The Arabs controlled all of Palestine and Syria by 639 and by 642 they controlled Egypt. It was in 649 that the Governor of Syria, Muawiya, petitioned and gained permission from the Caliph Othman to lead an expedition against Cyprus. The Caliph dictated that only volunteers could be used, but Muawiya had no shortage of volunteers and set sail with 1,500 ships with a large portion of them coming from Egypt. Muawiya brought his wife Fakhita and his second in command, Ubada ibn as-Samit, also brought his wife, Umm-Haram- who was related to Mohammed himself.

When Muawiya arrived to Cyprus he Constantia and demanded the governor to surrender, which he did not. They laid siege to the city and it shortly fell to the attackers. Muawiya's forces ended up going on a huge pillaging spree over the island, but when they hear the Imperial Fleet was approaching quickly retreated. In this confusion, Umm-Haram supposedly fell off her horse and died. She is supposedly buried in Hala Sultan Tekke.

This attack was suppose to be a raid with the hopes of incorporating Cyprus into the Empire. Muawiya demanded tribute from the island as well as their promise they would not be a base for the Byzantines. In 653 or 654, claiming Cyprus broke their promise for not being a base, he attacked the island again. He left a garrison of 12,000 soldiers on the island in a town he built specifically for them. He encouraged as many Muslim settlers as he could to settle the island.

From this point until 678, not much improved on the island. In 678 the Emperor and the Caliph signed a peace treaty after the failed attempt to capture Constantinople. There was no mention of the island when the treaty was renewed in 685, though it looks as though the Arab garrison left the island. In 688 when the treaty was renewed again between Justinian II and Caliph Abd al-Malik, a clause in the treaty dictated that the island would be neutral. Neither empire could lay claim to the island or garrison troops there, and revenues from taxation were divided equally.

Justinian did not have much faith in the treaty itself and had planned on creating a colony for the Greek population on the Anatolian mainland. They would be set up in the new town of Nova Justinianopolis and the Archbishop of Cyprus would move his diocese there along with his religious followers. All the Cypriots who moved would remain autonomous as they were on the island. Unfortunately many of the transport ships they were bringing them to new city ran into a bad storm and sank. Those that survived either returned to Cyprus or fled to Syria to avoid deportation. In 698 after Justinian was dethroned by Tiberius III, the new emperor sent all the Cypriots that chose to stay in the new colony back to Cyprus as well as negotiating with the Caliph to send his refugees back to the island as well.

Footprint in Cyprus (1982) by Sir David Hunt, pages 147-154