Byzantine conquest of Cilicia

Byzantine conquest of Cilicia
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Niketas Chalkoutzes and his entourage escape during a battle between the Byzantines and the Arabs. Miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes
Date 964–965 Location Cilicia Result Byzantine victory Territorial changes Cilicia reconquered by the Byzantine Empire
Belligerents
Hamdanid Dynasty Abbasid Caliphate	Byzantine Empire	Hamdanid Rebels
Commanders and leaders
Sayf al-Dawla Ali ibn Hamdan	Nikephoros Phokas Niketas Chalkoutzes John Tzimiskes Leo Phokas	Ibn az-Zayyat Hibat Allah Marwan al-'Uqayli Rashiq ibn Abdallah al-Nasimi Dizbar Naja al-Kasaki
Strength
	70,000 in 961 40,000 in 964

The Byzantine conquest of Cilicia was a series of conflicts and engagements between the forces of the Byzantine Empire under Nikephoros II Phokas and the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, over control of the region of Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia. Since the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, Cilicia had been a frontier province of the Muslim world and a base for regular raids against the Byzantine provinces in Anatolia. By the middle of the 10th century, the fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate and the strengthening of Byzantium under the Macedonian dynasty allowed the Byzantines to gradually take the offensive. Under the soldier-emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969), with the help of the general and future emperor John I Tzimiskes, the Byzantines overcame the resistance of Sayf al-Dawla, who had taken control of the former Abbasid borderlands in northern Syria, and launched a series of aggressive campaigns that in 964–965 recaptured Cilicia. The successful conquest opened the way for the recovery of Cyprus and Antioch over the next few years, and the eclipse of the Hamdanids as an independent power in the region.