Battle of the Masts

Battle of the Masts
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Date 654 Location off the Lycian coast at Phoenice, Mediterranean Sea Result Decisive Rashidun Caliphate victory
Belligerents
Rashidun Caliphate	Byzantine Empire
Commanders and leaders
Abu'l-Awar	Constans II
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
heavy	heavy

The Battle of the Masts (Arabic: معركة ذات الصواري, romanized Ma‘rakat Dhāt al-Ṣawārī) or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 654 (A.H. 34) between the Muslim Arabs, led by Abu'l-Awar and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II. The battle is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep" as well as part of the earliest campaign by Muawiyah to conquer Constantinople.

Al-Tabari records two possible dates for this naval battle: 651-2 (A.H. 31) on the authority of al-Waqidi and 654-5 (A.H. 34) on the authority of Abu Ma'shar al-Sindi. The chronicles of the Armenian Sebeos and Byzantine Theophanes concur with the latter date.

In the 650s, the Arab Caliphate finished off the Sasanian Empire and continued its successful expansion into the Byzantine Empire's territories. In 645, Abdallah ibn Sa'd was made Governor of Egypt by his foster brother Rashidun Caliph Uthman, replacing the semi-independent 'Amr ibn al-'As. Uthman permitted Muawiyah to raid the island of Cyprus in 649 and the success of that campaign set the stage for the undertaking of naval activities by the Government of Egypt. Abdallah ibn Sa'd built a strong navy and proved to be a skilled naval commander. Under him the Muslim navy won a number of naval victories including repulsing a Byzantine counter-attack on Alexandria in 646.

...
Wikipedia