Sack of Amorium
To avenge the Byzantine sack of Sozopetra, Caliph al-Mu'tasim invaded Asia Minor in 838 with an exceptionally large army. One of its columns defeated Emperor Theophilos at Anzen, and the caliph took and razed Amorium, the home city of the reigning Amorian dynasty and one of the largest cities of the empire.
- Date
- 1 August – between 12 August and 24 September 838start: exact date; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: 33 daysDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Amorium (Amorion)today: near Emirdağ, Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Al-Mu'tasim, Theophilos, Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Siege of Amorium; Осада Амория; Amorion; Аморион; Battle of Anzen; Битва при Анзене; 42 Martyrs of Amorium; Сорок два аморийских мученика
In 837 Theophilos, a convinced iconoclast who looked to victories to vindicate his policy, raided the caliphate’s frontier districts on the upper Euphrates and sacked Sozopetra and Arsamosata. In 838 al-Mu'tasim answered with a campaign aimed deep into Anatolia. One of his armies, under Afshin, defeated Theophilos at Anzen on 22 July; the caliph’s forces then plundered the abandoned city of Ancyra and on 1 August laid siege to Amorium, the seat of the Anatolic theme and the birthplace of Theophilos’s father, Michael II. A defector showed the besiegers a poorly repaired stretch of the wall; they breached it, and while the commander of that sector was negotiating privately with the caliph, the Arabs broke into the city. Most modern accounts place its fall about two weeks after the siege began (12, 13 or 15 August). In 1900 A. A. Vasiliev, following al-Tabari’s figure of a 55-day siege, dated it to 24 September 838; the revised French edition of his work accepts 12 August.
Amorium was plundered and burned; the chroniclers’ figures for the dead vary — 70,000 in Theophanes Continuatus, 30,000 in al-Mas'udi. The survivors were enslaved, the city’s iron gates were taken to Samarra, and the captive officers who refused to convert to Islam were executed at Samarra on 6 March 845 — the Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorium. Abu Tammam celebrated the victory in a famous ode. The fall of Amorium did not change the balance of power, but in the view of Warren Treadgold its lasting effect was to discredit iconoclasm, which was abandoned in 843, the year after Theophilos’s death.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Akroinon740 · Balkans and AnatoliaA century earlier the victory at Akroinon, also in Phrygia, had strengthened Leo III in his iconoclast policy; the fall of Amorium helped to discredit it
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and AnatoliaIn Warren Treadgold’s view the disaster discredited iconoclasm, which was abandoned in 843
- Al-Mu'tasim founds Samarra, the new Abbasid capital836 · Middle East and EgyptForty-two captives from Amorium, held for years, were executed at Samarra in 845
- The “Rhos” at the court of Louis the Pious18 May 839 · Western and Central EuropeAfter the fall of Amorium Theophilos sought allies in the West; his embassy received by Louis the Pious at Ingelheim in 839 brought the ‘Rhos’
Same participants
- Construction of Sarkelbetween 833 and 841 · Eastern Europevia Byzantine Empire
- The mihna: the Abbasid inquisition over the createdness of the Qur’an833 – between 848 and 852 · Middle East and Egyptvia Al-Mu'tasim
Adjacent events in the thread
- Andalusian exiles found the Emirate of Cretebetween 824 and 828 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oaths of Strasbourg14 February 842 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- The “Rhos” at the court of Louis the Pious18 May 839
- Aghlabid conquest of SicilyJune 827 – 1 August 902
Eastern Europe
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
- Construction of Sarkelbetween 833 and 841
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
Middle East and Egypt
- The mihna: the Abbasid inquisition over the createdness of the Qur’an833 – between 848 and 852
- The House of Wisdom and the translation movement in Baghdadc. 800 – c. 900
Africa
- Georgios of Makuria’s embassy to the caliph and the revision of the baqt835 – between 836 and 837
- Ifriqiya under the Aghlabids800 – March 909
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- The tripartite struggle for Kannaujbetween 783 and 790 – between 915 and 918
- Mihira Bhoja and the Pratihara empire of Kannaujc. 836 – c. 885
East Asia
- Jang Bogo’s Cheonghae garrison and the trade of the Yellow Seabetween 18 May and 15 June 828 – between December 841 and April 846
- Ennin’s pilgrimage to Tang China12 July 838 – 30 October 847
North America
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Classic Maya collapse in the southern lowlandsc. 800 – c. 950
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Cacaxtla and Xochicalco: the Epiclassic cities of central Mexicoc. 650 – c. 900
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Sack of Amorium
- Wikipedia (English): 42 Martyrs of Amorium
- Wikipedia (English): Theophilos (emperor)
- Wikipedia (Russian): Осада Амория
- Wikipedia (Russian): Сорок два Аморийских мученика
- Wikipedia (Russian): Феофил (император)
- Treadgold W. The Byzantine Revival, 780–842. — Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
- Васильев А. А. Византия и арабы: Политические отношения Византии и арабов за время Аморийской династии. — СПб., 1900.
- Bury J. B. A History of the Eastern Roman Empire from the Fall of Irene to the Accession of Basil I (A.D. 802–867). — London: Macmillan, 1912.
- Vasiliev A. A. Byzance et les Arabes. T. 1: La dynastie d’Amorium (820–867). — Bruxelles, 1935.
- Kiapidou I.-S. Campaign of the Arabs in Asia Minor, 838 // Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor. — Athens: Foundation of the Hellenic World, 2003.
- Wikidata: Q1669285