Cyprus betwixt Greeks and Saracens, A.D. 647-965

Thesis

A re-examination of the documentary evidence in conjunction with, and in the light of, available archaeological evidence indicates that:

For some sixty years after Muawiya's first Arab raid against Cyprus, in 649, the Island was under the control of whichever of the two powers contesting it - Byzantium and Islam - was the stronger.

After the second Arab raid of 653/4 an Arab garrison may have been established in Cyprus, as the Arab chronicler Baladhuri states. But numismatic and other archaeological evidence is cited to show that such an Arab garrison must have been withdrawn from the Island, soon after it is reported to have been stationed there, by Muawiya himself. An Arab garrison reported, by Baladhuri, to have been withdrawn from Cyprus by Muawiya's successor, Yezid, may have been re-established in the Island during the siege of Constantinople in the seventies of the seventh century.

Extensive repair works to various public buildings, the erection and decoration of others and the fortification of the central part of the capital, Constantia, which was renamed Nea Justinianopolis after Justinian II, are cited as evidence for Byzantine control of Cyprus between 680 and 688. The view of modern historians that Nea Justinianopolis of the 39th Canon of the Council-in-Trullo was in the Hellespont is examined and shown to be untenable.

… Continued in thesis.

Authors: Dikigoropoulos, AI

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Byzantine Empire; Islamic Empire; Foreign relations; Islamic; Cyprus; Greeks; Saracens
• Subjects: Cyprus -- History; Byzantine Empire -- Foreign relations -- Islamic Empire; Islamic Empire -- Foreign relations -- Byzantine Empire