The Second Raid on Cyprus

غزوة قبرس الثانية

c. 653 CE · 33 AH

In al-Baladhuri: in year 32 the people of Cyprus aided the Byzantines against the sea-raiders, giving them vessels, so Mu'awiya raided them in year 33 with five hundred ships, taking Cyprus by force — killing and making captives — then restored them to their treaty, sending there twelve thousand men all of the diwan who built its mosques, and transferring companies from Ba'labakk; he built a city there and they dwelt drawing stipends until Mu'awiya died and his son Yazid succeeded, who disbanded that force and ordered the city demolished — some transmitters place the second raid in year 35, and Muhammad ibn Musaffa was told Yazid was bribed with great wealth to withdraw the Cyprus garrison, whose people then demolished their city and mosques once they had gone; al-Walid ibn Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik exiled a body of them to Syria on a charge which the people disapproved, and Yazid ibn al-Walid returned them to their land; Hayy ibn Ma'yuf al-Hamdani raided them in al-Rashid's caliphate for an offence and took captives, and when they straightened to the Muslims al-Rashid ordered the captives returned; the people of Cyprus remained on Mu'awiya's treaty until Abd al-Malik added a thousand dinars, which ran until Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz remitted it, Hisham restored it, and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur declared 'we are worthier of being just to them and did not profit by wronging them', returning them to Mu'awiya's treaty.

Overview

Al-Baladhuri relates that the people of Cyprus helped the Byzantines against the raiders at sea in 32 AH, so Mu'awiya raided them in 33 AH with five hundred ships. This came after the first raid. Some transmitters place the raid in 35 AH. ¹

Conquest and confirmation

Mu'awiya took Cyprus by force, killed and took captives, then confirmed them in their peace. He sent to it twelve thousand, all of them on the register, who built mosques there, and a group was moved there from Baalbek, and a city was built there. They were given stipends. ¹

After Mu'awiya

Yazid ibn Mu'awiya recalled that expedition and ordered the city demolished. When Muhammad ibn Musaffa learned that Yazid had been bribed with a great sum to recall the troops, the people of Cyprus demolished their city and their mosques. ¹

Tribute and peace

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan added a thousand dinars to their tribute. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz lifted it, and then Hisham restored it. When al-Mansur became caliph he said, according to al-Baladhuri: "We are most entitled to be fair to them, and we will not multiply by their oppression," and he returned them to the peace of Mu'awiya. ¹

The account also mentions later events, among them the exile of a group of them to Syria by al-Walid ibn Yazid, and Yazid ibn al-Walid's return of them, and the raid of Hayy ibn Mu'ayyif in the caliphate of al-Rashid. ¹

Umar's Monthly Rations

Umar had a jarib of food kneaded and baked and oiled — thirty men ate lunch from it, and the same at supper — 'two jaribs a month suffice a man', and so each man, woman and mamluk drew two jaribs monthly; a man would curse his fellow 'may God lift your two jaribs' — death cut them — 'and that is on tongues to this day'. Abu al-Darda' counted 'rightly-guided sunnas Umar granted the umma — among them the two mudds and the two qists'; on the minbar, mudd and qist in hand: 'we run your stipends and your rizq every month — for every Muslim soul each month a mudd, a qist of oil, a qist of vinegar' — 'and the slave?' — 'yes, and the slave'. For dependents he set the fighters' households and their descendants at tens; Uthman and his governors kept it and made it heritable to non-stipended heirs till Umar II, who heard Sulayman ibn Habib's account, disliked the inheritance — 'cut it and generalize the stipend' — 'I fear they will imitate your cutting and not your generalizing' — 'truly said', and he left them. The newborn drew ten; Mu'awiya deferred it to the weanling; Abd al-Malik cut it save whom he willed — and 'do not hasten weaning your children: we stipend every newborn in Islam'.

The Second Raid on Cyprus

At a glance

In time

Overview

Conquest and confirmation

After Mu'awiya

Tribute and peace

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

Umar's Monthly Rations