Muslim Galley
For centuries, power in the Mediterranean had depended on
naval might. At the end of the 6th century the Byzantine Empire dominated both
the Mediterranean and the Black Seas with naval bases at Carthage, Alexandria,
Acre and Constantinople. Yet the number of Byzantine warships remained few,
because the Empire faced no serious maritime rivals until the Sassanian
occupation of Egypt and Syria. Even more threatening were the subsequent Muslim
conquests of these areas, as well as North Africa and, eventually, the Iberian Peninsula.
In the Islamic forces' first major naval operation in the
Mediterranean, they temporarily occupied the island of Cyprus after having
driven off a Byzantine fleet near Alexandria in 652 - their first naval
victory. Then, in 655, the Islamic fleet won a convincing victory over the
Byzantine navy off the south-western coast of what is now Turkey. For nigh on a
thousand years Greeks and then Romans had dominated the Mediterranean Sea. Now,
in the first major Mediterranean sea battle for centuries, an Arab fleet had
successfully challenged the Byzantines in their home waters.
Surprisingly, given the relative inexperience of the Muslim
fleet, this battle saw the Byzantines defeated both at sea and in a skirmish on
shore at the same time. This clash in 655 near Cape Chelidonia, off the Lycian
coast, came to be known as the 'Battle of the Masts' because the Muslims had
landed to cut tall trees for the masts and yards of their new fleets, based in
Egypt and Syria. A lack of suitable large timber would in fact hamper Muslim
naval development throughout the medieval period, though it did encourage
technological innovation in Islamic naval architecture. During this encounter
the Byzantine ships seem either to have been moored in close formation or to
have been tied together. As a result the Muslims were able to win because of
their superior boarding and close-combat tactics.
The possible importance of the Sassanian influence on naval
developments in the Middle East has only recently been considered. During their
brief occupation of much of the eastern Mediterranean littoral, they had
extended as far as to occupy the Greek island of Rhodes, plus some Anatolian
coastal towns, though they almost certainly used captured Syrian, Cilician,
Egyptian or Greek ships to do so.
The subsequent Muslim conquest of many of the same regions
brought the Arabs to the shores of the Mediterranean for the first time as a
great military power and as the inheritors of Sassanian naval traditions. On
the other hand the Arabian peoples had a far more active naval heritage than
their initially cautious attitude to the Mediterranean might suggest. The
pre-Islamic Yemenis and perhaps Omanis had, for example, been raiding Sassanian
territory by sea since at least the 4th century AD while various other tribes
from both the Gulf and Red Sea coastal regions of Arabia had similar maritime
traditions. Here it is worth noting that, following the first wave of Islamic
conquest, these same Yemeni and other coastal Arab tribes were often selected
as garrison troops for strategic coastal bases including Alexandria.
In response to the challenge by new Arab-Islamic fleets, a
more powerful Romano-Byzantine navy would emerge in the late 7th century. The
'Battle of the Masts' would not be the last naval encounter between these two
rivals. Indeed, later Byzantine attempts to retake Egypt would convince
Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria and subsequently the first Umayyad Caliph, of
the need for a full Islamic navy in the Mediterranean.
The first such fleet was built in Egypt, where all qualified
sailors were registered for naval service. Although many of these sailors were
in fact Christians, the bulk were Yemeni in origin and Muslim in religion. The
new fleet used Tyre and Acre as forward bases while Iranian and Iraqi
shipwrights were brought from the Gulf to build and man the new or restored
shipyards at Acre, Tyre and Beirut.
Other naval bases and fleets were established in newly
conquered Tunisia and rather later in Libya; the resources of wood, iron and
tar essential for medieval naval warfare all being available in North Africa.
From the early 8th century onwards these new Islamic fleets undertook almost
annual raids against Byzantine territory and islands in the western
Mediterranean, mirroring the annual raids undertaken on land.
If there were any real differences between Byzantine and
early Islamic warships, it would seem to have been in the increased height of
the forecastle of the latter. This was soon being used to mount stone-throwing
engines and to provide an advantage when boarding enemy vessels. The main
fighting ship was a galley called a shini which, like the Byzantine galleys of
the day, had between 140 and 180 oarsmen. It is also important to note that,
with very few exceptions, the oarsmen in medieval galleys, be they Christian or
Muslim, were paid volunteers not slaves.
By the mid-8th century such galleys defended themselves
against the terrifying Byzantine incendiary weapon known as 'Greek fire' using
various systems of water-soaked cotton, and would shortly use Greek fire
themselves. However, the vessels of the rival naval powers remained remarkably
similar, as there was an exchange of both technology and terminology between
them.
The main difficulty facing any Islamic fleet continued to be
a lack of timber. Indeed, this lack of resources may have stimulated the
construction of larger ships, which were better able to defend themselves and
were no longer regarded as expendable assets. Certainly, there was also a
change from the hull- or skin-first method of construction to the more
economical frame-first method, although this change would not be truly complete
until the 11th century.
From Nicolle, The Great Islamic Conquests, p. 57:
Nicolle, p. 57: “The subsequent Muslim conquest of many of
the same regions [Syria, Cilicia, Egypt] brought the Arabs to the shores of the
Mediterranean for the first time as a great military power and as the
inheritors of Sassanian naval traditions. On the other hand the Arabian peoples
had a far more active naval heritage than their initially cautious attitude to
the Mediterranean might suggest. The pre-Islamic Yemenis and perhaps Omanis had,
for example, been raiding Sassanian territory by sea since at least the 4th
century AD while various other tribes from both the Gulf and Red Sea coastal
regions of Arabia had similar maritime traditions. Here it is worth noting
that, following the first wave of Islamic conquest, these same Yemini and other
coastal Arab tribes were often selected as garrison troops for strategic
coastal bases including Alexandria.
“In response to the challenge by new Arab-Islamic fleets, a
more powerful Romano-Byzantine navy would emerge in the late 7th century. The
‘Battle of the Masts’ would not be the last naval encounter between these two
rivals. Indeed, later Byzantine attempts to retake Egypt would convince
Mu’awiya, the governor of Syria and subsequently the first Umayyad Caliph, of
the need for a full Islamic navy in the Mediterranean.
“The first such fleet was built in Egypt, where all
qualified sailors were registered for naval service. Although many of these
sailors were in fact Christians, the bulk were Yemeni in origin and Muslim in
religion. The new fleet used Tyre and Acre as forward bases while Iranian and
Iraqi shipwrights were brought from the Gulf to build and man the new or
restored shipyards at Acre, Tyre and Beirut.
“Other naval bases and fleets were established in newly
conquered Tunisia and later in Libya; the resources of wood, iron and tar
essential for naval warfare all being available in North Africa. From the early
8th century onwards these new Islamic fleets undertook almost annual raids
against Byzantine territory and islands in the western Mediterranean, mirroring
the annual raids undertaken on land.
“If there were any real differences between Byzantine and
early Islamic warships, it would seem to have been in the increased height of
the forecastle of the latter. This was soon used to mount stone-throwing
engines and to provide an advantage when boarding enemy vessels. The main
fighting ship was a galley called a shini which, like the Byzantine galleys of
the day, had between 140 and 180 oarsmen. It is also important to note that,
with very few exceptions, the oarsmen in medieval galleys, be they Christian or
Muslim, were paid volunteers not slaves.
“By the mid-8th century such galleys defended themselves
against the terrifying Byzantine incendiary weapon known as ‘Greek fire’ using
various systems of water-soaked cotton, and would shortly use Greek fire
themselves. However, the vessels of the rival naval powers remained remarkably
similar, as there was an exchange of both technology and terminology between
them.
“The main difficulty facing any Islamic fleet continued to
be a lack of timber. Indeed, this lack of resources may have stimulated the
construction of larger ships, which were better able to defend themselves and
were no longer regarded as expendable assets. Certainly, there was also a
change from the hull- or skin-first method of construction to the more
economical frame-first method, although this change would not be complete until
the 11th century.”
A bit on winter voyaging during this period:
Lawrence I. Conrad, “The Conquest of Arwād: A
Source-Critical Study in the Historiography of the Early Medieval Near East,”
in Cameron et al., Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, Vol I, p. 367 fn:
“Winter voyages on the Mediterranean were undertakings of great peril, not only
because of the risk of ships being overwhelmed in a storm, but also because
persistent overcast meant that navigators were deprived of the usual coastal
and celestial sightings upon which they relied for knowledge of their precise location
- in particular, how close they were to enemy territory and cruising lanes or
to dangerous channels or shoals…. Udovitch remarks (532) that ‘I have not found
a single example of a commercial voyage between Alexandria and North Africa in
the eleventh century outside the normal months of the sailing season’, i.e.
April to late September…. In the seventh and eighth centuries, this problem led
Rhodes to impose a strict ban on winter sailings by commercial vessels…” [per
Rhodian sea law]
