The battle pitted the fleets of the Kingdom of Castile, commanded by the Admiral of Castile, Pedro Martínez de Fe, and the combined fleets of the Marinid dynasty and that of the Emirate of Granada, commanded by Abu Yaqub Yusuf an-Nasr.

This battle coincided with a simultaneous siege of the city of Algeciras which lasted from 1278–79 and was commanded by the Infante Sancho.

The Castilian prince would abandon the siege later in 1279, marking the end of the first action of the long battle for the Strait of Gibraltar.

In 1275, the Marinid Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq disembarked on the peninsula commanding an army with the strategic objective to occupy the city of Tarifa.

They decided to attack on the 25th of July and the action took place off the coast of Algeciras and resulted in the practical destruction of the entire Castilian fleet.