Battle of Apamea

Battle of Apamea
Part of the Arab–Byzantine Wars
View of Apamea's ruins
Date 19 July 998 Location Plain of al-Mudiq, near Apamea 35°24′54″N 36°22′48″E / 35.415°N 36.380°E / 35.415; 36.380 Result Fatimid victory
Belligerents
Byzantine Empire	Fatimid Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Damian Dalassenos †	Jaysh ibn Samsama
Strength
Unknown	10,000 Fatimid troops 1,000 Banu Kilab cavalry
Casualties and losses
Variously 5,000, 6,000 or 10,000 dead; 2,000 captured	Over 2,000 dead
class=notpageimage| Apamea's location within present-day Syria

The Battle of Apamea was fought on 19 July 998 between the forces of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate. The battle was part of a series of military confrontations between the two powers over control of northern Syria and the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo, which in turn were part of the larger series of regional conflicts known as the Arab–Byzantine wars. The Byzantine regional commander, Damian Dalassenos, had been besieging Apamea, until the arrival of the Fatimid relief army from Damascus, under Jaysh ibn Samsama. In the subsequent battle, the Byzantines were initially victorious, but a lone Kurdish rider managed to kill Dalassenos, throwing the Byzantine army into panic. The fleeing Byzantines were then pursued, with much loss of life, by the Fatimid troops. This defeat forced the Byzantine emperor Basil II to personally campaign in the region the next year, and was followed in 1001 by the conclusion of a ten-year truce between the two states.

The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim-Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire from the 7th to the 11th century. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs, in the 7th century and continued by their successors until the mid-11th century.