Battle of the Masts (655): First Great Arab Naval Victory

The Battle of the Masts was a naval battle fought in 654 or 655 off Phoenix in Lycia, on the south-western coast of modern Turkey. The young fleet of the Rashidun caliphate, built from the shipyards of Egypt and Syria, defeated a large Byzantine fleet led by Emperor Constans II himself. It was the first major Arab victory at sea and showed that Byzantium no longer controlled the eastern Mediterranean unchallenged.

Background

For centuries the Mediterranean had been a Roman sea. The Arab conquests of Syria, Palestine and Egypt in the 630s and 640s changed this. The Muslim conquest of Egypt in particular gave the caliphate ports, shipyards, timber supplies and experienced sailors, many of them Egyptian Christians.

A Byzantine fleet had briefly retaken Alexandria in 645, showing the danger of sea power to the new Arab provinces. Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, governor of Syria, pressed for a navy of his own. In 649 an Arab fleet attacked Cyprus, and further raids reached Rhodes and other islands in the early 650s.

Byzantine sources report that Mu’awiya was preparing a large expedition aimed ultimately at Constantinople. Emperor Constans II, then in his mid-twenties, gathered a powerful fleet to meet the threat.

What happened

The two fleets met off Phoenix (Phoinikous), near modern Finike in Lycia. Sources disagree on the numbers. Arabic accounts speak of about 200 Muslim ships facing perhaps 500 or more Byzantine vessels, but these figures cannot be checked.

Arabic tradition relates that, with little room to manoeuvre and a rough sea, the ships were lashed together so that the crews could fight hand to hand as if on land. The fighting was long and bloody, with heavy losses on both sides. In the end the Byzantine fleet was routed.

Constans II barely escaped. According to the chronicler Theophanes, a soldier exchanged clothes with the emperor so that Constans could slip away, and the soldier died in his place. The emperor withdrew to Constantinople.

The Arabic name of the battle, Dhat al-Sawari, means “the one of the masts”, probably a reference to the forest of masts of the many ships taking part.

Key people

• Constans II (reigned 641–668): grandson of Heraclius, who commanded the Byzantine fleet in person. He later moved his court to Syracuse in Sicily, where he was murdered in 668.
• Abd Allah ibn Sa’d ibn Abi Sarh (died c. 656–659): governor of Egypt under Caliph Uthman, named in Arabic sources as commander of the Muslim fleet.
• Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (died 680): governor of Syria and the main promoter of an Arab navy, later founder of the Umayyad caliphate.

The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes names the Arab commander as Abu’l-A’war, an officer from Syria. Modern historians suggest that both men may have commanded parts of a combined Egyptian and Syrian fleet.

Ships and tactics

Warships of the 7th century were galleys, long oared vessels with one or two banks of rowers and sails for cruising. The standard Byzantine warship was the dromon, which relied on its crew of rowers and marines rather than on ramming. Battles were usually decided by archery, missiles and boarding, much like fights on land.

The Arab fleet was built largely on the same models, often by the same shipwrights. The ports of Egypt and Syria had built and crewed ships for the Roman navy for centuries, and many of the sailors and craftsmen who served the new caliphate were local Christians. The Arab innovation lay less in technology than in organisation: the governors of Egypt and Syria raised money, crews and timber on a large scale and were willing to risk them in battle.

This helps explain how a power born in the deserts of Arabia could defeat an established navy within about fifteen years of reaching the sea. It also explains why the war at sea later turned on new weapons such as Greek fire rather than on ship design alone.

Consequences

The victory ended any Byzantine hope of easily recovering Egypt or Syria from the sea and exposed the Aegean islands and Anatolian coasts to raids. Yet the Arabs did not immediately press on to Constantinople. In 656 Caliph Uthman was murdered, and the First Fitna absorbed Muslim energies until 661. Mu’awiya even agreed a truce with Byzantium, paying tribute to secure his northern frontier during the civil war.

Once he had become caliph, Mu’awiya resumed naval warfare on a large scale, establishing bases in the Aegean and attacking Constantinople between around 674 and 678. The Byzantines then used their new weapon, Greek fire, to devastating effect against Arab fleets. The struggle for the sea continued until the failure of the Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718.

Timeline

• 641–642: Arab conquest of Egypt, including Alexandria.
• 645–646: a Byzantine fleet briefly retakes Alexandria.
• 649: first Arab naval expedition attacks Cyprus.
• 654 or 655: Battle of the Masts off Phoenix in Lycia.
• 656, June: murder of Caliph Uthman; the First Fitna begins.
• 661: Mu’awiya becomes caliph and later renews the war at sea.
• c. 674–678: Arab attacks on Constantinople are repelled with the help of Greek fire.

Why it matters

The Battle of the Masts marked the arrival of the Islamic caliphate as a naval power. It ended centuries of near-unchallenged Roman control of the eastern Mediterranean and began a long contest at sea between Byzantium and the Arabs that shaped the islands, coasts and trade of the region for centuries.