Byzantine emperor, which he continued with energy, at
first only on land, but later, when the caliph had at last given in to
his urgent representations, at sea also. In the year 34 (A.D. 655) was
fought off the coast of Lycia the great naval battle, which because of
the great number of masts has been called "the mast fight," in which the
Greek[12] fleet, commanded by the emperor Constans II. in person, was
utterly defeated. Moawiya himself was not present, as he was conducting
an attack (the result of which we do not know) on Caesarea in
Cappadocia. The Arabic historians are so entirely preoccupied with the
internal events that they have no eye for the war at the frontier. The
contention which Moawiya had with Ali checked his progress in the north.

Moawiya was a born ruler, and Syria was, as we have seen, the best
administered province of the whole empire. He was so loved and honoured
by his Syrians that, when he invited them to avenge the blood of Othman,
they replied unanimously, "It is your part to command, ours to obey."
Ali was a valiant man, but had no great talent as a ruler. His army
numbered a great many enthusiastic partisans, but among them not a few
wise-acres; there were also others of doubtful loyalty. The battle at
Siffin (657), near the Euphrates, which lasted two months and consisted
principally in, sometimes bloody, skirmishes, with alternate success,
ended by the well-known appeal to the decision of the Koran on the part
of Moawiya. This appeal has been called by a European scholar "one of
the unworthiest comedies of the whole world's history," accepting the
report of very partial Arabic writers that it happened when the Syrians
were on the point of losing the battle. He forgot that Ali himself,
before the Battle of the Camel, appealed likewise to the decision of the
Koran, and began the fight only when this had been rejected. There is in
reality no room for suspecting Moawiya of not having been in earnest
when making this appeal; he might well regret that internecine strife
should drain the forces which were so much wanted for the spread of
Islam. That the Book of God could give a solution, even of this arduous
case, was doubtless the firm belief of both parties. But even if the
appeal to the Koran had been a stratagem, as Ali himself thought, it
would have been perfectly legitimate, according to the general views of
that time, which had been also those of the Prophet. It is not unlikely
that the chi