Nikephoros had taken and razed the fortress…

Nikephoros had taken and razed the fortress of Hadath in 957, and in the next spring, Tzimiskes invades the Jazira.

Here, he captures the fortress of Dara, and scores a crushing victory near Amida over an army led by one of Sayf al-Dawla's favorite lieutenants, the Circassian Nadja.

Of Nadja's ten thousand troops, Tzimiskes reportedly killed half and captured more than half of the survivors.

Reinforced with more troops under the parakoimomenos Basil Lekapenos, in June, Tzimiskes now storms Samosata and the fortress of Raban south of Hadath.

It is there that Sayf al-Dawla himself comes to confront him.

The ensuing battle (taking place between October 18 and November 15, 958) is hard fought—Sayf al-Dawla's cousin and court poet Abu Firas is said to have broken two lances in his first charge—but in the end, the Christian forces prevail and the Muslim army breaks and flees.

Many of Sayf al-Dawla's court companions and ghilman fall in the pursuit, while over seventeen hundred of his cavalry are captured; they will later be paraded in the streets of Constantinople.