Editing Mu'awiya I (section)

===Naval campaigns against Byzantium and conquest of Armenia===
Mu'awiya initiated the Arab naval campaigns against the Byzantines in the eastern Mediterranean,{{sfn|Hinds|1993|p=264}} requisitioning the harbors of Tripoli, Beirut, [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], and [[Jaffa]].{{sfn|Jandora|1986|p=112}}{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|p=157}} Umar had rejected Mu'awiya's request to launch a naval invasion of [[Cyprus]], citing concerns about the Muslim forces' safety at sea, but Uthman allowed him to commence the campaign in 647, after refusing an earlier entreaty.{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=539}} Mu'awiya's rationale was that the Byzantine-held island posed a threat to Arab positions along the Syrian coast, and that it could be easily neutralized.{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=539}} The exact year of the raid is unclear, with the early Arabic sources providing a range between 647 and 650, while two [[Greek language|Greek]] inscriptions in the Cypriot village of [[Soli, Cyprus|Solois]] cite two raids launched between 648 and 650.{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=539}}

According to the 9th-century historians al-Baladhuri and [[Khalifa ibn Khayyat]], Mu'awiya led the raid in person accompanied by his wife, Katwa bint Qaraza ibn Abd Amr of the Qurayshite [[Banu Nawfal]], alongside the commander [[Ubada ibn as-Samit|Ubada ibn al-Samit]].{{sfn|Morony|1987|pp=215–216}}{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=539}} Katwa died on the island and at some point Mu'awiya married her sister Fakhita.{{sfn|Morony|1987|pp=215–216}} In a different narrative by the early Muslim sources, the raid was instead conducted by Mu'awiya's admiral [[Abdallah ibn Qais]], who landed at [[Salamis, Cyprus|Salamis]] before occupying the island.{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|p=157}} In either case, the Cypriots were forced to pay a tribute equal to that which they had paid the Byzantines.{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|p=157}}{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=540}} Mu'awiya established a garrison and a mosque to maintain the Caliphate's influence on the island, which became a staging ground for the Arabs and the Byzantines to launch raids against each other's territories.{{sfn|Lynch|2016|p=540}} The inhabitants of Cyprus were largely left to their own devices and archaeological evidence indicates uninterrupted prosperity during this period.{{sfn|Lynch|2016|pp=541–542}}

Dominance of the eastern Mediterranean enabled Mu'awiya's naval forces to raid [[Crete]] and [[Rhodes]] in 653. From the raid on Rhodes, Mu'awiya remitted significant war spoils to Uthman.{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|p=158}} In 654 or 655, a joint naval expedition launched from [[Alexandria]], Egypt and the harbors of Syria routed a Byzantine fleet commanded by the Byzantine Emperor [[Constans II]] ({{reign|641|668}}) off the [[Lycia]]n coast at the [[Battle of the Masts]]. Constans II was forced to sail to [[Sicily]], opening the way for an ultimately unsuccessful [[Battle of the Masts#Siege of Constantinople of 654|Arab naval attack on Constantinople]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|pp=157–158}} The Arabs were commanded by either the governor of Egypt, [[Abdallah ibn Sa'd|Abd Allah ibn Abi Sarh]], or Mu'awiya's lieutenant [[Abu'l-A'war]].{{sfn|Bosworth|1996|pp=157–158}}

Meanwhile, after two previous attempts by the Arabs to conquer [[Arminiya|Armenia]], the third attempt in 650 ended with a three-year truce reached between Mu'awiya and the Byzantine envoy Procopios in Damascus.{{sfn|Kaegi|1995|pp=184–185}} In 653, Mu'awiya received the submission of the Armenian leader [[Theodore Rshtuni]], which the Byzantine emperor practically conceded when he withdrew from Armenia that year.{{sfn|Kaegi|1995|p=185}} In 655, Mu'awiya's lieutenant commander [[Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri]] captured [[Erzerum|Theodosiopolis]] and deported Rshtuni to Syria, solidifying Arab rule over Armenia.{{sfn|Kaegi|1995|p=185}}