Arab accounts from the 10th century place al-Battal alongside Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik during the latter's unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 717–718, but as the Arab accounts of the siege are semi-legendary, it is impossible to know if this report contains any truth. In reliable historical sources (the chroniclers al-Ya'qubi and al-Tabari), al-Battal first appears in 727, in one of the annual raids against Byzantine Asia Minor. This campaign was commanded by Mu'awiya ibn Hisham, the son of the reigning Caliph Hisham (). Al-Battal led the vanguard, with which he penetrated as far as the city of Gangra in Paphlagonia, which he captured and razed, before the army went on to unsuccessfully lay siege to Nicaea. Blankinship considers that al-Battal's capture of Gangra ranks as one of the greatest successes of Umayyad arms against the Byzantines in this period, along with the capture of Caesarea by Maslama in 726.