Imperial policies and the organization of the war fleet in early Islamic Egypt

Abstract

This article studies the organization of a war fleet in Egypt between ca. 640 and 800 CE. Whereas medieval historiography on this topic is largely limited to the mentioning of naval expeditions and a handful of arsenals, papyrus documents written in Arabic, Coptic and Greek present a wealth of information that has hitherto not been systematically explored. On the basis of these sources, this article maps three waves of development in the organization of Egypt’s early Islamic fleet. These waves date to the 660s, the early 700s and to around 750. They are unmistakably related to empire-wide administrative and military changes introduced by Sufyanid, Marwanid and early Abbasid caliphs.