Yep. We're going to cover their rise in the Persian overview.
There's a really, really big reason that the deal getting gold from the Romans was controversial.
The Eternal Empire: Emperor Maurice dies before being overthrown
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There's a really, really big reason that the deal getting gold from the Romans was controversial.
Part 15: Taking it All Back
Part XV: Taking it All Back
Since the failed invasion of Egypt the Caliph’s ruling family was completely disgraced. The news that the Caliph had been captured, alive, by the Romans delegitimized the entire dynasty, and tribal leaders quickly lined up behind their personal favorites. None of the names of these leaders survive unfortunately, for reasons we will get to. But we do know that five different men held the title of Caliph between 721 and 727. None for more than two years. If the situation wasn’t bad enough the eruption of Thira in 726 threw enough volcanic matter into the atmosphere that crops failed here just as easily as they had in Roman territory, leading to hunger in Syria and Palaestine. Riots broke out in Jerusalem and Antioch, and neither city could be easily reinforced due to infighting among the Arabs.
Worse for the Arabs the Chalcedonians and Monophosite’s within the Caliphate saw this as a perfect time to rise up against their conquerors. Surely if God had dealt such a blow to the Muslims then it was only right that followers of the true Faith, whichever that might be, threw off the heathens and restored the Christian Empire to its rightful position.
Remember that at this time Islam had almost certainly not settled into its position as the third branch of Christianity.
The revolts were brutally suppressed by local leaders, but a huge amount of resentment had now built up under the surface within the populations of Syria and Palaestine. On Cyprus it went even further, with the island successfully throwing off the Muslim garrison in 730, and before any response could be sent an Imperial fleet arrived and regarrisoned the island.
A single Caliph apparently emerged triumphant around 728, but again, no records stating his name exist. He was however probably overthrown in 734 by Bedawi tribesmen angry that their preferred leader had not been put in place. It was this new nameless Caliph who would try and hold the Roman invasion.
Leo’s initial invasion force had two elements. The first was the army led by the Emperor himself, about thirty thousand men made up of soldiers from Dacia, Moesia, Greece, Macedon, Pontus, Asia, Isauria, and of course the Tagmata. Apart from the Emperor’s personal troops none of the full armies from the West had embarked on this campaign. The men who did come were promised large plots of land in the East. This force mustered inside Cappadocia and would march south, throught he Cilician Gate and would be aimed to taking the city of Antioch, the largest and wealthiest city in Roman Syria. The recapture of Antioch would give the Emperor an incredibly important base to form a new Theme from the area, and launch further campaigns south aimed at retaking Tripolis.
The second army of about twenty-thousand was to march south out of Anatolik Armenia and retake the fortress cities of Dara and Nisibis. Doing so would put the Romans in position to strike Edessa, and from there resecure all of northern Syria.
And after that…nothing. That was the extent of the Emperor’s immediate plans. And it is here we have to address the key question, did the Emperor actually swear an oath to destroy the Caliphate? Probably not. This was a colorful story that only appears in the records in Leo’s later years, after he had actually done the deed. It seems to come from a similar oath made by Hannibal, the great Poeni general from Carthage before the birth of Christ. If so, then I believe we can safely say that Leo was more adept at keeping oaths then Hannibal, even if he never actually made them.
The Emperor set out when his forces were readied, and crossed the Cilician Gate headed for Tarsus. The local Emir didn’t even pretend he could resist. He fled to Antioch, and the population of the city threw their gates open to the Emperor’s advancing army. Leo organized a militia of local Christians to serve as the garrison and whirled his army toward Adana. Here too the city threw open its gates and the Emperor moved on. Antioch should, by all accounts have presented the great challenge of the Emperor’s campaign. The city was huge, its walls tall and it had many towers and even an inner fortress the local army could retreat into.
Indeed, it was here the Emperor had planned to end his campaign for a reason. Antioch was simply what he felt the limit of his ability to take would be. But Roman luck smiled on the Emperor. He arrived just as the local Emir, a man named Sulayman ibn Maslama was fleeing into the city, followed closely by Bedawi tribesmen who were out for his blood.
Knowing his local garrison would never be able to stop the Bedawi Sulayman must have been utterly terrified when he learned an Imperial army had overrun territory all the way to the Taurus Mountains and was bearing down on him. But Sulayman was a practical man, and as he looked at the situation an idea formed in his mind. Rather than order the Imperial army to be resisted he ordered the gates opened, and personally led a welcome party out to greet the Emperor.
Leo’s chroniclers dutifully record the fateful meeting that followed, as Sulayman hailed the Emperor as the Augustos Autokrator of the Roman and the Syrians. Leo was bemused by the greeting, but let Sulayman continue. The Emir declared that the city stood open to the Emperor, as it was his property and it was only right that he should be able to come and go at will. Sulayman were a mere caretaker until the Emperor retook what was rightfully his.
Leo with characteristic wit asked who else was looking to take it from Sulayman. The Emir laughed at this, and admitted that a force of Bedawi was on their way to kill him even as they spoke, and would be there within days. Leo required that the keys to the city, and its citadel be turned over to him and that he would hold court inside. Sulayman agreed.
On June 15, 736 the Emperor entered Antioch, and was greeted by a crowd of cheering Christians who had spontaneously turned out to behold the ruler of the Christian world. He was greeted at the gates by the Patriarch of the city and rode with him to the citadel. Along the way they were also greeted by the Muslim population, who had spontaneously decided that going out and cheering the Emperor’s arrival was a more pleasant fate than whatever Sulayman’s guards were going to do with their spears if they didn’t go out and cheer. The Emperor had taken Antioch without a fight, and it was now that he truly began to dream big.
We don’t have enough detail to know for certain just why Sulayman was so willing to turn over the city, but a theory clearly presents itself. Sulayman’s family were powerful nobles within the Syrian regions of the Caliphate. His father, grandfather Yazid had been one of the men who almost got control of the Caliphate as an alternative to Hasan, but he had been a cousin to Mu’awiya, so the failure of that Egyptian expedition had tarnished the extended family, ruining their prospects for the top job.
But when the current Caliph had failed again in Egypt it had given Yazid’s descendants free reign to try and reassert their aim to control the Caliphate. Sulayman’s attempt failed, and he was pursued by opposing Bedawi to Antioch. All of this is speculation of course, but it would explain many things. Terms of the Roman reoccupation of the city were hammered out, and Leo set out with his army along with local Muslims loyal to Sulayman to confront the Bedawi.
The two armies met south of Antioch, and it was clear from the records that facing a full Imperial Army had not been what the Arabs expected. There were only about six thousand of them, and the subsequent battle can hardly be called a fight. Leo’s army enveloped them simply by deploying, and barely five hundred escaped south with word of what was happening.
Leo’s chroniclers report that the Emperor lost twenty-seven men. These men are listed by name, implying that this report was at least mostly true.
Leo returned to Antioch and officially formed the Theme of Syria inside the city, with Sulayman as the Strategos. As part of the deal Sulayman visited the Patriarch of Antioch and was baptized into Chalcedonian Christianity. Its unclear how seriously the new Strategos took his new faith, what evidence we have suggests he continued practicing Islam more of less openly, but it was an important point that the Emir of the city publicly converted, even if his private views did not match.
The new Theme also borrowed an idea directly from the Muslims, that of the foros, or as the Muslims would call it the jizya. As the practice remains across all of Rhomania, Europi, and the Atlanti today I doubt much explanation is needed, but for those who aren’t aware the foros was an annual tax paid to the state by those who did not follow the official religion. It was an important piece of revenue for the Caliphate, and fundamentally was what had kept the state at least somewhat functional as the Bedwari leaders attained more and more power a the expense of the Caliph.
But while the Arabs had used it as a means of gaining additional revenue Leo instituted the tax as a way to encourage further conversion. Syria was at this point the last bastion of the old Monophosite heresy, and other religious groups, particularly of course Muslims, but also Jews and even some Zoroastrians lived there as well.
The Emperor took time to decide which way to march next, and ultimately decided to go south, aiming to retake Phoenice, down to Sidon, and then turn inward and march on Damascus if he could. The Emperor’s army blazed south, taking Laodicea and Seleucia without a fight. Going further south the city of Tripoli refused to yield, so Leo sent riders north to Laodicea to sail to Cyprus and bring the Imperial navy to the city. When the ships blockaded Tripoli the garrison murdered their commander and opened the gates.
Around this time word reached the Emperor that the other army had taken the city of Amida and were moving south toward the old border with the Persians. Realizing that this might be more successful than even had had hoped the Emperor proceeded south to Sidon, which also surrendered. By now however the Arabs were in a state of near panic. The Romans, so long thought too cowardly to really move beyond the safety of the Mountains or the Rhinos desert were now hundreds of miles inside the Caliphate, and looked to be unstoppable.
The Caliph of the moment, gathered every soldier he could and marched out to meet the Emperor. The Emperor had turned inland toward Damascus after taking Sidon, and moved up the Asclepius River. By now he had reconquered a vast line of territory down the Eastern Mediterranean. The armies met at the Battle of Asclepius in November 736. Leo arranged his men in a formation of his own devising, combining a wall of spearmen similar to the old phalanx with cavalry and archers to create a combined arms force that would crush all that stood against it. The spearmen were arranged into sections that could operate independently, and were far more mobile than the hoplites of older.
They could turn and face new threats that emerged, all at prearranged commands. In front of the spearmen were the archers and other skirmishers. But unlike many previous armies the archers in this army were actually just ahead of the spearmen, but still behind the spearpoints. From this position of relative safety the archers could bombard the enemy while still mostly safe from counterattack at close quarters. In addition, the spearmen were trained to be able to open their ranks and let the archers retreat back behind them should the need arise.
There was also a gap between each unit of scutaroi, the name of these spearmen, through which the cavalry could move freely. Horse archers and kataphractoi would weave in an out of the infantry line, hitting place where the enemy were weaker, and reinforcing the infantry as needed. Leo himself waited behind the center of his army alongside his most elite tagmatic units, ready to strike when the opportunity presented itself.
The Arabs arrayed with the infantry directly facing the Romans, and their cavalry waiting in reserve. Leo’s chroniclers tell us that the Arabs had forty-thousand men, against the Emperor’s thirty thousand. The Caliph launched the first assault, sending in his infantry to try and weaken the Roman lines. The Scutaroi however held firm, driving this assault back with heavy losses on the Arabs, with Roman archers not hesitating to shoot down the retreating Arabs while their backs were turned. As this first wave retreated the horse archers advanced, and soon the retreat became a rout. The Caliph however launched a second force forward, and the horse archers retreated back behind the infantry.
Again the Arab attack was thrown back and Leo ordered his infantry to begin advancing. Methodically they did so, horse archers darting out when they could to pepper the Arab lines with arrows. When the armies were closer the horse archers were pulled back and sent around to the flanks, with the kataphractoi moving to join them, blocked from view by the dust kicked up by the infantry’s advance. The two lines of infantry met in a great clash, and the horse archers surged forward, putting away their bows and falling on the Arab archers with swords and spears.
Seeing this the Caliph ordered his light cavalry forward to attack the Romans, but as they did so the kataphractoi revealed themselves, countercharging the light cavalry.
The Arabs were smashed aside by the kataphractoi charge, and they fled. Like clockwork the fully armored Roman horsemen now turned to face the rear of the Arab army. The horse archers moved to the flanks to hem the Arabs in, and the kataphractoi began to move forward. They came slowly at first, building up momentum as they moved. The force was silent, only the hoofbeats of their horses and the clatter of their armor signaled their move. The Arab infantry tried to turn, but they couldn’t disengage their Roman counterparts. As the cavalry approached the target the kataphractoi lowered their long spears, and smashed into the Arab rear.
Panic followed. The kataphractoi drove through the Arab ranks, killing anyone they came across. The entire center of the army was surrounded and destroyed in this way. Seeing this both the right and left fled, but they were pursued by the Romans and many died. Those who escaped scattered back to their homes, throwing down weapons and shields as they ran.
The Caliph fled back to Damascus, and the Romans captured his camp along with a large amount of treasure and slaves.
The Romans had lost about four thousand men. The Arabs over thirty thousand. Leo sent part of the captured treasure back to Constantinople to be displayed, and distributed the rest to his men. They had already gone further than he had told them they would, but the gold captured from Asclepius soothed what mutinous feeling they might have been feeling. Victory is a great motivator. With promises of even greater spoils ahead Leo offered his men the chance to return to Antioch and be granted the land they were promised, or to go forward to Damascus. The men chose overwhelmingly to follow their victorious Emperor wherever he led them.
Back in Damascus the Caliph was trying desperately to put another army together. Word had now reached him that Dara had fallen, and Nisibis was under Roman siege, with little hope of holding out. Word also arrived now that the Egyptian army, which had until now not been included in the fighting had taken its own initiative and advanced north, taking control of Gaza. While there was little chance of this army achieving significantly more success it was yet another loss of territory for a man who had never been very secure.
When Leo’s army arrived at the city gates the populace cut off the Caliph’s head and presented it to the Emperor. Leo had it thrown out to the crows, and issued a stark demand. Damascus was to be evacuated. Its wealth would be turned over to Imperial troops, and then it would be burned. The Christian population of the city tried to protest, but when the Emperor would not budge they complied, and the Emperor sent them north to Antioch, where they would be sent to Moesia for resettlement. The remainder of the population he decided were heathens, and thus laid siege to the city. It held out for three months, but at the end of that time Imperial engineers completed a tunnel under the city walls, and collapsed it. The army moved in, and set about the sack.
Thousands were taken prisoner, and eventually sold into slavery. Damascus was looted of all its wealth, including the body of John the Baptist and numerous holy relics captured by theCaliphate. Then the city was set on fire. As it burned Leo is stated to have remarked that it was a shame they had not brought enough salt with them. Among the Imperial treasures taken were the old records of the Caliphate. Leo ordered them burned, and sent out an order to the Empire that was a dark echo of an old practice. He declared the memory of the Caliphate damned, and ordered that all traces of it be erased.
This was a flat out impossible order. The Caliphate was too big and too well-organized to be wiped from history, but Leo did succeed in wiping out all records of the Caliphs since the Egyptian campaign, and he would continue this policy until the last Caliph surrendered in 741. No records survive of any of them.
Damascus would never be rebuilt. In time a new city would be founded a few miles from the old, that city Thomopolis, named for the apostle Thomas who had once lived in the ruined city, would eventually expand to include ancient Damascus, with a new Church built atop the site where St Thomas lived in the city. Many relics would be housed there, but the Church was destroyed in the 1200s when Julius reasserted his Constantinople's control over rebels in the East. Most of the relics would be destroyed in the fighting.
We will discuss the reasons behind Leo's destruction of the city later, for now when the fire was out, Leo returned to Sidon and settled in to hear news from the wider Empire.
Leo would stay in Sidon for the remainder of 737, catching up on events back in the capital and setting up the administration of his new old territory. Of the old Diocese of the East about half of it was now back under Imperial control. In the north Sulayman, looking to prove his worth as a subordinate, and win additional favor for himself and his family used his considerable power to get the strategic cities of Samosata, Beroea, and Hierapolis into defecting to the Emperor’s banner as well.
These cities then provided key forces and supplies when the Armenian army surrounded Edessa, and took the city in late 737 .
At this point the old provinces of Cilicia I and II, Syria I, Syria Salutaris, Phoenice, Phonice Libaensis, Euphratensis, Mesopotamia, and Osrhroene were all back in Roman hands. There were holdouts of course, in particular the city of Emesa would not be taken until the Emperor personally led his army north in 738, but effectively all of Roman Syria was now reconquered. But the war was not over, and in March 639 the Emperor turned his attention on the final territory held by the Arabs, Palaestina and in particular the holy city of Jerusalem.
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This makes me wonder what city has Damascus' reputation IOTL as the "longest constantly inhabited city in the world".
My guess would be Byblos, which in the ancient world was thought to hold that distinction.
Thanks.
I wonder how modern historians would be able to reconstruct the history of the Caliphate during this period? Second-hand sources?
There are snippets that survived his purge. Coins, occassional inscriptions, what few decrees and bits of news that made it into Arabia. Plus archeolgical evidence.
How do historians in the modern-day know about the fact the Caliphate had five Caliphs in six years if all records of them were destroyed? A mix of oral traditions and second-hand writings?
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Its guesswork put together from the various snippets, later writers, and Arabic stories that eventually get written down.
so why was Damuscus deystroyed and was their anything in our timeline based on this?
Because it was the capital of the Caliphate and Leo was looking to crush them.
Its based on a number of events in history, but the closest analogue OTL is probably the Sack of Pliska, which saw the Romans take the Bulgarian capital, and in the words of Michael the Syrian: "Nicephorus, emperor of the Romans, walked in Bulgarians land: he was victorious and killed a great number of them. He reached their capital, took it over and devastated it."
The city was sacked and destroyed. It didn't stick OTL because Nicephorus proceeded to march his army into an ambush and get killed.
John Farson
Banned
So, at this point in time, is Latin still the official language of the Empire? For that matter, are the emperors still continuing the Roman tradition of being clean-shaven (historically, Phocas was the first emperor since Julian the Apostate to be depicted as bearded in coinage, and all subsequent emperors were likewise depicted as bearded)?
Greek for the most part. In Italy its Latin.
As for beards, I thought Maurice was too, though that might just be wear on the coins now that I think about it. As for the question...uh, sure. Honestly I'm not thinking too hard about how the Emperor's looked. I'd say at a guess that Justinian II was not due to his preference for Italian styles over Greek, Manuel through Constantine V probably were, and Leo IV and Theodosius were not.
Wasn’t Damascus seen as a holy site by the Christians though because of Jesus converting St Paul around the area?Not sure the Romans would destroy it.
Not that I’m aware of. Though admittedly early Christian holy sites is something I’m fuzzy on. The city was thought to contain the body of John the Baptist, but his church was demolished in the first decade of the 700s (both OTL and here), and there was a section of the city where Paul and Thomas lived, but I didn’t see anything else.
There was a debate during the second crusade as to where to attack. Damascus was chosen partially because it was seen as a holy site to recover,despite being seen as an ally against the Zengisids.
EDIT:It was not a holy site because it contained a corpse, but because it is the area where Jesus appeared and converted St Paul.
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well not destroying Damascus is easy fix because it was on the tail end of the post and not much was tied to it. I mean I wouldn't be surprised by pettiness of emperor to do this but it did bother me that the emporer would destroy a city as old as Damascus it was a imperial city well before the caliph took it over. I do agree that the Romans would destroy the records and perhaps go after Mecca and Medina.
I've rewritten the ending a bit. Damascus is still destroyed, and will not be rebuilt...the Romans will just build a new city that happens to be almost on the same spot, inhabited by many of the same people, with the same relics, and with similar holy sites. But for Imperial propaganda purposes the Arab capital was completely destroyed, and that's what really mattered.