WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.469 In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. 00:00:05.469 --> 00:00:07.469 A summary of the book: 00:00:07.469 --> 00:00:11.470 *Ramadan: Events and Lessons*. 00:00:11.470 --> 00:00:18.379 The Conquest of the City of Amorium. 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:21.379 The date: the sixth of Ramadan, 00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:25.379 in the year 223 AH. 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:33.810 The forces of evil never cease warring against goodness and its people, 00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:38.810 inflicting upon them every manner of torment whenever an opportunity arises. 00:00:38.810 --> 00:00:43.810 They possess no inner restraints to curb their diabolical impulses, 00:00:43.810 --> 00:00:49.810 nor do they follow any sacred law that would halt their doctrine of harm and aggression. 00:00:49.810 --> 00:00:53.810 Nothing turns them back from their tyranny except the strength of the people of truth, 00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:57.810 their repelling of the aggressors' evil, 00:00:57.810 --> 00:01:00.810 and their capacity to halt that oppressive power 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:06.030 through their means of deterrence and their disciplining of assailants. 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:10.030 When the Muslims held firmly to their religion, 00:01:10.030 --> 00:01:13.030 adhered to the bastions of honor, 00:01:13.030 --> 00:01:16.030 and took hold of the means of strength, 00:01:16.030 --> 00:01:19.030 awe of them was cast into the hearts of their enemies, 00:01:19.030 --> 00:01:22.030 preventing them from transgressing against them 00:01:22.030 --> 00:01:24.189 or subjecting them to humiliation. 00:01:24.189 --> 00:01:27.189 But when they began abandoning the religion of Allah 00:01:27.189 --> 00:01:29.189 and clinging to the life of this world, 00:01:29.189 --> 00:01:31.189 they fell back from the horizons of honor, 00:01:31.189 --> 00:01:34.189 and the enemy did with them as they pleased. 00:01:34.189 --> 00:01:39.189 This is the confirmation of what the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, foretold 00:01:39.189 --> 00:01:44.189 in the hadith of Thawban, the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), 00:01:44.189 --> 00:01:46.189 who said: 00:01:46.189 --> 00:01:50.260 The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:54.260 "The nations are about to gather against you from every horizon, 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:58.260 just as diners gather around their dish." 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.260 He said: 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:02.260 We asked: "O Messenger of Allah, 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:05.260 will it be because of our small numbers on that day?" 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:06.260 He replied: 00:02:06.260 --> 00:02:09.259 "No, on that day you will be many, 00:02:09.259 --> 00:02:13.259 but you will be scum like the froth of a torrent. 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:17.259 Awe of you will be stripped from the hearts of your enemy, 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:20.419 and *wahn* (enervation) will be cast into your hearts." 00:02:20.419 --> 00:02:21.419 He said: 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:22.419 We asked: 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:24.419 "And what is *wahn*?" 00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:25.419 He said: 00:02:25.419 --> 00:02:29.419 "Love of this worldly life and hatred of death." 00:02:29.419 --> 00:02:34.610 In eras of glory, the Ummah was like a single body: 00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:36.610 if any limb complained, 00:02:36.610 --> 00:02:39.610 the rest of the body responded to it. 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:44.669 Whenever any Muslim was attacked by the disbelievers, 00:02:44.669 --> 00:02:47.669 the Muslims exacted justice from that aggressor; 00:02:47.669 --> 00:02:50.669 whoever cried out to them for rescue was answered, 00:02:50.669 --> 00:02:53.669 and whoever sought their aid was delivered. 00:02:53.669 --> 00:02:54.669 But today, 00:02:54.669 --> 00:02:58.669 the body of the Ummah has been torn into scattered pieces; 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:01.669 one part no longer feels the pain of another, 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:03.669 nor does it come to its rescue in distress, 00:03:03.669 --> 00:03:06.669 nor does it assist it in its need. 00:03:06.669 --> 00:03:11.830 How many cries of those pleading for rescue have pounded upon our ears, 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:13.830 alongside the voices of the tortured! 00:03:13.830 --> 00:03:16.830 How hoarse have grown the throats of those crying: 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:18.830 "O Islam!" 00:03:18.830 --> 00:03:20.830 "O Muslims!" 00:03:20.830 --> 00:03:22.830 "O brethren!" 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.120 Yet the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim Billah, 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.120 along with the Muslims of his day, 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:33.120 were nothing like our state today. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:37.120 The conquest of Amorium remains an honorable memory for them, 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.120 engraving their chivalry and protective honor across the brow of time, 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:47.120 enduring as a historic exploit recounted across generations with utmost pride and dignity. 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:51.659 The Conquest of Amorium and Its History 00:03:51.659 --> 00:03:53.789 Amorium 00:03:53.789 --> 00:03:55.789 was a city in the land of the Byzantines. 00:03:55.789 --> 00:03:56.789 It was said 00:03:56.789 --> 00:03:59.789 to be named after Amorium, daughter of ar-Rum, 00:03:59.789 --> 00:04:03.789 son of Eliphaz, son of Shem, son of Noah, peace be upon him. 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:08.789 This city was situated in Phrygia in Asia Minor; 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:11.789 it was founded during the Hellenistic period, 00:04:11.789 --> 00:04:14.789 flourished under the Byzantine Empire, 00:04:14.789 --> 00:04:20.790 and was eventually abandoned following the campaign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim. 00:04:20.790 --> 00:04:24.860 Its ruins lie near the village of Hisarköy 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:27.860 in the Afyon Province of Turkey. 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:32.860 Its conquest and the entry into it took place on the sixth of Ramadan 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:36.860 in the year 223 AH. 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:40.939 The Cause of the Conquest of Amorium 00:04:40.939 --> 00:04:43.939 The reason for this great conquest 00:04:43.939 --> 00:04:47.939 was that the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus, son of Michael, 00:04:47.939 --> 00:04:49.939 marched forth with one hundred thousand troops 00:04:49.939 --> 00:04:51.939 and reached Zibatra. 00:04:51.939 --> 00:04:54.939 There, he slaughtered its men, 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:57.939 took the women and children captive, 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:00.939 utterly laid waste to the city, 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:05.939 raided the people of Malatya and other Muslim fortresses, 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:07.939 captured Muslim women, 00:05:07.939 --> 00:05:11.939 mutilated those Muslims who fell into his hands, 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:13.939 gouged out their eyes, 00:05:13.939 --> 00:05:17.069 and cut off their noses and ears. 00:05:17.069 --> 00:05:20.069 Regarding this, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi said: 00:05:20.069 --> 00:05:25.199 "O protective jealousy for the sake of Allah, you have witnessed this, so take vengeance! 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:29.199 Women have been violated, though they committed no crime! 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:33.259 Granted, the men were slain for supposed misdeeds, 00:05:33.259 --> 00:05:38.579 but what of their children, plundered and slaughtered?" 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:43.579 A dispatch then arrived by courier to al-Mu'tasim from the Byzantine frontier, 00:05:43.579 --> 00:05:47.579 reporting that the Byzantine Emperor had encroached upon Islamic territories, 00:05:47.579 --> 00:05:50.579 extended his aggression against several villages, 00:05:50.579 --> 00:05:53.579 and captured a group of people from them, 00:05:53.579 --> 00:05:56.579 among whom 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:58.579 was a Hashimite woman 00:05:58.579 --> 00:06:03.639 who had cried out: "O Mu'tasim!" 00:06:03.639 --> 00:06:07.930 The Caliph al-Mu'tasim's Stance Toward the Event 00:06:07.930 --> 00:06:11.930 When this grave news reached al-Mu'tasim, 00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:13.930 he took it with the utmost gravity and solemnity; 00:06:13.930 --> 00:06:15.959 it grieved him deeply and consumed his thoughts. 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:19.959 He prepared for it with immense resolve through deeds, 00:06:19.959 --> 00:06:24.180 not through mere words or telegrams of condemnation. 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.180 Historians have recorded 00:06:26.180 --> 00:06:31.180 that the Byzantine Emperor had sent a letter to al-Mu'tasim threatening him, 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:34.180 whereupon al-Mu'tasim was enraged 00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:36.180 and ordered a reply to be written. 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:38.180 A response was drafted for him, 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:41.180 but none of the several drafts prepared satisfied him. 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:44.180 So he tore up the letter that had arrived from the Emperor 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:48.180 and commanded that there be written on the back of a piece of it: 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:51.180 "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. 00:06:51.180 --> 00:06:55.180 The answer is what you will see, not what you will read. 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:59.310 'And the disbelievers will come to know who has the ultimate reward of the Home.'" 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:01.310 He immediately mobilized for war, 00:07:01.310 --> 00:07:03.310 but astrologers attempted to dissuade him, 00:07:03.310 --> 00:07:07.310 telling him that the ascendant star portended misfortune. 00:07:07.310 --> 00:07:08.310 He said to them: 00:07:08.310 --> 00:07:11.310 "It portends misfortune for them, not for us!" 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:15.310 He set out that very day, with armies following in succession. 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:17.500 As for the woman, 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:20.500 he answered her cry while still on his couch, saying: 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.500 "Here I am at your service! Here I am at your service!" 00:07:23.500 --> 00:07:25.500 He sounded the general call to arms, 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:28.500 rose immediately and mounted his steed, 00:07:28.500 --> 00:07:33.500 carrying along hobbling ropes and an iron peg inside his cloak. 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:35.500 He gathered the troops, 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:39.500 summoned the Chief Judge of Baghdad, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ishaq, 00:07:39.500 --> 00:07:41.500 along with Ibn Sahl 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.500 and three hundred and thirty certified witnesses, 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:48.500 and had them bear witness to the endowment of his estates: 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:50.500 one third for his children, 00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:52.500 one third for his freed slaves, 00:07:52.500 --> 00:07:54.500 and one third for the sake of Allah. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:58.430 The Course of the Battle and the Conquest of the City 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:02.750 When al-Mu'tasim reached the gates of the city, 00:08:02.750 --> 00:08:05.750 he assigned its towers among his commanders, 00:08:05.750 --> 00:08:09.750 apportioning a number of towers to each of them 00:08:09.750 --> 00:08:13.750 according to the size of their respective forces, 00:08:13.750 --> 00:08:18.750 so that each commander was allotted between two and twenty towers. 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:21.750 The inhabitants of Amorium fortified themselves inside. 00:08:21.750 --> 00:08:26.750 Al-Mu'tasim encamped opposite a specific section that had been pointed out to him, 00:08:26.750 --> 00:08:30.750 shown by a Muslim who had lived within the city, 00:08:30.750 --> 00:08:34.750 having previously embraced Christianity among them and married one of their women. 00:08:34.750 --> 00:08:38.850 But when he saw the Commander of the Faithful and the Muslims, 00:08:38.850 --> 00:08:40.850 he returned to Islam, 00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:43.850 went out to the Caliph, reaffirmed his faith, 00:08:43.850 --> 00:08:45.850 and informed him of a vulnerable section in the wall 00:08:45.850 --> 00:08:47.850 that had once been destroyed by a flood 00:08:47.850 --> 00:08:51.850 and was rebuilt flimsily without solid foundations. 00:08:51.850 --> 00:08:55.850 The Byzantine Emperor had previously written to the governor of Amorium 00:08:55.850 --> 00:08:57.850 instructing him to fortify that section properly, 00:08:57.850 --> 00:09:00.850 but they had been negligent in doing so, 00:09:00.850 --> 00:09:05.850 which proved to be the gateway of triumph for the Muslims to enter Amorium. 00:09:05.850 --> 00:09:09.980 Al-Mu'tasim positioned the mangonels all around Amorium, 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:13.980 and the very first breach made in its wall 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:17.980 was at that location pointed out by the former captive. 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:20.070 The defenders scrambled 00:09:20.070 --> 00:09:23.070 and blocked it with large, closely lashed timbers, 00:09:23.070 --> 00:09:26.070 but the mangonels pounded it incessantly. 00:09:26.070 --> 00:09:28.070 They then placed pack-saddles over the breach 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:31.070 to cushion the impact of the stones, 00:09:31.070 --> 00:09:33.070 but it availed them nothing, 00:09:33.070 --> 00:09:37.070 and the wall collapsed and fractured on that side. 00:09:37.070 --> 00:09:42.360 When al-Mu'tasim observed the depth of its moat and the height of its wall, 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:46.389 he directed the mangonels to batter the ramparts. 00:09:46.389 --> 00:09:49.389 While the men were working on the filled causeway, 00:09:49.389 --> 00:09:53.389 the mangonels brought down that defective section. 00:09:53.389 --> 00:09:56.389 When the wall collapsed between two towers, 00:09:56.389 --> 00:09:59.389 the people heard a tremendous crash, 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:01.389 which those who could not see it thought 00:10:01.389 --> 00:10:05.389 to be a sudden Byzantine sally against the Muslims. 00:10:05.389 --> 00:10:08.389 Al-Mu'tasim dispatched a herald to announce among the troops: 00:10:08.389 --> 00:10:11.389 "It is merely the collapse of the wall!" 00:10:11.389 --> 00:10:15.389 The Muslims rejoiced exceedingly at that. 00:10:15.389 --> 00:10:18.389 However, the breach made 00:10:18.389 --> 00:10:21.389 was not yet wide enough for cavalry and infantry to pour through, 00:10:21.389 --> 00:10:23.419 so the siege intensified. 00:10:23.419 --> 00:10:27.419 The Byzantines had placed each tower of the ramparts 00:10:27.419 --> 00:10:29.419 under the command of an officer tasked with guarding it. 00:10:29.419 --> 00:10:32.419 The officer whose section of the wall was breached grew too weak 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:36.419 to withstand the fierce assault of the siege, 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:41.519 so he went to Monatses, the Byzantine governor of Amorium, 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:43.519 requesting reinforcements, 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.519 but none of the Byzantines agreed to assist him, 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:51.519 saying: "We will not abandon the posts we have been charged to defend." 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:55.519 Al-Mu'tasim then ordered the Muslims to storm the city 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:59.519 through that breach left stripped of defenders. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.679 The Muslims charged toward it, 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:04.679 The Romans began making gestures toward them, 00:11:04.679 --> 00:11:07.679 unable to repel them, 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:10.679 but the Muslims paid them no heed. 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:14.679 Then the Muslims overwhelmed them and took the city by storm, 00:11:14.679 --> 00:11:18.679 pouring into it in waves while proclaiming the takbir. 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:21.679 The Romans abandoned their positions and scattered, 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:27.679 so the Muslims began striking them down wherever they encountered them. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:31.679 They had driven them into a massive church of theirs, 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:33.679 which the Muslims then breached by force, 00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:35.679 killing those inside. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:37.679 They set fire to the church doors, 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:39.679 causing it to burn, 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:41.679 and everyone inside was burned to the very last man. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.710 Then al-Mu'tasim gave orders concerning Amorium, 00:11:44.710 --> 00:11:46.710 and it was demolished and burned. 00:11:46.710 --> 00:11:51.710 His initial encampment against it had begun on the sixth of Ramadan, 00:11:51.710 --> 00:11:55.710 and he laid siege to it for fifty-five days. 00:11:55.710 --> 00:11:58.710 He then distributed the captives among the commanders 00:11:58.710 --> 00:12:01.710 and marched toward Tarsus. 00:12:01.710 --> 00:12:05.450 The outcomes of the conquest of Amorium: 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:10.580 First, this decisive battle and manifest triumph 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:14.580 served as a direct, practical response to the arrogance of the Byzantines. 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:18.580 Justice was thus fully exacted on behalf of the Muslims and their cities, 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:23.580 as a fitting recompense for what those aggressors had done, 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:27.580 whom Abu Ishaq disciplined through his decisive actions— 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:30.580 an extraordinary chastisement immortalized throughout history. 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:32.860 Second, 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:36.860 a vast number of Byzantine combatants were killed, 00:12:36.860 --> 00:12:38.860 an equal number were taken captive, 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:41.860 and immense spoils of war were seized. 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:44.019 Third, 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:49.019 the rescue of that woman who had called upon al-Mu'tasim for help, as is reported. 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:51.019 Ibn Kathir said: 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:57.019 "The Muslims seized incalculable and indescribable wealth from Amorium, 00:12:57.019 --> 00:13:00.019 carrying away whatever they were able to transport, 00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:04.019 while al-Mu'tasim ordered the remainder to be burned, 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:10.019 along with all the mangonels, siege engines, and instruments of war found there, 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:16.500 so that the Romans could never use them to reinforce themselves in any future war against the Muslims." 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:19.700 Lessons from the conquest of Amorium: 00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:21.700 First: 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:24.700 Muslims will never remain secure and dignified 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:29.730 except through a strength of their own that repels the onslaught of aggressors. 00:13:29.730 --> 00:13:31.730 Second: 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:34.730 The enemy understands only the language of force, 00:13:34.730 --> 00:13:39.080 without which they will only spread corruption across the earth. 00:13:39.080 --> 00:13:40.080 Third: 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.080 Allah may prepare for the Muslims circumstances originating from within the enemy's own ranks 00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:47.080 through which their victory over them is achieved. 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:48.240 Fourth: 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:53.240 When the ruler is righteous, Allah rectifies the people and the lands through him, 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.240 the religion is strengthened by him, 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:58.240 and goodness prevails among the Muslims. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.460 Fifth: 00:14:00.460 --> 00:14:05.460 If a prominent Muslim leader falls into a sin or an innovation, 00:14:05.460 --> 00:14:09.460 that does not mean forgetting a momentous deed of his 00:14:09.460 --> 00:14:12.460 through which he benefited Islam and the Muslims. 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:19.190 Ramadan: Historic Events and Enduring Lessons.