Overview

On Monday the eleventh-from-last of Jumada I 339 came word that Sayf al-Dawla had raided deep into Byzantine lands, taking many fortresses and captives; but when he turned to leave, the Romans seized the pass he meant to exit by. Every Muslim with him perished captive or slain; the Byzantines recovered the captives and took his treasury, horses and arms, and he escaped with a handful — he had set out with a thousand ¹.

Byzantine capture of Aleppo

In 351 the Domesticos stormed Aleppo while Sayf al-Dawla lay unprepared — the sortie destroyed, the Darayin palace plundered of three hundred purses of dirhams, a breach opened, the city put to the sword till the killers wearied; fifteen hundred Muslim prisoners freed themselves and fought back, fifteen thousand youths were taken captive, mosques burned. Nine days on, the emperor's nephew dead at the citadel gate, the Byzantines withdrew slaughtering their Muslim prisoners.

Sayf al-Dawla's disaster in Byzantine lands

At a glance

In time

Sides

Overview

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

Byzantine capture of Aleppo