He was of
Khazar origin, and was acquired along with his sons as a military slave (
ghulam) 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
Diyar Bakr, he first focused on the southern half of Armenia, i.e. the regions of
Vaspurakan and
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 (the
eristavi and
nakharar) captive, including
Grigor-Derenik Artsruni, his uncle
Gurgen and his father
Ashot I, all sent to caliphal capital of
Samarra. Bugha was dispatched to the frontier (
thughur) against the
Byzantine Empire in 857/8, where he distinguished himself and where he remained for the next few years. == References ==