When we think about the early conquests of Islam, we imagine vast numbers of warriors riding camels across deserts, waving banners adorned with the crescent moon and Quranic verses. However, this expansion also took place by sea. In the year 655, after the conquest of the Sasanian Empire, the Rashidun Caliphate turned against the Byzantine Empire with a dual land and sea assault. Emperor Constans II sought to counter the latter with his navy, leading to the Battle of Phoenix or the Masts, considered the first significant naval battle fought by Muslims.
The first caliphate, known as the Rashidun or Orthodox Caliphate, was established in 632 following the death of Muhammad and had four caliphs. The third of these, Uthman ibn Affan, Muhammad’s son-in-law, ruled from 645 to 656, succeeding his predecessors Abu Bakr and Umar. Uthman was the one who spearheaded the major expansion eastward (into Persia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Afghanistan) and accelerated the growth at the expense of Byzantine territories in the Fertile Crescent—Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and more.
In Egypt, which had been wrested from the Byzantines by Umar in 639, Uthman appointed his brother Abdullah ibn Sa’d as governor, replacing Amr ibn al-As. Although Amr had conquered southwestern Palestine and solidified caliphal control in Egypt, his independent actions and status as a convert raised concerns. Furthermore, he pursued a lenient and tolerant policy toward Jews and Christians, exempting them from military service in exchange for paying two special taxes—the jizya and the kharaj. While this discouraged resistance, Abdullah ibn Sa’d was ordered to change the system to increase tax revenue.

Meanwhile, Uthman placed his nephew Muawiya in charge of Syria, equipping him, like his brother, with a strong military force to suppress the dangerous Kharijite insurgency—a third Islamic sect apart from the Shi’a and Sunni branches. Muawiya, who had initially opposed Muhammad—despite being related to him—but later became his scribe, proved to be an effective military leader during his rule in Syria. He was the first to extend military operations to the sea, capturing Cyprus in 649 with Abdullah ibn Sa’d’s assistance.
In 688, Justinian II and the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan reached a rare agreement to make the island a condominium, which lasted for three centuries. However, at the time, Cyprus belonged to the Byzantine Empire, which underscored an alarming trend: the Caliphate was steadily expanding at Byzantine expense. The successful raid on Cyprus further incentivized the continuation of naval campaigns, prompting Abdullah ibn Sa’d to construct a fleet.
If the earlier fleet had already proven its effectiveness in 646 by repelling a Byzantine reconquest attempt in strategic Alexandria, its power now increased significantly. So much so that in 655, Muawiya launched an ambitious expedition into Cappadocia—once again seizing imperial territories—planned with a dual approach: an army under Abu’l-Awar advanced by land, staying close to the coast to be resupplied by the new fleet, which had the additional task of thwarting any potential counterattack via sea.

Indeed, Emperor Constans II was unwilling to cede further ground and ordered his ships to set sail, possibly calculating that if he could defeat or scatter the enemy fleet, their land forces would be left without supplies and unable to continue. Constans II Pogonatos (“the Bearded”) ascended to the throne in 641, succeeding his uncle Heraklonas, who was overthrown by a popular revolt accusing him of poisoning his brother Constantine III Herakleios. Constans had earlier failed in his attempt to reclaim Egypt.
Realizing the threat to his empire, he sought assistance from Taizong, Emperor of China, who also viewed the Caliphate with suspicion. A rebellion briefly returned Alexandria to Byzantine control in 646, but the noted victory of the Muslim fleet, along with the collaboration of the Monophysites, who opened the gates to Amr ibn al-As’s army—they preferred his tolerance to the repression suffered under the Melkites or Byzantine Christians—secured Egypt permanently for the Islamic side. From there, they continued to conquer the Exarchate of Africa (Libya). The next battlefield was the sea.
To stop the enemy expedition to Cappadocia, Constans II personally took command of the Byzantine navy, which, according to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor (a noble-born monk), consisted of a thousand ships of various kinds, though only about four hundred were warships. Opposing him, the caliphal fleet was led by Admiral Abu’l-Awar, whom Byzantine sources refer to as Abulathar or Aboubacharos. Abu’l-Awar was one of the last members of the Arab tribe Banu Sulaym to convert to Islam. Two years earlier, he had been responsible for demolishing the remnants of the Colossus of Rhodes (destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BCE, its remains were sold to a Jewish merchant who transported them on nine hundred camels).

In fact, Abu’l-Awar had acquired considerable military experience, participating in the conquests of Syria, Cyprus, and Crete, thanks to a fleet of nearly two thousand ships. Now, however, he commanded a number significantly smaller than that of the Byzantines—half as many (about two hundred)—who encountered their adversary off the Lycian coast, near Mount Finike. Both sides must have considered the confrontation of critical importance, as Constantinople was increasingly seen as an enticing target for the caliph.
In his work Chronographia, Theophanes the Confessor recounts a famous anecdote following a recurring tradition before battles. The night before, Constans II dreamed he was in Thessaloniki, which, when its meaning was consulted with an interpreter, was interpreted negatively, as an omen of defeat: “Emperor, you would wish you had not slept nor had that dream of being in Thessaloniki.” The reason was that Thessaloniki phonetically resembles the expression des allo nike, meaning “to give victory to another.”
To counteract that ominous premonition, Constans II ordered a cross to be raised on the flagship and the troops to sing psalms during their approach to the enemy. As expected, the opposing side responded by raising their crescent moon banners and chanting verses from the Quran at full volume to drown out the Christian hymns. The course of the clash turned curious due to an initiative the Muslims took to counter the rough waves, which ultimately gave the battle its name.

The Ta’rikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (“History of the Prophets and Kings”), the first universal history written by a Muslim author, the Persian Al-Tabari, recounts that the sea was so rough that Abu’l-Awar ordered the ships to be tied together with thick ropes to maintain their formation in a line and prevent them from drifting apart, offsetting the superior naval expertise of the Byzantines. This approach favored boarding, close combat, and the aim of the numerous archers aboard. Hence, given the forest of masts that resulted, this encounter is also known as the Battle of the Masts.
Exact details of how the battle unfolded are unknown, but it is clear that there were many casualties on both sides. Ultimately, Abu’l-Awar secured such a decisive victory that Constans II, Theophanes the Confessor recounts, was forced to escape in disguise, exchanging clothes with an officer—who heroically died impersonating him—to avoid attracting the enemy’s attention and to prevent pursuit. Leaving behind five hundred lost ships and about twenty thousand dead, he reached Constantinople and prepared for its defense against the anticipated Muslim assault, which, however, never came.
According to Byzantine sources, the reason was that the Islamic crew expressed discontent with continuing, as they too had been severely battered despite the victory. They even consider this a symptom of what would soon erupt as the First Fitna. This was the civil war that shook the Rashidun Caliphate, dividing it into the three branches previously mentioned (Shiites, Sunnis, and Kharijites), which culminated in the assassination of Uthman and his replacement by Muawiya (following the brief interregnum of Ali ibn Abi Talib), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate.

The Armenian bishop and historian Sebeos wrote a History of Heraclius in which he asserts that Abu’l-Awar’s fleet continued onward with the aim of besieging Constantinople but failed to execute the plan because a storm sank much of their fleet, along with the siege equipment. Naturally, the Byzantines attributed the episode to divine intervention, whose significance extended beyond appearances. Deprived of this equipment, the land army led by Muawiya, already positioned in Chalcedon on the Bosporus, chose to retreat to Syria.
In contrast, Muslim sources say nothing of the sort, and while they admit that attacking the Byzantine capital was already a general aspiration and that the assaults on Rhodes and Cyprus were preparations for this, they explain that the First Fitna did not erupt until 656, a year later, and was more related to typical succession crises and doctrinal (and geographic) differences than to military setbacks against the Rum, as they called the Byzantines (a term derived from “Romans” that they later extended to all Christians).
What is clear is that the Battle of Finike marked a significant turning point in the control of the eastern Mediterranean. Previously dominated by the Byzantine Empire to the extent that it was known as the “Roman lake”, it now became a contested field between the respective fleets, with the Muslim navy gradually and inexorably gaining the upper hand. This allowed them to take a step further and, instead of limiting their campaigns to North Africa, dare to attack Sicily and Hispania.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on December 16, 2024: La victoriosa Batalla de los Mástiles contra los bizantinos fue el primer gran combate naval del Islam
SOURCES
Teophanes Abbas Confessor, Chronographia
Georg Ostrogosrky, Historia del Estado Bizantino
Robert G. Hoyland, In God’s Path. The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
Walter E. Kaegi, Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa
R. G. Grant, 1001 battles that changed the course of History
Salvatore Consentino, Constans II and the Byzantine navy
Wikipedia, Batalla de Finike
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