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Sack Of Damietta (853)
The Sack of Damietta was a successful raid on the port city of Damietta on the Nile Delta by the Byzantine navy on 22–24 May 853. The city, whose garrison was absent at the time, was sacked and plundered, yielding not only many captives but also large quantities of weapons and supplies intended for the Emirate of Crete. The Byzantine attack, which was repeated in the subsequent years, shocked the Abbasid authorities, and urgent measures were taken to refortify the coasts and strengthen the local fleet, beginning a revival of the Egyptian navy that culminated in the Tulunid and Fatimid periods. Background During the 820s, the Byzantine Empire suffered two great losses that destroyed their naval supremacy in the Mediterranean: the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Sicily and the fall of Crete to Andalusian exiles. These losses ushered in an era where Saracen pirates raided the Christian northern shores of the Mediterranean almost at will. The establishment of the Emirate of C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab–Byzantine Wars
The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century. The emergence of Muslim Arabs from Arabia in the 630s resulted in the rapid loss of Byzantium's southern provinces (Syria and Egypt) to the Arab Caliphate. Over the next fifty years, under the Umayyad caliphs, the Arabs would launch repeated raids into still-Byzantine Asia Minor, twice besiege the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, and conquer the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa. The situation did not stabilize until after the failure of the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 718, when the Taurus Mountains on the eastern rim of Asia Minor became established as the mutual, heavily fortified and largely depopulated frontier. Under the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Sicilian , demographics1_info1 = 98% , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , demographics1_title3 = , demographics1_info3 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code_type = ISO 3166 code , area_code = IT-82 , blank_name_sec1 = GDP (nominal) , blank_info_sec1 = €89.2 billion (2018) , blank1_name_sec1 = GDP per capita , blank1_info_sec1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty ( ar, ٱلْأُمَوِيُّون, ''al-ʾUmawīyūn'', or , ''Banū ʾUmayyah'', "Sons of Umayyah"). Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a member of the clan. The family established dynastic, hereditary rule with Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Greater Syria, who became the sixth caliph after the end of the First Fitna in 661. After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflicts over the succession resulted in the Second Fitna, and power eventually fell into the hands of Marwan I from another branch of the clan. Greater Syria remained the Umayyads' main power base thereafter, with Damascus serving as their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorpora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photeinos (strategos)
Photeinos ( el, Φωτεινός) was a Byzantine commander and governor active in the 820s. He is first mentioned following the Muslim conquest of the island of Crete in the mid-820s. At the time, he was military governor (''strategos'') of the Anatolic Theme, and was entrusted by Emperor Michael II the Amorian (reigned 820–829) with recovering the island. Upon his request, he was later reinforced with troops under the ''protospatharios'' Damian. Both were defeated by the Arabs, however: Damian fell, and Photeinos was barely able to escape with his life. Despite this failure, he was soon entrusted with another important mission, being sent to Sicily as its ''strategos'' to counter the rebellion and defection of the local ''tourmarches'' Euphemius to the Aghlabids The Aghlabids ( ar, الأغالبة) were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya and parts of Southern Italy, Sicily, and possibly Sardinia, nominally on behalf o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategos
''Strategos'', plural ''strategoi'', Latinized ''strategus'', ( el, στρατηγός, pl. στρατηγοί; Doric Greek: στραταγός, ''stratagos''; meaning "army leader") is used in Greek to mean military general. In the Hellenistic world and the Eastern Roman Empire the term was also used to describe a military governor. In the modern Hellenic Army, it is the highest officer rank. Etymology ''Strategos'' is a compound of two Greek words: ''stratos'' and ''agos''. ''Stratos'' (στρατός) means "army", literally "that which is spread out", coming from the proto-Indo-European root *stere- "to spread". ''Agos'' (ἀγός) means "leader", from ''agein'' (ἄγειν) "to lead", from the proto-Ιndo-Εuropean root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move”. Classical Greece Athens In its most famous attestation, in Classical Athens, the office of ''strategos'' existed already in the 6th century BC, but it was only with the reforms of Cleisthenes in 50 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damian (parakoimomenos)
Damian ( el, Δαμιανός) was a senior Byzantine eunuch official during the reign of Emperor Michael III (842–867), serving as the head chamberlain (''parakoimomenos'') to the emperor. Biography Theophanes Continuatus reports that Damian was a eunuch and of Slavic origin. He held the influential post of head chamberlain (''parakoimomenos''), with the rank of ''patrikios'', under Michael III (), and perhaps, according to the later ''Patria of Constantinople'', already under Michael's father Theophilos () as well. The Byzantinist Henri Grégoire suggested that Damian might be identifiable with the Byzantine admiral, known only from Arabic sources as " Ibn Qatuna", who led the Sack of Damietta in 853, by interpreting the Arabic name as a corruption of the title ''epi tou koitonos'' ("in charge of the imperial bedchamber"). He belonged to the circle of high officials who opposed Theoktistos, the powerful minister who monopolized power during the first half of Michael's reign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parakoimomenos
The ''parakoimōmenos'' ( el, παρακοιμώμενος, literally "the one who sleeps beside he emperor's chamber) was a Byzantine court position, usually reserved for eunuchs. The position's proximity to the emperors guaranteed its holders influence and power, and many of them, especially in the 9th and 10th centuries, functioned as the Byzantine Empire's chief ministers. History and functions The title was used anachronistically by various Byzantine writers for prominent eunuch court officials of the distant past, including Euphratas under Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337), the notorious Chrysaphius under Theodosius II (), or an unnamed holder of the office under Emperor Maurice (). The position was probably created no later than the reign of Leo IV the Khazar (), when the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor mentions a "''koubikoularios'' and ''parakoimomenos”'' serving Leo. In the beginning, it was a modest office, given to those ''koubikoularioi'' (from Lati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Kontomytes
Constantine Kontomytes or Contomytes ( el, , ) was a Byzantine general and nobleman. Biography As the governor ('' strategos'') of the Thracesian Theme, Constantine Kontomytes inflicted a severe defeat on the Cretan Saracens in 841, when they raided the rich monastic community of Mount Latros.. Shortly before or soon after, Constantine's daughter married the '' magistros'' Bardas, who was the nephew of Empress Theodora on his mother's side and of Patriarch Photios on his father's. Bardas later assumed his father-in-law's surname.; . In 859, Emperor Michael III (r. 842–867) sent him to Sicily at the head of 300 ships, to confront the Arabs on the island. The Byzantine army suffered a major defeat by the Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ... under Abbas ibn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergios Niketiates
Sergios Niketiates ( el, Σέργιος Νικητιάτης, ) was a senior Byzantine official and member of the Amorian dynasty. He is celebrated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 28 June for his role in the restoration of the veneration of icons. Biography Sergios Niketiates is an obscure and "enigmatic" (Cyril Mango) figure, known only through brief references in two hagiographic works, the ''Acts of Saints David, Symeon and George'' and the ''Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum''... According to these, Sergios was born in the village of Niketia, near Amastris in Paphlagonia, whence his surname. He was a close relative, possibly the uncle, of Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842) and mother of Michael III (r. 842–867). Under Theophilos, he became one of the leading members of the Byzantine Senate, reaching the supreme court rank of ''magistros''. Seals attributed to him also record him having progressively advanced through the levels of '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Grégoire (historian)
Henri Grégoire (; Huy, Belgium, 21 March 1881 – 28 September 1964, Brussels, Belgium) was an eminent scholar of the Byzantine Empire, virtually the founder of Byzantine studies in Belgium. Grégoire spent most of his teaching career at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1938, he taught at the New School for Social Research and during the Second World War, joined the École libre des hautes études at the New School. He was the editor of four journals—''Byzantion'', ''Nouvelle Clio'', ''Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves'', and ''Flambeau''—and published prolifically: by 1953 he had 575 titles in his bibliography. Grégoire is especially remembered for his work on medieval epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. .. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Tabari
( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari is known for his historical works and his expertise in Qur'anic exegesis (), but he has also been described as "an impressively prolific polymath".Lindsay Jones (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of religion'', volume 13, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, p. 8943 He wrote works on a diverse range of subjects, including world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine. His most influential and best known works are his Quranic commentary, known in Arabic as , and his historical chronicle called ''History of the Prophets and Kings'' (), often referred to as ("al-Tabari's History"). Al-Tabari followed the Shafi'i madhhab for nearly a decade before he developed his own interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence. His understandi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Vasiliev (historian)
Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Васи́льев; 4 October 1867 ( N.S.) – 30 May 1953) was considered the foremost authority on Byzantine history and culture in the mid-20th century. His ''History of the Byzantine Empire'' (vol. 1–2, 1928) remains one of a few comprehensive accounts of the entire Byzantine history, on the par with those authored by Edward Gibbon and Fyodor Uspensky. Vasiliev was born in Saint Petersburg. He studied under one of the earliest professional Byzantinists, Vasily Vasilievsky, at the University of St Petersburg and later taught Arabic language there. Between 1897 and 1900, he furthered his education in Paris. In 1902, he accompanied Nicholas Marr in his trip to Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai. During his stay at the Tartu University (1904–12), Vasiliev prepared and published a highly influential monograph, ''Byzantium and the Arabs'' (1907). He also worked in the Russian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
