The
First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the
Arab–Byzantine Wars, and the first culmination of the
Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the
Byzantine Empire, led by Caliph
Mu'awiya I. Mu'awiya, who had emerged in 661 as the ruler of the Muslim Arab empire following a
civil war, renewed aggressive warfare against Byzantium after a lapse of some years and hoped to deliver a lethal blow by capturing the Byzantine capital,
Constantinople.