The First Muslim Navy
Early Caliphate navy. The Arab Empire maintained and expanded a wide trade network across parts of Asia , Africa and Europe . This helped establish the Arab Empire (including the Rashidun , Umayyad , Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates ) as the world's leading extensive economic power throughout the 8th-13th centuries according to the political scientist John M. Hobson . [13] It is commonly believed that Mu‘awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan was the first planner and establisher of the Islamic navy. The early caliphate naval conquest managed to mark long time legacy of Islamic maritime enterprises from the Conquest of Cyprus , the famous Battle of the Masts [14] up to of their successor states such as the area Transoxiana from area located in between the Jihun River(Oxus/Amu Darya) and Syr Darya, to Sindh (present day Pakistan ), by Umayyad , [15] naval cove of "Saracen privateers" in La Garde-Freinet by Cordoban Emirate , [16] and the Sack of Rome by the Aghlabi