Battle of Dayr al-'Aqul

Battle of Dayr al-‘Aqul
Date April 8, 876 Location Istarband, near Dayr al-`Aqul on the Tigris, present-day Iraq 32°55′N 45°5′E / 32.917°N 45.083°E / 32.917; 45.083Coordinates: 32°55′N 45°5′E / 32.917°N 45.083°E / 32.917; 45.083 Result Decisive Abbasid victory
Belligerents
Saffarids	Abbasids
Commanders and leaders
Ya`qub ibn Laith Abi'l-Saj Devdad	Al-Muwaffaq Musa ibn Bugha Masrur al-Balkhi
Strength
Around 10,000	>10,000

The Battle of Dayr al-‘Aqul (Arabic: دير العاقول‎‎, Persian: دیرالعاقول‎‎) was fought on April 8, 876, between forces of the Saffarid amir Ya'qub ibn Laith and the Abbasid Caliphate. Taking place some 80 km southeast (downstream) of Baghdad, the battle ended in a decisive victory for the Abbasids, forcing Ya`qub to halt his advance into Iraq.

The town of Dayr al-ʿĀqūl (literally "monastery at the river-bend", from a Syriac ʿaqūlā "bend") was the main town of the fertile district (ṭassūj) in central Nahrawan, making it the most important town on the Tigris between Baghdad and Wasit. The battle itself took place near a village of the town's district, called Istarband, between Dayr al-`Aqul itself and Sib Bani Kuma.

Ever since the assassination of the caliph al-Mutawakkil in 861, the Abbasid Caliphate had been in a state of turmoil (the "Anarchy at Samarra"). The Turkish military establishment, in an effort to preserve the power of its leaders, began to overthrow any caliph whom they considered unsatisfactory. Between the death of al-Mutawakkil and the ascension of al-Mu'tamid in 870, three caliphs met violent ends. With the Turks exercising unprecedented control over the empire while the finances of the caliphate were increasingly unable to support them, the prestige of the caliphs reached its lowest point thus far.

As the situation in the capital declined, various groups in different parts of the empire took advantage of this period of weakness. In Tabaristan a Zaydi dynasty came to power in 864. In 868 the Turk Ahmad ibn Tulun gained control of Egypt and gradually asserted his independence from Samarra. In Lower Iraq and Khuzistan, the Zanj Rebellion began in 869 and posed a serious threat to the Abbasid Caliphate in the region.

...
Wikipedia