Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The Great Arab Conquests (60 page)
Throughout the late seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, Cyprus enjoyed a unique position between the Muslim and Christian worlds. It was not always easy. The Muslim jurists were unhappy about a treaty that seemed not to conform to Islamic law in many ways. From a military point of view, too, there was always suspicion that the Cypriots were aiding the Byzantines. The Umayyad caliph Walīd II deported many of the Cypriots to Syria because he suspected them of aiding the Byzantines, but they were allowed to return by his successor Yazīd III. Problems continued under the Abbasids, and in 806, during the reign of Hārūn al-Rashīd, the people of the island are said to have caused disturbances and an expedition was launched to bring them into line; 16,000 prisoners are said to have been taken to Raqqa, Hārūn’s base in northern Syria, where they were ransomed or sold as slaves - one Cypriot bishop fetched 2,000 dinars.
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Despite these setbacks, Greek Christian culture survived in Cyprus when it had effectively disappeared from the nearby mainland. In the second Council of Nicaea (in the Byzantine Empire) held in 787, the bishops of the churches under Muslim rule were unable to attend, but no less than five bishops came from Cyprus, showing that contacts with the Byzantine world were still close.
7
Despite these setbacks, Greek Christian culture survived in Cyprus when it had effectively disappeared from the nearby mainland. In the second Council of Nicaea (in the Byzantine Empire) held in 787, the bishops of the churches under Muslim rule were unable to attend, but no less than five bishops came from Cyprus, showing that contacts with the Byzantine world were still close.
The first raid on Cyprus was followed by other attacks on Mediterranean islands, Rhodes and Kos being pillaged, probably in 654.
8
Up to this point the Muslims had not directly engaged the Byzantine navy, which still commanded the seas of the eastern Mediterranean. The first real naval engagement between the Muslims and the Byzantines was the so-called Battle of the Masts (
Dht al-sawārī
) or battle of Phoenix off the Lycian coast in 655.
9
Descriptions in Ibn Abd al-Hakam, the Greek Chronicle of Theophanes and the later Arabic chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr
10
mean that we have more information about this encounter than any other naval engagement of the period. According to the Arabic sources, the campaign began when Emperor Constans II (641-68) assembled a naval expedition to oppose the Muslim conquest of North Africa. He set out with a fleet of 500 or 600 ships, ‘and more men than the Byzantines had ever collected since the coming of Islam’. Mu
c
āwiya sent Ibn Abī Sarh, governor of Egypt, who was also ‘in charge of the sea’
r
to intercept them. The two navies met off the Lycian coast. The wind was against the Muslims when they first saw the Byzantines, but then it dropped and the two fleets anchored. The two sides agreed to a truce for the night; the Muslims read the Koran and prayed and the Byzantines rang their bells (
nawqīs
). The next morning the two fleets closed together and the Muslims grappled with the Byzantines. The fighting was with swords and daggers and many men on both sides were killed. In the end God favoured the Muslims, the emperor was wounded and fled the scene and only a few Byzantines escaped with their lives. Ibn Abī Sarh remained at the site for a few days and then returned to Syria.
8
Up to this point the Muslims had not directly engaged the Byzantine navy, which still commanded the seas of the eastern Mediterranean. The first real naval engagement between the Muslims and the Byzantines was the so-called Battle of the Masts (
Dht al-sawārī
) or battle of Phoenix off the Lycian coast in 655.
9
Descriptions in Ibn Abd al-Hakam, the Greek Chronicle of Theophanes and the later Arabic chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr
10
mean that we have more information about this encounter than any other naval engagement of the period. According to the Arabic sources, the campaign began when Emperor Constans II (641-68) assembled a naval expedition to oppose the Muslim conquest of North Africa. He set out with a fleet of 500 or 600 ships, ‘and more men than the Byzantines had ever collected since the coming of Islam’. Mu
c
āwiya sent Ibn Abī Sarh, governor of Egypt, who was also ‘in charge of the sea’
r
to intercept them. The two navies met off the Lycian coast. The wind was against the Muslims when they first saw the Byzantines, but then it dropped and the two fleets anchored. The two sides agreed to a truce for the night; the Muslims read the Koran and prayed and the Byzantines rang their bells (
nawqīs
). The next morning the two fleets closed together and the Muslims grappled with the Byzantines. The fighting was with swords and daggers and many men on both sides were killed. In the end God favoured the Muslims, the emperor was wounded and fled the scene and only a few Byzantines escaped with their lives. Ibn Abī Sarh remained at the site for a few days and then returned to Syria.
The longest account of the battle we have is given by Ibn Abd al-Hakam, who used sources from Egypt, presumably collected there because many of the men in the Arab fleet came from Egypt and returned there. The account is largely formulaic, however, and a disappointingly large amount of space is given to discussion of who married whose daughter after the event and other matters of little use to the naval historian. According to what can be gleaned from this account, the sea battle was part of a combined operation and half the ships’ crews (
shihna
) were on land at the time. The Byzantines had 1,000 ships compared with the Muslims’ 200. The commander, Ibn Abī Sarh, held a council of war at which one of the speakers said in an encouraging way that a small group could win over a much larger one if God supported them. With Muslim morale thus bolstered, the two fleets approached each other and the fighting began with bows and arrows (
nabl wa nushāb
). The emperor
11
sent messages to find out how the fighting was going. When he heard that they were fighting with bows and arrows, he said that the Byzantines would win; when he next heard that they were hurling stones, he again said that the Byzantines were winning; but when he heard that the boats had been tied together and the men were fighting with swords, he predicted that the Arabs would be victorious.
shihna
) were on land at the time. The Byzantines had 1,000 ships compared with the Muslims’ 200. The commander, Ibn Abī Sarh, held a council of war at which one of the speakers said in an encouraging way that a small group could win over a much larger one if God supported them. With Muslim morale thus bolstered, the two fleets approached each other and the fighting began with bows and arrows (
nabl wa nushāb
). The emperor
11
sent messages to find out how the fighting was going. When he heard that they were fighting with bows and arrows, he said that the Byzantines would win; when he next heard that they were hurling stones, he again said that the Byzantines were winning; but when he heard that the boats had been tied together and the men were fighting with swords, he predicted that the Arabs would be victorious.
Theophanes’ Greek account gives a somewhat different background. According to him, Mu
c
āwiya was preparing a fleet for an attack on Constantinople. While the fleet was being prepared in Tripoli (Lebanon) two ‘Christ-loving brothers, the sons of Bucinator [the Trumpeter]’, broke into the prison in Tripoli and released a large number of Byzantine captives there. They then sacked the town and killed the governor, before escaping to Byzantine territory. Mu
c
āwiya, however, was not deterred and the fleet, commanded by one Abū’l-Awar, duly set out. The emperor Constans joined battle at Phoenix in Lycia woefully ill prepared. The sea was soon full of Byzantine blood and the emperor threw off his imperial robes to make his escape undetected. He was saved only by one of the sons of Bucinator, who rescued him from the water and was killed in his place.
c
āwiya was preparing a fleet for an attack on Constantinople. While the fleet was being prepared in Tripoli (Lebanon) two ‘Christ-loving brothers, the sons of Bucinator [the Trumpeter]’, broke into the prison in Tripoli and released a large number of Byzantine captives there. They then sacked the town and killed the governor, before escaping to Byzantine territory. Mu
c
āwiya, however, was not deterred and the fleet, commanded by one Abū’l-Awar, duly set out. The emperor Constans joined battle at Phoenix in Lycia woefully ill prepared. The sea was soon full of Byzantine blood and the emperor threw off his imperial robes to make his escape undetected. He was saved only by one of the sons of Bucinator, who rescued him from the water and was killed in his place.
All accounts agree that the Battle of the Masts was a major victory for the Muslims and marked the end of unchallenged Byzantine naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean. It is unfortunate that we do not have a clearer picture of what happened. The most recent historian of the battle has a very low opinion of both sides:
The most rudimentary rules of naval warfare were grossly neglected by both parties, partly because of the Byzantines’ underestimation of their enemy. The two fleets faced each other the whole night before their engagement without any plan. No projectiles were thrown between each other, either with arrows or stones launched from special machines. No ram was used by any ships of either party. Since boarding practice required great skill, the Arabs found an easier solution; they managed to tie the ships to those of the enemy and thus they changed naval warfare into land warfare ... None of the parties took into consideration the wind.
12
The sources are really too thin to know whether this castigation is justified. It is clear, however, that the Muslim navy remained generally inferior to the Byzantine forces. This was especially apparent during the attack on Constantinople, which began in 674.
13
The Muslims understood from the beginning that it was impossible to take the city without first dominating the waters around it. A large Arab fleet, commanded by the caliph Mu
c
āwiya’s son and eventual successor Yazīd, entered the Sea of Marmara. For four years it blockaded the city all summer and then retired to Cyzicus, on the south side of the sea, for the winter. Despite this relentless pressure, the defence held firm. The Byzantines were helped by the deployment, apparently for the first time, of the celebrated ‘Greek fire’, invented by one Callinicus, a refugee from Arab-held Ba
c
albak in Syria. Greek fire was a combination of crude oil and other substances to make it adhere to wood. It was lit and propelled from a siphon at enemy ships. Given that the Byzantines received the formula from a native of Ba
c
albak, however, it is certainly not impossible that the technology originated in the Middle East. There is indeed some evidence (see poem below) that the Muslims had the fire during this first siege of the city.
13
The Muslims understood from the beginning that it was impossible to take the city without first dominating the waters around it. A large Arab fleet, commanded by the caliph Mu
c
āwiya’s son and eventual successor Yazīd, entered the Sea of Marmara. For four years it blockaded the city all summer and then retired to Cyzicus, on the south side of the sea, for the winter. Despite this relentless pressure, the defence held firm. The Byzantines were helped by the deployment, apparently for the first time, of the celebrated ‘Greek fire’, invented by one Callinicus, a refugee from Arab-held Ba
c
albak in Syria. Greek fire was a combination of crude oil and other substances to make it adhere to wood. It was lit and propelled from a siphon at enemy ships. Given that the Byzantines received the formula from a native of Ba
c
albak, however, it is certainly not impossible that the technology originated in the Middle East. There is indeed some evidence (see poem below) that the Muslims had the fire during this first siege of the city.
The victory was celebrated in a contemporary Greek poem written by one Theodosius Grammaticus. Most of the poem is a conventional praise of God for granting the Christians this victory, but there are some lines that seem to shed light on a contemporary reality.
For behold just as you, Lord of All, saved your city from the crashing waves of the filthy and most evil Arabs, you stole away fear of them and the trembling and their returning shadows ...Where now, O cursed ones are your shining bright ranks of arrows? Where now the melodious chords of the bow strings? Where is the glitter of your swords and spears, your breast plates and head-borne helmets, scimitars and darkened shields?Where are the twin decked, fire throwing ships, and again, the single decked ships, also swift in the battle step?What do you say, miserable and voracious Ishmael? Christ was mighty in the work of salvation and He rules as God and Lord. He gives strength and supports the battle. He shatters the bow and grinds down human power . . . Therefore, Ocean, you who displayed the murderers broken to pieces, applaud the Lord! And Earth who has shown forth and applauded the God of all, raise a chorus of hymns to whom honour and glory and power are proper through the unceasing aeons of aeons and long years.
14
The Muslim navy was finally defeated and dispersed in 678 and the land army forced to withdraw. On the way back to Syria, much of the Arab fleet was destroyed in a storm off the Pamphylian coast. The success of the Byzantine navy had, in the end, saved Constantinople.
The second major naval expedition against Constantinople took place in the years 716-18. Once again the Greek chronicler Theophanes is our main witness since the Arabic sources are very brief. According to the Greek monk, the conflict began with a struggle over the timber resources so vital to shipbuilding. The Byzantines became aware that the Arabs of Egypt were going on an expedition to Lebanon to collect timber. The emperor Artemios decided to intercept them and collected swift sailing ships to do so. The Byzantine fleet assembled at Rhodes under the command of a deacon of the great church of Hagia Sofia called John, who was also minister of finance. Their orders were to raid Lebanon and burn the timber. The expedition did not work out as planned. As so often in the Byzantine Empire in this period, there was a mutiny, the imperial commander was murdered and the troops set out for the capital to overthrow Artemios, leaving the Arabs free to carry on their shipbuilding.
In 716 a massive land army commanded by Maslama b. Abd al-Malik set out to march to Constantinople. At the same time a fleet was collected. Its main function seems to have been to support and supply the land army with which Maslama was attacking the city. The winter of 716-17 was spent on the Cilician coast. In the spring the ships sailed west, then north. They anchored at Abydos on the Hellespont before entering the Sea of Marmara. On 15 August Maslama began to lay siege to the city and on 1 September a huge fleet, said to have comprised 1,800 ships, dropped anchor below the walls of the city, some by the suburbs on the Asian side of the Bosporus, others on the European coast north of the Golden Horn. Theophanes says that the Arab ships were useless because they were weighed down by their cargo. The weather was fine and they pushed on up the Bosporus. This was a big mistake. The emperor Leo III, observing and directing operations from the Acropolis, sent fire ships among Arab vessels, which turned them into blazing wrecks: ‘Some of them still burning smashed into the sea wall, while others sank in the deep, men and all and others still, flaming furiously, went as far as the islands of Oxeia and Plateia [the modern Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara].’ The citizens were greatly cheered by this while the attackers shivered in terror, ‘recognising how strong the liquid fire was’. Some Arab ships survived the conflagration and the emperor tried to lure them into the Golden Horn by lowering the chain that stretched across between the city and Galata. The Arab commanders feared that if they went in, the chain would be raised and they would be completely trapped. Instead they went on up the Bosporus, where they wintered in a bay on the European coast where the great Ottoman fortress of Rumeli Hissar now stands.
The winter was very hard. Snow lay on the ground for a hundred days, and the Muslim forces on land suffered terribly from hunger and cold. The next spring reinforcements arrived, 400 food-carrying merchantmen from Egypt commanded by Sufyān, followed by 260 merchantmen from North Africa with both arms and supplies. Both commanders had now heard of the dangers of Greek fire and, rather than approaching close to the city walls, they kept their ships well hidden out of harm’s way on the Asiatic shore of the Sea of Marmara.
Many of the sailors in both the Muslim fleets were Coptic Christians from Egypt and at least some of them decided that their real loyalties lay with their fellow Christians in the Byzantine Empire. One night they took the light boats from the merchant ships and went to the city, proclaiming their allegiance to the emperor. They told the emperor about the fleets hidden along the southern shores of the sea and he prepared the fire-carrying siphons and put them on board warships and ‘two-storeyed ships’. ‘Thanks to the help of God,’ wrote the pious chronicler, ‘through His wholly immaculate Mother’s intercession, the enemy was sunk on the spot. The goods and supplies from the Arab fleets were seized.’
The end came on 15 August 718 when a message arrived from the pious Caliph Umar II, who was always cautious about ambitious military expeditions, ordering Maslama to retire. Once more divine intervention came to the aid of the Byzantines:
while their expedition was on the way back, a furious storm fell on them: it came from God at the intercession of His Mother. God drowned some of them by Prokonessos [an island in the Sea of Marmara famous in antiquity for its marble quarries] and others on Apostrophoi and other promontories. Those who were left had got through the Aegean Sea when God’s fearful wrath attacked them; a fiery shower descended on them, making the sea’s water foam up [this may have been connected with the earthquake in Syria at this time]. Once their caulking pitch was gone, the ships went to the bottom, men and all. Only ten survived to tell us and the Arabs the magnitude of what God had done to them.
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