John I Tzimiskes was born to a father belonging to the Kourkouas family of Armenian origin, and a mother belonging to the Phokas family of Greek-Armenian origin. Scholars have speculated that "Tzimiskes" was derived either from the Armenian Chmushkik (Չմշկիկ), meaning "red boot", or from an Armenian word for "short stature", as explained by Leo the Deacon.

The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. 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.. The emergence of Muslim Arabs from …

John I Tzimiskes (c. 925 - 976), Byzantine emperor, of mixed Greek-Armenian descent from Cappadocia, a member of the Kourkouas family, and son of the sister of Nikephoros II Phokas that was member of the Phokas family. Basil Giagoupes (13th century AD) Greek feudatory lord who held the court title of general (amir) in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.

Background. Having lost Carthage to the Muslims in 695, Emperor Leontius sent the navy under the command of John the Patrician and the droungarios Tiberius Apsimarus.They entered the harbour and successfully recaptured it in a surprise attack in 697, which resulted in the city's Arab forces fleeing to Kairouan. Preparation. Emir Hasan ibn al-Nu'man was in the middle of a …

The second Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718 was a combined land and sea offensive by the Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.The campaign marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and progressive Arab occupation of the Byzantine borderlands, while Byzantine strength was sapped by …

The Battle of Mu'tah (Arabic: مَعْرَكَة مُؤْتَة, romanized: Maʿrakah Muʿtah, or Arabic: غَزْوَة مُؤْتَة Ghazwah Muʿtah) took place in September 629 (1 Jumada al-Awwal 8 AH), between the forces of Muhammad and the army of the Byzantine Empire and their Ghassanid vassals. It took place in the village of Mu'tah at the east of the Jordan River and Karak in Karak ...

The first Arab siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the Arab–Byzantine wars, and the first culmination of the Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the Byzantine Empire, led by Caliph Mu'awiya I.Mu'awiya, who had emerged in 661 as the ruler of the Muslim Arab empire following a civil war, renewed aggressive warfare against Byzantium after …

Malatya (Armenian: Մալաթիա, romanized: Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; Kurdish: Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province.The city has been a human settlement for thousands of years. In Hittite, melid or milit means "honey", offering a possible etymology for the name, which ...

The siege of Jerusalem (636–637) was part of the Muslim conquest of the Levant and the result of the military efforts of the Rashidun Caliphate against the Byzantine Empire in the year 636–637/38. It began when the Rashidun army, under the command of Abu Ubayda, besieged Jerusalem beginning in November 636. After six months, the Patriarch Sophronius agreed to …

John Kourkouas' campaigns 926–930 First Melitene campaign and conquest of Kalikala; 931–934 Second Malitene campaign; Sayf al-Dawla campaigns 944 Conquest of Aleppo; 953 Battle of Marash; 962 Siege of Aleppo; Seljuq Empire. 1048–1308 Byzantine–Seljuq wars. August 26, 1071 Battle of Manzikert