Sack of Amorium
From Warlike
Q1669285
The siege of Amorium by the Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the long history of the Arab–Byzantine Wars. The Abbasid campaign was led personally by the Caliph al-Mu'tasim, in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the Byzantine emperor Theophilos into the Caliphate's borderlands the previous year. Mu'tasim targeted Amorium, an Eastern Roman city in western Asia Minor, because it was the birthplace of the ruling Byzantine dynasty and, at the time, one of Byzantium's largest and most important cities. The caliph gathered an exceptionally large army, which he divided in two parts, which invaded from the northeast and the south. The northeastern army defeated the Byzantine forces under Theophilos at Anzen, allowing the Abbasids to penetrate deep into Byzantine Asia Minor and converge upon Ancyra, which they found abandoned. After sacking the city, they turned south to Amorium, where they arrived on 1 August. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and the rebellion of the large Khurramite contingent of his army, Theophilos was unable to aid the city.
| Type | Subtype | Date | Description | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| event | armed conflict | 300 | Battle of Ipsus | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 700 | Cimmerian invasion of Phrygia | Phrygia, Urartu, Cimmerians, Neo-Assyrian Empire, invasion | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 708 | Battle of Amorium | Byzantine Empire, battle, Umayyad Caliphate | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 804 | Battle of Krasos | Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantine Empire, battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 838 | Sack of Amorium | Byzantine Empire, Abbasid Caliphate, battle, siege | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 978 | Battle of Pankalia | battle | Wikidata |
| event | armed conflict | 1074 | battle of the Zompe Bridge | Byzantine Empire, battle, Normans | Wikidata |