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During the course of the Arab–Byzantine wars, exchanges of prisoners of war became a regular feature of the relations between the two powers, beginning in the late 8th century and continuing until the mid-10th century.

Background[]

Centuries of war between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate had led to degree of a mutual understanding, respect, and a regular pattern of diplomatic and cultural exchanges between the two powers.[1] This is evidenced for instance in the protocols for the imperial receptions at the Byzantine court, where the "Eastern Muslims" are accorded the first place immediately after any ecclesiastical officials, enjoying precedence over the Bulgarians or the Franks,[2] but also by the humane treatment of prisoners of war by both sides. On the Byzantine side, Arab prisoners were usually paraded in triumphal processions but otherwise generally well treated. Senior figures were state prisoners and honoured guests for the duration of their captivity, being regularly invited to attend races at the Hippodrome or imperial banquets at the Great Palace and given gifts as part of imperial ceremonies.[3] The rank and file were usually sold off as slaves or kept in prison until they were ransomed or exchanged. Most were employed as labour force, and although aome might be induced to convert to Christianity, in which case they were given lands to settle, otherwise they enjoyed the freedom to worship at mosques of their own. Muqaddasi notes that although the Arab captives were made to work as slaves, they could earn money, and that the Byzantines "do not force any of them to eat pork, and they do not slit their noses or their tongues".[4][5]

Both sides also engaged in regular exchanges of prisoners (ἀλλάγια, allagia, in Greek), which took place on the river Lamos (mod. Limonlu Çayı) in Cilicia, on the border between Byzantium and the Caliphate. A truce was arranged beforehand, and both sides met on the river. The exchange was made man for man, as illustrated by al-Tabari in his report of the 845 exchange: Two bridges were built over the river, one for the prisoners of each side. Each side released one prisoner, who walked across the bridge towards his co-religionists, simultaneously with his counterpart. After the exchange was complete, the surplus prisoners were either ransomed for money or exchanged for slaves.[6][7]

Prisoner exchanges[]

Year Details
769 Mentioned only by Theophanes the Confessor[8]
797 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[8]
804/5 Mentioned only by al-Tabari[8]
807/8 Mentioned only by al-Tabari[8]
810 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[8]
816 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[8]
845 Mentioned by several Muslim sources, according to which the Byzantines had many more prisoners than the Muslims, forcing Caliph al-Wathiq to cover the balance by purchasing slaves from the markets of Baghdad and ar-Raqqah, and even by liberating slave women from his own household. Tabari records that the Muslims recovered 4,600 prisoners, of whom 600 women and 500 dhimmis, while Ibn al-Athir gives the respective numbers as 4,460, 800 and 100.[9]
856 Tabari reports that in total, the Byzantines held 20,000 Muslim prisoners, of whom the Muslims recovered 789 men and 125 women. Al-Mas'udi on the other hand gives the figure as 2,200 men or 2,000 men and 100 women.[9]
860 According to al-Mas'udi, 2,367 Muslim prisoners, men and women, were exchanged.[9]
861/2 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[9]
867 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[9]
872 Mentioned only by al-Mas'udi[9]
896 According to Tabari and Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, the Muslims recovered 2,504 prisoners, men women and children, while Mas'udi variously gives a total of 2,495 prisoners or 3,000 men.[9]
905/908 The exchange was originally agreed in 905, but interrupted by the Byzantines after 1,154 or 1,155 Muslim prisoners had been exchanged, according to Mas'udi. After a two-year diplomatic mission by the Byzantine envoy Leo Choirosphaktes, the exchange resumed in 908, with the Muslims recovering 2,842 further prisoners according to Mas'udi (Tabari gives "about 3,000").[10]
917 The exchange was preceded by a Byzantine embassy to Baghdad. 5,500 prisoners Muslim prisoners were exchanged according to Ibn al-Jawzi, 3,336 according to Mas'udi.[11]
925 According to Mas'udi, 3,983 Muslims were exchanged, while Makrizi gives 2,933.[11]
938 The Muslim side was represented by the autonomous ruler of Egypt, al-Ikhshid. More than 6,300 people were exchanged, but the Byzantines still held 800 more prisoners than the Muslims, and the truce was extended for six months to allow the remaining captives to be ransomed for money in smaller batches.[11]
946 2,482 prisoners, men and women, were exchanged, with the remaining 230 Muslim prisoners held by the Byzantines ransomed with 80,000 gold dinars, paid partly by the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, and partly by the Ikhshidids.[12]
953 Small exchange which took place in Alexandria, involving 60 Muslim prisoners.[13]
954 The Byzantines sent an embassy to Sayf al-Dawla to negotiate a prisoner exchange.[13]
966 The exchange took place on 23 June between Sayf al-Dawla and Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas at Samosata, following the conquest of Cilicia under Phokas in the previous years. The Byzantines held more than 3,000 prisoners, which Sayf al-Dawla promised to ransom at 270 dinars each. However, he ran out of money after 240,000 dinars had been paid, and was forced to ransom the rest by handing over a valuable cuirass and a hostage from the grandees of his court.[13]
969 The exchange took place between the Byzantines and the Fatimid Caliphate, after both powers had partitioned Syria between them.[13]

What is notable in the numbers reported for the exchanges, according to Arnold Toynbee, is that even in 845, before the Byzantines gained the upper hand in the Battle of Lalakaon (863), they held more prisoners than the Arabs, despite the wholesale capture and deportation of Byzantine subjects in events like the Sack of Amorion in 838. According to Toynbee, this attests to the efficiency of the Byzantine military's strategy of "dogging and pouncing" the Muslim armies that raided Asia Minor.[14]

References[]

  1. Toynbee 1973, pp. 382–383, 388–390.
  2. Toynbee 1973, p. 383.
  3. Toynbee 1973, pp. 384–385.
  4. Toynbee 1973, pp. 385–386.
  5. Cappel, Cutler & Kazhdan 1991, pp. 1722–1723.
  6. Oikonomides 1991, p. 1722.
  7. Toynbee 1973, p. 388.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Toynbee 1973, p. 390.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 Toynbee 1973, p. 391.
  10. Toynbee 1973, pp. 391–392.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Toynbee 1973, p. 392.
  12. Toynbee 1973, pp. 392–393.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Toynbee 1973, p. 393.
  14. Toynbee 1973, pp. 388–389.

Sources[]

  • Cappel, Andrew J.; Cutler, Anthony; Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Prisoners of war". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1722–1723. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
  • Oikonomides, Nicolas (1991). "Prisoners, Exchanges of". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1722. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
  • Toynbee, Arnold (1973). Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World. London and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-215253-X. 
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