In the summer of 863, Umar struck again, joining forces with the Abbasid general Ja'far ibn Dinar al-Khayyat (probably the governor of Tarsus) for a successful raid into Cappadocia.
On the Byzantine side, Emperor Michael III had assembled his army to counter the Arab raid, and met them at a battle in an area called Marj al-Usquf ("Bishop's Meadow") by Arab sources, a highland near Malakopeia, north of Nazianzus [REF].