Battle of Apamea

Battle of Apamea
Part of the Arab–Byzantine Wars
Date 19 July 998 Location plain of al-Mudiq, near Apamea 35°25′05″N 36°23′53″E / 35.418°N 36.398°E / 35.418; 36.398 Result Fatimid victory
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Fatimid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Damian Dalassenos  †	Jaysh ibn Samsama
Strength
unknown	10,000 Fatimid troops 1,000 Banu Kilab cavalry
Casualties and losses
variously 5,000, 6,000 or 10,000 dead; 2,000 captive	over 2,000 dead
Apamea shown within present-day Syria

The Battle of Apamea was fought on 19 July 998 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate. The battle was part of a series of military confrontations between the two powers over control of northern Syria and the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo. The Byzantine regional commander, Damian Dalassenos, had been besieging Apamea, until the arrival of the Fatimid relief army from Damascus, under Jaysh ibn Samsama. In the subsequent battle, the Byzantines were initially victorious, but a lone Kurdish rider managed to kill Dalassenos, throwing the Byzantine army into panic. The fleeing Byzantines were then pursued, with much loss of life, by the Fatimid troops. This defeat forced the Byzantine emperor Basil II to personally campaign in the region the next year, and was followed in 1001 by the conclusion of a ten-year truce between the two states.

In September 994 Michael Bourtzes, the Byzantine military governor (doux) of Antioch and northern Syria, suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of the Orontes at the hands of the Fatimid general Manjutakin. This Fatimid victory shook the Byzantine position in Syria, and posed a grave threat to its Arab vassal, the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo. To prevent its fall, Emperor Basil II himself intervened in the region in 995, forcing Manjutakin to retire to Damascus. After capturing Shayzar, Hims and Rafaniya, and building a new fortress at Antartus, the emperor withdrew, leaving Damian Dalassenos as the new doux of Antioch.