Siege of Tyana
| Siege of Tyana | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Arab–Byzantine Wars | |||||
 Map of the Arab-Byzantine frontier zone |
|||||
|
|||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 Byzantine Empire
|
 Umayyad Dynasty
|
||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Theophylact Salibas Theodore Karteroukas |
Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik al-Abbas ibn al-Walid |
||||
The Siege of Tyana was carried out by the Umayyad Caliphate in 707–708 or 708–709 in retaliation for a heavy defeat of an Umayyad army under Maimun the Mardaite by the Byzantine Empire in c. 706. The Arab army invaded Byzantine territory and laid siege to the city in summer 707 or 708. The date is uncertain, as virtually each of the extant Greek, Arabic and Syriac parallel sources has in this respect a different date. Tyana initially withstood the siege with success, and the Arab army faced great hardship during the ensuing winter and was on the point of abandoning the siege in spring, when a relief army sent by Emperor Justinian II arrived. Quarrels among the Byzantine generals, as well as the inexperience of a large part of their army, contributed to a crushing Umayyads victory. Thereupon the inhabitants of the city were forced to surrender. Despite the agreement of terms, the city was plundered and largely destroyed, and according to Byzantine sources its people were made captive and deported, leaving the city deserted.
In 692/693, the Byzantine emperor Justinian II (reigned 685–695 and 705–711) and the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) broke the truce that had existed between Byzantium and the Umayyad Caliphate since 679, following the failed Muslim attack on the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The Byzantines secured great financial and territorial advantages from the truce, which they extended further by exploiting the Umayyad government's involvement in the Second Muslim Civil War (680–692). However, by 692 the Umayyads were clearly emerging as the victors in the conflict, and Abd al-Malik consciously began a series of provocations to bring about a resumption of warfare. Justinian, confident in his own strength based on his previous successes, responded in kind. Finally, the Umayyads claimed that the Byzantines had broken the treaty and invaded Byzantine territory, defeating the imperial army at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 693. In its aftermath, the Arabs quickly regained control over Armenia and resumed their attacks into the border zone of eastern Asia Minor, that would culminate in the second attempt to conquer Constantinople in 716–718. Furthermore, Justinian was deposed in 695, beginning a twenty-year period of internal instability that almost brought the Byzantine state to its knees.
...
Wikipedia