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    Byzantine Arab Diplomacy in The Near Ea PDF

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    Numa Buchs

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    of 6
    a Vill 16 support for this can be found in the writings of Quddmah who explains how the Muslims, having fattened their beasts in their own lands in the early summer, then moved up to the lands of the Byzantines where there was still pasture and they could enjoy a second spring.170 These beasts would have to be protected by armed guards and the whole could be dignified by the ttle of an expedition against the infidel, ‘The picture of the Islamic frontier which appears from the patchy souree material is of a number of urban settlements in the plains and valleys of south-east Anatolia. These cities, mostly founded or re-founded in the first half-century of Abbasis rule, were garrisoned by salaried troops from Syria, al-Jazirah and distant Khurasin. Although the total number of troops settled can hardly have exceeded thirty thousand, they were supplemented by an unknown number of volunteers who played an active role in frontier warfare, especially in the fourthjtenth century. These cities also provided bases for offensive action against Byzantine outposts in the mountainous country to the north. Sometimes this action took the form of massive expedi tions organised and led by the Caliph or the great men of the state. More often, they were led by local men in the pursuit of local objectives. This at least is the picture which emerges from the literary sourees. ‘The most important conclusion to be drawn from this brief survey of ‘Arab and Byzantine frontier regions is that, while it need not be doubted that they were different in character from the better-protected central territories, lying behind them, we still know remarkably little about them. The foregoing. does not pretend fo be an exhaustive survey of all the literary evidence, stil less of the archaeological material which might be applied in this context, But it is clear that what is required above all is a detailed archaeological survey of the area, for only this can give us a clearer impression of the front, line of both Islamic and Byzantine worlds. No doubt this will remain a desi- deratum for many years to come,!7! but accurate knowledge of the sites of fortresres and settlements and the ways in which the frontier — however broadly it may be defined in practice — moved to and fro will be indispensable for any serious aitempt to analyse the character of these regions. 150 Qudimal b. Jafar, 289 'I1The fist steps have already been taken inthe form of the Tabula ImperliByzani For our area, the recent survey by F. Hild of the Cappadocian road system sd the topo: raphy of the region isthe most signifcant advance of recent, ears. See note 21 above And J. Koder, “Gterlegungen zu Konzept und Mothode des "Tabula Impert Byzantt™ Osterrichsche Osthefte 20 (1978), 284-252. Se alka the comments of Ahfwelle Lat fron” tine en Orlent (ted in | above) 222° IX Byzantine-Arab diplomacy in the Near East from the Islamic conquests to the mid eleventh century! ‘The Moslem caliphates and successor states of the Near East were in many ways the most dangerous foes the Byzantine empire faced, since they had both an ideology of conquest in the jihad and the technology and organization requisite for mounting naval expeditions and con- ducting sieges. At the same time the Moslems, alone among the nei ours of the Byzantines, had a developed bureaucratic government, run by trained professionals, and accustomed to conducting government by written order and correspondence. It would seem that this was the ideal field for the Byzantines to develop those diplomatic skills for which they are, rightly or wrongly, famous. And yet Byzantine diplomatic links with the Moslem world were irregular and unsophisticated and the diplomacy essentially ‘reactive’ and ‘prophylactic’. It was reactive in the sense that it responded to changing events rather than attempting to initiate them, and prophylactic in the sense that it was designed to ward off the immediate threat of attack rather than to create the conditions for longer term security or the expansion between Byzantine interests. Despite the state of permanent confrontation between Byzantine and Moslem worlds, changes did occur and four distinct phases can be observed. The first begins shortly after the Moslem conquest of Syria and continues until the last great Moslem attack on Constantinople in 717 and is a period of irregular contacts whose timing was largely dictated by internal crises on one side or another. In the second phase, from 717 onwards, diplomatic contacts were virtually non-existent, so | This paper depends very heavily on the Arabic sources for the period. For the non ‘Arabist these are convenieniy translated as follows: EW. Brooks, ‘Byzantines and Arabs in the te of the Early Abbasids’, English Historical Review 15 (1900), 728-47, From 820 A.D. to 959 the Arabic materials in French translation ae colleted in A.A. Vasiliev, Byzance et les ‘Anite Ll (Brussels, 1935-6) Byzantinsts should also be aware of the new, complete English translation of al Tabarts History ofthe Prophets and Kings edited by E. Yar Shater (38 vols, Albany, 1985). This is stil in course of publication but where itis available, J shall {ive references to volume and page numbers, 13 far as we can tell. The third phase begins in the 780s when direct links were developed between the Byzantine court and the Abbasid caliphs, The third phase continues through the ninth century and into the tenth with increasingly formal contacts between the two courts, the main issue now being not prevention of invasion but exchange of prisoners. ‘The Byzantine advances into Syria in the mid-tenth century and the establishment of a permanent Byzantine presence there after the fall of ‘Antioch in 969 led to a new phase of what might be called ‘province of Syria diplomacy’ when the emphasis was not so much on relations between the Byzantine and Moslem world as a whole but on securing. the frontiers of this exposed part of the Byzantine empire and this remained the main concern down to the middle of the eleventh century. Tt was not long after the fall of Syria to the Moslems that the Byzan- tines attempted to make contact with the new rulers. We know little about the first contacts from Moslem sources; the Arab chroniclers and poets in this period portray a world of unremitting jihad. We are better informed by the eastern Christian tradition, generally located in Edessa or elsewhere in northern Mesopotamia which comes down to us in Greek through Theophanes,? in Arabic through Agapius of Manbij? and in Syriac in the chronicles of 12344 and Michael the Syrian.’ ‘The first direct contact seems to have occurred in 650-1 when Constans Il, faced by trouble in the Balkans and by Arab naval attacks sent the siratégos Procopius to Damascus to request peace from Mu'awiyah, later to be the first Umayyad caliph but at this stage only governor of Syria. Presumably money was paid and the Byzantines left a hostage, Gregory, the emperor’s cousin. Apparently Gregory died the next year and the truce was annulled but, no doubt as a gesture of good-will, his embalmed body was sent back to Constantinople. $ This set the pattern for subsequent contacts: a state of war was con- sidered to be the normal relationship between the two powers, peace very much the exception but from time to time a truce was granted. In the next recorded diplomatic exchange, the Moslems were the suppli- ants. In 658-9 Mu’awiyah had rebuffed the forces of “Ali b. Ali Talib at 2 Theophanes, Cronognphis, oC. de Boot I (Lelpelg, 188); rH Turtledove (Philadelphia 1962). 1 Kilbane with French AA. Vaso, PO8 (191). 4 Anonym’ enclrschroicon ad anus Christ 1234 petnes, wih Latin te, J-B, Chabot (Paris, 1920, have used the new translation of the seventh

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