Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 20, 2013

The Sack of Amorium by the Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the Arab–Byzantine Wars. In retaliation for Byzantine attacks the previous year, the Caliph al-Mu'tasim targeted Amorium in central Anatolia, one of the Byzantine Empire's most important cities. The Abbasid army launched a two-pronged offensive, defeated the Byzantine emperor Theophilos and his forces at Anzen, and sacked the city of Ancyra on their way to Amorium. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and an army rebellion, Theophilos was unable to aid the city. Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned, but after two weeks of siege (siege depicted), a traitor revealed a weak spot in the wall, where the Abbasids effected a breach. The commander of the breached section left his post to try to negotiate privately with the Caliph, allowing the Arabs to capture the city. Amorium was systematically destroyed, never to recover its former prosperity. Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered, and the remainder driven off as slaves. The conquest of Amorium not only was a major military disaster and a heavy personal blow for Theophilos, but also a traumatic event for the Byzantines, its impact resonating in later literature. (Full article...)

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