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Islamic
Military Base in the Rhodes Island
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 The Rhodes island was conquered by Muslims under the leadership of Junadah bin Abi Umayya .Muslims then settled there and staged frequent attacks against the disbelievers in the sea, with the support of the Caliph, Mu`awya, nevertheless they were very careful about the Europeans, they used to spend the nights in a huge castle with all their possessions. This castle had watching towers whereby they’d keep watch guard over enemies and attackers to know if there was imminent danger.
They stayed on this island until the reign of Yazeed, who sent them back home after they had lived there for a long time and had much money and agricultural activities of their own.
(Al-Bedaya wa An-Nehaya, Vol. 7)
Explaining this briefly we say that Mo`awya bin Abi Sufyan wanted to conquer the Byzantine capital, the Constantinople, and made great preparations for that, like preparing 300 great ships loaded with heavy weapons specially the mangonels and 1000 fighters each and another group of 500 smaller ships with 100 fighters each.
He also tried to control the Mediterranean sea, to ensure safety of this huge fleet and also to find supplying stations. Actually Muslims by the time of Mu`awya had no control but on Cyprus Island.
Rhodes was a vital target for Muslims, because it was a small island near the coasts of Constantinople and Romanian troops used to attack Muslim coastal cities and ships from this little island.
That's why Muslims started with this island, and it was conquered by the help and support of Allah in Ramadan 53A.H. Immediately after conquering it, Mu`awya sent Muslim families to settle there, providing them with regular finance, turning this island to be an important base for the Islamic navy, causing Muslims to feel safe and pose as a pain on the neck of their enemies. It also helped a lot to conquer other Mediterranean islands and consequently put the Constantinople under siege .
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