He also achieved very great conquests in the Maghrib, just as, at the same time, Qutaybah ibn Muslim was accomplishing in the East exploits the like of which had never been heard.
During that very period—and afterwards as well—the land-and-sea campaign against Constantinople was launched, and the siege lasted for about a year. The banner of jihad was unfurled on every frontier, religion stood triumphant, the state was mighty, and the ranks were united.
Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said: A man informed me that Sulaymān intended to settle in Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). Musa ibn Nusair and his brother Maslamah came to him, and news reached him that the Byzantines had appeared on the coast of Hims and had carried off a group of captives, among them a woman of some renown.
Sulaymān grew angry and said, “This is all it is: we raid them and they raid us. By Allah, I shall lead an expedition against them in which I will conquer Constantinople or die trying.”
He then turned to Maslamah and to Musa ibn Nusair and said, “Advise me.”
Musa replied, “Commander of the Believers, if that is truly your intention, then proceed as the Companions did in their conquests: whenever they captured a city they made it a base and secured it for Islam. Start, therefore, with the mountain passes, take their fortresses one by one until you reach Constantinople; at that point they will surrender of their own accord.”
He asked Maslamah, “And what do you say?”
Maslamah answered, “That is indeed the sound course—provided one’s lifetime is long enough to carry it through, or events unfold exactly as you expect, and that would take fifteen years. My view, however, is that you dispatch the Muslims against Constantinople by land and by sea so that they may besiege it; as long as hardship presses upon its people, they will either pay the jizya or the city will be taken by force. Once that happens, every fortress lying behind it will fall into your hands.”
Sulaymān declared, “That is the plan.”
He therefore mobilized the people of Syria and al-Jazira for the land campaign—roughly 120,000 strong—and sent the people of Egypt and the Maghrib by sea in a fleet of one thousand ships under ʿUmar ibn Hubayra, while overall command rested with Maslamah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.
Al-Walid ibn Muslim said: More than one person informed me that Sulaymān distributed their stipends, explained to them the realities of the expedition and its length, then went to Damascus, led the Friday prayer, and returned