Abd ar-Rahman II
The Andalusians also occupied several of the Cyclades during these early years. Michael II's admiral Ooryphas managed to evict the Arabs from the Aegean islands, but failed to retake Crete. The overtures of Theophilos () to Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba, proposing a joint action against the Andalusian exiles, came to nothing, and in October 829, the Andalusians destroyed an imperial fleet off Thasos, undoing much of the work of Ooryphas and opening the Aegean and its coasts to pillage. Later the Andalusians attacked Euboea (), Lesbos (837), and the coasts of the Thracesian Theme, where they destroyed the monastic centre of Mount Latros. They were heavily defeated, however, by the local "strategos", Constantine Kontomytes.