Melias then advanced against Amid with an army numbering, according to the Arab sources, 50,000 men. The commander of the local garrison, Hezarmerd, called upon Abu Taghlib for aid, and the latter sent his brother, Abu'l-Qasim Hibat Allah, who arrived before the city on 4 July 973. On the next day, a battle was fought before the walls of Amid in which the Byzantines were defeated. Melias and a group of other Byzantine generals were captured on the next day and brought captive to Abu Taghlib.