caused heavy damage to the city walls, which had been hastily rebuilt of sun-dried bricks. The Byzantine strategos of the Armeniacs, Nikephoros, learned of this and destroyed the city, burning it to the ground.

It was completely rebuilt, refortified and garrisoned by Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809), who made it one of the most important towns in the Thughur. It is in this incarnation that the town