Battle of Kardia
872 CE.
Shown on the map at 40.550°, 26.750°.
The Battle of Kardia was a naval battle fought in c. 872/3 between the fleets of the Byzantine Empire and the Cretan Saracens off Kardia, in the Gulf of Saros. The battle was a major Byzantine victory. According to the 10th-century chronicler Theophanes Continuatus—whose work was later reused almost without change by the 11th-century historian John Skylitzes—in the early years of the reign of the Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867–886), the Arab emir of Crete, Shu'ayb ("Saet" in Greek), son of the founder of the emirate, Abu Hafs, sent a Greek renegade called Photios, "a warlike and energetic fellow", on a major raiding expedition against the Byzantine Empire. The fleet led by Photios comprised over 50 vessels, including 27 heavy vessels (koumbaria) and many lighter galleys. This fleet plundered the shores of the Aegean Sea, looting and taking prisoners to be sold as slaves, and even penetrated into the Propontis and reached Prokonnesos, in the vicinity of Constantinople; the first time since the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 717–718 that a Muslim fleet had come so close to the Byzantine capital.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kardia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.