ABSTRACT
The many internal problems caliph Mu‘taṣim had to tackle after his rise to power in 833 sufficiently explain why he was prevented from invading Byzantine territory in the years that followed. The raids on both sides of the Cilician frontier seem therefore to have come to a provisory end with the death of Ma’mūn. The abandonment of the projected fortification of Tyana by Mu‘taṣim, followed perhaps by a Byzantine takeover of Loulon, clearly evidences the will of both parties to dampen the fighting in this area for some time. The tension, however, was displaced to the east as a result mainly of the contacts the Persian Khurramites made with Byzantium and also of the settlement in the empire of many of them after December 833, as we saw in Chapter 10. Theophilos probably took the opportunity of opening up a new front on the Armenian border as soon as the first contingents of Khurramites arrived in the empire seeking Byzantine help in their war against the caliph. The proclamation of Theophobos as exousiastes or prince of the Persians (see Chapter 11.4) was a clear signal to the caliphate that a new conflict was soon to start at the Armenian frontier.
