| Battle of Shirvan (764) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Khazar Khaganate | Abbasid Caliphate | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ras Tarkhan |
Yazid bin Usayd Musa ibn Ka'b † | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| 10.000 | 62.000[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | The entire army | ||||||
War
From 737 onwards, Khazar-Arab relations were stable and there were no wars. Khazars and Arabs even concluded a peace treaty through marriage in order to guarantee peace. The Khazar Khan sent a katun to the Arab ruler of the Caucasus for this purpose, but this katun died in 761. [2] Khazars then organized a revenge expedition to this region in 762.[3] This Khazar attack resulted in the destruction of Derbent and the surrounding settlements and Armenia and the massacre of the inhabitants. [4] Then, in 764, the Khazars sent a Khazar Tarkan called "Ras Tarkan" [5][6] to the Caucasus when the Arabs least expected it and launched a fierce attack. In response, Yazid bin Usayd could only muster 7,000 troops. [7] Therefore, he asked for help from the caliphate center. The Arabs hastily gathered about 55,000 troops and sent them to the Caucasus.[1]
Before the War
Yazid bin Usayd marched against the Khazars with an army of more than 60,000 in his year, taking reinforcements with him. He confronted the Khazar Tarkan, who had been plundering arbitrarily in the region for about 2 months, by launching an attack against him. However, in the words of Ibnul Asam;
"The Muslims had never seen a more terrible day."[1]
The Khazar army devastated the army of the caliphate and committed a massacre. Yazid bin Usayd barely escaped with his life and fled towards Partav. With this victory, the Khazars had slaughtered almost the entire Arab army of 62,000[8] and captured about 50,000 people in the region. [9] Since the Caliphate did not even have the strength to raise its arms, the Khazars deemed it unnecessary to advance further and returned to their homeland with "incalculable" booty, having avenged the slaughter. [10] [11] Yazid, who, like many others, was able to escape from the Khazar army, hid for a while in Berda [12] and then, confident that his enemies had retreated north, traveled to Iraq and appeared before the caliph. Mansūr's lamentation, "Woe to you, Yazid, what can we do?"[13] upon his narration of what had happened, clearly shows the powerlessness of the caliphate in the face of the Khazars.[14]
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ahmed ibn A'sam al-Kufi, "Kitab al-Fütuh", p. 74
- ↑ Altay Tayfun Özcan, Khazar Khaganate and the World Around It, p. 201
- ↑ K. Czedlegy, Khazar Raids in Transcaucasia in 762-64 A.D, p. 81
- ↑ The History of Al-Tabari, Volume XXVIII, p. 292
- ↑ P. B. Golden, Khazar Studies, p. 175-179.
- ↑ M. I. Artamonov, Khazar History, p. 320-322.
- ↑ Altay Tayfun Özcan, Khazar Khaganate and the World Around It, p. 203
- ↑ K. Czegledy, Khazar Raids in Transcaucasia in 762-764 A.D, p. 86
- ↑ Agapius de Menbidj, "Kitab al-Unvan, p. 543.
- ↑ Ahmed ibn A'sam al-Kufi, "Kitab al-Fütuh", p. 74-75
- ↑ Altay Tayfun Özcan, Khazar Khaganate, p. 204
- ↑ Altay Tayfun Özcan, Khazar Khaganate and the World Around It, p. 204
- ↑ Ahmed ibn A'sam al-Kufi, "Kitab al-Fütuh", s. 75
- ↑ Altay Tayfun Özcan, Khazar Khaganate, p. 205
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