This passage comes from the anonymous military treatise On Skirmishing, written probably around the end of the 960s under the auspices of the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas and probably by the pen of his brother Leo – the strategos of Cappadocia and later ‘Domestic of the West’. It encapsulates the spirit of raiding and guerrilla warfare in the eastern provinces of the empire as it had developed in the last two centuries. The Muslim troops that are mentioned in the treatise were both cavalry and infantry forces made up of volunteers for the jihad, as well as regular troops from the Arab lands in the interior (al-ʿawāṣim) and from the borderlands (al-thughūr). When referring to the Byzantine scouting parties dispatched to gather intelligence, the author of the treatise mentions the number 6,000–12,000 for the invading force of Arabs. Such a force would have been well within the capabilities of Sayf ad-Dawla to muster, as it is confirmed by the accounts of Yahya ibn Said of Antioch and Ibn Zafir, although it is impossible to be more precise regarding the exact numbers of different units or the ratio between infantry and cavalry forces.

Led by the emir as the leader of the jihad, such raids served both an economic and ideological function; first, their main aim was to loot and devastate the countryside, destroy the economic centres of the invading regions, disrupt commerce and everyday life, and undermine the emperor's authority. They also offered an opportunity for the Muslim warriors to perform their religious and military duties against the infidel in the spirit of constant warfare for the expansion of the Dar al-Islam.