Suppressingfire's video: M2TW Broken Crescent: The Battle of Raban 958 AD John Tzimiskes vs Sayf al-Dawla 2 2

During the rise of Islam the Empire was already squeezed of it finances & resources due to the Sassanid campaign of Emperor Heraclius, which was won by the Romans. But Emperor Heraclius was getting old & fell ill after his success & a series of incomepent generals took command of the army & lost many battles against the muslim Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate, particularly the battle of Yarmouk 636 AD. At Yarmouk the Roman army being led by 3 or 4 commanders with different ideas, almost half the army were Ghassanid (Arabs) & Armenian Auxiliaries & although for 4 days the Romans attacked the Arabs even managed to push some of their units to confusion only to turn back by the shameful taunting of their own muslim wives, the Romans could have achieved victory if were commanded by 1 good general instead of 4 too much cautious icompetent onse & did not lose the initative. So the arab general on the 5th day decided to place all his cavalry on his right making it obvious whats he gonna do & managed to outflank them. However, during the 8th, 9th & 10th centuries the empire gave some payback to the muslim Arabs & regained lost territory. Byzantine Emperors & Generals at the time, like Leo III, Nikephoros II Phokas, Leo Phokas, Bardas Phokas, Ioannis Tzimiskes & others have been successful in beating back the arabs on many occasions & regained lost territory. During John Tzimiskes' campaign against the arabs led by the renowned Sayf al-Dawla, he managed to defeat him in an important battle at Raban, Northern Syria in 958 AD, which broke arabs from raiding & campaigning further against the empire, especially besiegeing Constantinople, which every siege ended in a horrible disaster for the arabs, for the crispy roasted arabs by GreekFire. Not much is know in detail about the Battle of Raban 958 AD, but it was an important victory for the future emperor John Tzimiskes & the Byzantine Empire, during campaign against the Abbasid Arabs led by Sayf al-Dawla. John had already captured the fortress of Dara, and won a crushing victory near Amida over an army led by one of Sayf al-Dawla's favourite lieutenants, the Circassian Nadja. Of Nadja's 10,000 troops, Tzimiskes reportedly killed half and captured the more than half of the survivors. Reinforced with more troops under the parakoimomenos Basil Lekapenos, in June, Tzimiskes then stormed Samosata and the fortress of Raban south of Hadath. It was there that Sayf al-Dawla himself came to confront him. The ensuing battle (taking place between 18 October and 15 November 958) was hard fought—Sayf al-Dawla's cousin and court poet Abu Firas is said to have broken two lances in his first charge—but in the end, the Byzantines broke through and prevailed and the Muslim army broke and fled. Many of Sayf al-Dawla's court companions and ghilman fell in the pursuit, while over 1,700 of his cavalry were captured and paraded in the streets of Constantinople. John was later crowned Basileus (Emperor) Ioannis I Tzimiskes 969 - 976 in Constantinople & although he did not live much long, he was one of the best Emperors & Generals of the Byzantines. I made a few edits you might notice on the Byzantine General & his Standard. I changed the previous general's cloak to this blue one with the 2 headed eagle on the back, i took from Stainless Steel, i changed the colour of his tunic from green to purpil, i changed the general's shield design from that plain black & white cross to the red 2 headed eagle crest on his shield & i also changed the Crucifix Standard background from black to purpil with smaller designs. Looks much better this way :) Glory to Basileus Ioannis I Tzimiskes 969 - 976 & the Roman-Byzantine Empire 27 BC - 1453 AD