Emirate of Crete

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Emirate of Crete
824/827–961
Chalcedonian Orthodoxy
GovernmentMonarchy
Emir 
• 820s – c. 855
Abu Hafs Umar I (first)
• 949–961
Abd al-Aziz ibn Shu'ayb (last)
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Andalusian exiles land on the island
824/827
• Byzantine reconquest
961
CurrencyGold dinar, dirham
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Byzantine Crete
Byzantine Crete
Today part ofGreece

The Emirate of Crete (

Tulunid
Egypt, it was de facto independent.

A group of

Nikephoros Phokas, who successfully campaigned against it
in 960–961, re-annexing the island to the Byzantine Empire.

History

Crete had been raided by Muslim forces since the first wave of the

Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715).[1] However, the island at that time was not conquered and despite occasional raids in the 8th century, it remained securely in Byzantine hands;[3] Crete was too far from the Arab naval bases in the Levant for an effective expedition to be undertaken against it.[4]

Conquest of Crete

At some point in the second half of the reign of

Abdullah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani.[6][7][8] As W. Kubiak points out, however, the supposed origin from Córdoba is contradicted by other sources, which record the presence of Andalusian corsairs in Alexandria as early as 798/9, and their takeover is dated to 814, before the revolt took place; furthermore, the Andalusians' leader, Umar ibn Hafs ibn Shuayb ibn Isa al-Balluti, commonly known as Abu Hafs, came from a locality (Fahs al-Ballut, now Los Pedroches) that was far from Córdoba.[9]

The Saracen fleet sails towards Crete. Miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript.

The exact chronology of the Andalusians' landing in Crete is uncertain. Following the Muslim sources, it is usually dated to 827 or 828, after the Andalusians' expulsion from Alexandria.

Arabic: ربض الخندق, romanized: rabḍ al-kḫandaq, lit. 'Castle of the Moat', modern Heraklion) was later built,[10][13] but others think that they most likely landed on the south coast of the island and then moved to the more densely populated interior and the northern coast.[14][15]

As soon as Emperor Michael II learned of the Arab landing, and before the Andalusians had secured their control over the entire island, he reacted and sent successive expeditions to recover the island.

Cibyrrhaeots Krateros. It was initially victorious, but the overconfident Byzantines were then routed in a night attack. Krateros managed to flee to Kos, but there he was captured by the Arabs and crucified.[19][20] Makrypoulias suggests that these campaigns must have taken place before the Andalusians completed their construction of Chandax, where they transferred the capital from the inland site of Gortyn.[21]

Pirate emirate

Map of the Aegean Sea, with Crete in the bottom

Abu Hafs repulsed the early Byzantine attacks and slowly consolidated control of the entire island.[20] He recognized the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate, but ruled as a de facto independent prince.[10] The conquest of the island was of major importance as it transformed the naval balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean and opened the hitherto secure Aegean Sea littoral to frequent and devastating raids.[22]

The Andalusians also occupied several of the

Mount Latros. They were heavily defeated, however, by the local strategos, Constantine Kontomytes.[10][28][29]

After the death of Theophilos in 842, new measures to confront the Cretan threat were undertaken by the new Byzantine regime: in 843 a new maritime

Basil the Macedonian only two weeks after the fleet set sail from the capital spelled the end of the undertaking.[33][34]

Ooryphas punishes the Cretan Saracens, as depicted in the Madrid Skylitzes

In the early 870s, the Cretan raids reached a new intensity: their fleets, often commanded by Byzantine renegades, ranged the Aegean and further afield, reaching the

Tarsus led by Yazaman al-Khadim was destroyed in a raid against Euripos.[36] These Byzantine victories apparently led to a temporary truce, and it appears that the Cretan emir Saïpes (Shu'ayb ibn Umar) was obliged to pay tribute to Byzantium for about a decade.[37]

Raids resumed soon after, in which the Cretans were joined by

Ikhshidid successors neglected aid to Crete.[43] In 911, another large-scale Byzantine expedition of well over 100 ships was launched against Crete, headed by the admiral Himerios, but it was forced to leave the island after a few months. On its return journey, Himerios' fleet was destroyed in battle off Chios by the Syrian fleet.[39][44][45][46]

Byzantine reconquest

Main article: Siege of Chandax
The siege of Chandax, the main Muslim stronghold in Crete, as depicted in the Madrid Skylitzes manuscript.

Cretan piracy reached another high in the 930s and 940s, devastating southern Greece, Athos, and the western coasts of

Nikephoros Phokas. At the head of a huge fleet and army, Phokas sailed in June or July 960, landed on the island, and defeated the initial Muslim resistance. A long siege of Chandax followed, which dragged over the winter into 961, when the city was stormed on 6 March.[39][49]

The city was pillaged, and its mosques and walls were torn down. Muslim inhabitants were either killed or carried off into slavery, while the island's last emir

Rus'.[50][51][52]

Legacy

This early Muslim period of Crete remains relatively obscure due to a paucity of surviving evidence regarding its internal history. Furthermore, other than a few place names recalling the presence of the Arabs, no major archaeological remains from the period survive, possibly due to deliberate Byzantine destruction after 961.[53] This has influenced the way the emirate is generally regarded: scholars, forced to rely mostly on Byzantine accounts, have traditionally viewed the Emirate of Crete through a Byzantine lens as a quintessential "corsair's nest", surviving on piracy and the slave trade.[10][54]

The picture painted by the few and scattered references to the Cretan emirate from the Muslim world, on the other hand, is of an ordered state with a regular monetary economy and extensive trade links, and there is evidence that Chandax was a cultural centre of some importance.

sugar cane was introduced to Crete at the time.[58]

It is unclear what happened to the island's Christians after the Muslim conquest; the traditional view is that most were either converted or expelled.[20] There is evidence from Muslim sources, however, for the continued survival of Christians on Crete, as a subject class, as in other Muslim conquests, although according to the same sources the Muslims, whether descendants of the Andalusians, more recent migrants, or converts (or any combination of these) formed the majority.[59] There is also evidence of rival classes on the island as when Theodosius the Deacon reports that the rural Cretans, not rulers of the land but inhabitants of crags and caves, descended from the mountains under their leader Karamountes during the siege of Chandax by Nikephoros Phokas to assist the besieged.[60] It seems that the Byzantine Christian population of the countryside was left relatively alone, while the Muslim element (including native converts) predominated in the cities.[56]

List of emirs

The succession of the emirs of Crete has been established by Arab and Byzantine sources, but chiefly through their coinage. The dates of their reigns are therefore largely approximate:[61][62]

Name Name in Greek sources Reign
Abu Hafs Umar (I) al-Iqritishi Apohaps/Apohapsis (Ἀπόχαψ/Ἀπόχαψις) 827/828 – c. 855
Shu'ayb (I) ibn Umar Saipes/Saet (Σαΐπης/Σαῆτ) c. 855–880
Umar (II) ibn Shu'ayb Babdel (Βαβδέλ) c. 880–895
Muhammad ibn Shu'ayb al-Zarkun Zerkounes (Ζερκουνῆς) c. 895–910
Yusuf ibn Umar c. 910–915
Ali ibn Yusuf c. 915–925
Ahmad ibn Umar c. 925–940
Shu'ayb (II) ibn Ahmad 940–943
Ali ibn Ahmad 943–949
Abd al-Aziz ibn Shu'ayb Kouroupas (Κουρουπᾶς) 949–961

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Canard 1971, p. 1082.
  2. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 313, 325.
  3. ^ a b Miles 1964, p. 10.
  4. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 378.
  5. ^ a b Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 347–348.
  6. ^ Canard 1971, pp. 1082–1083.
  7. ^ Miles 1964, pp. 10–11.
  8. ^ Christides 1981, pp. 89–90.
  9. ^ Kubiak 1970, pp. 51–52, esp. note 3.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Canard 1971, p. 1083.
  11. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 348–351.
  12. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 251, 253.
  13. ^ Treadgold 1988, p. 253.
  14. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, p. 349.
  15. ^ Miles 1964, p. 11.
  16. ^ a b Christides 1981, p. 89.
  17. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 250–253, 259–260.
  18. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 253–254.
  19. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 348, 351.
  20. ^ a b c Treadgold 1988, p. 254.
  21. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 349–350.
  22. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 347, 357ff..
  23. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 348–349, 357.
  24. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 255, 257.
  25. ^ Miles 1964, p. 9.
  26. ^ a b Christides 1981, p. 92.
  27. ^ Treadgold 1988, p. 268.
  28. ^ Christides 1981, pp. 92, 93.
  29. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 324–325.
  30. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, p. 351.
  31. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 447.
  32. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 451.
  33. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 351–352.
  34. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 453.
  35. ^ Wortley 2010, pp. 147–148.
  36. ^ Christides 1981, p. 93.
  37. ^ Canard 1971, pp. 1083–1084.
  38. ^ Miles 1964, pp. 6–8.
  39. ^ a b c d e f Canard 1971, p. 1084.
  40. ^ Christides 1981, pp. 95–97.
  41. ^ Christides 1981, p. 82.
  42. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 467.
  43. ^ Christides 1981, p. 83.
  44. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 352–353.
  45. ^ Christides 1981, p. 94.
  46. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 470.
  47. ^ Makrypoulias 2000, pp. 353–356.
  48. ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 489.
  49. ^ Treadgold 1997, pp. 493–495.
  50. ^ a b Treadgold 1997, p. 495.
  51. ^ Canard 1971, pp. 1084–1085.
  52. ^ Kazhdan 1991, p. 96.
  53. ^ Miles 1964, pp. 11, 16–17.
  54. ^ Christides 1981, pp. 78–79.
  55. ^ Miles 1964, pp. 15–16.
  56. ^ a b Christides 1981, p. 98.
  57. ^ Christides 1984, pp. 33, 116–122.
  58. ^ Christides 1984, pp. 116–118.
  59. ^ Christides 1984, pp. 104–109.
  60. ^ Miles 1964, p. 15.
  61. ^ Miles 1964, pp. 11–15.
  62. ^ Canard 1971, p. 1085.

Sources

Further reading
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