Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

333 Vassilios Christides. The Cycle of the Arab-Byzantine Struggle in Crete... Ibn Dāya reports this narration as it was told by a certain Hasan bn. Muslim called al-Iqrītishi, an appellation attached to the Moslems of the Emirate of Crete, who traveled to other Islamic countries, since theMoslem inhabitants of Crete were in constant relations with Egypt, Syria and North Africa. A. M. Fahmy, who first noticed the above passage without commenting on it, expressed the view that it refers to Theoctistus’ expedition in March 843. This is most plausible, since the immediately previous unsuccessful Byzantine attempt took place earlier and the later one by Bardas was launched in April 866. Ibn Dāya lived at the peak of the glory of the Emirate of Crete and his description of the Byzantine attempt for the reconquest of Crete offers us some important information supplementing that of the Byzantine sources. The Byzantine fleet, for which we have no concrete information, must have been of substantial number, since the Moslem Cretan fleet did not try to oppose it, and the landing of the Byzantine troops was unopposed. There is no information of what happened on the island and the Byzantine sources, as mentioned above, only inform us that the Arabs used a ruse to force the Byzantines to end their efforts to reconquer Crete, i.e. learning about the conflicts which existed in the Byzantine court, they spread the rumor that the Queen Mother Theodora had appointed another co-regent. Deceived by this false information, Theoctistus, the leader of the Byzantine army, left Crete in panic, abandoning his army. As epigrammatically reported by Theophanes Continuatus, he returned to Constantinople abandoning not a small number of his troops in Crete. (Theophanes Continuatus, Chronographia , ed. Bonn, 1838, 203.) Ibn Dāya reports that, the Byzantines, like later on their successful expedition under Nicephorus Phocas in 960–61, applied the strategy of besieging the castle of Handax, blocking any communication with the surrounding, in order to force the Arabs to surrender by famine. Ibn Dāya reports that the besieged Arabs, like in Phocas’ later successful expedition, were forced to eat all sorts of animals in order to survive. Ibn Dāya attributes the abrupt ending of the Byzantine siege to a miracle, i.e. caused by God’s intervention.