Here was very little expansion of Arab territory during these three decades. This was partly because the Arabs became bogged down in two civil wars (656—61 and 683—92), and partly because the caliph Mu'awiya felt it prudent to direct some of his efforts to establishing administrative control over what had already been taken lest it slip out of Arab hands. Moreover, he was convinced that if he could just capture Constantinople then the rest of the Byzantine Empire would crumble, as had happened with the Persian Empire after the successful Arab siege of its capital. As he was forever fond of saying to his confidants: “tighten the noose around the Byzantines and the other nations will follow.”1 To this end he dispatched regular campaigns into Anatolia from northern Syria in order to place a constant drain on Byzantine resources and then, at opportune moments, launched combined sea and land assaults on the imperial city itself.
The first major land and sea expedition against Constantinople, initiated in 654, came to an abrupt end when a large part of the Arab fleet was destroyed by a storm. This loss diminished the reputation of the caliph 'Uthman somewhat and contributed to the outbreak of civil war that plagued the Arabs from 656 to 661. They began to fight among themselves, observed the contemporary Armenian chronicler Sebeos: those in Egypt and Arabia united; they killed 'Uthman, plundered the treasury, and installed another king, namely, 'Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. Then, when Mu'awiya, who was at that time the commander-in-chief in Syria, saw what had occurred, he mustered his troops and joined the fray. Eventually, “after the blood of the slaughter of immense multitudes flowed thickly among their armies,” Mu'awiya fought and killed 'Ali, and brought all the Arabs into submission to himself “and he made peace with all.”2 Whoever ruled the new Arab empire wielded enormous power and so it was inevitable that there would be competition for the top job. Moreover, the spoils of war were enormous and there was fierce contention over how they should be shared out. Veterans of the early battles felt that they should get more than those who signed up later, and the nascent state wanted to cream off revenue to a central treasury whereas regional governors and generals in the field clamored for it to be distributed where it was acquired.
In order to have a free hand to deal with the infighting, Mu'awiya had been obliged to beg a truce from Byzantium and to pay heavy tribute for the privilege. This was a godsend for the emperor Constans, who wisely used the period of respite to reorganize the military defense of what remained of his empire. Anatolia needed to be reinforced so that it could withstand the constant Arab incursions from northern Syria. It was divided into four sectors and each had its own standing army, made up in part from what was left of the eastern field armies combined with troops from Thrace (the region to the west of Constantinople), Armenia, and what was called the Obsequium, a collection of units that had been dedicated to the protection of emperors on campaign. Constans then sought to strengthen his alliances, first in Caucasia, where he toured in 660—61, and then in Italy, where he won the support of a leading Lombard prince. After a ceremonial visit to Rome in 663 he traveled to Syracuse in Sicily, where he spent the next six years raising money and overseeing the construction and manning of a large fleet by means of which he hoped to maintain Byzantine dominance over the Mediterranean and keep Africa in Byzantine hands. These measures served well his son, Constantine IV (668—85), who was able to draw upon them to defend Constantinople when the Arabs launched a new offensive in 668—70, not long after his accession.
One initiative that Mu'awiya instituted to try to bring about the stability of the empire ended up having precisely the opposite effect, in the beginning at least. When he nominated his own son as his successor, widespread fury erupted at what was interpreted as an attempt by the Umayyad family to monopolize power. There were other families, such as the Zubayrids and 'Alids, who thought they had an equal if not better claim to rule. And then there were those who opposed any move by a single family to assert their dominance, preferring that the sovereign be elected on the basis of merit and be bound by the dictates of God rather than by his own clan interests. Mu'awiya’s inauguration of dynastic rule provoked a second civil war that was even more destructive than the first—as one early Christian chronicler succinctly noted: “Waging countless great battles against each other, an innumerable multitude of men fell from each army in their communal warfare”3—and the slaughter continued for almost a decade (683-92). This gave a number of parties around the edges of the Arab empire the opportunity to throw off their allegiance, and it was a boon for Byzantium, since it gave them a further respite and obliged the Umayyads once more to make a truce so that they could wage war against their internal opponents.
World History
