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Arab–Byzantine wars

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Byzantine-Arab Wars
Part of the Muslim conquests

Greek fire, first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars.
Date629-717, 800s-1025, 1169
Location
Palestine, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Anatolia, Crete, Sicily
Result Decisive Arab victory
Territorial
changes		 Levant, Egypt and the whole of North Africa annexed by Arabs.
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire,[1]
Arab Ghassanids,
Bulgarian Empire (later)		 Muslim Arabs
(Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates)
Syria was just the start of Arab expansion.

The Byzantine-Arab Wars refers to a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring border tussle until the beginning of the Crusades. As result the Byzantines, also called the Romans ("Rûm" in Muslim historical chronicles, the Byzantine Empire was formerly the Eastern half of the Roman Empire), saw an extensive loss of territory.

The initial conflict lasted from 629-717, ending with the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople that halted the rapid expansion of the Arab Empire into Asia Minor. Conflicts with the Caliphate however continued between the 800s and 1169. The loss of southern Italian territories to the Abbassid forces occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries. However, under the Macedonian dynasty, the Byzantines recaptured territory in the Levant with the Byzantine's armies advance even threatening Jerusalem to the south. The Emirate of Aleppo and its neighbours became vassals of the Byzantines in the east, where the greatest threat was the Egyptian Fatimid kingdom, until the rise of the Seljuk dynasty reversed all gains and pushed Abbassid territorial gains deep into Anatolia. This resulted in the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus request for military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza; one of the events often attributed as precursors to the First Crusade.

Opening Conflict

The Byzantine Empire, under the Emperor Heraclius, had just come out victorious from the exhausting Roman-Persian Wars. These wars drained both empires and are often cited as one of the reasons for their ensuing conquest.[2][3] The Rashidun Caliphs had just reconsolidated the Arabian Peninsula during the Ridda wars in the wake of the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammed in 632. The engagements started as conflicts with the Arab client states of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires; the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids of Al-Hirah. These conflicts soon turned into a full blown concurrent war with both empires resulting in the conquest of the Levant and Persia under the two Rashidun generals; Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-A'as.

Arab conquest of Roman Syria: 629-638

Main article: Muslim conquest of Syria
Further information: Khalid ibn al-Walid

In the Levant, the Arab forces were engaged by a Byzantine army composed of Imperial troops as well as local levies.[1] Heraclius had fallen ill and was unable to lead his armies to resist the Arab conquests of Syria and Palestine in 634.[4] Monophysites and Jews throughout Syria welcomed the Arab conquerors, as they were discontented with Byzantine persecution and taxation, and receptive to the lower taxes offered under the new regime.[2] The Arabian tribes also had significant economic, cultural and familial ties with predominantly Arab citizens of ther fertile crescent.

When Heraclius massed his troops against the Moslems and the Moslems heard that they were coming to meet them at al-Yarmuk, the Moslems refunded to the inhabitants of Hims the karaj [tribute] they had taken from them saying, "We are too busy to support and protect you. Take care of yourselves." But the people of Hims replied, "We like your rule and justice far better than the state of oppression and tyranny in which we were. The army of Heraclius we shall indeed, with your 'amil's' help, repulse from the city." The Jews rose and said, "We swear by the Torah, no governor of Heraclius shall enter the city of Hims unless we are first vanquished and exhausted!" Saying this, they closed the gates of the city and guarded them. The inhabitants of the other cities - Christian and Jew - that had capitulated to the Moslems, did the same, saying, "If Heraclius and his followers win over the Moslems we would return to our previous condition, otherwise we shall retain our present state so long as numbers are with the Moslems." When by Allah's help the "unbelievers" were defeated and the Moslems won, they opened the gates of their cities, went out with the singers and music players who began to play, and paid the kharaj."[5]

Following the Byzantine defeat in 636 at the Battle of Yarmouk, Heraclius, while departing Antioch for Constantinople, is recorded by Baladhuri as saying as he passed ad-D'arb: "Peace unto thee, O Syria, and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!"[6] In Constantinople, the Emperor began to array his remaining forces for a defence of Egypt. In 638, the Arabs conquered Damascus. The local population of Jerusalem welcomed the conquerors into the city, which was surrendered by Patriarch Sophronius in the same year.

On a February day in the year AD 638, the Caliph Omar [Umar] entered Jerusalem riding on a white camel. He was dressed in worn, filthy robes, and the army that followed him was rough and unkempt; but its discipline was perfect. At his side rode the Patriarch Sophronius as chief magistrate of the surrendered city. Omar rode straight to the site of the Temple of Solomon, whence his friend Mahomet [Muhammed] had ascended into Heaven. Watching him stand there, the Patriarch remembered the words of Christ and murmured through his tears: "Behold the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet."[7][3]

Arab conquests of North Africa: 639-717

Main articles: Muslim conquest of Egypt and Umayyad conquest of North Africa
Further information: Amr ibn al-A'as and Uqba ibn Nafi

Antioch was temporarily remained under Byzantine control but by the time Heraclius died, much of the Roman province of Egypt had been lost as well. With 4,000 Arabs under his command, Amr ibn al-As crossed into Egypt from Palestine in December 639. The Byzantine navy briefly won back Alexandria in 645, but recapitulated it in 646 shortly after the Battle of Nikiou. The local Christian Copts welcomed the Arabs just as the Monophysites did in Jerusalem.[2] The loss of this lucrative province deprived the Byzantines of their valuable corn supply, thereby causing bread shortages throughout the Byzantine Empire.

The Arabs took Cyprus in 643, and following the death of the Caliph Umar the following year was succeeded by Caliph Uthman.[3] In 647, an Medinan army led by Abdallah ibn al-Sa’ad moved into the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa. Tripolitania was taken, followed by Sufetula, 150 miles south of Carthage. Abdallah's booty-laden force returned to Egypt in 648.

A Byzantine fresco showing a dromon. Byzantium was the dominant sea-power of the 7th century.

Following a civil war in the Arab Empire the Umayyads came to power under Muawiyah I. Under the Umayyads the conquest of the remaining Byzantine territories in North Africa was completed and the Arabs were able to move across the deserts of North Africa, entering into Visigothic Spain through the Strait of Gibralter.[2].

The Byzantine Empire was the primary naval power in Europe and the Middle East at this time, with a formidable navy of 300 biremes equipped with battering rams. In spite of the great battle in 655 off the Lycian coast, where the Arabs destroyed 500 ships, Byzantium remained the dominant force in the Aegean and the Black Sea.[3]The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes the Confessor reports the loss of Rhodes while recounting the sale of the centuries old remainds of the Colossus for scrap in 655, under Muawiya[8] after the securing of the control of Egypt, as any attempts to launch a fleet on the Mediterranean would have been threatened by Byzantine naval ports.

Muawiyah began consolidating the Arab territory from the Aral Sea to the western border of Egypt. He put a governor in place in Egypt at al-Fustat, and launched raids into Sicily and Anatolia in 663. Then from 665 to 689 a new North African campaign was carried out to protect Egypt "from flank attack by Byzantine Cyrene". An Arab army of 40,000 took Barca, defeating 30,000 Byzantine.[9]

A vanguard of 10,000 Arabs under Uqba ibn Nafi followed from Damascus. In 670, Kairouan in modern Tunisia was established as a base for further operations; Kairouan would become the capital of the Islamic province of Ifriqiya, and the third holiest city in Islam during the Middle Ages.[10] Then ibn Nafi "plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert." In his conquest of the Maghreb, he took the coastal cities of Bugia and Tingi, overwhelming what had once been the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana[11] where here he was finally halted.

In their struggle against the Byzantines and the Berbers, the Arab chieftains had greatly extended their African dominions, and as early as the year 682 Uqba had reached the shores of the Atlantic, but he was unable to occupy Tangier, for he was forced to turn back toward the Atlas Mountains by a man who became known to history and legend as Count Julian.[12]

Moreover, as Gibbon writes, "this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic." His forces were directed at putting down rebellion, and in one such battle he was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Then, the third governor of Africa, Zuheir, was overthrown by a powerful army, sent from Constantinople by Constantine IV for the relief of Carthage.[11] Meanwhile, a second Arab civil war was raging in Arabia and Syria resulting in a series of four caliphs between the death of Muawiyah in 680 and the ascension of Abd al-Malik in 685, and was ongoing until 692 with the death of the rebel leader.[13]

Although Justinian II had a turbulent reign, his coinage still bore the traditional "PAX", peace.

The Saracen Wars of Justinian II, last Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, "reflected the general chaos of the age".[3] After a successful campaign he made a truce with the Arabs, agreeing on joint possession of Armenia, Iberia and Cyprus; however, by removing 12,000 Christian Maronites from their native Lebanon, he gave the Arabs a command over Asia Minor which they used in 692 to conquer all Armenia.[14] Deposed in 695, with Carthage lost in 698, Justinian returned to power from 705-711.[3] His second reign was marked by Arab victories in Asia Minor and civil unrest.[14] Reportedy, he ordered his guards to execute the only unit that had not deserted him after one battle, to prevent their desertion in the next.[3]

Arab sieges of Constantinople

Main articles: First Arab siege of Constantinople and Second Arab siege of Constantinople
The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople.

In 674 the Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I besieged Constantinople under Constantine IV. In this battle, the Umayyads unable to breach the Theodosian Walls and blockaded the city along the River Bosporus. The approach of winter however forced the besiegers to withraw to an island 80 miles away.[15]

However, prior to the siege a Syrian Christian refugee named Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis had recently invented for the Byzantine Empire a devastating new weapon that came to be known as "Greek fire".[8][15] At the Battle of Syllaeum in 677, the Byzantine navy used this to decisively defeat the Umayyad navy in the Sea of Marmara and lift the siege in 678. Among those killed in the siege was Eyup, the standard bearer of Muhammed and the last of his companions; to Muslims today, his tomb is considered one of the holiest sites in Istanbul.[15] The Byzantine victory halted the Umayyad expansion into Europe for almost thirty years.

The initial conflict came to a close during the reigns of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian and the Umayyad Caliph Umar II, after the Second Arab siege of Constantinople in (717-718), where the Arab ground forces, led by Maslama,[15] were defeated by Constantinople's walls and the timely arrival of allied Bulgar forces even as the Umayyad naval fleet was defeated by Greek Fire:

"Maslama had drawn up the Muslims in a line (I had never seen one longer) with the many squadrons. Leo, the autocrat of Rûm, sat on the tower of the gate of Constantinople with its towers. He drew up the foot soldiers in a long line between the wall and the sea opposite the Muslim shore. We showed arms in a thousand ships, light ships, big ships in which there were stores of Egyptian clothing, etc, and galleys with the fighting men… 'Umar and some of those from the ships were afraid to advance against the harbour mouth, fearing for their lives. When the Rum saw this, galleys and light ships came out of the harbour mouth against use and one of them went to the nearest Muslim ship, threw on it grapnels with chains and towed it with its crew into Constantinople. We lost heart."[16][15]

The remnants of the Umayyad navy were subsequently sunk in a storm on its return home. The conclusion of the first Byzantine-Arab War at this siege is often compared in significance to the later Battle of Tours.

Later conflicts

Main articles: History of Islam in southern Italy and Macedonian dynasty
See also: Iconoclasm

The primary conflict ended with the siege of Constantinople in 718, and although later conflicts continued into the 11th century, the conquests of the Arabs began to retard. Arab attempts at taking Anatolia failed until the arrival of the Seljuks.

Iconoclast controversy

Among the effects of the Byzantine-Arab Wars was the religious and civil unrest it stirred in the heart of Byzantium. The Iconomachia, or "Wars of the Icons", began when a 726 edict of Leo the Isaurian decreed the crucifix be replaced by a plain Cross, sparking off the controversy of Iconoclasm.[3] Writings suggest that at least part of the reason for the removal may have been military reversals against the Muslims and the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera,[17] which Leo possibly viewed as evidence of the wrath of God brought on by Iconoduly in the Church.[8][18] While fighting the Arabs, Leo had noticed the puritanical values of the Arabs that forbade representational religious art as idolatry, and he believed the Byzantine Empire would receive successes by following their example.[19] "He saw no need to consult the church, and he appears to have been surprised by the depth of the popular opposition he encountered".[20]

In 732, Leo launched a fleet to arrest Pope Gregory III for defying the edict and recover Ravenna. The ships sank en route in the Adriatic Sea, but the strife was far from over. The controversy weakened the Byzantine Empire, and was a key factor in the schism between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome.[3]

Civil war occurred in the Byzantine Empire, often with Arab support. With the support of Caliph Al-Ma'mun, Arabs under the leadership of Thomas the Slav invaded, so that within a matter of months, only two themata in Asia Minor remained loyal to Emperor Michael II.[21] When Thomas captured Thessalonica, the Empire's second largest city, it was re-captured quickly by the Byzantines.[21] Thomas's 821 siege of Constantinople did not get past the city walls, and he was forced to retreat.[21]

Crete and Sicily

Nikephoros II and his stepson Basil II. Under the Makedonoi, the Byzantine Empire became the strongest power in Europe, recovering territories lost in the war.

With internal Byzantine unity weakened, along with their ties to the West, Crete fell to the Saracens in 824, and Sicily was slowly lost over a 75 year period. Using Tunisia as their launching pad, the Arabs started by conquering Palermo in 831, Messina in 842, Enna in 859.

Byzantine resurgence

However, religious peace came with the emergence of the Macedonian dynasty in 867, as well as a strong and unified Byzantine leadership;[3] while the Abassids empire had splintered into many factions. Basil I revived the Byzantine Empire into a regional power, during a period of territorial expansion, making the Empire the strongest power in Europe, with an ecclesiastical policy marked by good relations with Rome. Basil allied with the Holy Roman Emperor Louis II against the Arabs, and his fleet cleared the Adriatic Sea from their raids. With Byzantine help, Louis II captured Bari from the Arabs in 871. The city became Byzantine territory in 876. However, the Byzantine position on Sicily deteriorated, and Syracuse fell to the Emirate of Sicily in 878. Catania would be lost in 900, and finally the fortress of Taormina in 902. Sicily would remain under Arab control until the Norman arrival in 1071.

Although most of Sicily was lost, the general Nicephorus Phocas the Elder succeeded in taking Taranto and much of Calabria in 880. Crete was retaken by the Byantines in 960, and would be held until 1204, when it fell to the Venice during the Fourth Crusade. The successes in the Italian Peninsula opened a new period of Byzantine domination there. Above all, the Byzantines were beginning to establish a strong presence in the Mediterranean Sea, and especially the Adriatic.

The themata, circa AD 950. Syria would be added by the end of the century, bringing the Empire to its greatest height since the war began.

After putting an end to the internal strife, Basil II launched a campaign against the Arabs in 995. The Byzantine civil wars had weakened the Empire's position in the east, and the gains of Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes came close to being lost, with Aleppo besieged and Antioch under threat. Basil won several battles in Syria, relieving Aleppo, taking over the Orontes valley, and raiding further south. Although he did not have the force to drive into Palestine and reclaim Jerusalem, his victories did restore much of Syria to the empire - including the larger city which was the seat of the Patriarch of Antioch.[2] No emperor since Heraclius had been able to hold these lands for any length of time, and the Empire would retain them for the next 75 years. Piers Paul Read writes that by 1025, Byzantine land "stretched from the Straits of Messina and the northern Adriatic in the west to the River Danube and Crimea in the north, and to the cities of Melitine and Edessa beyond the Euphrates in the east."[2]

Under Basil II, the Byzantines established a swath of new themata, stretching northeast from Aleppo (a Byzantine protectorate) to Manzikert. Under the Theme system of military and adinstrative government, the Byzantines could raise a force at least 200,000 strong, though in practice these were strategically placed throughout the Empire. With Basil's rule, the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest height in nearly five centuries.

Conclusion

Main articles: Second Crusade and Manuel I Komnenos
The Komnenos launched an unsuccessful invasion of Egypt during the Second Crusade.

The wars drew near to a closure when the Turks and various Mongol invaders replaced the threat of either power. From the 11th and 12th centuries onwards, the Byzantine conflicts shifted into the Byzantine-Seljuk wars with the Seljuk Turks; after the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Manzikert by the Turks in 1071, the Byzantine Empire, with the help of Western Crusaders, re-established its position in the Middle East as a superpower. Meanwhile, the major Arab conflicts were in the Crusades, and later against Mongolian invasions, especially that of the Golden Horde and Timur.

During the Second Crusade, Baldwin III seized Ascalon in 1153, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem was able to advance into Egypt and briefly occupy Cairo in the 1160s. The sympathetic Emperor Manuel married Maria of Antioch, cousin of the Crusader King Amalric I of Jerusalem, while Amalric married Manuel's grand-niece Maria Komnene. In 1168 a formal alliance was negotiated by future Archbishop William of Tyre, and in 1169 Manuel launched a joint expedition with Amalric to Egypt. Manuel's ambitious campaign was a dramatic demonstration of how powerful the Empire had become, involving a fleet of over 200 ships equipped with siege weapons and Greek fire; William of Tyre was particularly impressed by the large transport ships used to transport the cavalry forces of the Komnenian army.[22] Manuel's wider strategy was to use the Latin Crusaders as a shield for the Empire, and his intervention in Egypt was because he believed control of Egypt would be the deciding factor of the Second Crusade.[23] A successful conquest would have consolidated Crusader control in the Holy Land, and restored the grain supply of the rich province to the Empire.

Furthermore, it would bind the Crusaders more closely to the Empire, a goal which Manuel would pursue with determination throughout his reign and which would be evident when King Amalric subsequently placed his whole kingdom under the protection of Manuel, effectively extending the agreement on Antioch by making the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem at least nominally part of the Empire. However, this was a personal arrangement, in the feudal tradition of Western Europe, and as such only applied for as long as Manuel and Amalric were the rulers of their respective states.

The invasion could even have expected support from the native Coptic Christians, who had lived under Islamic rule for over five hundred years. However, the failure of co-operation between the Crusaders and the Byzantines jeopardised the chances to take the province. The Byzantine fleet sailed only with provisions for three months: by the time the crusaders were ready, supplies were already running out, and eventually the fleet retired after an ineffectual attempt to capture Damietta. Each side sought to blame the other for failure, but both also knew that they depended on each other: the alliance was maintained, and further plans were made, which ultimately were to come to naught.[22]

The Byzantine Empire at the end of the wars, c. 1180.

The consequences of failure were serious; the resources invested could have been better used against the Turks in Anatolia. Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan II used this time to eliminate his rivals and build up his power in Asia Minor. The balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean was changing, and the effects of Manuel's failure in Egypt would still be felt long after his death. The rise of Saladin was only made possible when, in 1171, he was proclaimed Sultan of Egypt; his uniting of Egypt and Syria would ulitmately lead to the Third Crusade. Meanwhile, the Byzantine alliance ended with the death of Manuel I in 1180; Manuel would be the last Emperor truly sympathetic to the Crusades.[24]

After the invasion, the Byzantine-Arab Wars had ended. Ultimately, the rise of the Ottoman Empire replaced the threats of both sides to the Arabs and the Byzantines.

Effects

As with any war of such length, the drawn-out Byzantine-Arab Wars had long lasting effects for both the Byzantine Empire and the Arab states. The Byzantines experienced extensive territorial loss, while the Arabs gained strong control in the Middle East and Africa, cutting off Christian Europe from civilisations in Africa and Asia.[3] The focus of the Empire shifted from the western reconquests of Justinian to a primarily defensive position on its eastern borders. Without Byzantine interference in the emerging Christian states of medieval Europe, the situation gave a huge stimulus to feudalism and economic self-sufficiency.[3]

The Byzantine-Arab Wars provided the conditions that developed feudalism in Medieval Europe.

Moreover, the view of modern historians is that one of the most important effects was the strain it put on the relationship between Rome and Byzantium. While fighting for survival against the Arabs, it was no longer able to provide the protection it had once offered to the Papacy; worse still, according to Thomas Woods, the Emperors "routinely intervened in the life of the Church in areas lying clearly beyond the state's competence".[19] The Iconoclast controversy of the 8th and 9th centuries can be taken as a key factor "which drove the Latin Church into the arms of the Franks."[3] Thus it has been argued that Charlemagne was an indirect product of Muhammed:

"The Frankish Empire would probably never have existed without Islam, and Charlemagne without Mahomet would be inconceivable."[25]

The Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne's successors would later come to the aid of the Byzantines under Louis II and during the Crusades, but relations between the two empires would be strained; based on the Salerno Chronicle, we know the Emperor Basil had sent an angry letter to his western counterpart, reprimanding him for usurping the title of emperor.[26] He argued that the Frankish rulers were simple reges, and that each nation has its own title for the ruler, whereas the imperial title suited only the ruler of the Eastern Romans, Basil himself.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b The Empire's levies included Christian Armenians, Slavs, and Arab Ghassanids
    • "Ghassan." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Oct. 2006 [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e f Piers Paul Read, The Templars
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996. ISBN 0-19-820171-0
  4. ^ "Syria." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Oct. 2006 [2]
  5. ^ P. K. Hitti and F. C. Murgotten, Studies in History, Economics and Public Law LXVIII (New York, Columbia University Press,1916 and 1924), I, 207-211 [3]
  6. ^ Medieval Sourcebook: Al-Baladhuri: The Battle Of The Yarmuk (636) and After [4]
  7. ^ Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades (Cambridge, 1953), i. 3. ISBN 052134770X
  8. ^ a b c The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford University Press, 1997.
  9. ^ Will Durant, The History of Civilization: Part IV—The Age of Faith. 1950. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671012002
  10. ^ The Islamic World to 1600: Umayyad Territorial Expansion.
  11. ^ a b Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 51.
  12. ^ Luis Garcia de Valdeavellano, Historia de España. 1968. Madrid: Alianza.
    • Quotes translated from the Spanish by Helen R. Lane in Count Julian by Juan Goytisolo. 1974. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. ISBN 0-670-24407-4 [5]
  13. ^ Karen Armstrong: Islam: A Short History. New York, NY, USA: The Modern Library, 2002, 2004 ISBN 0-8129-6618-X
  14. ^ a b 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica [6]
  15. ^ a b c d e The Walls of Constantinople, AD 324–1453, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-759-X.
  16. ^ Ibn Asakir, History of Damascus [7]
  17. ^ Volcanism on Santorini / eruptive history
  18. ^ According to accounts by Patriarch Nikephoros and the chronicler Theophanes
  19. ^ a b Thomas Woods, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, (Washington, DC: Regenery, 2005), ISBN 0-89526-038-7
  20. ^ Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0804726302
  21. ^ a b c John Julius Norwich (1998). A Short History of Byzantium. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-025960-0.
  22. ^ a b William of Tyre, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea
  23. ^ Michael Angold (1997). The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204. Longman. ISBN 0-582-29468-1.
  24. ^ Crusader Castles in the Holy Land 1192–1302, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1841768278.
  25. ^ Pirenne, Henri
    • Mediaeval Cities: Their Origins and the Rivival of Trade (Princeton, NJ, 1925). ISBN 0691007608
    • See also Mohammed and Charlemagne (London 1939) Dover Publications (2001). ISBN 0-486-42011-6.
  26. ^ Dolger F, Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des ostromischen Reiches. I, p 59, №487. Berlin, 1924.
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