Over the next few decades, the emirate's Paulician allies and their principality at Tephrike were defeated and annexed, and a string of fortresses, often manned by Armenians, occupied the hill country around the city.
First attempts to capture Malatya in 927 and 928 failed, but Byzantine troops, based on the fortresses surrounding the city, repeatedly ravaged its countryside and cut it off from assistance.
[3][4] Abu Hafs died soon after, however, and, aided by Abbasid troops under Sa'id ibn Hamdan, who entered the city in November 931, the citizens of Malatya renounced the treaty.
[3][4] The exact chronology of events is unclear in the sources; the date of 931 for Kourkouas' first submission of the city is given by Ibn al-Athir, while the Byzantine chroniclers are less precise.
[4] As a result, some historians, like Steven Runciman and Warren Treadgold, place the first submission of the city after the first attacks in 927/928, and Abu Hafs' death likewise around that date.