Misplaced Pages

The Battle of Balanjar took place during the First Khazar-Arab War between the armies of the Khazar Khaganate and the Caliphate, whose commanding general was Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah.

According to the Arab chroniclers, the Arabs captured Derbent in 642, when Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabiah secured the surrender of the Persian governor of Derbent, Shahrbaraz. Based at Derbent, Abd al-Rahman led frequent raids against the Khazars over the following years, but these were small-scale affairs, and no event of major note is recorded in the sources.

In 652, despite the orders of Caliph Uthman to avoid risks, Abd al-Rahman led a major invasion north, targeting the city of Balanjar. According to Baladhuri and Ya'qubi, however, it was his brother Salman ibn Rabiah who led the invasion.

In the subsequent siege, both sides made use of catapults and ballistae. After several days, the Khazar garrison launched a sortie, which coincided with the arrival of a large Khazar relief army. After Abd al-Rahman was killed, the Arabs collapsed, despite the efforts of his brother, Salman, to rally them. 4,000 Arabs were killed, many fled to Derbent with Salman, while others had to conduct a fighting retreat all the way to Gilan and Jurjan.

Abd al-Rahman's body was left behind. The Khazars reportedly kept it in a cauldron and venerated it, claiming that it could be used to bring rain or drought, and ensured victory in war.

See also

• Battle of Balanjar (disambiguation)

References

1. Howard-Johnston, J. D. (2010). Witnesses to a World Crisis : Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 378. ISBN 978-0-19-920859-3.
2. Dunlop 1954, pp. 47–49.
3. Dunlop 1954, pp. 49–54.
4. ^ Dunlop 1954, p. 55.
5. ^ Artamonov 1962, p. 179.
6. ^ Dunlop 1954, p. 56.
7. Dunlop 1954, p. 57.

Sources

• Artamonov, M. I. (1962). История хазар [History of the Khazars] (in Russian). Leningrad: Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа. OCLC 490020276.
• Dunlop, Douglas M. (1954). The History of the Jewish Khazars. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. OCLC 459245222.

v t e Khazaria
Byzantium Bulgaria Abbasids Arab–Khazar wars Kipchaks Meshchera Pax Khazarica Radhanites Rus' Volga trade route Dnieper trade route
Khazar rulers	Irbis Busir Bihar Parsbit Zachariah Bulan Obadiah Hezekiah Manasseh I Hanukkah Isaac Zebulun Manasseh II Nisi Aaron I Menahem Benjamin Aaron II Joseph David George
Other figures	Alp Iluetuer Alp Tarkhan Balgitzin Barjik Bulchan Hazer Tarkhan HLGW John of Gothia Leo IV Papatzys Pesakh Ras Tarkhan Serach Sfengus Sviatoslav Theodora Tzitzak Yitzhak ha-Sangari
Places	Atil Azaq Balanjar Bar Chersonesus Dagestan Güsliyev Golden Hills Kaffa Kavkaz Kazarki Kerch Kerem Khazaran Khumar Levedia Saltovo-Mayaki Samandar Sambalut Sambat Samiran Samosdelka Saqsin Sarkel Semikarakorsk Fortress Sudak Taman Tamatarkha
Tributaries	Abkhazians Alans Arsiyah Baranjars Barsils Bashkirs Black Klobuks Burtas Crimean Goths Cumans East Slavs Huns Juhuri Kabars Kipchaks Kumyks Kassogs Laz people Lezgins Magyars Mordvins Oghuz Onogurs Pechenegs Sabirs Sarir Uralics Volga Bulgaria
Scholars	Mikhail Artamonov Vasily Bartold D.M. Dunlop Norman Golb Peter B. Golden Lev Gumilev Alexander Harkavy Thomas S. Noonan Svetlana Pletnyova Omeljan Pritsak
Legacy	Khazar Correspondence Khazar language Khazar ancestry claims Ashkenazi Cossacks Crimean Karaites Subbotniks Jewish Cossacks Khazars in fiction Kuzari Kievan Letter Mandgelis Document Red Jews Schechter Letter
Category

• Battles involving the Khazars
• Battles involving the Umayyad Caliphate
• 650s conflicts
• Battles of the Arab–Khazar wars
• 652
• History of the North Caucasus