THE STORY OF MU'AWIYA BUN ABU SUFYAN (r.t.a) (Episode 7)

 Muslims Till Death:

ASSALAAMU ALAYKUM WARAHMATULLAH WABARAKAATUHU . LET'S START TONIGHT'S EDUCATION. OUR TOPIC IS 👇.                                                                            *THE STORY OF MU'AWIYA BUN  ABU SUFYAN (r.t.a) (Episode 7)*                                                                                                                
Friday 28th February 2025. 1 Ramadan 1446 AH

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A few years later, Mu'awiya settled Apamea with 5,000 Slavs who had defected from the Byzantines during one of his forces' Anatolian campaigns. In 669, Mu'awiya's navy raided as far as Sicily. In 670, the wide-scale fortification of Alexandria was completed. While the histories of al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri report that Mu'awiya's forces captured Rhodes in 672–674 and colonized the island for seven years before withdrawing during the reign of Yazid I, the modern historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth casts doubt on these events and holds that the island was only raided by Mu'awiya's lieutenant Junada ibn Abi Umayya al-Azdi in 679/80.
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Under Emperor Constantine IV (r. 668–685), the Byzantines began a counteroffensive against the Caliphate, first raiding Egypt in 672 or 673, while in winter 673, Mu'awiya's admiral Abd Allah ibn Qays led a large fleet that raided Smyrna and the coasts of Cilicia and Lycia. The Byzantines landed a major victory against an Arab army and fleet led by Sufyan ibn Awf, possibly at Sillyon, in 673/74. The next year, Abd Allah ibn Qays and Fadhala landed in Crete and in 675/76, a Byzantine fleet assaulted Maraqiya, killing the governor of Homs.
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Around 679 Mu'awiya sued for peace with Constantine IV, possibly as a result of the destruction of his fleet or the Byzantines' deployment of the Mardaites in the Syrian littoral during that time. A thirty-year treaty was concluded, obliging the Caliphate to pay an annual tribute of 3,000 gold coins, 50 horses and 50 slaves, and withdraw their troops from the forward bases they had occupied on the Byzantine coast. Although the Muslims did not achieve any permanent territorial gains in Anatolia during Mu'awiya's career, the frequent raids provided Mu'awiya's Syrian troops with war spoils and tribute, which helped ensure their continued allegiance, and sharpened their combat skills.
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Moreover, Mu'awiya's prestige was boosted and the Byzantines were precluded from any concerted campaigns against Syria. The expeditions against Byzantine North Africa were renewed during Mu'awiya's reign, the Arabs not having advanced beyond Cyrenaica since the 640s other than periodic raids. In 665/66 Ibn Hudayj led an army which raided Byzacena (southern district of Byzantine Africa) and Gabes and temporarily captured Bizerte before withdrawing to Egypt.
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The following year Mu'awiya dispatched Fadhala and Ruwayfi ibn Thabit to raid the commercially valuable island of Djerba. Meanwhile, in 662 or 667, Uqba ibn Nafi, a Qurayshite commander who had played a key role in the Arabs' capture of Cyrenaica in 641, reasserted Muslim influence in the Fezzan region, capturing the Zawila oasis and the Garamantes capital of Germa. He may have raided as far south as Kawar in modern-day Niger. Uqba served as Mu'awiya's lieutenant governor over North Africa until the caliph dismissed him in 673. The struggle over the succession of Constantine IV drew Byzantine focus away from the African front.
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In 670, Mu'awiya appointed Uqba as Egypt's deputy governor over the North African lands under Arab control west of Egypt and, at the head of a 10,000-strong force, Uqba commenced his expedition against the territories west of Cyrenaica.

As he advanced, his army was joined by by Islamized Luwata Berbers and their combined forces conquered Ghadamis, Gafsa and the Jarid.

In the last region he established a permanent Arab garrison town called Kairouan a relatively safe distance from Carthage and the coastal areas, which had remained under Byzantine control, to serve as a base for further expeditions.
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It also aided Muslim conversion efforts among the Berber tribes that dominated the surrounding countryside. Mu'awiya dismissed Uqba in 673, likely out of concern that he would form an independent power base in the lucrative regions that he conquered. The new Arab province, Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia), remained subordinate to the governor of Egypt, who sent his mawlā (non-Arab, Muslim freedman) Abu al-Muhajir Dinar to replace Uqba, who was arrested and transferred to Mu'awiya's custody in Damascus. Abu al-Muhajir continued the westward campaigns as far as Tlemcen and defeated the Awraba Berber chief Kasila, who subsequently embraced Islam and joined his forces.
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In 678, a treaty between the Arabs and the Byzantines ceded Byzacena to the Caliphate, while forcing the Arabs to withdraw from the northern parts of the province.

After Mu'awiya's death, his successor Yazid reappointed Uqba, Kasila defected and a Byzantine–Berber alliance ended Arab control over Ifriqiya, which was not reestablished until the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (r. 685–705). In a move unprecedented in Islamic politics, Mu'awiya nominated his own son, Yazid, as his successor.
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The caliph likely held ambitions for his son's succession over a considerable period. In 666,his governor in Homs, Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid, was poisoned to remove him as a potential rival to Yazid.

The Syrian Arabs, with whom Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid was popular, had viewed the governor as the caliph's most suitable successor by dint of his military record and descent from Khalid ibn al-Walid. It was not until the latter half of his reign that Mu'awiya publicly declared Yazid heir apparent, though the traditional Muslim sources offer divergent details about the timing and location of the events relating to the decision.
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End of Today's Education. Subhaanaka Allaahumma wabihamdika asha-hadu an laa ilaaha illaa Anta astagfiruka wa atuubu ilaika. Suggestions and problems are welcome. *We shall conclude this story tomorrow in sha Allah* . May  HE strengthen and make us steadfast in faith. May HE accept our ibaadat and grant us the Good in this World and the Hereafter. May Allah Azza wa jalla forgive and  grant us Jannah...AMIN