed from Palestine to invade Egypt in early 640. By the time Heraclius died, much of Egypt had been lost, and by 637–638 the whole of Syria was in the hands of the armies of Islam. With 3,500–4,000 troops under his command, 'Amr ibn al-A'as first crossed into Egypt from Palestine at
14664-416: The country broad autonomy in exchange for the service of its soldiers in the Caliphate's armies. According to Blankinship, this unique concession indicates the Caliphate's worsening manpower crisis. Around this time, the Khazars and Byzantines strengthened their ties and formalized their alliance against the Arabs with the marriage of Constantine V to the Khazar princess Tzitzak. After Marwan's 732 expedition,
14820-403: The early Muslim conquests contained sizeable contingents of light and heavy cavalry , but relied primarily on their infantry. Arab cavalry was often limited to skirmishing early in a battle before dismounting and fighting on foot. The Arab armies resisted cavalry charges by digging trenches and forming a spear wall behind them. This tactic indicates the discipline of the Arab armies, particularly
14976-444: The earth through a continuous military effort against the non-Muslims". The early Muslim state was geared toward expansion, with all able-bodied adult male Muslims subject to conscription. Its manpower pool was accordingly enormous, with historian Hugh N. Kennedy estimating that 250,000 to 300,000 men were inscribed as potential soldiers ( muqatila ) in the provincial army registers c. 700 . Kennedy stresses that this force
15132-402: The elite Syrian troops, which in the Umayyad period served continuously rather than being called up for specific campaigns, and were a de facto professional, standing army. According to Kennedy, the Arabs' higher degree of training and discipline gave them an advantage against nomadic peoples such as the Khazars. In the 8th century, Arab armies were often accompanied by local forces provided by
15288-426: The end of 639 or the beginning of 640. He was progressively joined by further reinforcements, notably 12,000 soldiers by Zubayr ibn al-Awwam . 'Amr first besieged and conquered Babylon Fortress , and then attacked Alexandria . The Byzantines, divided and shocked by the sudden loss of so much territory, agreed to give up the city by September 642. The fall of Alexandria extinguished Byzantine rule in Egypt, and allowed
15444-534: The enemy accepted Islam or tributary status." Both as governor of Syria and later as caliph, Muawiyah I (r. 661–680) was the driving force of the Muslim effort against Byzantium, especially by his creation of a fleet, which challenged the Byzantine navy and raided the Byzantine islands and coasts. To stop the Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab-Byzantine Wars, in 649 Muawiyah set up
15600-480: The first such event recorded in the sources. In 721/22, the main phase of the war began. Thirty thousand Khazars invaded Armenia that winter, and decisively defeated the mostly Syrian army of local governor Ma'laq ibn Saffar al-Bahrani at Marj al-Hijara (Rocky Meadow) in February and March 722. Caliph Yazid II ( r. 720–724 ) sent al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah , one of his most celebrated generals, north with 25,000 Syrian troops in response. The Khazars retreated to
15756-815: The fortress of Anakopia on the Black Sea coast in the Byzantine protectorate of Abkhazia . Marwan besieged Anakopia, but was forced to retire due to an outbreak of dysentery in his army. His cruelty during the invasion of Iberia earned him the epithet "the Deaf" from the Iberians. Arab%E2%80%93Byzantine wars Inconclusive Rashidun Caliphate Sunni States : Shia States : The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest The Arab–Byzantine wars or Muslim–Byzantine wars were
15912-422: The frontier and by sea. In 750 the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate , who were less expansionist than their predecessors and did not seek to eliminate the Byzantines; embassies were exchanged and there were several periods of truce. Nevertheless conflict remained the norm, with almost annual raids and counter-raids, either by the Abbasid government or by local client rulers , which continued until
16068-626: The heavily fortified Byzantine capital. Following the failed second siege, the border stabilized at the Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor . The Umayyads launched frequent attacks across this frontier, which was heavily fortified by both sides and the surrounding region became depopulated . During this period, the Byzantines were usually on the defensive, avoiding open field battles and preferring to retreat to their fortified strongholds. After 740 they began to launch their own raids across
16224-552: The historian Thomas S. Noonan , on the other hand, the "cautious nature of Khazar policy in the Southern Caucasus" made them avoid direct confrontation with the Umayyads and intervene only during times of civil war. Noonan writes that this caution was because the Khazars were themselves preoccupied with consolidating their rule of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and were satisfied with the "limited goal of bringing Albania into
16380-448: The jealousies between the Arab commanders, and their rapid turnover, adversely impacted their war effort, as it "inhibited the development and execution of a long-term strategy for dealing with the Khazar problem". Maslama took command of a large army, and immediately took the offensive. He restored the provinces of Albania to Muslim allegiance (after punishing the inhabitants of Khaydhan who resisted him) and reached Derbent, where he found
16536-462: The lands of the Alans under Muslim suzerainty. These campaigns made al-Jarrah the first Muslim commander to cross the Darial Pass, secured the Muslim flank against a possible Khazar attack through the pass, and gave the Arabs a second invasion route into Khazar territory. AL-Jarrah was also the first Arab commander to settle Khazar prisoners as colonists, around Qabala . In 725, the caliph replaced al-Jarrah with his own half-brother Maslama, governor of
16692-432: The landward side, isolating the capital. Their attempt to complete the blockade by sea however failed when the Byzantine navy employed Greek fire against them; the Arab fleet kept well off the city walls, leaving Constantinople's supply routes open. Forced to extend the siege into winter, the besieging army suffered horrendous casualties from the cold and the lack of provisions. In spring, new reinforcements were sent by
16848-590: The layout of the country, and the condition of roads. To an extent, the Arab–Khazar wars were also linked to the long-lasting struggle of the Caliphate against the Byzantine Empire along the eastern fringes of Anatolia (a theatre of war which adjoined the Caucasus). The Byzantine emperors pursued close relations with the Khazars which amounted to an alliance for most of the period in question, including
17004-404: The leaders of the Arab caliphate were "expansionists interested in conquest"; their northward thrust threatened the survival of the Khazars as an independent polity. Historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship agrees, emphasizing the highly ideological nature of the Muslim caliphate and its dedication to the doctrine of jihad , which in political terms entailed "the struggle to establish God's rule in
17160-404: The lost territory. The conflicts began during the early Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun Caliphate , part of the initial spread of Islam . In the 630s, Rashidun forces from Arabia attacked and quickly overran Byzantium's southern provinces. Syria was captured in 639 and Egypt was conquered in 642. The Exarchate of Africa was gradually captured between 647 and 670. From
17316-668: The main Arabo-Islamic religious centers in the Middle Ages . Then ibn Nafi " plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco , and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert " . In his conquest of the Maghreb , Uqba Ibn Nafi took the coastal cities of Bejaia and Tangier , overwhelming what had once been
17472-406: The main Khazar army, which (like all nomad forces) did not depend on cities for supplies. The presence of this force near Samandar and reports of rebellions among the mountain tribes in their rear forced the Arabs to retreat to Warthan , south of the Caucasus. On his return, al-Jarrah reported on his campaign to the caliph and requested additional troops to defeat the Khazars. This is an indication of
17628-446: The marriage of emperor Justinian II ( r. 685–695, 705–711 ) to the Khazar princess Theodora in 705. The possibility of the Khazars linking with the Byzantines through Armenia was a grave threat to the Caliphate, especially given Armenia's proximity to the Umayyad Caliphate 's metropolitan province of Syria . This did not materialize; Armenia was left largely quiet, with the Umayyads granting it wide-ranging autonomy and
17784-418: The medieval sources. In the few detailed descriptions of pitched battles, the Khazar cavalry launch the opening attacks. Heavy ( cataphract ) cavalry is not recorded, but archaeological evidence attests to the use of heavy armour for riders and (possibly) horses. The presence of Khazar infantry must be assumed (especially during siege operations), although it is not explicitly mentioned. Modern historians point to
17940-436: The mid-10th century. Byzantine attempts to take back the lands they had lost only provoked Abbasid retaliation, in the form of destructive invasions of Asia Minor. Arab naval raids reached a peak in the 9th and early 10th centuries: their fleets attacked the coasts of Italy and Dalmatia , while Abassid vassals conquered Crete in 827 and gradually took Sicily from 831 to 878. Due to political instability beginning in 861 ,
18096-474: The middle of the night and quickly reached Derbent in a series of forced marches. The Khazars shadowed Maslama's march south and attacked him near Derbent, but the Arab army (augmented by local levies) resisted until a small, elite force attacked the khagan ' s tent and wounded him. The Muslims, encouraged, then defeated the Khazars. The Khazar commander Barjik may have been killed in this battle or campaign. Taking advantage of his victory, Maslama poisoned
18252-619: The mountains, the Darial Pass (Alan Gates) in the centre and the Pass of Derbent ( Caspian Gates ) in the east along the Caspian Sea , have been used as invasion routes since classical antiquity . Consequently, defence of the Caucasus frontier against destructive raids by steppe peoples such as the Scythians and the Huns came to be regarded as one of the chief duties of imperial regimes of
18408-559: The names of Darialani; Strabo calls it Porta Caucasica and Porta Cumana ; Ptolemy , Fortes Sarmatica ; it was sometimes known as Porta Caucasica and Portae Caspiae (a name bestowed also on the "gate" or pass beside the Caspian Sea at Derbent ); and the Tatars call it Darioly. Josephus wrote that Alexander the Great built iron gates at an unspecified pass which some Latin and Greek authors identified with Darial. Darial Pass fell into Sassanid hands in 252–253, when
18564-485: The names of Khazar commanders are rarely recorded. Although the Khazars adopted elements of the civilizations to their south and possessed towns, they remained a tribal, semi-nomadic power. Like other steppe societies originating in Central Asia , they practised a mobile form of warfare and relied on skilled, hardy cavalry. The rapid movements and sudden attacks and counterattacks of the Khazar cavalry are emphasized in
18720-614: The nascent Arab caliphate , which had extended its power over the South Caucasus in the 640s, in the wake of the first wave of the early Muslim conquests . The eastern Caucasus became the main theatre of the Arab–Khazar conflict, with the Arab armies aiming to gain control of Derbent ( Arabic Bab al-Abwab , 'Gate of Gates') and the Khazar cities of Balanjar and Samandar . Their locations have yet to be established with certainty by modern researchers, but both cities are referred to as Khazar capitals by Arab writers and may have been winter and summer capitals, respectively. Due to Arab attacks,
18876-429: The neighbouring fortresses and continued their march north. The strongly garrisoned fortress city of Wabandar, with 40,000 households reported by the 13th-century historian Ibn al-Athir , capitulated in exchange for tribute. Al-Jarrah intended to advance to Samandar, the next major Khazar settlement, but cut his campaign short when he learned that the Khazars were gathering large forces there. The Arabs had not yet defeated
19032-454: The new caliph, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720), by sea from Africa and Egypt and over land through Asia Minor. The crews of the new fleets were composed mostly of Christians, who began defecting in large numbers, while the land forces were ambushed and defeated in Bithynia . As famine and an epidemic continued to plague the Arab camp, the siege was abandoned on 15 August 718. On its return,
19188-544: The newly established Umayyad Caliphate. The Principality of Iberia concluded a similar treaty with the Arabs, and only Lazica (on the Black Sea coast) remained under Byzantine influence. Neighbouring Adharbayjan was conquered in 639–643; raids were launched into Arran (Caucasian Albania) under Salman ibn Rabi'a and Habib ibn Maslama during the early 640s, leading to the submission of its cities. As in Armenia, Arab rule
19344-487: The northern Caucasus by the seventh century. As the most recent steppe power in the region, early medieval writers came to identify the Khazars with Gog and Magog and the Sasanian fortifications at Derbent as Alexander's wall. The Khazars are mentioned in medieval histories as being present in the Caucasus since the first centuries CE, but these are rejected as anachronistic by modern scholars. Some scholars have argued that
19500-423: The northern Jazira, adjacent to the Umayyad heartlands in Syria. The defeat at Ardabil—news of which spread even to Byzantium—was a shock to the Muslims, who faced an army penetrating deep into the Caliphate for the first time. Caliph Hisham again appointed Maslama to fight the Khazars as governor of Armenia and Adharbayjan. Until Maslama could assemble enough forces, veteran military leader Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi
19656-490: The northern branch of the Silk Road by the Caliphate has been suggested as a further motive for the conflict. Mako disputes this claim, pointing out that warfare declined precisely at the time of greatest Silk Road expansion, after the mid-eighth century. The Khazars and the Arabs came into conflict as a result of the first phase of Muslim expansion; by 640, following their conquest of Byzantine Syria and Upper Mesopotamia ,
19812-417: The offensive, making some gains in Armenia. From 720/721 however the Arab armies resumed their expeditions against Byzantine Anatolia, although now they were no longer aimed at conquest, but rather large-scale raids, plundering and devastating the countryside and only occasionally attacking forts or major settlements. Darial Pass The Darial originates from Dar-i Alān ( در الان ) meaning "Gate of
19968-403: The onset of winter forced him to return to Adharbayjan. His second invasion, the following year, was less successful; Blankinship calls it a "near disaster". Arab sources report that the Umayyad troops fought for thirty or forty days in the mud, with continuous rain, before defeating the khagan on 17 September 728. The impact of their victory is questionable, however, as Maslama was ambushed by
20124-433: The province of Arminiya . Only the western South Caucasus (present-day Georgia) remained free from direct control by either of the two rival powers, who now confronted each other for control of the Caucasus. The first Arab advance came as early a 692/93, with an expedition to secure the pass of Derbent; but the Arab forces were soon forced to withdraw. The conflict resumed in 707, with a campaign by Umayyad general Maslama ,
20280-517: The real number, it was a huge force, far larger than the imperial army. Thankfully for Leo and the Empire, the capital's sea walls had recently been repaired and strengthened. In addition, the emperor concluded an alliance with the Bulgar khan Tervel , who agreed to harass the invaders' rear. From July 717 to August 718, the city was besieged by land and sea by the Muslims, who built an extensive double line of circumvallation and contravallation on
20436-653: The recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague ( Plague of Justinian ) left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the Arabs . The last of the wars between the Roman and Persian empires ended with victory for the Byzantines: Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. Nevertheless, neither empire
20592-528: The rest of his army (primarily the favoured Jaziran and Qinnasrini contingents) south of the Caucasus for the winter; the Khazars returned to their abandoned towns. Maslama's record (despite the capture of Derbent) was apparently unsatisfactory to Hisham, who replaced his brother in March 732 with Marwan ibn Muhammad. That summer, Marwan led 40,000 men north into Khazar lands. Accounts of this campaign are confused. Ibn A'tham records that he reached Balanjar and returned to Derbent with much captured livestock, but
20748-402: The second half of the 7th century were a few Khazar raids into the South Caucasus principalities that were loosely under Muslim dominion. These raids were primarily in search of plunder rather than attempts at conquest. In one such raid into Albania in 661–62, they were defeated by the local prince, Juansher ( r. 637–669 ). A large-scale raid across the South Caucasus in 683 or 685 (also
20904-598: The settled, i.e. the civilized world from the northern barbarian". This imperative was reinforced by the Muslim division of the world into the House of Islam ( Dar al-Islam ) and the House of War ( Dar al-Harb ), to which the Tengric pagan Turkic steppe peoples such as the Khazars were consigned. While their Byzantine and Sasanian predecessors simply sought to contain the steppe peoples through fortifications and political alliances, historian David Wasserstein writes that
21060-559: The severity of the fighting and, according to Blankinship, that the campaign was not necessarily the resounding success portrayed in Muslim sources. As Noonan comments, "though the [caliph] sent his best wishes, no further forces were dispatched" to the Caucasus front. In 723, al-Jarrah reportedly led another campaign into Alania via the Darial Pass. Sources say that he marched "beyond Balanjar", conquering several fortresses and capturing much loot, but offer few details. However, modern scholars consider this to probably be an echo (or, possibly,
21216-422: The south; pleas for assistance by Yazdegerd III ( r. 632–651 ), the last Sasanian shah, were unanswered. After the Arab attacks, the Khazars abandoned Balanjar and moved their capital further north in an attempt to evade the Arab armies. However, Khazar auxiliaries and Abkhazian and Alan troops are recorded as fighting alongside the Byzantines against the Arabs in 655. The only recorded hostilities in
21372-622: The southern approaches of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus mountain ranges, leaving Syria in Muslim and the Anatolian plateau in Byzantine hands. Both Emperor Heraclius and the Caliph ' Umar (r. 634–644) pursued a strategy of destruction within this zone, trying to transform it into an effective barrier between the two realms. Nevertheless, the Umayyads still considered the complete subjugation of Byzantium as their ultimate objective. Their thinking
21528-504: The time in question. Mako agrees that such a grand strategic plan is not borne out by the rather limited nature of the Arab–Khazar conflict until the 720s. It is more likely that the northward expansion of the Arabs beyond the Caucasus was, at least initially, the result of the onward momentum of the early Muslim conquests. Local Arab commanders of the period often exploited opportunities haphazardly and without an overall plan, sometimes pursuing expansion even against direct caliphal orders. From
21684-531: The two powers, establishing Derbent as the northernmost outpost of the Muslim world and securing Muslim dominance of the South Caucasus, but leaving the North Caucasus in Khazar hands. At the same time, continuing warfare weakened the Umayyad army and contributed to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, as a result of the Abbasid Revolution that established the Abbasid Caliphate . Relations between
21840-475: The use of advanced siege machines to indicate that Khazar military sophistication was equal to that of other contemporary armies. The less-rigidly organized, semi-nomadic nature of the Khazar state also worked to their advantage against the Arabs, as they lacked a permanent administrative centre, whose loss would paralyze the government and force them to surrender. The Khazar army was composed of Khazar troops and those of vassal princes and allies. Its overall size
21996-466: The various local potentates, who not only were under Arab suzerainty, but often enough had suffered themselves by Khazar raids. Thus in 732 the presiding prince of Armenia, Ashot III Bagratuni , is known to have renewed an agreement for the employment of Armenian cavalry with the Arab army for three years, in exchange for 100,000 silver dirhams per year. The Khazars followed a strategy common to their nomadic predecessors; their raids might reach deep into
22152-405: The water supply of Derbent to drive the Khazar garrison out. He re-established the city as an Arab military colony, restoring its fortifications and garrisoning it with 24,000 troops, mostly from Syria, divided into quarters by their district ( jund ) of origin. Leaving his relative Marwan ibn Muhammad (later the last Umayyad caliph, from 744 to 750) in command at Derbent, Maslama returned with
22308-484: The wife and children of Balanjar's governor, and the governor began informing him about Khazar movements. Muslim sources also say that the governor accepted an offer to recover all his belongings (and Balanjar) if he submitted to Muslim rule, but this is probably false. At that time, so many Khazar prisoners were taken that al-Jarrah ordered some of them drowned in the Balanjar River. Al-Jarrah's army also reduced
22464-460: Was all but annihilated by the Khazars. Al-Jarrah was among the fallen; command passed to his brother, al-Hajjaj, who could not prevent the sacking of Ardabil. The 10th-century historian Agapius of Hierapolis reports that the Khazars took as many as 40,000 prisoners from the city, al-Jarrah's army, and the surrounding countryside. The Khazars raided the province at will, sacking Ganza and attacking other settlements. Some detachments reached Mosul in
22620-454: Was dominated by Islamic teaching, which placed the infidel Byzantines in the Dār al-Ḥarb , the "House of War", which, in the words of Islamic scholar Hugh N. Kennedy , "the Muslims should attack whenever possible; rather than peace interrupted by occasional conflict, the normal pattern was seen to be conflict interrupted by occasional, temporary truce ( hudna ). True peace ( ṣulḥ ) could only come when
22776-566: Was fortunate. The Khazars had dispersed in small detachments after their victory at Ardabil, plundering the countryside, and the Arabs defeated them one by one. Sa'id recovered Akhlat on Lake Van , then moved northeast to Bardha'a and south to relieve the siege of Warthan. He encountered a 10,000-strong Khazar army near Bajarwan and defeated it in a surprise night attack, killing most of the Khazars and rescuing their 5,000 Muslim prisoners (who included al-Jarrah's daughter). The surviving Khazars fled north, with Sa'id in pursuit. Muslim sources record
22932-584: Was given any chance to recover, as within a few years they found themselves in conflict with the Arabs (newly united by Islam), which, according to Howard-Johnston, "can only be likened to a human tsunami". According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam". In the late 620s, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad had already managed to unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule via conquest as well as making alliances with neighboring tribes, and it
23088-512: Was marked by Arab victories in Asia Minor and civil unrest. Reportedly, he ordered his guards to execute the only unit that had not deserted him after one battle, to prevent their desertion in the next. Justinian's first and second depositions were followed by internal disorder, with successive revolts and emperors lacking legitimacy or support. In this climate, the Umayyads consolidated their control of Armenia and Cilicia, and began preparing
23244-522: Was not securely established there until after the First Muslim Civil War. According to Arab chroniclers, the first attack on Derbent was launched in 642 under Suraqa ibn Amr; Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabi'a commanded his vanguard. Al-Tabari 's History of the Prophets and Kings , written in the early 10th century, reports that Shahrbaraz, the Persian governor of Derbent, offered to surrender the fortress to
23400-403: Was reflected in early Muslim geographic works, where the Caucasus was seen as part of a great continuous mountain chain that spanned the earth, and divided the civilized lands of the south from the 'Land of Darkness' beyond, an idea deriving from Persian and possibly ancient Babylonian traditions. Consequently, according to Mako, the caliphs soon adopted the notion that it was their duty "to protect
23556-485: Was sent to stem the Khazar invasion. With a lance reportedly used at the Battle of Badr as a standard for his army and with 100,000 dirhams to recruit men, Sa'id went to Raqqa . The forces he could muster immediately were apparently small, but he set out to meet the Khazars (possibly disobeying orders to maintain a defensive stance). Sa'id encountered refugees from Ardabil along the way and enlisted them into his army, paying each recruit ten gold dinars as inducement. Sa'id
23712-476: Was spread throughout the empire and many of the muqatila proved loath to answer summons if the prospects for an easy victory and plunder were low, but on the other hand, these numbers could be supplemented by unregistered Arab volunteers. This put the Arabs at a distinct advantage over their enemies: the entire nominal strength of the contemporary Byzantine army is estimated at 120,000 men, though revisionist historians put it at as low as 30,000. Arab armies of
23868-440: Was the capital of Adharbayjan, and most of the Muslim settlers and their families (about 30,000) lived within its walls. Informed of Arab movements by the prince of Iberia, the Khazars moved around al-Jarrah and attacked Warthan. Al-Jarrah rushed to assist the town; he is next recorded as being at Ardabil again, however, confronting the main Khazar army. After a three-day battle from 7 to 9 December 730, al-Jarrah's 25,000-man army
24024-532: Was the strategically crucial centre point of this fortification complex, as seen in its Persian name Dar-band ( lit. ' Knot of the Gates ' ). The Turkic Khazars appeared in the area of present-day Dagestan in the second half of the sixth century, initially as subjects of the First Turkic Khaganate . After the latter's collapse, they emerged as an independent, dominant power in
24180-487: Was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic." His forces were directed at putting down rebellions, and in one such battle he was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Then, the third governor of Africa, Zuheir, was overthrown by a powerful army, sent from Constantinople by Constantine IV for the relief of Carthage . Meanwhile,
24336-402: Was under his leadership that the first Muslim–Byzantine skirmishes took place. Just a few months after Emperor Heraclius and the Persian general Shahrbaraz agreed on terms for the withdrawal of Persian troops from occupied Byzantine eastern provinces in 629, Arab and Byzantine troops confronted each other at the Battle of Mu'tah in response to the murder of Muhammad's ambassador at the hands of
#731268