Hasan 1 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
| Sex | M |
| Floruit | M/L VIII |
| Dates | 779 (taq) / 779 (tpq) |
| PmbZ No. | 2542 |
| Variant Names | Asan; Hassan |
| Religion | Muslim |
| Ethnicity | Arab |
| Locations | Armenia; Dorylaion (Phrygia); Amorion (Galatia) |
| Textual Sources | Baladhuri, al-, Kitab futuh al-Buldan, tr. P. K. Hitti, The Origins of the Islamic State (London, 1916, reprint Beirut, 1966) (history); Elias Barshinaya, Chronicle (Eliae metropolitae Nisibeni, Opus chronologicum, pars prior, ed. and tr. E. W. Brooks, CSCO 62 and CSCO 63 (1910) (chronicle); Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1883-85, repr. Hildesheim/NewYork, 1980); tr. and comm. C. Mango and R. Scott, The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor, Oxford 1997 (chronicle) |
Hasan 1 was Hasan ibn Qahtaba; see Encyclopaedia of Islam. An Arab general (though described explicitly by neither of these terms), he was sent by the caliph al-Mahdi 1 in 779 to invade Roman territory with a large army consisting of troops from the East as well as from Syria and Mesopotamia; they reached Dorylaion but after fifteen days there, began to run into difficulties as a result of the Roman tactics of destroying all available fodder for animals; they withdrew and attempted to invest Amorion, but gave up after one day because it was too strongly fortified and equipped and returned home with nothing accomplished: Theoph. AM 6271.
In AH 155 (December 771/December 772) = 1083 Sel. (771/772) hasan 1 (Hassan ibn Qahtaba) invaded Armenia: Elias, Chron., p. 181, 15-20 = p. 86. In AH 162 (September 778/September 779) = 1089 Sel. (777/778) Hasan 1 (Hassan ibn Qahtaba) invaded Roman territory and returned victorious: Elias, Chron., p. 183, 20-24 = p. 87.
Hasan 1 was sent by the caliph al-Mahdi 1 in AH 161 (October 777/September 778) against the Byzantine Empire and allegedly so frightened them that his picture was put in the churches: Baladhuri, tr. Hitti, p. 296. He also went on an expedition in AH 162 (September 778/September 779): Baladhuri, tr. Hitti, p. 261.
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