Third Chapter (3)

In Modern English

This is the sum of the historical information that these wronged people of Damascus lived in Amasya. In which place in Amasya they lived is not known. But it is probable that they lived in Şamlar Quarter. Some existing signs strengthen this probability.

For in this quarter, near the tomb of Alagöz Baba, there are two old graves side by side on the road. Each of these graves is built of old-time bricks, with a top in the shape of a camel's hump, and resembles very much the appearance of the old graves I visited in Damascus. They are shown as the graves of two camels that brought the soil of Damascus to Amasya.

If one examines how this legend spread in Amasya, the form of the graves and the fact that both lie side by side, they must be the graves of the caliph's son Ebân ibn Muâviye, who fled Damascus and took refuge in Amasya, and his son Abdullah. How they could be preserved under Greek rule cannot be seen as far-fetched. For the Greeks may have protected them, counting them among sources of national pride. It is not even improbable that they themselves had them built.

The caliph Ebû Ca'fer el-Mansûr, angered by this grievous event that took place in Amasya, gave the command of the army of seventy thousand he had raised to his brother's son Abdülvehhâb ibn el-İmâm İbrâhim el-Abbâsî. Adding to him commanders such as the famous emirs Hasan ibn Kahtaba, Ca'fer ibn Hanzala el-Mihrânî and Ma'bûf ibn Yahyâ el-Hacûnî, he sent him to the Greek land.

Emir Abdülvehhâb, who set out in 139 [756-57], conquered first Malatya and then the cities of Kayseri and Elbistan, each in one stroke. After appointing Ca'fer ibn Hanzala to the emirate of Kayseri, he sent Hasan ibn Kahtaba toward Darende and Harşene. Hasan ibn Kahtaba, with the force he had, took first Darende and then Harşene by fighting. The defeated governor of Amasya, Covanis (Yovanis), fled.

In Zilhicce 139 Emir Hasan ibn Kahtaba entered Harşene in triumph; he followed and searched for the governor Yovanis but could not catch him. By order received from Emir Abdülvehhâb, he gave the emirate of Amasya to Ma'bûf ibn Yahyâ el-Hacûnî and, leaving a sufficient number of mujahids, returned to Emir Abdülvehhâb.

Ma'bûf ibn Yahyâ el-Hacûnî, emir of Amasya, was of a tribe that lived at the place called "Hacûn" around Mecca the Noble, and became emir of Amasya in Muharrem 140 [757]. After Hasan ibn Kahtaba's return, the general Yovanis came back with the force he took and attacked Amasya repeatedly. Emir Ma'bûf defended with self-sacrifice. When the state of war had lasted about two years and caused great losses to both sides, peace was made in 142 [759-60] and prisoners were mutually released.

But in the same year the emperor Kostantin ibn Le'on İsori died, and when his son Le'on the Khazar became Greek emperor he broke the earlier peace. With a great force sent under General Yovanis, in 143 [760-61] he suddenly took Amasya by fighting, crossed the Islamic borders and acted very cruelly. Thereupon Emir Ma'bûf withdrew.

The Greeks' breaking the treaty and acting cruelly enraged the caliph Ebû Ca'fer el-Mansûr extremely. Appointing his brother Abbâs ibn Muhammed to the governorship of the east, he sent him to the Greek land. He sent after the said emir, one after another, with auxiliary forces, his paternal uncle Sâlih ibn Alî, one of the famous emirs, and then Mâlik ibn Abdullah el-Has'amî.

Emir Abbâs made Malatya his camp and stayed there. When Sâlih ibn Alî reached the city of Darende (Dârende) with a great force, he sent Mâlik ibn Abdullah as vanguard with a sufficient force to Harşene. Emir Mâlik, in early 144 [761-62], fought before Harşene, dispersed the Greeks and took most of them prisoner. General Yovanis was killed in this battle.

As written in history and literature books such as el-Kâmil, Ikdu'l-Cümân, Nihâyetü'l-Ereb and Zehrü'l-Âdâb, after Emir Mâlik entered Harşene in triumph he took a great deal of booty, prisoners and captive women. One of the captives was Hayzürâne, taken from a church, very beautiful and of faultless stature. When Emir Mâlik presented her to the caliph Ebû Ca'fer el-Mansûr, the caliph sent her as a gift to his son Muhammed el-Mehdî, governor of Rey. The caliph Mûsâ el-Hâdî and the famous caliph Hârûn Reşîd were born of this Hayzürâne.

Emir Mâlik ibn Abdullah el-Has'amî, in return for this service, from 144 stayed in Amasya about nine years as protector of Harşene and of the Islamic fortresses (avâsım) on the Greek frontier. At this time the emperor Le'on was very busy at home and abroad with the Slavic and Bulgar nations.

Mâlik ibn Abdullah, emir of Harşene, returned to Baghdad in the Hijri year 153 [770]. Of the earlier emirs Emir Ma'bûf el-Hacûnî, and then in 153 Züfer ibn Âsım el-Hilâlî, and then in 156 [772-73] Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî came to Amasya one after another as emir of Harşene.

When in Zilhicce 158 [774-75] Ebû Ca'fer el-Mansûr died at Mecca the Noble and his son Muhammed el-Mehdî became caliph of the Muslims, the Greek emperor Le'on moved to take back the Greek land and sent a commander named Manil (Manu'il) with a great army. Since Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî, emir of Amasya, could not resist this, he returned to Baghdad in 159 [775-76], and General Manu'il entered Amasya.

General Manu'il, appointed by the Greek empire to the governorship of Pontus, stayed in Amasya about three years, trying to protect the Pontus region from the attacks of the Islamic mujahids, following the caliphate's moves and increasing his auxiliary forces.

But when Emir Yezîd ibn Üseyd returned to Baghdad and reported that he had been suddenly attacked and of the Greeks' attacks, the caliph Muhammed el-Mehdî prepared an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men made up of eighty thousand salaried regular soldiers (muvazzaf and muntazam) and as many volunteers. He gave this army to the command of Hasan ibn Kahtaba, one of the famous emirs, added many emirs to him and sent him to the Greek land.

Emir Hasan, in 162 [778-79], left Baghdad with the force he had and entered the Greek land by way of Malatya. Then, trampling the Elbistan, Sivas and Darende directions by fighting, as he reached Harşene, General Manu'il, governor of Pontus, defeated, was fleeing toward the sea coasts.

Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî, former emir of Amasya, took the lands of Harşene from Harşene to the seashore. In retaliation for some of the cruelties and evils the Greeks had committed on the Islamic frontier, he destroyed and plundered and pursued General Manu'il, who, defeated, fled to Istanbul.

In 163 [779-80] the emperor Le'on died, and his young son Constantine V became Greek emperor under the guardianship of his mother Rihi (Irene). Irene was obliged to make peace to ease the attacks of the Islamic mujahids in the Greek land. Since the lands of Harşene remained under the administration of the Abbasid state, Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî became governor of Amasya for the second time.

Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî, governor of Amasya, also became protector of the seashores in 163. Since the state of war had ended, Hasan ibn Kahtaba, commander of the army, leaving some mujahids in Amasya, returned with those with him. Yezîd es-Sülemî stayed in Harşene about five years and watched the Greeks' situation.

The Greek empress Irene, for the sake of her ambition for rule, removed her son and took the administration into her hands. In 168 [784-85] she charged Tekfûr (Nikefor), who was commander-in-chief, with taking back the Greek land, and, breaking the treaty, sent him to Anatolia with a great force. Yezîd ibn Üseyd es-Sülemî, emir of Harşene, could not resist this great force and was forced to return to Baghdad.

In Muharrem 169 [785-86] Muhammed el-Mehdî died, and his eldest son Mûsâ el-Hâdî took the caliphal throne. Just at this time, when Yezîd ibn Üseyd's return and the Greeks' attack on Islamic lands became known, Mûsâ el-Hâdî gave an army to the command of Alî ibn Süleyman el-Abbâsî, governor of the Jazira. Adding to him Yezîd ibn el-Münzir ibn el-Battâl Ebi'l-Hüseyn el-Antâkî, governor of Qinnasrin, he sent him to the Greek land.

In 169 Emir Alî ibn Süleyman set out from the Jazira and Emir Yezîd ibn el-Münzir from Aleppo, and, uniting before Malatya, they entered the Greek land. Although they won several battles they met and came as far as Harşene, the Greeks received auxiliary forces and made a second attack. Yezîd ibn el-Münzir fell a martyr with most of his men, and Alî ibn Süleyman, commander of the army, was forced to withdraw. Pursuing, the Greeks destroyed Islamic lands as far as the Jazira.

This humble author, while a student in Istanbul, had heard that in 1312, in a vineyard southeast of Köşk Kayası in the lower parts of Çakallar, a blackish marble came out with the phrase "Yezîd ibn el-Münzir ibn Ebi'l-Hüseyn el-Antâkî" carved on it in Kufic script. When I came to Amasya I could not find the marble described. But it impressed me that several people said they had read the stone in question and that the above phrase was carved on it. That such a historical work should be allowed to vanish is astonishing.

When in Rebîülevvel 170 [786] Mûsâ el-Hâdî died and his brother Hârûn Reşîd became caliph of the Muslims, he had appointed as army commander Ma'bûf ibn Yahyâ el-Hacûnî, one of the frontier emirs prominent for knowing the Greek land, added a sufficient force to him and sent him to the Greek land. Emir Ma'bûf drove the Greeks back by fighting and came as far as Harşene. Here he freed the Muslim prisoners held in custody, devastated the Greek land and returned.

When Tekfûr (Nikoforos), who had become Greek emperor a year earlier, demanded in 187 [802-03] the return of the cizye that the empress Irene, before him, had given to the caliph Hârûn Reşîd, and threatened him, Hârûn Reşîd was extremely enraged. He set out at once with a great force he took. As he reached Üsküdar, burning and destroying the Greek land, his third son Kâsım el-Mü'temen, whom he had appointed frontier emir (emîrü'l-avâsım), also came to Harşene. Abbâs ibn Ca'fer ibn Muhammed ibn el-Eş'as el-Kindî, among the emirs with him, took and destroyed the Black Sea coasts.

When the emperor Nikofor undertook to pay the cizye set and accepted the proposed peace, Hârûn Reşîd had returned with the force he had since winter had set in severely. Just as he reached Baghdad, it was understood that the emperor Nikofor had again broken the treaty and trampled the Islamic frontier. In 188 [803-04] another great force was sent under the command of the emir İbrâhim ibn Cibrîl. The emperor, defeated repeatedly, was forced to fulfill his earlier undertaking.

In Cemâziyelâhire 193 [808-09] Hârûn Reşîd died and his son Muhammedü'l-Emîn, and in Muharrem 198 [813] his other son Abdullah el-Me'mûn, took the caliphal office. On the Greek side, in place of the emperor Nikofor, who died in 194 [809-10], his son İstavrakiyus, two months later his brother Michael I, and two years later Leo V, famous as "Patrîk," succeeded. With Le'on's killing in 203 [818-19] Michael II, and with his death in 212 [827-28] his son Te'ofilus, became Greek emperor.

But although the protection of the rights of Muslims living in the Pontus and Cappadocia regions remaining under the administration of the Greek empire was under the Greeks' undertaking, when Te'ofilus became emperor he troubled the Muslims. The Muslims too were asking for help from the caliphate.

The caliph Abdullah el-Me'mûn, grieved by such situations contrary to the earlier treaty, in 214 [829-30] entered the Greek land with a great force, conquered several fortresses and came before Herşene (Amasya). In Muharrem 215 [830] he entered Harşene by fighting, forced the Greeks to fulfill their undertakings, and returned a month later.

Abdullah el-Me'mûn, who afterwards entered the Greek land many times and pressed the Greeks, died in Receb 218 [833]; his brother Muhammed el-Mu'tasım took the caliphal office. After this change the Greeks' troublesome behavior again increased and returned to its former state.

Indeed, in early 223 [837-38], while Afşin Cündüz (Gündüz Han) ibn Kâvus Han, the famous commander of the caliphal office, was very busy in the "Bâbek Haremî" affair, the emperor Te'ofilus also plundered the Islamic frontiers. He cut off the noses and ears of the Muslim prisoners he took and burned them in fires. When the news reached Muhammed el-Mu'tasım Billâh that in Ankara a prisoner, his soul burning with torture, had asked the caliphal office for help with "Vâ Mu'tasımâh" (O Mu'tasım, come to my aid), he was deeply moved.

Mu'tasım Billâh at once prepared a great army and set out in Cemâziyelûlâ 223. When he entered the Greek land he divided his army into three columns and ordered each column to attack the Greek land violently. He himself, like a burning fire and a flowing flood, went straight toward Amûriyye (Ankara). After taking Ankara in the first thrust he plundered it and then razed it to the ground.

Then, turning east from Ankara, he marched on Harşene and came before Harşene at the end of Şaban. When the Greeks asked for quarter he entered the city. As written in Kitâbu'l-Ma'ârif, while he kept the fast of Ramazan in Harşene (Amasya), he made peace with the Greeks, freed all the Muslim prisoners, and returned to Baghdad at the beginning of Şevval.

In the time of Le'on, who in 280 [893-94] became Greek emperor in place of his father Vasilus, when the Greeks' attacks on the Islamic frontiers grieved the Muslims, the famous emir Ebû Ca'fer Ahmed ibn İnâc et-Türkî, protector of the Greek frontier, that is "emîrü'l-avâsım," who lived at Tarsus and had ruined the Greeks in 270 [883-84], trampling cities such as Elbistan and Darende with a great force, forced his way into the city of Harşene (Amasya). After staying there for a time, he took and plundered the Black Sea coasts as far as Trabzon and forced the Greeks to peace.

Among the prisoners the said emir took from Harşene there was a youth of unmatched beauty and very fine stature. He presented this youth to the caliph Ahmed el-Mu'tazıd Billâh. This youth later, having received a good upbringing, became known as "Bedrü'l-Harşenî," one of the famous emirs; he is mentioned in all Arab histories. Indeed, in the history of Ebû Bekir el-Hatîb el-Bağdâdî his children are mentioned as among the emirs and the hadith scholars.

In Rebîülevvel 289 [902] Ahmed el-Mu'tazıd died, and his son Alî el-Müktefî became caliph of the Muslims. At this time the Qarmatians from within and the Greeks from outside were threatening Islamic lands. Ahmed ibn Kîlîg et-Türkî, governor of Damascus, with a sufficient force he took, entered the Greek land by way of Tarsus in Muharrem 294 [906]. Sending his brother İbrâhim Bey as vanguard, he trampled the Kayseri, Elbistan and Darende regions and marched on Harşene.

Emir Ahmed ibn Kîlîg et-Türkî came before Harşene, besieged and pressed the city from two sides, and after routing the Greeks entered Harşene in triumph in Zilkade 294 [907]. He freed some two hundred Muslim prisoners held in the dungeons of Harşene, and after taking a great number of prisoners and booty returned in Muharrem 295 [907-08].

Of the prisoners he took, one was the commander of the city and the other its patriarch. The patriarch of Amasya had been freed because he accepted Islam. The sources do not give the names of the commander whom the said emir took prisoner and of the patriarch who accepted Islam. The emperor Le'on sent a unit after Ahmed ibn Kîlîg to free the Greek prisoners, but these too were defeated and forced to return. One of the commanders of this unit was Laven el-Harşenî, who made a name for the courage he showed in the pursuit.

Laven (Le'on), governor of Amasya, was appointed governor of Pontus in early 295 in place of the commander, a man of Amasya, who had been taken prisoner. Returning from the pursuit he settled in Amasya and, after serving long as governor, died around 315 [927-28]. Judging by his being called "Laven Foka," he must be of the line of Fokas of Amasya, one of the earlier Greek emperors.

Karkas (Yovanis Kurkuas), governor of Pontus, was appointed to the governorship of Pontus in place of Le'on Fokas, who died in 315. It was he who pressed extremely hard the Muslims on the Islamic frontier and living in the Greek land. In 324 [935-36], with the fifty thousand soldiers he took, he attacked the Malatya and Harbrût areas, put the Muslims to the sword, burned children and women in fire, destroyed the Islamic lands he passed through and grieved all Muslims.

During his governorship not a single Muslim remained in the Greek land; most were destroyed, and some fled and barely saved their lives. Arab histories are full of accounts of his evils. He took the strong fortress of Nizip and became famous for finding a white cloth claimed to have belonged to Jesus and bringing it to Istanbul. Indeed, the name "Karkas" is by implication recorded in some histories also as "Kara Kâsî."

In short, since Karkas (Yovanis Kurkuas), governor of Pontus, died in Amasya after returning from this war, Tekfûr Foka (Nikofor Fokas), one of the Greek generals he had raised, was appointed to the governorship of the province of Pontus. By the tortures he applied to the Muslims he proved to be General Kurkuas's successor in every respect.

Nikofor Fokas, governor of Pontus, as written in the biography of his relative Mardus Foka in Câmiu'd-Düvel, was of the line of kings in Amasya and of the descent of Fokas of Amasya, one of the earlier Greek emperors. His brother is Manu'il; he must be a son of Laven Foka, the earlier governor of Pontus.

At this time the emirs of all the Islamic towns on the Greek frontier were in internal disorder, behaving as if thirsting for one another's blood. The Greek emperor Romanos II, to take advantage of this, in 331 [942-43] appointed Nikofor Fokas, governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, famous for courage and valor among the Greek generals, to the governorship of Anatolia, Yani Zimiskis to the governorship of Cilicia, that is Adana, and Mardus Foka to the governorship of Pontus and Cappadocia, and resolved to take the Islamic land.

Mardus Foka (Bardas Fokas), who was governor of Pontus, as written in Câmiu'd-Düvel, was of the line of kings in Amasya and a relative of Tekfûr Foka. He is also called "Varda Foka." Bardas Fokas is of the descent of the earlier Greek emperor Fokas, who had a quarter in Amasya, and is a man of Amasya.

In Safer 333 [944-45], when İbrâhim el-Müttekî was deposed and Abdullah el-Müstekfî became caliph of the Muslims, the Hamdanid hero, glorious ruler Seyfü'd-Devle Ebu'l-Hasan Alî ibn Abdullah ibn Hamdân also drove away Yanis el-Mûnisî, governor of Aleppo, by war, took the Aleppo land and declared his independence. By fighting the emirs of Damascus and Egypt he was spending his material strength in vain.

Thereupon in 334 [945-46], taking advantage of Seyfü'd-Devle's going against Damascus, Yani Domestik, governor of Cilicia, on one side, and Mardus Foka, governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, on the other, crossed the Islamic frontier and turned the Islamic lands as far as the city of Aleppo into ruins. They slaughtered thousands of Muslims, took many Islamic notables prisoner and turned the places they passed through into hell. On the other hand, Tekfûr, governor of Anatolia, was bearing down on Crete with all his might to take Crete, under Egyptian administration, from the Muslims' hands.

Seyfü'd-Devle, when he returned to Aleppo at the people's outcry, understanding that there was no remedy but to act gently, made peace with the Greeks. In the exchange of prisoners made in 335 [946-47] he ransomed two thousand four hundred and eighty Muslim prisoners in return for two hundred and thirty Greek prisoners. But he dismissed and imprisoned the council secretary, that is his vizier, Ebû İshak Muhammed el-Karârîtî, who was evidently negligent in his duty, and appointed Ebû Abdullah Muhammed el-Mevsılî as council secretary in his place.

Seyfü'd-Devle was greatly affected by these calamities. Investigating and learning that those responsible for so much barbarity contrary to humanity were Tekfûr, Yani and Mardus, he swore to take revenge on them, chose as target the town of Harşene, their homeland, and attacked Harşene without interruption for a full twelve years, wishing to take revenge for these grievous cruelties in the city of Harşene. Seyfü'd-Devle's repeated attacks on Harşene arose from these reasons.

As understood from history compilations such as Ahbâru'd-Düvel, Câmiu'd-Düvel, Ikdu'l-Cümân, El-Aylemü'z-Zâhir, Kenzü'd-Dürer and Nihâyetü'l-Ereb, the Greeks' movements did not stop after the peace. When it was understood that on one side they had taken Crete and on the other had begun to plunder the Tarsus area, the patience of Seyfü'd-Devle, ruler of Aleppo, ran out and he gathered his military forces.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• mağdûr: a person who has suffered injustice
• karâ'in-i hâliye: existing signs, clues
• mefâhir-i milliyye: sources of national pride
• Rûm, bilâd-ı Rûm: the Byzantines and Byzantine lands
• ma'iyyet: the unit with a commander
• nakz-i ahd: breaking a treaty
• esîr, sebâyâ: male captives, female captives
• ganâ'im: war booty
• istîmân: asking for quarter, surrender
• emîrü'l-avâsım: commander of the Islamic fortresses (avâsım) on the Byzantine frontier
• cizye: a tax taken from non-Muslims; here the tribute Byzantium paid to the Abbasids
• münhezim: routed, defeated
• tâlân: plunder
• sâlâr: commander-in-chief of an army, commander who runs affairs
• Mukaddime: the introductory section of Hüsameddin's work

Şamlar Quarter

Şamlar Quarter, where Hüsameddin thinks the Syrian refugees lived, is still known by this name today. As the oldest Turkish structure in the city, the mosque that the Danishmendid Melik Gazi had built just east of the citadel, on the site of today's Şamlar Mosque, is pointed to. No information was found in the sources I read about the two old graves in the quarter.

The Abbasids on the Greek Frontier

This section relates the centuries-long frontier war between the Abbasid caliphs and Byzantium as a series of events centered on Amasya. Looking at contemporary studies of the frontier region, it is known that after taking over the administration the Abbasids repaired and garrisoned frontier fortresses such as Maraş, Hades, Tarsus and Malatya, that the caliph Mansûr sent his uncle Sâlih ibn Alî to this region, and that in 778-779 Hasan ibn Kahtaba set out on a campaign to Anatolia with eighty thousand soldiers. The campaign of Hasan ibn Kahtaba that Hüsameddin places in the year 162 [778-79] coincides with this. The campaign of 139 [756-57] in which Amasya is taken in the book could not be verified in the sources I read. Moreover, in these studies the route of the Abbasid armies is drawn as the Elbistan, Malatya, Maraş and Hades line; no column reaching Amasya is mentioned.

There is a similar picture for the time of Hârûnürreşîd. The caliph ordered two campaigns a year to this region; in 797 one of his commanders, Abdülmelik ibn Sâlih, advanced as far as Ankara, the empress Irene asked for peace, the treaty was broken with Nikephoros's accession, and in the great campaign of 806 Herakleia (Ereğli), Konya and Niğde (Tyana) were taken. Hüsameddin's account of Irene and Nikefor agrees with this in plot, but operations aimed at Amasya do not stand out in the sources.

Who Hayzürân Was

Hüsameddin writes that Hayzürân, mother of Hârûn Reşîd and Mûsâ el-Hâdî, was a captive taken from a church in Amasya. What is known about Hayzürân is different. She was a concubine of the caliph Mahdî of Yemeni origin, her father's name appearing as Atâ. Besides her beauty, through her culture and literary talent she became the caliph's favorite; having borne Mûsâ, Hârûn and Abbâse, she was regarded as an ümmüveled, and was freed by Mahdî in 159 [775-76]. It is recorded that she was a powerful woman who often meddled in affairs of state. The Harşene story Hüsameddin relates does not appear in the sources I read; it should therefore be treated as a tradition.

The Mu'tasım Campaign and Amûriyye

Hüsameddin writes that in Mu'tasım's campaign of 223 [837-38] he razed the city of "Amûriyye (Ankara)," then turned toward Amasya and spent Ramazan there. The known details of this campaign are as follows: the caliph set out in 838 with a great army gathered at Tarsus, divided his army into columns, and when Ankara was reached found the city empty. The real target was Amûriyye, that is, Amorium. This city is around today's Emirdağ district of Afyonkarahisar and was a settlement separate from Ankara. The city was besieged, fell and was plundered in August 838. Hüsameddin's parenthesis "Amûriyye (Ankara)" therefore seems to confuse two separate cities. The information that the caliph spent Ramazan in Amasya does not appear in the account I read.

Which Harşene

The most striking problem of the section is where the name "Harşene" in the Arab sources is. Hüsameddin counts this name as Amasya and writes that Seyfüddevle attacked Amasya for twelve years. Contemporary studies on the Hamdanids and Byzantium, by contrast, use the name Harşana or Harşene for the Kharsianon region and fortress on the defense line Byzantium established between Cappadocia and Sivas. Seyfüddevle's campaigns of 950, 956 and 960 enter through the Hades passes and reach the Kayseri region by way of Elbistan and Zamantı; in 956 the fortress of Harşana on the bank of the Kızılırmak is besieged but not taken. In other words, the campaign route points not to Amasya but to the Kayseri area.

The captivity of Ebû Firâs el-Hamdânî looks in the same direction. This poet, Seyfüddevle's nephew, was taken prisoner by the Byzantines near Manbij in 962 (351), taken first to the fortress of Harşana on the bank of the Euphrates near Malatya and from there to Istanbul. He was held in Istanbul until the exchange of prisoners made in 966 (355), and wrote part of his most beautiful poems, the collection called Rumiyyât, in the years of captivity. Hüsameddin, however, says that Ebû Firâs was taken prisoner in Amasya in 344 [955-56] and freed in 345 [956-57]. Both the dates and the place differ from contemporary data.

What is known of Seyfüddevle himself is as follows: he was born in 916 at Mayyafariqin, settled in Aleppo and devoted himself to the struggle against Byzantium; on his return from the 950 campaign to Cappadocia he was caught in an ambush; in 962 Aleppo was plundered by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phokas. He died at Aleppo on 8 February 967 and was buried in his mother's tomb at Mayyafariqin. The day of death Hüsameddin gives (the 24th of the month of Safer 356) and the place of burial agree with this exactly. It is also true that his court housed such names as Mütenebbî, Fârâbî and Ebû Firâs.

The Phokas Family and Amasya

Hüsameddin counts the famous Byzantine Phokas family as of Amasya and describes Bardas Fokas as one who proclaimed a "kingdom of Pontus" in Amasya. In the sources the Phokas family is of Cappadocian origin and the most influential Byzantine aristocratic family of the 10th century. Bardas Phokas (about 940-989) was the nephew of the emperor Nikephoros Phokas. After his uncle's death in 969 he revolted against the emperor Ioannes Tzimiskes. He was proclaimed emperor by units at Kayseri, but was suppressed by Bardas Skleros and exiled with his family to the island of Chios, where he stayed seven years. Hüsameddin's information on Chios and Sıklarus (Skleros) agrees with this part. Only the center of the revolt is Kayseri in the accounts I read; Amasya is not mentioned.

In 978 Phokas was released from prison by Basil Lekapenos, uncle of Basileios II, assigned against Skleros's revolt in the east, and defeated him. Skleros, however, took refuge not with the Khazar Turks, as Hüsameddin writes, but at Baghdad, with the Abbasid caliph; he stayed there six years. In 987 Phokas proclaimed himself emperor, imprisoned Skleros and advanced before Abydos. When Basileios II marched against him with the Varangian soldiers sent by the Rus prince Vladimir, he fell from his horse and died at Abydos on 13 April 989; the source notes that this was a seizure. Hüsameddin, by contrast, writes that Phokas was poisoned in 367 [977-78] by Skleros's man. Both the date and the cause of death differ from the contemporary account.

A similar chronology problem is seen in the death of Nikephoros Phokas. Hüsameddin writes that Nikefor was killed by Zimiskis in 354 [965-66]; the entry on Bardas Phokas gives his uncle's death as 969. That some of the Hijri dates in the book do not agree with other sources is a point to keep in mind while reading this section.

The Komnenos Family

Hüsameddin counts the Komnenos family as of Christian Pecheneg or Cuman origin settled in Amasya. In the contemporary account based on Byzantine sources, the family comes from the village of Komne in Thrace and holds lands around Kastamonu in Paphlagonia. Isaac I Komnenos, the first emperor to rise to the head of the family, was born around 1007; his father is Manuel Erotikos Komnenos. In 1057 he was proclaimed emperor on his estate near Kastamonu; in 1059 he fell ill and abdicated, and died as a monk at the Stoudios monastery in Istanbul on 1 June 1060. His father Manuel is mentioned as the commander who defended Nicaea during Skleros's revolt.

The information that Hüsameddin makes Komnenos governor of Amasya does not appear in this account. The cause of Isaakios's death is also different: according to the source, in 1059, as he returned from a campaign against the Pechenegs, a tree struck by lightning fell beside him, the emperor barely escaped death, and then he fell ill and abdicated. Hüsameddin's account that he went hunting and died of lightning may reflect a variant of this event.

Satuk Buğra Han and the Turks' Acceptance of Islam

In the last parts of the text, some histories relate that in 349 [960] thousands of tents of Oghuz became Muslim in one day. The Karakhanid ruler Satuk Buğra Han is mentioned as the first Muslim ruler of the Karakhanid State; in addition, the sources mention that in the year 960 a Turkish community of about two hundred thousand tents became Muslim, and this event is associated with the Karakhanids. Hüsameddin, however, counts this mass as Turkmens descended from Oghuz Han, and relates their becoming Muslim through Dukak (Togâk Bây), regarded as ancestor of the Seljuk dynasty. He also gives the number as two hundred thousand in one place and three million in another. The difference between these two figures is a point that warns the reader of the book.

The Inscription Lost at Çakallar

Hüsameddin writes that while a student in Istanbul in 1312 he heard that a black marble with Kufic writing was found at Çakallar, in a vineyard southeast of Köşk Kayası, but that when he came to Amasya he could not find the stone he sought. No information was found on where this stone is today.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 2, p. 297–301. amasya.bel.tr

Academic studies

• Abdülkerim Özaydın, "Seyfüddevle el-Hamdânî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 37, İstanbul 2009, p. 35-36. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/seyfuddevle-el-hamdani
• Mustafa Kılıçlı, "Ebû Firâs el-Hamdânî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 10, İstanbul 1994, p. 125-126. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ebu-firas-el-hamdani
• Kasım Kırbıyık, "Hayzürân", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 17, İstanbul 1998, p. 106-107. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/hayzuran
• Nahide Bozkurt, "Hârûnürreşîd", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 16, İstanbul 1997, p. 258-261. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/harunurresid
• İlyas Gökhan, "Arapların Fethinden Selçuklular Zamanına Kadar Maraş", Belleten, vol. 73, no. 266, Nisan 2009. https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/84/tur
• Amasya maddesi, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/amasya

Other sources

• "Sack of Amorium" (838 kuşatması), çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Amorium
• "Bardas Phokas the Younger", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardas_Phokas_the_Younger
• "Bardas Skleros", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardas_Skleros
• "Abu Firas al-Hamdani", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Firas_al-Hamdani
• "Satuk Buğra Han", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satuk_Buğra_Han
• "Isaac I Komnenos", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi (2-15 ile ortak kullanıldı). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_I_Komnenos