In 654, Muawiyah undertook an expedition in Cappadocia while his fleet, under the command of Abu'l-Awar, advanced along the southern coast of Anatolia. Emperor Constans embarked against it with a large fleet. Due to the rough seas, Tabari describes the Byzantine and Arab ships being arranged in lines and lashed together, to allow for melee combat. The Arabs were victorious in battle, although losses were heavy for both sides, and Constans barely escaped to Constantinople. According to Theophanes, he managed to make his escape by exchanging uniforms with one of his officers.

The battle was part of the earliest campaign by Muawiyah to reach Constantinople and is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep". The Muslim victory was a significant event in the naval history of the Mediterranean Sea. From long being considered a ‘Roman lake’, the Mediterranean became a contending point between the naval might of the rising Rashidun Caliphate and the Eastern Roman Empire. The victory also paved the path for uncontested Muslim expansion along the coastline of North Africa.