Qualla: Siege of Chandax https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Siege of Chandax https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax Siege of Chandax: Introduction https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit Unknown, 13th-century author, Public domain. Andalusian exiles, kicked out of Muslim Spain, sailed east in the late 820s and took an island that did not belong to them. Crete became the Emirate of Crete, and its capital of Chandax, on the northern coast, became something worse for Byzantium than a hostile state: it became a base for piracy that opened the entire Aegean to raids. When Saracen ships sacked Thessalonica in 904, more than 20,000 captured Greeks were sold into slavery, with many sent to Crete. For 130 years, Constantinople sent fleet after fleet to take the island back. Each one failed. Then in 960, the future emperor Nikephoros Phokas crossed the sea with the largest expedition Byzantium had ever assembled, and decided he was going to stay until Chandax fell.

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Image: Unknown, 13th-century author | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Siege of Chandax: The Long Failure https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0. Theoktistos in 842-843 made enough headway to install a Byzantine governor before having to abandon the campaign; the troops he left behind were quickly destroyed. The regent Bardas planned an expedition in 866 and was assassinated on the eve of departure. In 911, the admiral Him...

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Image: C messier | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-the-long-failure.mp3 0:06 2 full Siege of Chandax: Phokas Comes Ashore https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit Unknown, 13th-century author, Public domain. Emperor Romanos II appointed Nikephoros Phokas, Domestic of the Schools of the East and a veteran of the wars against the Muslims in Asia Minor, to command the new expedition. Phokas mobilized the eastern army at a base south of Ephesus. The fleet that crossed the Aegean in autum...

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Image: Unknown, 13th-century author | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-phokas-comes-ashore.mp3 0:06 3 full Siege of Chandax: Pastilas and the Heads on the Wall https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit Unknown, 13th-century author, Public domain. Phokas sent a senior officer, Nikephoros Pastilas, with a picked detachment to scout the interior and gather supplies. Pastilas found the countryside quiet and let his men relax. The Saracens, hidden in the heights, watched and waited. They attacked when the Byzantine soldiers we...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-pastilas-and-the-heads-on-the-wall.mp3 0:06 4 full Siege of Chandax: The Winter and the Mine https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit Unknown, 13th-century author, Public domain. Phokas blockaded Chandax through the winter while his engineers built heavier siege machinery. Inside the city, food ran out. The Emir of Crete, Abd al-Aziz, sent envoys begging for aid. The Ikhshidid ruler of Egypt declined. The Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah saw an oppor...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-the-winter-and-the-mine.mp3 0:06 5 full Siege of Chandax: The Cost and the Long Echo https://qualla.com/siege-of-chandax/ Photo credit Unknown, 13th-century author, Public domain. With Chandax fallen, the rest of Crete capitulated quickly. Byzantium reorganized the island as a regular theme governed from Chandax (the modern Heraklion), and saints like John Xenos and Nikon the Metanoeite led extensive missionary work to re-Christianize a population that had...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/3/c/siege-of-chandax-wp/sw3c-siege-of-chandax-the-cost-and-the-long-echo.mp3 0:06 6 full