Siege of Antioch (970–971)

Siege of Antioch and battle at Alexandretta
Part of Byzantine–Arab wars (780–1180)
Date December 970 – July 971 Location Antioch, Alexandretta (modern Iskenderun) Result Byzantine victory at Alexandretta Fatimids lift the siege of Antioch
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Fatimid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Nicholas	Futuh Aras Ibn al-Zayyat
Strength
Small force (unknown exact numbers)	~20,000 men (Fatimid siege force), 4,000 men (Alexandretta detachment)
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Heavy losses at Alexandretta; siege force dispersed

The siege of Antioch and battle at Alexandretta were a military conflict in 970–971, between the Fatimid Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. The Fatimids laid siege to Antioch, but after a Byzantine relief force under Nicholas defeated a Fatimid detachment at Alexandretta, the siege was lifted in July 971.

Background

Almost as soon as Damascus submitted, Ja'far ibn Falah entrusted one of his ghilman (household slave soldiers), named Futuh ("Victories"), to carry out the promised jihad against the Byzantines, although the 15th-century compilation Uyun al-Akhbar by the Yemeni Isma'ili historian Idris Imad al-Din also mentions Akhu Muslim as commander. Futuh assembled a large army of Kutama Berbers, strengthened with levies from Palestine and southern Syria, and moved to besiege Antioch in December 970. The Byzantine writer Kedrenos claims that the Fatimid army numbered—a clearly much exaggerated—100,000 men, but Imad al-Din records the number as 20,000 men.

The Fatimids laid siege to the city, but its inhabitants offered stiff resistance, and Ibn Falah had to send "army after army", in the description of the 14th-century historian Abu Bakr ibn al-Dawadari, apparently from the levies raised in southern Syria, to its reinforcement. Following the account of the 15th-century Egyptian al-Maqrizi, it was with these additional troops, which he puts at 4,000 men, that it became possible to completely halt the city's resupply by intercepting the caravans headed towards it.

In the meantime, Nikephoros' murderer and successor, John I Tzimiskes, was unable to intervene in person in the east due to the more menacing invasion of the Bulgaria by Sviatoslav I of Kiev. As a result, he sent a small force under a trusted eunuch of his household, the patrikios Nicholas, who according to the contemporary Leo the Deacon was experienced in battle, to relieve the siege.

Siege and battle

In the meantime, the siege of Antioch had continued for five months over winter and into spring, without result. At some point, a Fatimid detachment—according to Ibn al-Dawadari 4,000 men under a Berber chieftain called Aras and a former emir of Tarsus, Ibn al-Zayyat—moved north against Alexandretta, where the Byzantine relief army had camped. Informed of their approach, the Byzantine commander vacated the camp and placed his troops in ambush. Finding the enemy encampment deserted, the Fatimid troops began to plunder it, heedless of anything else. At that moment, Nicholas launched a surprise attack from all sides and the Fatimid force disintegrated; most of the Muslim army perished, but Aras with Ibn al-Zayyat managed to escape.

The defeat at Alexandretta was a major blow to Fatimid morale. Coupled with news of an advance against Damascus of the Qarmatians, a radical Isma'ili group originating from Eastern Arabia and rivals to the Fatimids, Ibn Falah ordered Futuh to raise the siege of Antioch in early July 971. The army returned to Damascus, whence the various contingents dispersed to their home districts.