Third Chapter (4)

In Modern English

In 336 [947-48] Seyfü'd-Devle set out from Aleppo with the force he had and reached Tarsus. Entering Cilicia from there, he engaged in a fierce battle around Adana with the governor Yani Domestik (Zimiskis). Before Seyfü'd-Devle's sword of vengeance Yani was defeated and fled.

With this thrust Seyfü'd-Devle passed the province of Konya and entered the Cappadocia region; as he came toward Kayseri, Mardus Foka, governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, confronted Seyf. Having lost the battle he entered and been defeated, he had gone onto the defensive. But Seyfü'd-Devle's strength had also diminished considerably, and winter had set in. For this reason he destroyed and plundered the Greek lands he had invaded, in retaliation, and returned to Aleppo in 337 [948-49].

In 338 [949-50] Seyfü'd-Devle entered the Greek land a second time with a large force he had taken. He dispersed the unit of Yani Domestik, whom he met first, forced the Domestik to flee, and advanced. Destroying the places before him with a lust for revenge, he besieged the town of Harşene and pressed Mardus, governor of Pontus, very hard. Realizing he would be taken prisoner, Mardus Foka fled toward Bahr-ı Bentaş (the Black Sea).

Then Seyfü'd-Devle entered Harşene (Amasya) and destroyed some places. The places he destroyed must be the Foka Quarter, where the palaces of Mardus Foka and Tekfûr Foka stood. Then, after staying about two months at the Semendû (Ziyâre) locality and strolling about, he was able to return with booty. The following couplets, from the ode in which the famous poet Ebû Tayyib el-Mütenebbî describes this campaign and praises Seyfü'd-Devle, are written in Ahbâru'd-Düvel:

After tomorrow the fine scents (news) of this campaign day will spread around,
and among the enemy the fire of war will be kindled.
Among us there is a sword (Seyfüddevle) true to his word,
who, meeting the enemy, attacks without fear and takes no step back.
We guard him from evil eyes,
we pray for him in a loud voice.
We were content, but the Domestik did not accept the judgment of swords and spears.
If he comes upon us, let him know that we have visited Semendo,
and if he flees, our meeting place is the Golden Horn.

On Seyfü'd-Devle's return the emperor Romanos sent his brother Liyonde (Le'onida) with a military unit to pursue Seyf. But Le'onida withdrew after suffering some thirty thousand casualties, and Seyfü'd-Devle returned safe and sound. Although the word "Domestik" appears in some Arab histories as the title of Anatolian governors, in some of emperors' sons, and in some of heirs, as stated above it is the Arabized form of the word "Zimiskis" and is in particular the epithet of Yani (Yovanis), who was governor of Cilicia at this date. It is also called "Cimiskî, Cimişkî, Simistik."

In 339 [950-51] Seyfü'd-Devle entered the Greek land a third time and reached Harşene. While he was carrying away great booty and a great number of captives from Amasya, Tekfûr (Nikofor Fokas), governor of Anatolia, on one side, and Mardus (Bardas Fokas), governor of Pontus, on the other, each with a great force, pressed him in a gorge. In the battle that followed Seyfü'd-Devle was ruined and could save his life only with some three hundred of his men.

Tekfur Foka, governor of Anatolia, pursued Seyfü'd-Devle as far as the city of Aleppo, destroyed the Islamic land before him, and inflicted very cruel tortures on God's servants. But Neccâh er-Rûmî, one of Seyfü'd-Devle's emirs, defended Aleppo and was able, with difficulty, to force Tekfûr Foka to withdraw. Seyfü'd-Devle too suffered great losses in this battle.

In 340 [951-52] Seyfü'd-Devle waged gaza in the Greek land for the fourth time, but Tekfur Foka (Nikofor Fokas), governor of Anatolia, confronted him and forced him to return defeated. Through this he gained great influence and affection among the Greeks and was preparing for the empire.

To take revenge for the pain of this defeat Seyfü'd-Devle applied to the surrounding emirs and asked for help. However, only the ruler of Egypt, Enûcûr (Nûcûr) Han ibn İhşîd et-Türkî, helped with a sufficient force. Seyfü'd-Devle also gathered a large force made up of Turks, Arabs, Kurds and Bedouins of the Jazira and in 342 [953-54] entered the Greek land for the fifth time.

He routed and forced to flee Yani Domestik, governor of Cilicia, who confronted him first, then crushed Liyonde's unit and marched toward Harşene at great speed. On the Pontus frontier he also routed the governor Mardus Foka. After crossing the river Alis, that is, the Kızılırmak, before the city of Eflan (Osmâncık), he reached Rabzu'l-Likân behind Harşene and pitched his tent there. The following couplet of Ebu't-Tayyib el-Mütenebbî, who was with him on this campaign, explains this:

At last he settled at the foot of Harşene;
the Greeks, crosses and churches were wretched there.

Mardus Foka, withdrawing from the western frontier, shut himself in the fortress of Harşene, tried to defend Amasya, asked for help from the surroundings and strove to gather auxiliary forces in Amasya.

But Seyfü'd-Devle with great violence forced his way into Amasya from the Rabzu'l-Likân side, besieged the fortress of Harşene and held the roads of the auxiliary forces that were to come.

In short, when Seyfü'd-Devle, ruler of Aleppo, on one side, and his cousin Ebû Firâs el-Hâris ibn Ebi'l-Âlâ, on the other, pressed the fortress of Harşene extremely hard, those inside were forced to ask for quarter. Among those who asked for quarter was Kostantin, son of the Domestik, who was still young. Câmiu'd-Düvel writes that the Domestik's son-in-law (who must be Mardus) and his daughter's son were also taken prisoner and that one of the king's sons was killed. Ebu't-Tayyib el-Mütenebbî describes the Domestik's flight and the captivity of his son or his daughter's son as follows:

He bade farewell to his dead and saw them off;
their helmets too have been flattened by blows.
In the heart of the captive Constantine there is amazement at Seyfüddevle,
though there are fetters on his feet.
Perhaps you, O Domestik, will return one day;
how many fugitives there are who return to the place they fled from.

Seyfü'd-Devle, taking thousands of Greek prisoners and a great deal of booty from Harşene, returned safe and sound in 343 [954-55]. By exchanging Greek prisoners for the Muslim prisoners the Greeks had taken earlier, he rescued very many Muslim prisoners from the Greeks' heavy tortures. This conquest of Seyfü'd-Devle became the heading of all the poets' praises and the subject of brilliant odes; Seyfü'd-Devle, who knew the value of poetry, rewarded every poet according to his worth.

Since this great defeat affected the Roman emperor Romanos greatly, he made peace with the Slavic and Bulgar nations who were fighting him, took them into his alliance, and prepared a great force.

When Seyfü'd-Devle, unawares, waged gaza in the Greek land for the sixth time in 344 [955-56] and approached Harşene, Tekfûr Foka, Yani Domestik and Mardus Foka surrounded him on three sides.

In the fierce battle that ensued, the unfavorableness of the position, the multitude of the enemy soldiers and the fatigue of the Islamic mujahids left Seyfü'd-Devle powerless. In short, thousands of mujahids fell martyrs and very many were taken prisoner. Seyfü'd-Devle could save his life only through the self-sacrifice of some fifty men with him. One of the martyrs was Bedreddîn Ebu'l-Husayn Alî ibn Abdülmelik ibn el-Heysem, kadı of Aleppo and army kadı (kazasker) of Seyfü'd-Devle, and one of the prisoners was Seyfü'd-Devle's cousin Ebû Firâs el-Hâris ibn Ebi'l-Alâ'.

As written in Ahbâru'd-Düvel, Emir Ebû Firâs el-Hamdânî, after being taken prisoner, was sent to Harşene and shut in a dungeon. When Ebû Firâs saw Harşene he said the following:

If today I have come to Harşene as a prisoner,
I had come here earlier raiding.
I had seen fire plunder and burn houses and pavilions,
and I had seen captives brought to us, dark and fair.
Among them we would choose the beautiful and coquettish girl, the tender gazelle.
If in your refuge the nights have grown long for me,
earlier I had also seen prosperity in short nights.
If today I have met sorrow in you,
I had also found joy with you.

Of the long poems Ebû Firâs recited to relieve his sorrow and grief when his captivity and imprisonment in Harşene grew long, the following are very sad and meaningful:

There is one in captivity who yearns,
tears pour down his cheeks.
He lives in Rum, but his heart is in Damascus.
He has not met a beloved anew,
he has not found anyone to take the place of his beloved.

For although Ebû Firâs, with great burning, applied to his uncle Seyfü'd-Devle and asked to be ransomed, he did not consider that the Greeks were resisting, attributed the delay of his deliverance to his uncle's miserliness and tightfistedness, and offended Seyfü'd-Devle with many reproaches. Seyfü'd-Devle, at the Greeks' insistence, could rescue Ebû Firâs only in 345 [956-57], by giving great sums.

Seyfü'd-Devle made two more campaigns to the Greek land, in 347 [958] and then in 349 [960]. In one he returned in triumph, in the other he was defeated and withdrew. While he was busy repelling the Greeks' attacks alone, he died on the twenty-fourth day of the month of Safer 356 [966-67] and was buried in the tomb of his mother in the city of Mayyafariqin. Seyfü'd-Devle was a very brave ruler of heroic nature, extremely fond of scholars and poets, of noble disposition, who pleased the heart of every scholar and every poet according to his worth.

Nikofor Fokas (Tekfûr Foka), who took the Greek empire in 348 [959], in order to forestall these repeated events set the Islamic land on fire with a great force he took, and put to the sword the Muslim men and women he found. Although Seyfü'd-Devle asked for help from every side, the Islamic rulers and the caliphs of Baghdad, leaving off one another's collars, were in no condition to help Seyfü'd-Devle and support the religion of Islam.

Those who read the histories of this era know what a terrible calamity it was that the Islamic rulers, harboring rancor and envy toward one another, stood by as spectators to these barbarities while the Greeks, whose infidel feelings against the religion of Islam had surged, made Muslims weep tears of blood with atrocities beyond human comprehension. Had the caliphs and Islamic rulers been able to unite, Tekfûr Foka, let alone committing so much barbarity, would have sat uneasily on the throne of Istanbul, which was repeatedly routed before a small Islamic government of Aleppo.

It was for such caliphs and Islamic rulers, who, ignorant of the true aims of the religion of Islam, were slaves of animal pleasures and carnal ambitions and could not serve the interests of Islam, that God, who knows the unseen, said: "O you who believe! Whoever among you turns back from his religion, God will soon bring a people whom God loves and who love God. They are humble toward the believers and strong and exalted against the enemies of the faith."

To fulfill this lofty promise, God, who knows the unseen, as written in the history of Ebû Abdullah Muhammed ibn Ahmed ibn Osmân ibn Kaymaz ibn Altûn ez-Zehebî, imam of the hadith scholars, proof of the historians, sun of the nation and religion, in 349 [960] brought thousands of hargâh, that is, tent folk, from the Guz (Turkmens), with all their members, in one day into the saving circle of Islam, and charged them with the spread and exaltation of the religion of Islam.

The number of Guzz who accepted Islam in one day is estimated at about three million. Since from these Oghuz (Guz), a precious element, those obedient to God's command, a source of blessing for the Islamic world, namely the Seljuks and then the Ottomans, emerged as holders of manifest power and supreme might, it is clear that the gentle people praised in the divine promise, the precious element, a nation that loves God, are the Turks.

In Ikdu'l-Cümân Bedreddîn Mahmûd el-Aynî says among the events of the year 349: "This year two hundred thousand tent folk of the Turks accepted Islam; they were called by the name 'Türk Îmân.' Later the phrase 'Türk Îmân' was shortened and they were called 'Türkmân.'"

But as written in "el-Muhtâr Fî Târîhi'l-Ahyâr," these Turks are the Turkmens, children of Oghuz Han, famous as "Guz," and their accepting Islam in one day, as understood from this history and Câmiu'd-Düvel, came about as follows:

"Habak, Kâbak, Kâbûk" Han, khan of Turkestan, had become famous as "Habaku's-Salgurî" because he was of the line of Salur Han, a grandson of Oghuz Han. His sâlâr, that is, the commander-in-chief who ran affairs, was Dukak (Togâk Bây), of the line of Kınık Han, another grandson of Oghuz Han. While Kabuk Han was considering fighting the people of Islam, Togak Bây, who in his heart appreciated the beauties of Islam, was considering accepting Islam, and so a rift arose between them.

Because of this difference of view Togâk Bây had left Kabuk Han and even come to the point of fighting him. For Togâk Bây was a grandson of Toktemür, famous for his intelligence and wit, and was a man of heroic nature, much obeyed among the Turkmens and known for his prudence and influence. Kabuk Han found it appropriate to summon him to his side in order to benefit from his influence, and saw his opposition as dangerous.

Thereupon, while Kabuk Han was trying to draw Togâk Bây to his side by making his brothers Suli and Ulug Han intermediaries, they consulted about the religion of Islam, which Togâk Bây proposed that they accept, and decided to accept it. All the Turkmen clans followed them, and in one day more than three million Turkmens were honored with Islam.

Kabuk Han, likened to Buğra Han, who had earlier rendered service in the Turks' acceptance of Islam, became famous among the Turkmens as "Buğra Han." This is the khan of Turkestan recorded in various forms such as "Bigvâ, Bigrâ, Bugrâ." The greatest grandfather of the whole Seljuk dynasty, who strove for the spread of Islam by his power, is precisely this Togâk Bây.

To come to the main subject: the Greek emperor Nikofor Fokas, who seared the hearts of the people of Islam, was killed in 354 [965-66] as a rival, on account of the love between his own wife Te'ofanu and Yani Zimiskis, the governor of Anatolia whom he himself had raised and favored, and Yani Zimiskis became Greek emperor.

Since Bardas Fokas, governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, was a nephew of the murdered emperor Nikofor Fokas, the murder committed by Zimiskis, the murderer who took the empire, took the reins of his will out of his hands. He rose in revolt against the empire and declared his independence in Amasya.

At this time the emperor Yani, who was very busy abroad, was affected by Bardas Fokas's revolt. He sent a general named Savdes (Te'odos), whom he appointed governor of Pontus, to the Pontus region with a sufficient force. In the battle Bardas was defeated and, taken prisoner, was shut in the dungeon of Harşene, and Te'odos settled in Amasya as governor.

While Te'odos, governor of Pontus, entered Amasya in 356 [966-67] and ran the affairs of the province, Bardas Fokas found an opportunity and secretly escaped from prison. With the men he could gather around him he raided Te'dos's house one night and killed him and his men, and around 357 [967-68] revolted a second time in Amasya and proclaimed his kingship.

To remove this, the emperor Yani appointed a commander named Bardas Sıklarus, governor of Anatolia. The two Vardas (Bardases) clashed repeatedly. In the end Bardas Fokas, who had taken the name king of Pontus, fell prisoner to the hand of Bardas Sıklarus, governor of Anatolia, and was sent at once to Istanbul. Imprisoned for a time in an Istanbul dungeon, then on the island of Chios, the Pontus kingship, which had lasted about two years, was ended.

But when the emperor Yani died in 361 [971-72], his son Vasilus became Byzantine emperor. After this Bardas Sıklarus, governor of Anatolia, who had his eye on the empire, also revolted and took the Anatolia region. The emperor Vasil took Bardas Fokas, the enemy of this man, out of the Chios prison, appointed him governor of Pontus and Cappadocia for the third time, and charged him with suppressing the Anatolian governor's revolt.

Around 364 [974-75] Bardas Fokas, who was governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, pressed Bardas Sıklarus around Ankara with a great force he took and ruined him by fighting; Sıklarus, defeated, fled to Azerbaijan and took refuge with the Khazar Turks. Fokas settled in Amasya.

Bardas Fokas, governor of Pontus, later, unable to bear the emperor Vasil's pressure, little by little tried to draw the notables of Anatolia to his side and, with a great force he had gathered, marched on Istanbul to remove Vasil from the imperial throne and take his place. At the same time Bardas Sıklarus too, returning from Azerbaijan and having adopted the same idea, was marching on Istanbul with the soldiers he gathered.

In the end these two commanders united, each to become Byzantine emperor in the other's place, and came as far as the Aydos area. But Sıklarus realized he would be defeated before Fokas's influence and power. Through one of Fokas's men he had captured, he poisoned Bardas Fokas in 367 [977-78]. He himself, while fighting the soldiers of the emperor Vasil, met the punishment of his injustice.

Now one of Bardas Fokas's supporters, a man of Amasya named Komennus, because he showed loyalty to the emperor Vasilus and served in Bardas Sıklarus's first being defeated and then killed, became a notable in Amasya and was later appointed governor of Pontus.

Although it is stated in Western histories that "Komen, Komennus, Komenenus," who is thought to have been appointed governor of Pontus around 390 [999-1000], belonged to an Italian family that migrated to Amasya and settled, it is thought that this man, written in Arab histories under the name "Kamân, Kamen," was Koman, one of the Christian Pechenegs living in Amasya, and that with the addition of the suffix "us," added at the end of Greek names, he was called "Komunus, Komennus." For Koman, as explained above, is among Turkish names.

As mentioned in the Mukaddime, Komennus had a lofty palace and garden built in the quarter in Amasya called "Komnenos Sarayı" (Komnenos Palace), then "Kavak," and later "Hızır Paşa Mahallesi," and lived there, serving as governor for quite a number of years. When he died around 406 [1015-16], Andronikus, one of his sons known by the names "Andronikus, Erkirus, Yovanis," was appointed governor of Pontus.

Andronikus, governor of Pontus, lived in Amasya and became famous for having a church built in his name in the fortress of Harşene. It was recounted in the Mukaddime that this church, known in old records as "Andre" and "Church of Andronikos," was converted into a mosque after the conquest of Amasya and then had a minaret added. With his death around 437 [1045-46], his sons "İsak, Aleksi, Kaluyani" later became Byzantine emperors.

On the death of Andronikus Komennus, while his eldest son İsak (Isakiyus Komennus) was governor of Pontus, İbrâhim Han ibn İnal ibn Sunkur ibn Dukâk, famous as "İbrâhim Yinal," of the line of Sunkur, brother of the Seljuk ruler Tuğrul Han ibn Mikâ'îl ibn Selçûk's maternal half-brother, grandfather Selçûk ibn Dukâk, was marching on the Greek land.

In 439 [1047-48] İbrâhim Yinal entered the Greek land for the first time by way of Diyarbekir and approached as far as Sivas, but İsak, governor of Pontus, was barely able to turn him back. This event led to İsak's gaining influence, and it also gave İbrâhim Han spirit. Thereupon İbrâhim Han, taking a great auxiliary force from his brother Tuğrul Han, marched into the Greek land a second time in 440 [1048-49] by way of Manzikert.

As written in Mesâlikü'l-Ebsâr, İbrâhim Yinal first defeated the Erzincan area and then İsâk and entirely took the province of Sivas. He then crossed to Trabzon and invaded it too and had marched on Sinop. When İsak Komennus, with an auxiliary force he took, also lost the battle he entered around Sinop the second time, İbrâhim Yinal marched on Istanbul.

To halt the movements of İbrâhim Yinal, who spread great fear in the Byzantine empire, İsak Komennus for the third time confronted and fought him at a place five days' distance from Istanbul, but İsak was again defeated. He succeeded in persuading İbrâhim Yinal to peace in return for the great sums he paid and in making him turn back. İsak gained great fame among the Greeks for this service, and when he was transferred to the governorship of Anatolia, his brother-in-law Halikis was appointed governor of Pontus.

But İbrâhim Yinal's second attack on Anatolia made a great impression in awakening the national feelings of the Pechenegs and Cumans who lived in the provinces of Erzurum, Sivas and Trabzon and had accepted Christianity. If İbrâhim Yinal's movements are examined, his marching toward Istanbul after gaining success around the Pechenegs first and then the Cumans, that is, the Pecheneg and Cuman Turks, and then returning by peace at five days' distance from Istanbul, show that he made use of their national feelings.

Halikis, governor of Pontus, was a son-in-law of the former governor Andronikus. Since his war services were appreciated by İsak Komnenos, he had been appointed governor of Pontus at the end of 440 [1049].

The quarter and garden famous in Amasya as Helkis Mahallesi and Helkis Bahçesi are called by his name. In August 442 [1050] a terrible earthquake occurred in the Pontus region, and very many houses and churches in Amasya were destroyed. İsak Komnenos of Amasya, who in 444 [1052-53] became Byzantine emperor from the governorship of Anatolia, had a church built in Amasya on the site where the present Burmalı Minare Mosque stands.

In 446 [1054-55] Sultan Tuğrul Han, after securing the obedience of the emirs of Azerbaijan, Iran and Shirvan, also invaded the Erzurum area and returned with much booty and very many Greek prisoners. In 448 [1056], while he was bringing the Diyarbekir and Harbrut areas under his influence and giving all of them to his brother İbrâhim Yinâl, the Byzantine emperor İsak Komnenos went out hunting in great high spirits and was killed by a lightning strike.

In 450 [1058-59] İbrâhim Yinal, ruler of Diyarbekir, revolted against his brother Tuğrul Han. When he was defeated and killed in battle in 451 [1059], Tuğrul Han gave the government of Diyarbekir to his cousin Şihâbu'd-Devle Kutlumuş Han ibn Arslan Bey ibn Selçûk, who showed competence in this event. This is the greatest grandfather of the Seljuks who ruled in Konya. In Arab histories he appears, according to the Arabic dialect, as "Kutalmış (قتلمش), Kutalmış (قطلمش)."

In Ramazan 455 [1063] the Seljuk ruler Tuğrul Han ibn Mikâ'îl ibn Selçûk died in the city of Rey without a male child. In his place his nephew Sultan Süleyman Han ibn Çağrı Muhammed Bey ibn Mîkâ'îl, and in Muharrem 456 [1063-64] his other nephew Sultan Alp Arslan Han ibn Dâvud Bey ibn Mikâ'îl, became ruler of Asia. Thereupon Şihâbu'd-Devle Kutlumuş Han, ruler of Anatolia, rose up claiming right. But when he was killed in battle, his son Mansûr Han became ruler in his father's place.

This year Sultan Alp Arslan Han went against Ka'ik, the Armenian king who ruled around Sis, that is, Cilicia and Adana, repelled him by war and added all his lands to the domain of Mansûr Han, who was with him. The Armenian king Ka'ik barely saved his life and took refuge in the Byzantine empire. After Halikis, governor of Pontus and Cappadocia, died in Amasya in 457 [1064-65], the Armenian king Ka'ik was appointed to the governorship of Cappadocia (Kayseri) and Jutati'us Komnenos to the governorship of Pontus.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

• Bahr-ı Bentaş: the Black Sea (Pontus Sea)
• Domestik: a title given to senior commanders of the Byzantine army; used in the text as the epithet of Yani Zimiskis
• Tekfûr: an old Turkish-Arabic title used for a Byzantine governor or emperor
• hargâh: tent; here tent folk, family
• mu'arreb: Arabized form of a word
• kazasker: army kadı
• istîmân: asking for quarter
• tahlîs: rescue
• mübâdele: exchange; here the exchange of prisoners
• ser-nâme: heading, introduction
• perverde-i ni'met: one raised by one's bounty
• tesmîm: poisoning
• bilâ-veled-i zükûr: without a male child
• Mesâlikü'l-Ebsâr, Ikdu'l-Cümân, Ahbâru'd-Düvel: Arabic works of the history and encyclopedia type on which Hüsameddin relies

Seyfüddevle's Campaigns and Harşana

Most of the section sets out the Hamdanid ruler Seyfüddevle's campaigns against Byzantium, and places "Harşene" at the center of them. Hüsameddin counts Harşene as Amasya and writes that Harşene was reached in all six great campaigns. In contemporary studies on the Hamdanids and the border region, by contrast, Seyfüddevle's three great campaigns into the interior of Anatolia are placed in the years 950, 956 and 960. In 950 Harşana was reached through the Hades passes by way of Elbistan and Zamantı; the fortresses could not be taken but their surroundings were plundered. In 956 the bank of the Kızılırmak was reached and the fortress of Harşana was besieged, but not taken. In 960 Harşana was again reached, and on the return the army fell into an ambush of Byzantine commanders. This route corresponds not to Amasya but to the Kharsianon region around Kayseri. Byzantium's border defense also rested on a chain of kleisurai set up at Lesser Cappadocia, Kharsianon (Harşana), Sivas and Koloneia. Hüsameddin's account that Seyfüddevle crossed the Kızılırmak before Osmâncık and reached Harşene from this direction is important as a description of a route, but I did not find Amasya mentioned in the sources that record the same events.

The TDV entry can be summarized as follows for Seyfüddevle's life: returning in 950 from his campaign to Cappadocia he fell into an ambush and lost the greater part of his army; in 962 Aleppo was occupied and devastated by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phokas; an exchange of prisoners took place under the treaty made in 966; he himself died in early 967. It is recorded that he spent most of his wealth on ransoming prisoners and gathered around his court such names as Mütenebbî, Fârâbî and Ebû Firâs. Hüsameddin's presenting Seyfüddevle as a ruler who loved scholars and poets agrees with this information.

Ebû Firâs and the Harşene Poems

The Arabic couplets in the section belong to two famous poets. The first is Mütenebbî, who praises Seyfüddevle; the second is Ebû Firâs, Seyfüddevle's cousin and brother-in-law. Ebû Firâs was born in 932, became governor of Manbij in 947-48 at the age of sixteen, and was taken prisoner by the Byzantines near Manbij in 962. It is recorded that in his captivity he was held first at Harşana, a Byzantine fortress on the bank of the Euphrates near Malatya, and then taken to Istanbul. He remained in Istanbul until the exchange of prisoners in 966 and wrote part of his most beautiful poems in these years. Freed, he became governor of Homs; after Seyfüddevle's death he revolted against his nephew Ebü'l-Meâlî and was killed in 968.

In the poems Hüsameddin gives, Ebû Firâs is said to have been held in Harşene. But the dating is different: Hüsameddin places the captivity in 344 [955-56] and the deliverance in 345 [956-57], while the TDV gives the captivity as 351 [962] and the deliverance as 355 [966]. Also, in some accounts Ebû Firâs is said to have been taken prisoner and escaped in 348 [959] too, but the poet's never speaking of this event weakens the account. The "Harşene" in the poem may be Harşana on the bank of the Euphrates.

In the printed text of the Arabic couplets some letters have come out corrupted. For this reason the lines above should be read as a rendering of meaning based on the general sense of the couplets and the footnote paraphrase in the book.

The Turkmens' Becoming Muslim in One Day

Hüsameddin relates that in the year 349 [960], coinciding with Seyfüddevle's time, thousands of Oghuz tents became Muslim in one day, that this prepared the ground for the emergence of the Seljuks and the Ottomans, and applies verse 54 of Sura al-Ma'ida to this situation. On the number he gives two different figures: two hundred thousand, relying on Aynî, and then three million. On the origin of the word "Türkmen" he also, in his own footnote, mentions together the explanation "Türk-mânend" going back to Alexander and the explanation "Türk Îmân," and calls both "attributions."

In contemporary sources the information occurs that in 960 a Turkish community of about two hundred thousand tents accepted Islam, and this event is mostly associated with the Karakhanids. Satuk Buğra Han, for his part, is mentioned as the first Muslim ruler of the Karakhanid State. Hüsameddin's merging "Buğra Han" with Dukak, the ancestor of the Seljuk dynasty, is a different reading when viewed from this framework.

Phokas, Skleros and the Kingdom of Pontus

Nikephoros Phokas's murder by Zimiskis and the revolt of his nephew Bardas Phokas were also taken up in the previous entry. Briefly, Bardas Phokas (about 940-989), upon his uncle's death in 969, was proclaimed emperor at Kayseri against the emperor Zimiskis, suppressed by Bardas Skleros and exiled to the island of Chios. After spending seven years on Chios he was rescued in 978 by Basil Lekapenos and charged with suppressing Skleros's revolt. Skleros went to Baghdad in 980, returned in 987 at Phokas's call, but Phokas imprisoned him. Phokas fell from his horse and died at Abydos on 13 April 989. The source writes that he suffered a seizure. Hüsameddin's poisoning account, the information that Skleros marched with Phokas as far as Aydos, and the detail of taking refuge with the Khazar Turks do not agree with this account. Dates such as 354 and 367 also do not agree with 969 and 989 in the sources read.

The Komnenos Family and Isaac Komnenos

Hüsameddin counts the emperor Isaac I Komnenos as a son of Andronikus, governor of Amasya, and his family as descended from Komen of Pecheneg origin who settled in Amasya. In the contemporary account Isaac's father is Manuel Erotikos Komnenos; the family name is said to come from the village of Komne in Thrace. He was proclaimed emperor on 8 June 1057 on his estates around Kastamonu and crowned on 1 September 1057. In 1059 he fell ill and abdicated, and died as a monk in the Stoudios monastery on 1 June 1060. The lightning incident, on the other hand, is an accident that befell him in 1059 as he returned from a campaign against the Pechenegs: a tree struck by lightning fell beside him, and the emperor narrowly escaped death. Hüsameddin's having Isaac go hunting in 448 [1056] and be killed by lightning, and the information that he had a church built on the site of the Burmalı Minare, could not be verified in the sources I read.

Ibrahim Yınal, Pasinler and Kutalmış

Ibrahim Yınal, the maternal half-brother of Sultan Tuğrul Bey, played an important role in the westward expansion of the Great Seljuk State. After their father Mikâil died, their mother was married to Selçuk's other son Yusuf Yınal, and Ibrahim was born of this marriage. Accordingly Hüsameddin's information "maternal half-brother" is correct; his father, however, is not Sunkur, in the lineage chain Hüsameddin writes, but Selçuk's son Yusuf Yınal.

Yınal's most important known battle against Byzantium is the battle won on the plain of Pasinler (Kapetron) on 18 September 1048. The Seljuk army he commanded together with Kutalmış routed an army of about fifty thousand made up of Byzantine, Georgian and Armenian units, and the Georgian prince Liparit was taken prisoner. Before the battle Arzen (Kālîkalâ) near Erzurum had been plundered. This is regarded as the first great pitched battle between the Turks and Byzantium. Hüsameddin's account that carries Yınal by way of Diyarbakır to Sivas, Erzincan, Trabzon, Sinop and to within five days of Istanbul could not be verified in the sources I read; the record that stands out in the sources for the same years (440 [1048-49]) is the Pasinler campaign.

Yınal's end, however, agrees with the date Hüsameddin gives. Yınal, who revolted against his brother Tuğrul Bey, was defeated near Rey on 9 Cemâziyelâhir 451 (23 July 1059) and was killed the same day, strangled with a bowstring by Tuğrul Bey's order. His two nephews met the same fate.

Kutalmış, for his part, is the son of Arslan Yabgu and a cousin of Tuğrul Bey. Assigned with Yınal to the Pasinler campaign, he was successful against Byzantium in the East, but revolted against Tuğrul Bey in 453 (1061) and shut himself in the Girdkûh Fortress. After Tuğrul's death on 4 September 1063 he fought Alp Arslan and, after his defeat, fell from his horse and died (7 December 1063). His son Süleyman was taken prisoner. Hüsameddin's expressions "ruler of Diyarbekir" and "greatest grandfather of the Konya Seljuks" do not agree with the source I read as to Kutalmış's fate and position; the "Mansûr Han" whom Hüsameddin gives as a son is not mentioned in this source either.

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 2, p. 302–308. 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
• Faruk Sümer, "Kutalmış", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 26, Ankara 2002, p. 480-481. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kutalmis
• İlyas Gökhan, "Arapların Fethinden Selçuklular Zamanına Kadar Maraş", Belleten, vol. 73, no. 266, Nisan 2009. https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/84/tur
• Cihan Piyadeoğlu, "Selçuklu Hanedanının Önemli Bir Mensubu: İbrahim Yınal", Türkiyat Mecmuası, vol. 23, Güz 2013. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/173104

Other sources

• "Pasinler Muharebesi", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasinler_Muharebesi
• "Isaac I Komnenos", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddesi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_I_Komnenos
• "Bardas Phokas the Younger" ve "Bardas Skleros", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddeleri. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardas_Phokas_the_Younger ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardas_Skleros
• "Abu Firas al-Hamdani" ve "Satuk Buğra Han", çevrimiçi ansiklopedi maddeleri. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Firas_al-Hamdani ; https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satuk_Buğra_Han
• "Bizans'a Kastamonulu İmparator", Komnenos ailesinin Kastamonu bağlantısı üzerine yerel haber yazısı. https://www.taskoprupostasi.com/bizansa-kastamonulu-imparator