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ملك الروم مدينة أنطاكية

ملك الروم مدينة أنطاكية

c. 969 CE · Dhu al-Hijja 358 AH

Antioch

In 358 the Byzantines took Antioch by the Luna stratagem — its Christian garrison was sent in as 'refugees' to open the way from the height above the wall; a forty-thousand host with the emperor's brother stormed the panic-stricken city, and over twenty thousand Muslims were carried off as captives in Dhu'l-Hijja 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

960970980 c.
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era

Overview

In Dhu al-Hijja 358 AH the Byzantines took the city of Antioch by a ruse, according to Ibn al-Athir. 2

The ruse

The Byzantines besieged a fort near Antioch called the fort of Luna. They reached an agreement with its people, who were Christians, that they would move to Antioch and show that they had fled from the Byzantines, and then point the Byzantines to the frontier posts. They did so. 2

The entry

Two months later the Byzantines came with the brother of their king, Tiqfur, about forty thousand men. They surrounded the wall and climbed the mountain to the side of the frontier people. When the people of the city saw that they had taken that side, they threw themselves from the wall. The Byzantines entered the city and put the sword to work. Then they removed the old men, the old women and the children, and took captive the young men, the women and the boys, who numbered more than twenty thousand. 2

Connections

Explore the connections

Occurred at
Antioch

People and things also explored

The Conquest of Antioch· al-Jurjuma· Qinnasrin· Antioch

Sources

  1. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir, p. 443-444
  2. al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir, p.443-444
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “ملك الروم مدينة أنطاكية”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/byzantine-capture-of-antioch-358/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.

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The Conquest of Antioch

In al-Baladhuri: Abu Ubayda went from Aleppo to Antioch, where a body of the people of the Qinnasrin jund had fortified themselves; at Haruba — near two farsakhs from the city — an enemy gathering met him and he scattered them back into the city, besieging it at all its gates, the bulk of the army at Bab Faris and the gate called Bab al-Bahr; they then compounded for jizya and evacuation, some departing and some staying, and he secured them setting on each adult a dinar and a jarib; when they broke the covenant he sent Iyad ibn Ghanm and Habib ibn Maslama, who retook it on the first treaty — others say they broke it after he returned to Filastin and Amr ibn al-As was sent from Iliya' to take it; Umar wrote to Abu Ubayda to station at Antioch a company of Muslims of right intent and scruple as murabita, withholding no mounts from them, and Mu'awiya received the same when in office while Uthman ordered him to settle men there and grant land — which he did; Mu'awiya transferred to Antioch in year 42 companies of Persians and people of Ba'labakk, Hims and the two Misrs, and al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik granted troops land at Saluqiyya by the coast rating the filthir at a dinar and two mudds of wheat — they cultivated it and he built Hisn Saluqiyya; among the transferees was Muslim ibn Abdullah — grandfather of Abdullah ibn Habib ibn al-Nu'man al-Antaki — whom a Byzantine killed with a stone on the wall, a gate of Antioch being named Bab Muslim after him.