Siege of Constantinople (674–678)

The First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 674 was a major conflict of the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and was one of the numerous times Constantinople's defences were tested. It was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Umayyad Caliphate. Muawiyah I, who had emerged as the ruler of the Arab empire following a civil war, sent his son Yazid I who besieged Constantinople under Constantine IV. In this battle, the Umayyads, unable to breach the Theodosian Walls, blockaded the city along the Bosporus. The approach of winter forced the besiegers to withdraw to an island 80 miles away.

Just prior to the siege, a Syrian Christian refugee named Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis had invented for the Byzantine Empire a devastating new weapon that came to be known as "Greek fire". In 677, the Byzantine navy utilized it to decisively defeat the Umayyad navy in the Sea of Marmara, lifting the siege in 678. This victory halted the Umayyad expansion towards Europe for almost thirty years, although the Arabs would not be decisively defeated until the Second Arab siege of Constantinople.

The naval victory that the Byzantines won ensured that the city could be resupplied by sea. Meanwhile, the Arab forces were beset with starvation in winter.

See also

• Byzantine-Arab Wars
• Constantinople
• Second Arab siege of Constantinople
• Abu Ayyub al-Ansari

References

• Jonathan Harris (2007), Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium. Hambledon/Continuum, London. ISBN 978 1847251794
• Turnbull, Stephen (2004). The Walls of Constantinople AD 413–1453. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-759-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=sVnXSObRUYIC&printsec=frontcover.