The Umayyads were so intent on emulating Byzantium that between the 660s and 710s they repeatedly tried to take over the old Roman state wholesale. The result was a wide-ranging war across the near east and southern Mediterranean, which lasted for more than a century. The two great powers clashed frequently in north Africa, as Arab-led armies pushed toward the Maghreb (modern Algeria and Morocco). And they fought a series of battles on the high seas around Asia Minor, culminating in two spectacular sieges of Constantinople.
