Bugha al-Kabir

Who is Bugha al-Kabir?

Bugha al-Kabir or Bugha the Elder, also known as Bugha al-Turki, was a 9th-century Turkic general who served the Abbasids.

He was of Turkic origin, and acquired along with his sons as a military slave by al-Mu'tasim in 819/820. He is first mentioned in 825, and then again in 835, when he led reinforcements in the fight against the Khurramite rebels of Babak Khorramdin. Bugha also participated in Mu'tasim's Amorium campaign in 838, where he led the rearguard, and later served as the Caliph's chamberlain. In 844/845, he suppressed a revolt of the Bedouin tribes of central Arabia.

Next he played an important role in crushing the Armenian revolt of 850–855: in 852 he was entrusted by the Caliph al-Mutawakkil with its suppression. Setting out from his base at Diyarbakir, he first focused on the southern half of Armenia, i.e. the regions of Vaspurakan and the Lake Van, before moving north to Dvin, Iberia and Albania. During these campaigns, he also defeated the renegade Emir of Tiflis, Ishaq ibn Isma'il, and sacked and burned Tiflis. By the end of 853, he had subdued the country and made many Caucasian magnates and princes captive, sending them to caliphal capital of Samarra.