Cyprus

Cyprus is an island in the Roman Sea, said to be eighty farsakhs long by a similar measure. The Muslims first rode to it in Mu'awiya's raid in the year 28 AH, and its people made peace for seven thousand two hundred dinars a year, and paid the Romans the same. ¹

He stipulated that they would not fight on behalf of the Romans, and that they would inform the Muslims of their enemy's movements. They were therefore people of ransom (fidya), not people of dhimma, according to al-Baladhuri. ¹

When they aided the Romans in the year 32 AH, Mu'awiya conquered it by force in the year 33 AH, and then confirmed them in their treaty. He built a city and mosques there, until Yazid closed it down. Al-Walid ibn Yazid expelled some of them, and Yazid ibn al-Walid returned them. Linked to it are the first raid on Cyprus and the second. ¹

The ruling of its treaty became a jurisprudential precedent, on which al-Layth, Malik, Sufyan ibn Uyayna and others were consulted in the governorship of Abd al-Malik ibn Salih. In it is the grave of Umm Haram bint Milhan, known as the grave of the righteous woman. ¹