Military Campaigns Under Caliph Uthman - Occupation of Anatolia

Occupation of Anatolia

The Byzantine forts in the region of Tarsus were conquered during Umar’s reign, soon after the Conquest of Antioch, by Khalid ibn Walid and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. During Uthman’s reign the region was recaptured by Byzantine forces and a series of campaigns were launched to regain control of the region. In 647 Muawiyah the governor of Syria sent an expedition against the Anatolia, they entered in Cappadocia, and sacked Caesarea Mazaca. In 648 the Rashidun army raided into Phrygia. A major offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced the Byzantine emperor Constans II to enter into negotiations with Caliph Uthman's governor of Syria, Muawiyah. The truce that followed allowed a short respite, and made it possible for Constans II to hold on to the western portions of Armenia. In 654–655 on the orders of Caliph Uthman, an expedition was preparing to attack the Byzantine capital Constantinopole but did not carry out the plan due to the civil war that broke out in 656. The Taurus Mountains in Turkey marked the western most frontiers of Rashidun Caliphate in Anatolia during Caliph Uthman's reign.