Battle of Varnakert

In the Battle of Varnakert (702) Smbat Bagratuni defeated the 8,000-strong Umayyad army from the garrison in Nakhichevan. Smbat, with the aid of Byzantine Empire, managed to re-conquer the majority of Armenia and drive the Arabs out of the country. Despite this success, the Umayyad generals Muhammad ibn Marwan and Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik soon restored Armenia to subject status, and secured Muslim control by organizing a large-scale massacre of the princely families (nakharar) within the cathedral of Nakhchivan in 705.