The Rus seize the city of Barda'a

ملك الروس مدينة بردعة

c. 943 CE · 332 AH

In 332 a Rus fleet came up the Kur river to Barda'a, routed the garrison, proclaimed security, then trapped the townsmen who stayed past the three-day deadline — some fifteen thousand captives, the survivors penned in the mosque and slaughtered when a twenty-dirham ransom failed. Fruit-gluttony brought them plague, and Marzuban's ambush destroyed their prince and penned the rest in the citadel ¹.

Overview

Ibn al-Athir relates in "al-Kamil" that a group of the Rus came out on the sea in 332 AH and went up the river Kur to Bardha'a. They defeated the deputy of the marzban and his Daylami and volunteer troops, and entered the city. ²

The events

The Rus called out safety to the people of the city and behaved well at first, as Ibn al-Athir says. Then their crier called for the people of the city to leave within three days. Most of them stayed, so the Rus put them to the sword and took some ten thousand captives. ²

They gathered those who remained in the mosque and demanded a ransom of twenty dirhams for each man. When the money was not collected they killed them, and enslaved the captives. ²

The end

Ibn al-Athir says that the Rus ate too many fruits, and a plague and death struck them. The marzuban set an ambush for them, and a great number of them were killed, among them their commander, and the rest were besieged in the fortress of Shahrastan. ²

This report still needs a second source.

Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah's Governorship of Armenia

In al-Baladhuri: Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik gave Armenia to Adi ibn Adi ibn Amira al-Kindi — Adi ibn Amira being one of those who settled al-Raqqa having parted with Ali ibn Abi Talib — then Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz appointed him, he being the owner of the Nahr Adi at al-Baylaqan, though some say Umar's governor was Hatim ibn al-Nu'man, which is unsound; then Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik appointed Mi'laq ibn Saffar al-Bahrani, removed him for al-Harith ibn Amr al-Ta'i, who raided the Lakz and took Rustaq Hamsadan; and al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami of Mudhhij governed Armenia, settling at Bardha'a, where its conflicting measures and weights were laid before him and he set them on justice and fulness, making a measure called al-Jarrahi which its people deal by to this day; then he crossed the Kurr and marched until he passed the river called al-Samur, reaching the Khazars and killing them in a great slaughter, and fought the people of Bilad Hamzin, then compounded with them to transfer them to a rustaq.

The Rus seize the city of Barda'a

At a glance

In time

Overview

The events

The end

Connections

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Sources

Time

Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah's Governorship of Armenia