The Armies
In 750, the army of the Umayyad caliph Marwan II fought a combined force of Abbasid, Shia and Persians soldiers at the Zab. Marwan's army was, on paper at least, far larger and more formidable than that of his opponents, as it contained many veterans of the Umayyads' earlier campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, but its support for the caliph was only lukewarm. It is fair to say their morale had been damaged — whereas the Abbasid's armies had been increased — by the series of defeats inflicted on the Umayyads earlier in the rebellion.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Zab
Famous quotes containing the word armies:
“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)