The Naval Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī (34/654-655)
Murat Öztürk, İsmail KoçukNaval activities of the Muslim Arabs in the Middle East and central Mediterranean led to a famous sea battle with the Byzantine Empire, known as Dhāt al-Ṣawārī since the ships’ masts dominated the panorama. During the reign of Caliph ʿUthmān, the governors of Syria and Egypt, Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān and ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ, respectively, built a strong navy to protect the coastal cities and the newly conquered territories, and also to break the power of the Byzantium in the Mediterranean. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd sailed from ʿAkkā to the northwest with the Egyptian and Shām fleets 200 ships strong. In response to the Muslim campaign, the Byzantine navy set sail under the personal command of Emperor Constans II (641-668). When the naval battle began on the coast of Finike (Phoenix) in Antalya, the Muslims tied the enemy ships to their own with ropes and chains and then started a hand-to-hand combat as if they were on land. When the battle was over towards noon, according to the sources, the sea was red with blood and the Emperor barely escaped from captivity under disguise. With the decisive victory of the Islamic Caliphate in 31 (652) or 34 (655), the Byzantine Empire not only lost its most valuable cities in the East, but also found a rival that was about to launch large-scale campaigns in the Mediterranean. This article examines Dhāt al-Ṣawārī (The Battle of the Masts) in light of the information from the main sources.
Zâtü’s-Savârî Deniz Muhârebesi (34/654-655)
Murat Öztürk, İsmail KoçukYakın Doğu ve Orta Akdeniz’de yürüttüğü bahrî faâliyetler neticesinde Müslüman Araplar ile Bizans İmparatorluğu’nun karşı karşıya geldikleri, gemi direklerinin panoramaya hâkim olmasından ötürü Zâtü’s-Savârî olarak adlandırılan çarpışma, meşhur bir deniz savaşıdır. Hz. Osmân (23-35/644-656) devrinde Suriye (Şâm) Vâlisi Muâviye b. Ebû Süfyân (ö. 60/680) ve Mısır Vâlisi Abdullah b. Sa‘d b. Ebû Serh (ö. 36/656-657) tarafından kıyı şehirleriyle, yeni fethedilen yerlerin muhâfazası ve Bizanslıların Akdeniz’deki kuvvetini azaltmak amacıyla muhkem bir donanma inşâ edildi. En nihâyetinde Abdullah b. Sa‘d, 200 gemiden müteşekkil Mısır ve Şâm filolarıyla Akkâ’dan kuzeybatı yönünde denize açıldı. Müslümanların bu seyrüseferine karşılık Bizans donanması bizzat İmparator II. Konstans (641-668) kumandasında harekete geçti. İki taraf arasında Antalya’nın Finike sâhilinde deniz harbi başladığında Müslümanlar halat ve zincirlerle düşman gemilerini kendi binitlerine bağlayıp karada muhârebe eder gibi Bizans askerleriyle göğüs göğüse çarpışmaya başladılar. Kaynakların rivâyetine göre; savaş öğlene doğru bittiğinde, deniz akan kanlarla kırmızıya boyanmış ve İmparator II. Konstans esir düşmekten ancak tebdîl-i kıyâfetle kurtulabilmişti. 31 (652) veya 34 (655) yılında meydana gelen, İslâm Hilâfeti’nin kesin zaferiyle neticelenen bu harp ile Bizans İmparatorluğu yalnızca doğudaki en kıymetli şehirlerini yitirmekle kalmamış, ayrıca Akdeniz’de geniş çaplı harekâtlara başlayacak bir rakibi de karşısında bulmuştu. Bu bağlamda makalede ana kaynakların verdiği mâlûmat ışığında Zâtü’s-Savârî (Direkler Savaşı) tetkik edilmiştir.
Byzantine Empire had to be cautious and to take action in order to maintain its dominance at sea. As a result, the Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī took place between the Byzantine Empire and the naval forces of the Islamic Caliphate. The battle, which is called Dhāt al-Ṣawārī (ṣawārī: ship masts) due to the large number of ship masts, is also mentioned in Arabic sources as Zu’sṣavārī, Ghazwat al-Ṣawārī. During the reign of caliph ʿUt̲̲h̲̲mān, Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān, the governor (ʿāmil) of Syria (al-S̲̲h̲̲ām) and ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ, the governor of Egypt, built a strong navy to go on naval expeditions in order to protect the coastal cities and the lands captured by Muslims, as well as to reduce the power of the Byzantium in the Mediterranean. Just before the Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī, two Christian brothers from Ṭarāblus al-Shām, seeing that Muʿāwiya was preparing an expedition against Constantinople, killed many people in the city along with those who joined them, burned the fleet and then took refuge in Byzantium. Thereupon, Muʿāwiya collaborated with ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ, the governor of Egypt, in order to organise a strong fleet. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd, who managed the building of a large number of warships at the shipyard in Alexandria in a short time, sailed from ʿAkkā to the northwest together with the fleets of Shām and Egypt, consisting of 200 ships in total.
The second commander of the fleet was Busr b. Abī Arṭāt on behalf of Muʿāwiya. The Islamic fleet encountered the Byzantine fleet, consisting of 500 ships, off the coast of Phoenix (today’s Finike) in the Lycian region of southern Anatolia. Some Islamic sources also mention that this battle took place off the coast of Alexandria.
Upon the proposal of the Muslims, there was no attack that night. Before the battle began, ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd put the ships in battle order and encouraged his soldiers with his speech. The Byzantine navy was commanded and directed in person by Emperor Constans II. In the battle that started before dawn, the Muslims preferred to fight at close range, while the Byzantines wanted to fight from a certain distance. First arrows and spears were shot and then stones were thrown until the ranks of the Byzantine ships were broken. In the meantime, the Muslims used long hooks to destroy the enemy ships’ equipment and cut their sails; they tied their ships and the Byzantine ships together with ropes and chains and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. When the battle ended towards noon, according to the sources, the sea was coloured red with the spilled blood and the broken masts of the ships covered everywhere. In this battle, 20.000 Byzantines died and Muslims suffered many casualties. Emperor Constans II (641-668) was saved from captivity when one of his soldiers disguised himself as the emperor and he escaped in another ship wearing the soldiers’ clothes and travelled first to Constantinople and then to Sicily. Islamic sources give the date of the battle as 31 (652) or 34 (655). Theophanes, the Byzantine historian, describes this battle in the events of the creation year 6146 (September 1, 654-August 31, 655).
To summarise, in the light of the information provided by the sources, it can be seen that there were two main reasons for the naval battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī. The first of these was the idea of Muʿāwiya, whose ultimate goal was most probably to capture Constantinople, to deal a major blow to Byzantium’s naval power. Another reason was the mobilisation of Byzantium, which was worried that the Muslim Arabs, who formed the first nucleus of the navy, would become a greater threat in the Mediterranean in the future.
The Battle of the Masts is one of the most important naval battles and can be considered a turning point in the Mediterranean. It is clear that the Muslim Arabs defeated the huge Byzantine fleet with an unusual tactic. By 655, Byzantium had not only lost its best cities in the East and Africa, but also faced a new and different rival in the Mediterranean, which the empire itself had dominated for so long. Although the Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī left the road to Constantinople open to Muslim attacks from the sea, the Byzantine Empire was fortunate that the Muslims were unable to follow up their naval victory. In 656, after the assassination of the Caliph ʿUthmān, the followers of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and his predecessor engaged in a long struggle that ended in civil war. As the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled between 661-750, it took approximately 10 years for Muʿāwiya to fully seize power as caliph. In fact, although this unprecedented victory restricted Byzantium’s activities at sea, the Muslim Arab navy remained idle due to the civil war following the assassination of ʿUt̲̲h̲̲mān.
Despite their experience and equipment, the Byzantines could not move fast enough to repel their enemies, whereas the Muslim Arabs had the opportunity to tie their ships to those of Byzantines with chains, hooks and ropes. Confident in their warships and military equipment, the Byzantines rejected their rival’s offer of a land battle, believing themselves to be in a superior and advantageous position at sea. The Muslim Arabs, on the other hand, cleverly tied their ships with chains and created a floating fortress in the middle of the sea.
In addition, one of the things that should be mentioned about the Battle of the Masts is that the experienced Christian sailors in Bilād al-Shām and Egypt fought against the empire and contributed to the dominance that the Muslim Arabs were trying to establish in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this respect, the statements that Ṭabarī made about the Copts are of great value.
As a result, after the Battle of Dhāt al-Ṣawārī, in which religious rituals were intensively practised by both the Byzantines and the Muslim Arabs before and during the naval battle, the Byzantine navy’s period of superiority at sea came to an end and its unrivalled dominance in the eastern Mediterranean was over. This naval battle also lit the fuse of the long-lasting struggle between the Islamic states and the Byzantine Empire in the Mediterranean until the Crusades, which began in 1096.
