Invasion By The Rus and Hamdanids
In the spring of 945 the Rus invaded Azerbaijan. Coming up the Kura River, they occupied Barda (for details of this occupation, see Caspian expeditions of the Rus). Marzuban's army, which included many volunteers eager to fight the infidel Rus, was numerically superior to the raiders. Despite this, the Sallarid army was defeated several times. It was only after the Rus had been weakened by disease that he managed to ambush and kill 700 of them.
Marzuban then laid siege to Barda, but received news that the Hamdanid amir of Mosul, Nasir al-Daula, had sent his nephew al-Husain b. Sa'id to take over Azerbaijan. In 942, during the war between Marzuban and Daisam, al-Husain had been invested with the government of the province by the caliph, and now he intended to make good on his claim. The Hamdanid had reached Salmas and had gained the support of the Kurds. Marzuban left a small force to keep the Rus in check, and in a winter campaign (945-946) defeated al-Husain. A short time later al-Husain was recalled by Nasir al-Daula, who was preparing for a war against the Buwayhid amir of Baghdad. The Rus meanwhile decided to leave, taking as much loot and prisoners as they could.
Read more about this topic: Marzuban Ibn Muhammad
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“We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)