The
Sack of Amorium by the
Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the long history of the
Arab–Byzantine Wars. The Abbasid campaign was led personally by the Caliph
al-Mu'tasim (reigned 833–842), in retaliation to a virtually unopposed expedition launched by the
Byzantine emperor Theophilos (r. 829–842) into the
Caliphate's borderlands the previous year. Mu'tasim targeted
Amorium, a
Byzantine city in western
Asia Minor (modern
Anatolia), because it was the birthplace of the
ruling Byzantine dynasty and, at the time, one of Byzantium's largest and most important cities. The caliph gathered an exceptionally large army, which he divided in two parts, which invaded from the northeast and the south. The northeastern army defeated the Byzantine forces under Theophilos
at Anzen, allowing the Abbasids to penetrate deep into Byzantine-held Asia Minor and converge upon
Ancyra, which they found abandoned. After sacking the city, they turned south to Amorium, where they arrived on 1 August. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and the rebellion of the large
Khurramite contingent of his army, Theophilos was unable to aid the city.