The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest 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.

Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned, but a local inhabitant revealed a weak spot in the wall, where the Abbasids concentrated their attack, effecting a breach.

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.

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.

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 withdrew to focus on internal matters, having trouble establishing his authority, and needing to confront 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.

[7] 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.

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.

[10] 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.

[16] 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.

[a][17] 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.

[18] 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.

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.

[36] 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[37]) 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.

[38] 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.

From there they were taken, probably towards the end of the century, and installed at Raqqa, 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.

According to al-Tabari, Mu'tasim now pondered extending his campaign to attack Constantinople, when news reached him of a conspiracy headed by his nephew, al-Abbas ibn al-Ma'mun.

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.

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.

[44] 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.

Warfare continued between the two empires with raids and counter-raids for several years, but after a few Byzantine successes a truce and possibly also a prisoner exchange—which excluded the high-ranking captives from Amorium—was agreed in 841.

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.

[49] "A victory in honour of which the gates of heaven open and earth comes forth in her new garments.O day of the battle of 'Ammūriya, (our) hopes have returned from you overflowing with honey-sweet milk;You have left the fortunes of the sons of Islam in the ascendant, and the polytheists and the abode of polytheism in decline."

[51][52] 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").

[54][c] In addition, caliphal propaganda made use of the campaign to legitimize al-Mu'tasim's rule and justify his subsequent murder of his nephew and the rightful heir to al-Ma'mun, al-Abbas.

[51][56] 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.