The Fall of Qaliqala, 133, and its Rebuilding

سقوط قاليقلا سنة 133 وعمارتها

c. 750 CE · 133 AH

Qaliqala (Theodosiopolis/Erzurum)

In al-Baladhuri from Muhammad ibn Bishr and Ibn Warz al-Qaliyan from the shaykhs of Qaliqala: the city had remained defiant with its folk since its conquest until the tyrant came out in year 133, besieged Malatya's people, razed its wall and evacuated its Muslims to the Jazira, then camped at Marj al-Hasa and sent Kusan the Armenian, who camped on Qaliqala and besieged it — its people then few and its governor Abu Karima — whereupon two Armenian brothers of the city undermined an earthwork in its wall, went out to Kusan and let him into the city; he took it, killed, captured, demolished, drove the spoil to the tyrant and divided the captives among his men; al-Waqidi says: in year 139 al-Mansur ransomed those of Qaliqala's captives still alive, rebuilt and resettled the city, returned the ransomed to it and levied for it a garrison of Jazirans and others; and the Roman tyrant had come out against Qaliqala in al-Mu'tasim's caliphate and battered its wall near collapse, whereupon al-Mu'tasim spent five hundred thousand dirhams on it until it was fortified.