The Battle of Mosul was a battle that took place during the Second Khazar-Arab War between the armies of the Khazar Khaganate, led by the khagan's son Barjik

Barjik

Barjik was a Khazar prince who flourished in the late 720s. He is described by al-Tabari as "the son of the Khagan"; his exact status and position is unknown though he may have been the Bek....

, and the Umayyad Caliphate, whose commanding general may have been Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik

Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik

Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik was an Umayyad prince and one of the most prominent Arab generals of the early decades of the 8th century, leading several campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and the Khazar Khaganate...

. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Marj Ardebil

Battle of Marj Ardebil

The Battle of Marj Ardabil or the Battle of Ardabil was a battle fought on the plains surrounding the city of Ardabil in northwestern Iran in 730 CE...

, the Arabs made a last-ditch stand outside Mosul to halt the Khazar incursion into Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, which threatened the Umayyad capital at Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

. According to Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari

Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was a prominent and influential Sunni scholar and exegete of the Qur'an from Persia...

, the Khazar commander erected a throne overlooking the battlefield on which he mounted the severed and preserved head of al-Djarrah ibn Abdallah, the former Umayyad governor of Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

 defeated at Marj Ardebil. The Arabs, enraged by this desecration, fought harder than expected, and Barjik himself was killed. The Khazar army withdrew north of the Caucasus, abandoning their conquests in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 and Arran.