Al-Awasim
al-ʿāṣimah, اَلْـعَـاصِـمَـة, "protectress") was the Arabic term used to refer to the Muslim side of the frontier zone between the Byzantine Empire and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates in Cilicia, northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia.
[3] Already from late 630s, after the rapid Muslim conquest of the Levant, a vast zone unclaimed by either Byzantines or Arabs and virtually deserted (known in Arabic as al-Ḍawāḥī (اَلـدَّوَاحِي, "of the Outer Lands") and in Greek as ta akra (τὰ ἄκρα, "the extremities") emerged between the two powers in Cilicia, along the southern approaches of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus ranges, leaving Anatolia in Byzantine hands.
[2][4] Nevertheless, the ultimate aim of the caliphs remained the outright conquest of Byzantium, as they had done with its provinces in Syria, Egypt and North Africa.
It was only the failure of the 717–18 Siege of Constantinople that forced a revision of this strategic objective: although raids into Anatolia continued, the goal of conquest was abandoned.
[2][8][9] This process was marked by a gradual consolidation of the previously deserted zone and its transformation into a settled and fortified borderland, especially after the Byzantines abandoned Cilicia during the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705).
[13] The entire frontier zone was initially part of the jund (one of the military administrative divisions into which Muslim Syria was divided) of Homs.
Chalkis), until Harun al-Rashid established a separate jund al-ʿAwāṣim (جُـنْـد الْـعَـوَاصِـم) in 786, covering the entire region from the Byzantine border in the north and west to the Euphrates in the east and a line running south of Antioch (Ar.
[2][13][14] The al-ʿAwāṣim proper served as the second defensive line behind the Thughūr, stretching across northern Syria and comprising the towns of Baghras, Bayās, Dulūk (Gr.
Tarsus quickly became the largest settlement in the region and the Arabs' most important base of operations against the Byzantines, counting between 4,000 and 5,000 troops in its garrison.
[17] "...from all the great towns within the borders of Persia and Mesopotamia, and Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco, there is no city but has in Tarsus a hostelry for its townsmen, where the warriors for the Faith from each particular country live.
And, when they have once reached Tarsus, they settle there and remain to serve in the garrison; among them prayer and worship are most diligently performed; from all hands, funds are sent to them, and they receive alms rich and plentiful; also there is hardly a sultan who does not send hither some auxiliary troops."
The caliphs repopulated the area by bringing in colonists and regular soldiers from Syria but also Persians, Slavs, Arab Christians, and people from the eastern edges of the Muslim world: settlers from Khurasan, the Sayābija tribe or Jatts (Ar.
Under Harun al-Rashid, taxation from the Cilician sector brought in 100,000 gold dinars every year, which were all spent locally for public works, salaries, espionage etc.
[25] By the 9th century, the Arab raiding expeditions launched against Byzantium from the frontier zone had gradually assumed an almost ritual character and were strictly organized.
There is nevertheless evidence of some prosperity, based on agriculture and commerce, especially during the second half of the 9th century, when the borderlands became a node in a commercial route linking Basra with northern Syria and even Constantinople.
[21][29] After 842 and for most of the later 9th century, the decline of Abbasid power meant that control over the Thughūr gradually devolved to semi-independent border emirates, chiefly Tarsus, Malatya and Qālīqalā, which were left largely to fend on their own against a resurgent Byzantium.
[30][31][32] With the onset of the Abbasid Caliphate's terminal period of crisis after 928, control of the Muslim frontier cities shifted to the Ikhshidid and Hamdanid dynasties.
