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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
The term thughur generally refers to the external frontiers of Islam. It also refers, more specifically, to the Arab-Byzantine frontier that extended from Tarsus in Cilicia north-eastward as far as Erzurum was divided into two sub-districts. Behind its elongated front-line district was a second-line district, a compact piece of territory that contained the strongholds known as awasim (or, 'the protectresses') so called because warriors would seek refuge in them after raids or when under attack. The awasim were a buffer zone between northern Syrai and the Cilician Thughur.