Sack of Amorium The Sack 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 ( reigned 833 – 842 ) , in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the Byzantine emperor Theophilos ( r . 829 – 842 ) into the Caliphate ' s borderlands the previous year . Mu ' tasim targeted Amorium , a Byzantine city in western Asia Minor ( modern Anatolia ) , 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 . The Abbasids penetrated deep into Byzantine - held Asia Minor , while the northern army defeated the Byzantine forces under Theophilos at Anzen . The Abbasid troops then converged 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 . Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned , but a traitor revealed a weak spot in the wall , where the Abbasids concentrated their attack , effecting a breach . Unable to break through the besieging army , the commander of the breached section privately attempted to negotiate with the Caliph . He left his post which allowed the Arabs to take advantage , enter the city and capture it . Amorium was systematically destroyed , never to recover its former prosperity . Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered , and the remainder driven off as slaves . Most of the survivors were released after a truce in 841 , but prominent officials were taken to the caliph ' s capital of Samarra and executed years later after refusing to convert to Islam , becoming known as the 42 Martyrs of Amorium . The conquest of Amorium was not only a major military disaster and a heavy personal blow for Theophilos , but also a traumatic event for the Byzantines , its impact resonating in later literature . The sack did not ultimately alter the balance of power , which was slowly shifting in Byzantium ' s favour , but it thoroughly discredited the theological doctrine of Iconoclasm , ardently supported by Theophilos . As Iconoclasm relied heavily on military success for its legitimization , the fall of Amorium contributed decisively to its abandonment shortly after Theophilos ' s death in 842 . Background . By 829 , when the young emperor Theophilos ascended the Byzantine throne , the Byzantines and Arabs had been fighting sporadically for almost two centuries . At this time , Arab attacks resumed both in the east , where after almost twenty years of peace due to the Abbasid civil war Caliph al - Ma ' mun ( r . 813 – 833 ) launched several large - scale raids , and in the west , where the gradual Muslim conquest of Sicily was under way since 827 . Theophilos was an ambitious man and also a convinced adherent of Byzantine Iconoclasm , which prohibited the depiction of divine figures and the veneration of icon s . He sought to bolster his regime and support his religious policies by military success against the Abbasid Caliphate , the Empire ' s major antagonist . Seeking divine favour , and responding to iconophile plots against him , Theophilos reinstated active suppression of the iconophiles and other perceived " heretics " in June 833 , including mass arrests and exiles , beatings and confiscations of property . In Byzantine eyes , God seemed indeed to reward this decision : al - Ma ' mun died during the first stages of a new , large - scale invasion against Byzantium that was intended to be the first step in conquering Constantinople itself , and his brother and successor al - Mu ' tasim had trouble establishing his authority , especially against the ongoing rebellion of the Khurramite religious sect under Babak Khorramdin . This allowed Theophilos to achieve a series of modest victories over the next few years , as well as to bolster his forces with some 14 , 000 Khurramite refugees under their leader Nasr , who was baptized a Christian and took the name Theophobos . The emperor ' s successes were not particularly spectacular , but coming after two decades of defeats and civil war under iconophile emperors , Theophilos felt justified in claiming them as vindication for his religious policy . Consequently , the emperor began to publicly associate himself with the memory of the militarily successful iconoclast emperor Constantine V ( r . 741 – 775 ) , and issued a new type of the copper " follis " coin , minted in huge numbers , which portrayed him as the archetypical victorious Roman emperor . In 837 , Theophilos decided — at the urging of the hard - pressed Babak — to take advantage of the Caliphate ' s preoccupation with the suppression of the Khurramite revolt and lead a major campaign against the frontier emirates . He assembled a very large army , some 70 , 000 fighting men and 100 , 000 in total according to al - Tabari , and invaded Arab territory around the upper Euphrates almost unopposed . The Byzantines took the towns of Sozopetra and Arsamosata , ravaged and plundered the countryside , extracted ransom from several cities in exchange for not attacking them , and defeated a number of smaller Arab forces . While Theophilos returned home to celebrate a triumph and be acclaimed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople as the " incomparable champion " , the refugees from Sozopetra began arriving at Mu ' tasim ' s capital , Samarra . The caliphal court was outraged by the brutality and brazenness of the raids : not only had the Byzantines acted in open collusion with the Khurramite rebels , but during the sack of Sozopetra — which some sources claim as Mu ' tasim ' s own birthplace — all male prisoners were executed and the rest sold into slavery , and some captive women were raped by Theophilos ' s Khurramites . Theophilos ' s campaign was unable , however , to save Babak and his followers , who in late 837 were forced from their mountain strongholds by the general Afshin . Babak fled to Armenia , but was betrayed to the Abbasids and died of torture . With the Khurramite threat over , the caliph began marshalling his forces for a reprisal campaign against Byzantium . A huge Arab army gathered at Tarsus ; according to the most reliable account , that of Michael the Syrian , it numbered some 80 , 000 men with 30 , 000 servants and camp followers and 70 , 000 pack animals . Other writers give far larger numbers , ranging from 200 , 000 to 500 , 000 according to al - Mas ' udi . Unlike earlier campaigns , which did not go far beyond attacking the forts of the frontier zone , this expedition was intended to penetrate deep into Asia Minor and exact vengeance . The great city of Amorium in particular was the intended prize . The Arab chronicles record that Mu ' tasim asked his advisors to name the " most inaccessible and strongest " Byzantine fortress , and they named Amorium , " where no Muslim has gone since the appearance of Islam . It is the eye and foundation of Christendom ; among the Byzantines , it is more famous than Constantinople " . According to Byzantine sources , the caliph had the city ' s name written on the shields and banners of his soldiers . The capital of the powerful Anatolic Theme , the city was strategically located at the western edge of the Anatolian plateau and controlled the main southern route followed by the Arab invasions . At the time , Amorium was one of the largest cities in the Byzantine Empire , ranking in importance immediately after Constantinople . It was also the birthplace of Theophilos ' s father , Michael II the Amorian ( r . 820 – 829 ) , and perhaps of Theophilos himself . Due to its strategic importance , the city had been a frequent target of Arab attacks in the 7th and 8th centuries , and Mu ' tasim ' s predecessor Ma ' mun was said to be planning to attack the city when he died in 833 . Opening stages of the campaign : Anzen and Ancyra . The caliph divided his force in two : a detachment of 10 , 000 Turks under Afshin was sent to join forces with the Emir Omar al - Aqta and Armenian troops from Vaspurakan and invade the Armeniac Theme from the Pass of Hadath , while the main army under the caliph himself would invade Cappadocia through the Cilician Gates . The advance guard of the latter was led by Ashinas , with Itakh commanding the right , Ja ' far ibn Dinar al - Khayyat the left and ' Ujayf ibn ' Anbasa the centre . The two forces would link up at Ancyra , before marching jointly on Amorium . On the Byzantine side , Theophilos was soon made aware of the caliph ' s intentions , and set out from Constantinople in early June . His army included men from the Anatolian and possibly also the European themes , the elite " tagma ta " regiments , as well as the Khurramites . The Byzantines expected the Arab army to advance north to Ancyra after passing through the Cilician Gates and then to turn south toward Amorium , but it was also possible that the Arabs would march directly over the Cappadocian plain to Amorium . Although his generals advised evacuation of the city , with the intention of rendering the Arabs ' campaign objective void and keeping the Byzantine army undivided , Theophilos decided to reinforce the city ' s garrison , with Aetios the " strategos " of the Anatolics , and men from the " tagmata " of the Excubitors and the Vigla . With the rest of his army , Theophilos then marched to interpose himself between the Cilician Gates and Ancyra , camping on the north bank of the river Halys , close to one of the major river crossings . Ashinas crossed the Cilician Gates on 19 June , and the caliph himself with his main army set out on the march two days later . The Arab advance was slow and cautious . Anxious to avoid an ambush and learn the emperor ' s whereabouts , Mu ' tasim forbade Ashinas to advance too deeply into Cappadocia . Ashinas sent out many scouting detachments to take captives , and from them finally learned of Theophilos ' s presence at the Halys , where he awaited the Arab approach to give battle . At the same time , around mid - July , Theophilos learned of the arrival of Afshin ' s northern army , comprising some 30 , 000 men , at the plain of Dazimon . Leaving a part of his army under a relative to watch the crossings of the Halys , Theophilos immediately departed with most of his army , some 40 , 000 men according to Michael the Syrian , to confront the smaller Arab force . Mu ' tasim learned of Theophilos ' s departure from captives and tried to warn Afshin , but the emperor was faster and met Afshin ' s army in the Battle of Anzen on the plain of Dazimon on 22 July . Despite initial success , the Byzantine army broke and scattered , while Theophilos with his guard were encircled and barely managed to break through and escape . Theophilos quickly began regrouping his forces and sent the general Theodore Krateros to Ancyra . Krateros found the city completely deserted , and was ordered to reinforce the garrison of Amorium instead . Theophilos himself was soon forced to return to Constantinople , where rumours of his death at Anzen had led to plots to declare a new emperor . At the same time , the Khurramites , gathered around Sinope , revolted and declared their reluctant commander Theophobos emperor . Luckily for the Empire , Theophobos maintained a passive stance and made no move to confront Theophilos or join Mu ' tasim . The caliph ' s vanguard under Ashinas reached Ancyra on 26 July . The inhabitants , who had sought refuge in some mines nearby , were discovered and taken captive after a brief struggle by an Arab detachment under Malik ibn Kaydar al - Safadi . The Byzantines , some of whom were soldiers who had fled from Anzen , informed the Arabs of Afshin ' s victory , after which Malik allowed all of them to go free . The other Arab two forces arrived at Ancyra over the next days , and after plundering the deserted city , the united Arab army turned south towards Amorium . Siege and fall of Amorium . The Arab army marched in three separate corps , with Ashinas once again in front , the caliph in the middle , and Afshin bringing up the rear . Looting the countryside as they advanced , they arrived before Amorium seven days after their departure from Ancyra , and began their siege of the city on 1 August . Theophilos , anxious to prevent the city ' s fall , left Constantinople for Dorylaion , and from there sent an embassy to Mu ' tasim . His envoys , who arrived shortly before or during the first days of the siege , offered assurances that the atrocities at Sozopetra had been against the emperor ' s orders , and further promised to help rebuild the city , to return all Muslim prisoners , and to pay a tribute . The caliph , however , not only refused to parley , but detained the envoys in his camp , so that they could observe the siege . The city ' s fortifications were strong , with a wide moat and a thick wall protected by 44 towers , according to the contemporary geographer Ibn Khordadbeh , and the caliph assigned each of his generals to a stretch of the walls . Both besiegers and besieged had many siege engine s , and for three days both sides exchanged missile fire while Arab sappers tried to undermine the walls . According to Arab accounts , an Arab prisoner who had converted to Christianity defected back to the caliph , and informed him about a place in the wall which had been badly damaged by heavy rainfall and only hastily and superficially repaired due to the city commander ' s negligence . As a result , the Arabs concentrated their efforts on this section . The defenders tried to protect the wall by hanging wooden beams to absorb the shock , but they splintered , and after two days a breach was made . Immediately Aetios realized that the defence was compromised , and decided to try and break through the besieging army during the night and link up with Theophilos . He sent two messengers to the emperor , but both were captured by the Arabs and brought before the caliph . Both agreed to convert to Islam , and Mu ' tasim , after giving them a rich reward , paraded them around the city walls in full view of Aetios and his troops . To prevent any sortie , the Arabs stepped up their vigilance , maintaining constant cavalry patrols even during the night . The Arabs now launched repeated attacks on the breach , but the defenders held firm . At first , according to al - Tabari , catapults manned by four men each were placed on wheeled platforms , and mobile towers with ten men each were constructed and advanced to the edge of the moat , which they began to fill with sheep skins ( from the animals they had brought along as food ) filled with earth . However , the work was uneven due to the soldiers ' fear of the Byzantine catapults , and Mu ' tasim had to order earth to be thrown over the skins to pave the surface up to the wall itself . A tower was pushed over the filled moat , but became stuck midway and it and the other siege engines had to be abandoned and burned . Another attack on the next day , led by Ashinas , failed due to the narrowness of the breach , and Mu ' tasim eventually ordered more catapults brought forward to widen it . The next day Afshin with his troops attacked the breach , and Itakh on the day after . The Byzantine defenders were gradually worn down by the constant assaults , and after about two weeks of siege ( the date is variously interpreted as 12 , 13 or 15 August by modern writers ) Aetios sent an embassy under the city ' s bishop , offering to surrender Amorium in exchange for safe passage of the inhabitants and garrison , but Mu ' tasim refused . The Byzantine commander Boiditzes , however , who was in charge of the breach section , decided to conduct direct negotiations with the caliph on his own , probably intending to betray his own post . He went to the Abbasid camp , leaving orders for his men in the breach to stand down until his return . While Boiditzes parleyed with the caliph , the Arabs came closer to the breach , and at a signal charged and broke into the city . Taken by surprise , the Byzantines ' resistance was sporadic : some soldiers barricaded themselves in a monastery and were burned to death , while Aetios with his officers sought refuge in a tower before being forced to surrender . The city was thoroughly sacked and plundered ; according to the Arab accounts , the sale of the spoils went on for five days . The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Continuatus mentions 70 , 000 dead , while the Arab al - Mas ' udi records 30 , 000 . The surviving population were divided as slaves among the army leaders , except for the city ' s military and civic leaders , who were reserved for the caliph ' s disposal . After allowing Theophilos ' s envoys to return to him with the news of Amorium ' s fall , Mu ' tasim burned the city to the ground , with only the city walls surviving relatively intact . Among the spoils taken were the massive iron doors of the city , which al - Mu ' tasim initially transported to Samarra , where they were installed at the entrance of his palace . From there they were taken , probably towards the end of the century , and installed at al - Raqqah , where they remained until 964 , when the Hamdanid ruler Sayf al - Dawla had them removed and incorporated in the Bab al - Qinnasrin gate in his capital Aleppo . Aftermath . Immediately after the sack , rumours reached the caliph that Theophilos was advancing to attack him . Mu ' tasim set out with his army a day ' s march along the road in the direction of Dorylaion , but encountered no sign of a Byzantine attack . According to al - Tabari , Mu ' tasim now pondered extending his campaign to attack Constantinople , when news reached him of a rebellion headed by his nephew , al - Abbas ibn al - Ma ' mun . Mu ' tasim was forced to cut short his campaign and return quickly to his realm , leaving intact the fortresses around Amorium as well as Theophilos and his army in Dorylaion . Taking the direct route from Amorium to the Cilician Gates , both the caliph ' s army and its prisoners suffered in the march through the arid countryside of central Anatolia . Some captives were so exhausted that they could not move and were executed , whereupon others found the opportunity to escape . In retaliation , Mu ' tasim , after separating the most prominent among them , executed the rest , some 6 , 000 in number . Theophilos now sent a second embassy to the caliph , headed by the " tourmarches " of Charsianon , Basil , bearing gifts and an apologetic letter , and offering to ransom the high - ranking prisoners for 20 , 000 Byzantine pounds ( about 6 , 500 kg ) of gold and to release all Arabs held captive by the Byzantines . In reply , Mu ' tasim refused the ransom , saying that the expedition alone had cost him over 100 , 000 pounds , and demanded the surrender of Theophobos and the Domestic of the Schools , Manuel the Armenian , who had some years ago deserted from Arab service . The Byzantine ambassador refused to comply to this and indeed could not , as Theophobos was in revolt and Manuel may have been dead . Instead , Basil handed over a second , much more threatening letter by Theophilos . Mu ' tasim , angered by this , returned the emperor ' s gifts . In the aftermath of the sack of Amorium , Theophilos sought the aid of other powers against the Abbasid threat : embassies were sent to both the western emperor Louis the Pious ( r . 813 – 840 ) and to the court of Abd ar - Rahman II ( r . 822 – 852 ) , Emir of Córdoba . The Byzantine envoys were received with honours , but no help materialized . The Abbasids , however , did not follow up on their success . Warfare continued between the two empires with raids and counter - raids for several years , but after a few Byzantine successes a truce and prisoner exchange — which excluded the high - ranking captives from Amorium — was agreed in 841 . At the time of his death in 842 , Mu ' tasim was preparing yet another large - scale invasion , but the great fleet he had prepared to assault Constantinople perished in a storm off Cape Chelidonia a few months later . Following Mu ' tasim ' s death , the Caliphate entered a prolonged period of unrest , and the Battle of Mauropotamos in 844 was the last major Arab – Byzantine engagement until the 850s . Among the captured Byzantine magnates of Amorium , the " strategos " Aetios was executed soon after his capture , perhaps , as the historian Warren Treadgold suggests , in retaliation to Theophilos ' s second letter to the caliph . After years of captivity and no hope of ransom , the rest were urged to convert to Islam . When they refused , they were executed at Samarra on 6 March 845 , and are celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the 42 Martyrs of Amorium . Several tales also sprung up around Boiditzes and his betrayal . According to the legend of the 42 Martyrs , he converted to Islam , but was nevertheless executed by the caliph alongside the other captives ; unlike the others , however , whose bodies " miraculously " floated in the water of the river Tigris , his sank to the bottom . Impact . The sack of Amorium was one of the most devastating events in the long history of Arab raids into Anatolia . Theophilos reportedly fell ill soon after the city ' s fall , and although he recovered , his health remained in poor state until his death , three years later . Later Byzantine historians attribute his death before the age of thirty to his sorrow over the impact of the city ' s loss , although this is most likely a legend . The fall of Amorium inspired several legends and stories among the Byzantines , and can be traced in surviving literary works such as the " Song of Armouris " or the ballad " Kastro tis Orias " ( " Castle of the Fair Maiden " ) . Arabs on the other hand celebrated the capture of Amorium , which became the subject of Abu Tammam ' s famous " Ode on the Conquest of Amorium " . In reality , the military impact on Byzantium was limited : outside the garrison and population of Amorium itself , the Byzantine field army at Anzen seems to have suffered few casualties , and the revolt of the Khurramite corps was suppressed without bloodshed the next year and its soldiers reintegrated into the Byzantine army . Ancyra was quickly rebuilt and reoccupied , as was Amorium itself , although it never recovered its former glory and the seat of the Anatolic theme was for a time transferred to Polybotus . According to the assessment of Warren Treadgold , the imperial army ' s defeats at Anzen and Amorium were to a large degree the result of circumstance rather than actual incapability or inadequacy . In addition , the Byzantine campaign had suffered from Theophilos ' s overconfidence , both in his willingness to divide his forces in the face of greater Arab numbers and in his over - reliance on the Khurramites . Nevertheless , the defeat prompted Theophilos to undertake a major reorganization of his army , which included the establishment of new frontier commands and the dispersing of the Khurramite troops among the themes . The most long - term result of the fall of Amorium , however , was in the religious rather than in the military sphere . Iconoclasm was supposed to bring divine favour and assure military victory , but neither the army ' s weaknesses nor the reported treachery of Boiditzes could detract from the fact that this was " a humiliating disaster to match the worst defeats of any iconophile emperor " ( Whittow ) , comparable in recent memory only to the crushing defeat suffered by Nikephoros I ( r . 802 – 811 ) at Pliska . As Warren Treadgold writes , " the outcome did not exactly prove that Iconoclasm was wrong . . . but it did rob the iconoclasts for all time of their most persuasive argument to the undecided , that Iconoclasm won battles " . A little over a year after Theophilos ' s death , on 11 March 843 , a synod restored the veneration of icons , and iconoclasm was declared heretical .