The Battle of Anzen or Dazimon was fought on 22 July 838 at Anzen or Dazimon between the Byzantine Empire and the forces of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasids had launched a massive expedition with two separate armies in retaliation for the Byzantine emperor Theophilos's successes the previous year, and aimed to sack Amorion, one of Byzantium's largest cities. Theophilos with his army confronted the smaller Muslim army, under the Iranian vassal prince Afshin, at Dazimon.
The Byzantine army and Theophilos retreat towards a mountain, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes.
The Emperor Theophilos and his court, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes chronicle.
Theophilos was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos personally led the armies in his long war against the Arabs, beginning in 831.
Theophilus, in the Chronicle of John Skylitzes
Theophilos on a coin of his father, Michael II, founder of the Amorian/Phrygian dynasty
Emperor Theophilos argues with the iconophile monk Lazarus.
Theophilos ordering the urban prefect to execute his father's co-conspirators, who were involved in the murder of Leo V
