Byzantine Population Policy in the Eastern Borderland between Byzantium and the Caliphate from the Seventh to the Twelfth Centuries

When speaking of borders today, we think of definite lines that are more or less impenetrable. However, this was not the case in the pre-modern world: As a rule, no defined borders existed, except perhaps at a river or a coastline, and even there, they were not impassable. Controlling border regions became particularly important, and problematic, when confronting powers pursuing inherently aggressive politics. This chapter identifies four strategies that the Byzantines employed on their border with the Islamic world, and the drawbacks each entailed: 1) Garrisoning the border with additional troops and strengthening its fortifications; 2) Devastating the border region, transforming into a kind of no-man’s-land that would make it more difficult for the enemy to cross; 3) Strengthening the region’s economics, infrastructure and population by creating or supporting small buffer states or semi-independent local forces on the border; and 4) The final, extreme option was to abandon the border and retreat. This chapter analyses the methods and effects of each particular policy at the Islamic-Byzantine border, from the rise of Islam through the thirteenth century, showing that border policy border was in constant flux, and depended more upon conditions in Constantinople than on events at the border.