| Thughur andAwasim | |
|---|---|
اَلـثُّـغُـوْر وَالْـعَـوَاصِـم al-thughūr wa-l-ʿawāṣim | |
| Cilicia, northernSyria andUpper Mesopotamia | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Fortified border zone |
| Controlled by | Abbasid Caliphate (750s–c. 930),Ikhshidids (c. 935–940s),Hamdanids (940s–962s),Mamluks of Egypt (14th century–1516) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 8th century |
| Built by | Abbasid Caliphate,Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt |
| In use | c. 750s–c. 962s, 14th century–1514 |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 25,000 inc. 780[1] |
Al-ʿAwāṣim (Arabic:العواصم, "the defences, fortifications"; sing.al-ʿāṣimah,اَلْـعَـاصِـمَـة, "protectress") was theArabic term used to refer to the Muslim side of the frontier zone between theByzantine Empire and theUmayyad andAbbasidCaliphates inCilicia, northernSyria andUpper Mesopotamia.[2] It was established in the early 8th century, once the first wave of theMuslim conquests ebbed, and lasted until the mid-10th century, when the Byzantine advance overran it. It comprised the forwardmarches, comprising a chain of fortified strongholds, known asal-thughūr (اَلـثُّـغُـوْر; sing.al-thaghr,اَلـثَّـغْـر, "cleft, opening"), and the rear or inner regions of the frontier zone, which was known asal-ʿawāṣim proper. On the Byzantine side, the Muslim marches were mirrored by the institution of thekleisourai and theakritai (border guards).
The termthughūr was also used in the marches ofal-Andalus andTransoxiana, and was revived by theMamluk Sultanate in the 14th century, when the areas traditionally comprising theʿawāṣim andthughūr in the northernSyrian region andUpper Mesopotamia came under their control.[3]
Already from late 630s, after the rapidMuslim conquest of the Levant, a vast zone unclaimed by either Byzantines or Arabs and virtually deserted (known in Arabic asal-Ḍawāḥī (اَلـدَّوَاحِي, "of the Outer Lands") and inGreek asta akra (τὰ ἄκρα, "the extremities") emerged between the two powers inCilicia, along the southern approaches of theTaurus andAnti-Taurus ranges, leavingAnatolia in Byzantine hands. Both EmperorHeraclius (r. 610–641) and the Caliph ʿUmar (r. 634–644) pursued a strategy of destruction within this zone, trying to transform it into an effective barrier between their realms.[2][4]
Nevertheless, the ultimate aim of the caliphs remained the outright conquest of Byzantium, as they had done with its provinces in Syria, Egypt and North Africa. It was only the failure of the717–18 Siege of Constantinople that forced a revision of this strategic objective: although raids into Anatolia continued, the goal of conquest was abandoned. The border between the two powers began to acquire more permanent features. For the next two centuries, border fortresses might change hands between Byzantines and Arabs, but the basic outline of the Arab–Byzantine border remained essentially unaltered.[5][6][7] Thus the termal-thughūr, which initially meant "fissures, clefts" (cf. their Greek nameta Stomia,τὰ Στόμια, "the mouths/openings") and designated the actual borderlands, came to mean "boundaries", employed in phrases likeThughūr al-Islām (ثُـغُـوْر الْإِسْـلَام, "Boundary ofIslam") orThughūr al-Rūmiyya (الثُّغُور الرُّومِيَّة, "Boundary of theRūm").[2][8][9]
This process was marked by a gradual consolidation of the previously deserted zone and its transformation into a settled and fortified borderland, especially after the Byzantines abandoned Cilicia during the reign of CaliphAbd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705). The Muslims began to move into the area, reoccupying and repairing the abandoned towns and forts. The process started under the Umayyads, but intensified under the firstAbbasids, especially during the rule ofHarun al-Rashid (r. 786–809).[2][7] Thus a line of forts was gradually established, stretching fromTarsus (Ar.Ṭarsūs) on the Mediterranean coast toMalatya (Ar.Malaṭiyā, Gr. Melitene) andKemah (ArabicḤiṣn Kamkh) on the upper course of theEuphrates.[10][11][12] These were located at strategicchoke points at the intersections of major roads or at the mouths of important passes.[13]
The entire frontier zone was initially part of thejund (one of the military administrative divisions into whichMuslim Syria was divided) ofHoms. After 680 it formed part of the newjund ofQinnasrin (Gr. Chalkis), until Harun al-Rashid established a separatejund al-ʿAwāṣim (جُـنْـد الْـعَـوَاصِـم) in 786, covering the entire region from the Byzantine border in the north and west to the Euphrates in the east and a line running south ofAntioch (Ar. Anṭākiya),Aleppo (Ar. Ḥalab, Gr. Berroia) andManbij (Gr. Hierapolis). Manbij and later Antioch were the new province's capitals.[2][13][14] Theal-ʿAwāṣim proper served as the second defensive line behind theThughūr, stretching across northern Syria and comprising the towns ofBaghras,Bayās,Dulūk (Gr. Doliche or Telouch),Alexandretta (Ar. Iskandarīya),Cyrrhus (Ar. Qūrus),Ra'bān andTīzīn.[2][10] TheThughūr, the actual frontier zone, was divided into the Cilician or Syrian (al-Thughūr al-Sha'mīya,اَلـثُّـغُـوْر الـشَّـأْمِـيَّـة) and theJaziran or Mesopotamian (al-Thughūr al-Jazīrīya,اَلـثُّـغُـوْر الْـجَـزِيْـرِيَّـة) sectors, roughly separated by theAmanus mountains. There was no overall governor or administrative centre for theThughūr, although Tarsus and Malatya emerged as the most important towns in Cilicia and the Mesopotamian sector respectively. The towns of theThughūr came variously under the administrative control of thejund al-ʿAwāṣim or functioned as separate districts; the situation is complicated by the fact that by the 10th century, the termsThughūr andal-ʿAwāṣim were often used interchangeably in the sources.[2][15][16] In addition, from the early 10th century, with the Byzantine advance intoArmenia, the frontier aroundDiyār Bakr became a third sector,al-Thughūr al-Bakrīya (الـثُّـغُـوْر الـبَـكْـرِيَّـة).[17]
In the Cilician sector,Mopsuestia (Ar. al-Maṣṣīṣa) was the first city to be re-occupied and garrisoned, already under the Umayyads, who settled 300 soldiers there in 703, a number raised under the first Abbasids to some 4,000.Adana followed in 758–760, and Tarsus in 787/8. Tarsus quickly became the largest settlement in the region and the Arabs' most important base of operations against the Byzantines, counting between 4,000 and 5,000 troops in its garrison. Other important fortresses in Cilicia, which however were little more than military outposts, were 'Ayn Zarba (Gr.Anazarbus),al-Hārūniya, founded by Harun al-Rashid,Tall Gubair andal-Kanīsat al-Sawdā. These were complemented by smaller forts dotted across the Cilician plain, holding smaller garrisons of a dozen or so men.[11][17][18] In the more mountainous terrain of the Mesopotamian frontier zone, the main strongholds were located in the fertile parts of relatively isolated valleys, controlling the entrances of passes over the mountains:Mar'ash (Gr. Germanikeia), rebuilt already underMuawiyah I (r. 661–680) and again under Harun al-Rashid,al-Ḥadath (Gr. Adata), likewise refortified by the first Abbasid caliphs and provided with 4,000 troops, and Malatya, which had been colonized by the Umayyads, destroyed by the Byzantines and rebuilt again and likewise garrisoned with 4,000 men in 757/8. Further fortresses of lesser importance in the Mesopotamian sector wereSalaghus,Kaisum, Ḥiṣn Zibaṭra (Gr.Zapetra/Sozopetra), Sumaisaṭ (Gr.Samosata),Ḥiṣn Qalawdhiya andḤiṣn Ziyad. Some of the northern fortresses of theal-ʿAwāṣim province, like Dulūk or Cyrrhus, were also sometimes included in it. Further north, the relatively isolated fortress towns of Qālīqalā (Gr. Theodosiopolis, modernErzurum) and Kamacha formed the northernmost outposts of Muslim rule.[17][18][19] TheThughūr al-Bakrīya included, according toQudama ibn Ja'far, Sumaisaṭ, Ḥānī, Malikyan, Gamah, Ḥaurān and al-Kilis.[17]
"...from all the great towns within the borders of Persia and Mesopotamia, and Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco, there is no city but has in Tarsus a hostelry for its townsmen, where thewarriors for the Faith from each particular country live. And, when they have once reached Tarsus, they settle there and remain to serve in the garrison; among them prayer and worship are most diligently performed; from all hands, funds are sent to them, and they receive alms rich and plentiful; also there is hardly a sultan who does not send hither some auxiliary troops."
The caliphs repopulated the area by bringing in colonists and regular soldiers from Syria but alsoPersians,Slavs,Arab Christians, and people from the eastern edges of the Muslim world: settlers fromKhurasan, theSayābija tribe orJatts (Ar.Zuṭṭ) from India.[21][22] The regular troops stationed there were favoured with lower taxes (thetithe orʿushr instead of thekharāj land tax), higher pay and small land grants (qaṭā'i). In early Abbasid times these troops numbered some 25,000, half of them drawn from Khurasan and the rest from Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. They were complemented by volunteers, drawn by the religious motivation ofjihad against the Byzantines but often paid a salary by the state as well.[18][23][24] All this entailed a heavy financial burden on the Abbasid government. Under Harun al-Rashid, taxation from the Cilician sector brought in 100,000gold dinars every year, which were all spent locally for public works, salaries, espionage etc. In addition, the costs of cross-border expeditions typically ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 dinars annually. The Mesopotamian sector's revenue amounted to some 70,000 dinars, to which the central government added 120,000–170,000 dinars each year for the upkeep of the fortifications and the salary of the frontier troops.[25]
By the 9th century, the Arab raiding expeditions launched against Byzantium from the frontier zone had gradually assumed an almost ritual character and were strictly organized. According to Qudama ibn Ja'far, the conventional pattern of Arab incursions included a first expedition in spring (10 May–10 June), when horses could find abundant fodder, followed after about a month's rest by a summer raid (10 July–8 September), usually the main campaign of the year, and sometimes by a winter raid in February–March.[10][26][27] The importance of these raids is summarized by Islamic scholarHugh N. Kennedy: "theṣāʿifa (summer raid) was as much a part of the symbolic and ritual functions of the Caliph as was organising and providing leadership for the annualhajj toMecca".[28]
The frontier zone wasfiercely contested between the Arabs and the Byzantines. Raids and counter-raids were a permanent fixture of this type of warfare. Forts on either side of the notional frontier were captured and razed, or sometimes occupied, but never for long. As a result, the region was often depopulated, necessitating repeated resettlement. There is nevertheless evidence of some prosperity, based on agriculture and commerce, especially during the second half of the 9th century, when the borderlands became a node in a commercial route linkingBasra with northern Syria and evenConstantinople.[21][29] After 842 and for most of the later 9th century, the decline of Abbasid power meant that control over theThughūr gradually devolved to semi-independent borderemirates, chiefly Tarsus, Malatya and Qālīqalā, which were left largely to fend on their own against a resurgent Byzantium. TheBattle of Lalakaon in 863 broke the power of Malatya, altering the balance of power in the region, and signalled the beginning of a gradual Byzantine encroachment on the Arab borderlands.[30][31][32]
With the onset of the Abbasid Caliphate's terminal period of crisis after 928, control of the Muslim frontier cities shifted to theIkhshidid andHamdanid dynasties. In the 930s, under the leadership ofJohn Kourkouas, the Byzantines broke through and conquered Malatya and most of the Mesopotamian sector of theThughūr. Although the Hamdanidemir of Aleppo,Sayf al-Dawla (r. 946–967), managed to stem the Byzantine advance, his success was only temporary: in 964–965, EmperorNikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) captured Cilicia, followed soon after by Antioch, while the Hamdanids of Aleppo became a tributary state.[30][33][34][35]
After their conquest of Syria in the late 13th century, theEgyptian Mamluks re-established theal-thughūr wa-l-ʿawāṣim as a defensive zone to shield Syria from theTurkoman states of Asia Minor and the Caucasus, including at a later stage theOttoman Empire. Like the earlier model, thethughūr were divided into a Syrian and a Mesopotamian march, as well as a rear zone along northern Syria. The Mamluks entrusted the defence of the Syrian/Cilician march to the client Turkmen principality of theRamadanids, while theDulkadirid principality fulfilled the same role in the Mesopotamianthughūr. To safeguard their control of the frontier zone, and to keep the two client beyliks separated and under control, the Mamluks also retained garrisons in seven strategically important sites: Tarsus,Ayas,Serfendikar,Sis,Darende, Malatya andDivriği.[36]Ahmad al-Qalqashandi gives the subdivisions (niyābāt) of the Mamlukthughūr as follows: eight for the Syrian sector (Malatya, Divriği, Darende,Elbistan, Ayas, Tarsus and Adana, Serfendikar and Sis) and three on the Euphrates sector (al-Bira,Qal'at Ja'bar andal-Ruha).[3][37]