Whilst currently enjoying the chronicle of John Skylitzes
I came across the interesting story of Theophobos. This one-time Persian
renegade enjoyed a turbulent career of highs and lows which brought him briefly
and reluctantly to claim the imperial title and ultimately to his ruin.
The Khurramite leader Babak
Our story begins in the year 816 when a revolt by the Khurramite
sect centred on present day Azerbaijan broke out against the incumbent regime of
the Abbasid Caliphs. The Khurramites followed a belief system which fused ideas
from the Zoroastrian cult of Mazdakism, which had been suppressed under the
Sassanid Persian rulers, with Shi’a Islam. Both had a certain egalitarian
appeal for the downtrodden and the dis-enfranchised. The Khurramites revered
the memory of Abu Muslim, who had led the revolt which had swept the Abbasid
Caliphs to power only to be slain in a fit of jealousy and paranoia by the
second Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur. Ultimately the revolt could be seen as a
Persian backlash against their Arab rulers in Baghdad. The leader of the revolt
was Babak, who claimed descent from Abu Muslim and also claimed rather
interestingly to have inherited the soul of the previous Khurramite leader,
which had fused with his own.
In true guerilla style Babak took to the mountains when
the Caliph al-Ma’mun sent a succession of governors of Azerbaijan against him
and by using the terrain to his advantage he was able to win many victories
over them; falling upon and slaughtering his enemies in bad country and then
melting away once more. His successes brought more support for the revolt and
pockets of Khurramite resistance sprang up all over the Persian territories.
In 830 another army of Khurramite rebels holding out in
the Zagros Mountains of Western Iran led by a Persian nobleman by the name of
Nasr was heavily defeated by the Caliph’s forces. Seeing the writing on the
wall for the Khurramite cause, Nasr chose to lead his surviving troops through
Armenia out of harm’s way and sought refuge within the Byzantine Empire.
The arrival of Nasr with some fourteen thousand armed
followers who professed themselves willing to fight for the Empire against the
Caliphate was greeted rapturously by the emperor Theophilus. The new arrivals
were given land and incorporated into the Byzantine military under the command
of Nasr himself, upon whom the emperor bestowed Patrician rank. Nasr and his
followers agreed in principle at least to embrace Christianity and were
baptised. Nasr now took a new Christian name and became Theophobos. As
Christians, the former Khurramites were now permitted to marry and Theophobos
was given the emperor’s own sister-in-law as a bride. The fugitive rebel had
landed on his feet.
The fortress of Badd - Babak's last stronghold
Al Ma’mun died in 833 to be succeeded by his half-brother al-Mu’tasim. The new Caliph was determined to
crush the Khurramite rebellion and soon appointed a man equal to the task of
rooting Babak out of his mountain stronghold. The new governor, a Persian noble
named al-Afsin, adopted a methodical approach and moved forward steadily into
the mountains, taking control of one rebel stronghold at a time. Babak
attempted to counter the invasion by targeting al-Afsin’s supply lines but al-Afsin
succeeded in inflicting a series of significant defeats upon Babak who
retreated back to his seemingly impregnable mountaintop fortress of Badd.
Babak’s revolt came to its bloody end in 837. Despite the
difficulties of reaching the fortress of Badd which could only be approached in
single file through a narrow defile, al-Afsin’s soldiers succeeded in storming
the stronghold and overcoming its defenders. Barbak and his few remaining
followers slipped away into the forests but he was ultimately betrayed and run
to ground. Paraded through the streets of Samarra on an elephant, Barbak had
his hands and feet cut off before being beheaded. His body was then publically
displayed on a gibbet.
Al Afsin and Babak - Tarikhnama of Balami
Any relief felt by the Caliph at this victory was soon
tempered by the arrival in his territory of the emperor Theophilus at the head
of an invading army. Theophobos and his Persian brigade marched with the emperor.
Theophilus was eager to avenge a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of
al-Ma’mun in 830-31 and may also have been responding to a call for aid from
Barbak, although his intervention came too late to save the doomed rebel leader.
The emperor’s forces reached the upper Euphrates and put the cities of
Arsamosata and Zosopetra to the sack.
Following this victory and in the aftermath of Babak’s
defeat another sixteen thousand Khurramites fled to the empire and were both
converted to Christianity and enrolled in Theophobos’ Persian brigade, bringing
its total strength to thirty thousand men.
Zosopetra was the birthplace of al-Mu’tasim who vowed
revenge upon Theophilus and in the following year led his armies in a campaign
of reprisal, aimed at the destruction of the emperor’s own birthplace of
Amorion. Whilst the Caliph led his forces towards his target of Amorion, a
second army under al-Afsin, fresh from his victory over Barbak which had seen
him showered with honours by the Caliph, marched into Cappadocia.
The armies of Theophilus and al-Afsin met in battle at Anzen.
Theophilus was accompanied by Theophobos and his Persian troops and probably outnumbered
al-Afsin. Having disregarded advice from Theophobos to mount a night attack, feeling such tactics to be beneath his honour, the
emperor led his troops into battle at dawn. At first the battle went the way of
the Byzantines as their right wing made progress and forced their enemies back.
Theophilus and Theophobos now led a contingent of troops from the right wing
behind their army to their left in order to reinforce this wing and complete
the victory. A well timed counterattack by Afsin’s Turkoman horse archers
however threw the Byzantine right wing into chaos and, thinking themselves
abandoned by their emperor, they routed. Theophilus found himself isolated and
retreated to a hill top protected by those soldiers of the imperial Tagmata who
had not fled along with some of the troops of Theophobos.
Al-Afsin brought up his siege
engines to batter at the defenders who were also showered by arrows by the horse
archers. The wretched Byzantines were saved by the elements as it began to rain
and at last night fell.
Theophilus flees for the high ground at the Battle of Anzen - Madrid Skylitzes
Skylitzes, himself writing some two centuries later and
compiling his account from various surviving sources, tells two stories of the
events of the night which show Theophobos in differing lights. In one version
we are told that during the night the Domestic of the Scholae Manuel,
Theophilus’ senior commander, persuaded the emperor that the troops of
Theophobos could not be trusted. They must flee, he told the emperor, before
the Persians sold the emperor out to the forces of al-Afsin. The emperor,
accompanied by Manuel and his loyal troops succeeded in breaking through the
enemy lines in the night and fled westwards. In another version however it is
Theophobos who saves the emperor by the stratagem of ordering his troops to
shout and sing joyfully as if they were being reinforced by friendly troops,
causing the encircling enemy to withdraw and allowing the emperor to escape.
The events that followed suggest that the troops of the
Persian brigade indeed had cause to believe that they had lost their emperor’s trust.
After the battle Theophobos and his troops withdrew to
Sinope on the Black Sea coast. Fearful now of the consequences of the emperor’s
wrath, the Persian brigade proclaimed their commander as emperor of the Romans.
Arriviste though Theophobos may have been he was nevertheless a member of the
imperial family and may well have been seen as a suitable candidate by those
who longed for a restoration of the veneration of icons. The recent reverses
suffered by the staunchly iconoclast Theophilus were cause for many to wonder
if the displeasure of the Almighty was being manifested in Byzantine defeat at
the hands of the infidel.
The court of Theophilus - Madrid Skylitzes
At any rate Theophobos had no wish to be raised to the
purple and appealed to the emperor, declaring that his usurpation had been
forced upon him by his troops. Whatever reservations Theophilus may have had,
he pardoned his friend and recalled him to Constantinople where he was received
with honour. As for the Khurramites, although pardoned for their actions, they nonetheless
found themselves scattered throughout the forces of the empire in units of two
thousand men so that they no longer represented a threat to the stability of
the empire.
In 842 the emperor began to sicken and soon it was apparent
that he would not be long for this world. Once again the potential of
Theophobos as an imperial candidate was feared by those in the emperor’s inner
circle. He posed a threat to the succession of Theophilus’ infant son Michael
and this time although he had done nothing to warrant it, he was shown no
mercy. Arrested and imprisoned, Theophobos was executed on the emperor’s
orders. Skylitzes tells us that when the emperor was brought Theophobos' head he
wept and held it in his hands, declaring.
‘Now you are no longer Theophobos and I am no longer
Theophilus.’
Make of that what you will.
http://slingsandarrowsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/enemies-at-gate-part-two-reign-of.html
More on the Khurramite
rebellion
Battle of Anzen
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