Arab-Byzantine Condominium of Cyprus

Origins

Arab fleets raided Cyprus from 649. In 688 the Byzantine emperor Justinian II and the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik agreed a treaty under which the revenues of Cyprus, along with those of Armenia and Iberia, were divided equally between them. The island was to be demilitarised and neutral, though the arrangement was repeatedly interrupted.

Rule and society

Cyprus kept its Greek-speaking Christian population, its bishops and local officials, while paying tribute to both powers. Justinian II moved many islanders to Cyzicus around 691, and they returned about 698. Both sides violated the neutrality: Byzantine and Abbasid fleets raided the island, and Harun al-Rashid's forces deported Cypriots. Historians debate how formal the condominium really was.

Decline and legacy

As Byzantine power revived in the 10th century, Nikephoros II Phokas sent the patrician Niketas Chalkoutzes to retake Cyprus in 965. It became a Byzantine province until Isaac Komnenos seized it in 1184.