Al-Nu'mān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, known by the Byzantines as Anemas (), was the son of the last

Emir of Crete The Emirate of Crete ( or , ; ) was an Arab Islamic state that existed on the Mediterranean island of Crete from the late 820s to the reconquest of the island by the Byzantine Empire in 961. Although the emirate recognized the suzerainty of the ...

Abd al-Aziz ibn Shu'ayb ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī al-Ballūṭī (), known as Kouroupas () in the Byzantine sources, was the tenth and last emir of Crete, ruling from 949 to the Byzantine reconquest of the island in 961. Reign and loss of Cr ...

. Following the

Siege of Chandax The siege of Chandax in 960-961 was the centerpiece of the Byzantine Empire's campaign to recover the island of Crete which since the 820s had been ruled by Muslim Arabs. The campaign followed a series of failed attempts to reclaim the island fro ...

and the reconquest of Crete by the Byzantines, Anemas and his father were taken as prisoners to

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and displayed during the triumph of the conqueror and future emperor

Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of t ...

. Upon settling in Constantinople, Anemas converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and joined the Byzantine army as a member of the imperial bodyguard. When the emperor

John I Tzimiskes John I Tzimiskes (; 925 – 10 January 976) was the senior Byzantine emperor from 969 to 976. An intuitive and successful general who married into the influential Skleros family, he strengthened and expanded the Byzantine Empire to inclu ...

campaigned against the

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

in 971, Anemas joined the expedition and went on to fight in a number of engagements during the

Siege of Dorostolon The Battle of Dorostopol or Dorystolon was fought in 971 between the Byzantine Empire and forces of Kievan Rus'. The Byzantines, led by John I Tzimiskes, were victorious. Background During the course of the Rus'-Bulgarian war, Svyatoslav I of ...

. According to Leo the Deacon, during a sally of the besieged Rus', Anemas personally engaged and killed their second-in-command, Ikmor. On the next day (Leo gives it as Friday the 24th of July, but the 24th was a Monday) the Rus' launched a determined all-out attack around sunset, hoping to break through. Anemas charged the Rus leader,

Sviatoslav Sviatoslav (, ; , ) is a Russian and Ukrainian given name of Slavic origin. Cognates include Svetoslav, Svatoslav, , Svetislav. It has a Pre-Christian pagan character and means "one who worships the light" (likely in reference to the sun). In C ...

, and struck him on the neck, throwing him off his horse; his armour however saved Sviatoslav, and the Rus' quickly came to his aid and attacked Anemas. The latter was able to kill several, but in the end was killed himself. The Rus' then charged with renewed confidence, but were beaten back with heavy casualties, forcing Sviatoslav to capitulate and sign a treaty with Tzimiskes. It is possible that the

Anemas Anemas () was the name of a Byzantine aristocratic family, attested from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The origin and etymology of the name are uncertain; it may be connected to ''anemos'', "wind", although the philologist Phaedon Koukoules sugg ...

family that appears in the Byzantine aristocracy in the 11th–12th centuries were his descendants.

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , editor1-first = Alice-Mary , editor1-last = Talbot , editor-link=Alice-Mary Talbot , editor2-first = Dennis F. , editor2-last = Sullivan , title = The History of Leo the Deacon: Byzantine Military Expansion in the Tenth Century , publisher = Dumbarton Oaks , year= 2005 , isbn= 978-0-88402-324-1 , location=Washington, DC, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RCDsV41k8A0C 971 deaths 10th-century Arab people 10th-century Byzantine people Byzantine people of Arab descent Converts to Christianity from Islam Byzantines killed in battle Emirate of Crete Year of birth unknown