Talk:Sack of Amorium

Latest comment: 2 years ago by Si Gam in topic Sack or conquest?
Featured articleSack of Amorium is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 20, 2013.
Did You Know Article milestones
DateProcessResult
October 10, 2010Good article nomineeListed
December 1, 2010WikiProject A-class reviewApproved
May 30, 2011Featured article candidatePromoted
Did You Know A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on October 17, 2010.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the Sack of Amorium (pictured) in 838 by the Abbasids discredited Byzantine Iconoclasm and led to the restoration of the veneration of icons?
Current status: Featured article

GA Review

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Sack of Amorium/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: JonCatalán(Talk) 17:32, 9 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Comments:

Lead
  • "The Sack of Amorium by the Abbasids in mid-August 838 represents one of the most defining moments in the long history of the Byzantine–Arab Wars." → This is a bold claim to make without a citation.
  • "The huge Abbasid army..." → I changed "huge" to "large", since I think the latter is a more encyclopedic word than the former.
  • "...in person..." → Is the "in person" necessary? At the time, given the lack of long-range nearly-instantaneous communication, I think that it's assumed that an army's leader was present with the army itself. For example, one wouldn't write, "The Macedonian army was led by Alexander the Great, in person."
  • I changed a comma for an em dash in the sentence introducing Amorium, since otherwise the sentence runs a bit long and the relationship isn't as clear.
  • "Although it did not ultimately alter the balance of power, which was slowly shifting in Byzantium's favour, it thoroughly discredited Iconoclasm, leading to its abandonment shortly after Theophilos' death in 842." → How did a battle discredit a religious ban? Even if this is elucidated below, it should be semi-clarified in the lead.
  • On the first point, to the Byzantines, the whole campaign was the most humiliating disaster they had suffered at the Arabs' hands for generations, and even 30 years later, they would claim the Battle of Lalakaon as "revenge" for Amorium. However I cannot find a direct citation to this, so I revised that to "one of the major events". Next, an army of over 20-30,000 men was already regarded as "very large" in the Middle Ages, and armies the size of Mu'tasim's force, even accounting for the inevitable exaggeration of the chroniclers, had not been seen since the campaigns aimed at conquering Constantinople. I feel that this must be somehow imparted to the reader, so I changed it to "exceptionally large". Fixed the rest, and agree with your change re Amorium. Good call. Constantine 09:33, 10 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
Background
  • Where it once said "he issued a new type of follis", I removed "type of". If you exchange follis for coin, then it makes sense to say, "he issued a new coin" rather than a "new type of coin". The former implies a variation of the same, while the latter implies a new type of currency altogether. The currency here is the same — the follis.
  • Although mentioned in the lead, Mu'tasim is first introduced into the main body of the text with no introduction to who he is (the lead should be considered independent of the main body).
Agree with point 1, fixed point 2. Constantine 09:33, 10 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
Impact
  • "...easily comparable with the greatest defeats of previous iconophile emperors..." → This part of the sentence itself needs a citation.
  • ..."thoroughly undermined the main argument for iconoclasm, namely that it secured military victories." → I reworded this sentence to, "thoroughly undermined the notion that iconoclasm was responsible for the empire's military victories." I'm not sure if that's what you wanted to say. Either way, I think the concept needs to be clarified. Was it because iconoclasm brought favor from God? If so, this should probably be included somewhere.
  • Elaborated a bit on the subject, but the point on divine favour and military success has already been made in the "Background" section: Iconoclasm was conceived as a way of purifying the faith of "idolatry" and regain divine favour against the Arabs. Victory in the field meant that the iconoclasts were right, failure the opposite. Constantine 09:33, 10 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
General
  • Apart from the above, the text is good. Very interesting subject!
  • Maybe the image of the siege of Amorium (File:Siege of Amorium.jpg) should be used as the lead image, in the infobox.
  • All the images check out.
  • Article is stable.

Hope this helps, and I will pass the article once the above is addressed. JonCatalán(Talk) 18:24, 9 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for taking the time and for a thorough review. Cheers, Constantine 09:33, 10 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

al Tabari

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the Muslim history of Al Tabari (vol 33) has a very large (20 page) section on the sack of Amorium. I'm really surprised not to see it used here as it is VERY detailed. Over the next little while I'll try and add some detail from it. The text is available on the internet. 82.13.31.61 (talk) 11:35, 4 February 2019 (UTC)Reply

Sack or conquest?

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The conquest is more neutral than sack. Si Gam (talk) 15:25, 2 August 2022 (UTC)Reply