Campaigns Against The Arabs
Having put an end to the internal strife, Basil II then turned his attention to the Empire's other enemies. The Byzantine civil wars had weakened the Empire's position in the east and the gains of Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes came close to being lost to the Fatimids.
In 987/988, a seven-year truce was signed with the Fatimids, stipulating an exchange of prisoners, the recognition of the Byzantine emperor as protector of the Christians under Fatimid rule and of the Fatimid Caliph as protector of the Muslims under Byzantine control, as well as the replacement of the Abbasid Caliph's name by that of the Fatimid Caliph in the Friday prayer in the mosque of Constantinople. Nevertheless, perhaps in the belief that Byzantium would not interfere, in 991 the Fatimids launched a campaign against the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, a Byzantine protectorate. The Fatimids, under the governor of Damascus Manjutakin, scored a series of successes against the Hamdanids and their Byzantine allies, including a major victory against the doux of Antioch, Michael Bourtzes, at the Battle of the Orontes in September 994. The latter forced Basil to intervene personally in the East: in a lightning campaign he rode with his army through Asia Minor in sixteen days and reached Aleppo in April 995, forcing the Fatimid army to retreat without giving battle. The Byzantines besieged Tripolis unsuccessfully and occupied Tartus, which they refortified and garrisoned with Armenian troops. The Fatimid caliph Al-Aziz now prepared to take the field in person against the Byzantines and initiated large-scale preparations, which were, however, cut short upon his death.
Warfare between the two powers continued, with the Byzantines supporting an anti-Fatimid uprising in Tyre. In 998, the Byzantines under Bourtzes' successor, Damian Dalassenos, launched an attack on Apamea, but the Fatimid general Jaush ibn al-Samsama defeated them in battle on 19 July 998. This new defeat brought Basil II once again to Syria in October 999. Basil spent three months in Syria, during which the Byzantines raided as far as Baalbek, took and garrisoned Shaizar and captured three minor forts in its vicinity (Abu-qubais, Masyath, 'Arqah), and sacked Rafaniya. Hims was not seriously threatened, but a month-long siege of Tripoli in December failed. However, as Basil's attention was needed in Armenia, he departed for Cilicia in January and dispatched another embassy to Cairo. In 1000 a ten-year truce was concluded between the two states. For the remainder of the reign of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021) relations remained peaceful, as Hakim was more interested in internal affairs. Even the acknowledgement of Fatimid suzerainty by Lu'lu' of Aleppo in 1004 and the Fatimid-sponsored instalment of Fatik Aziz al-Dawla as the city's emir in 1017 did not lead the a resumption of hostilities, especially since Lu'lu' continued to pay tribute to Byzantium and Fatik quickly began acting as an independent ruler. Nevertheless, Hakim's persecution of Christians in his realm, and especially the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at his orders in 1009, strained relations and would, along with Fatimid interference in Aleppo, provide the main focus of Fatimid-Byzantine diplomatic relations until the late 1030s.
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