History of Islam in southern Italy
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The Islamic conquest and domination of Sicily (as well as parts of southern Italy) is a process whose origin must be traced back in the general expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards (see History of Islamic conquests for more details).
[edit] First attacks
The first attacks from Islamic ships to Sicily, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire, occurred in 652: they were Arabs from Syria, led by Mu'àuia ibn-Hodeig of the Kinda tribe, and remained on the island for several times. The Byzantine exarch of Ravenna Olympius landed also to Sicily but was unable to oust the invaders, who however returned to Syria after collected a large booty.
A second expedition occurred in 669. This time the ravaging force was strong of 200 ships frmo Alexandria. They sacked Syracuse and returned to Egypt after a month of pillages. After the Umayyad conquest of Africa (complete around 700), attacks from Muslim fleets repeated in 703, 728, 729, 730, 731, 733 and 734, the last two times meeting with a substantial Byzantine resistance.
The first true expedition with true conquest aims is from 740: in that year the Muslim prince Habib, who participated to the 728 attack, and his son Abd-ar-Rahman, after a successful siege of Syracuse, were ready to conquer the whole island when they were called back to Tunisia by a Berber revolt. A second attack in 752 aimed only to booty.
In 805 the Imperial patrician of Sicily, Constantine, signed a ten years truce with Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab, Emir of Ifriqiya, but this did not prevent other Muslim fleet from other area of Africa and Spain to attack Sardinia and Corsica in 806-821. In 812 Ibrahim's son, Abdallah I, set an invasion force to conquer Sicily. His ships were however pushed back first by the intervention of Gaeta and Amalfi, and later by a tempest which destroyed much of them. However, they managed to conquer the islands of Lampedusa and, in the Tyrrhennian Sea, to ravage Ponza and Ischia. A further agreement between the new patrician Gregorius and the Emir established the freedom of commerce between southern Italy and Ifriqiya. After a further attack by Mohammed ibn-Adballad, cousin of Emir Ziyadat Allah I in 819, no news of subsequent Muslim attack to Sicily are known until 827.
[edit] Conquest of Sicily
The Muslim conquest of Sicily lasted 75 years. According to some sources, the conquest was spurred by the Byzantine commander on the island, Eufemius, who feared the punishment from Emperor Michael II for a sexual misfit. After a short-lived conquest of Syracuse, during which he was proclaimed emperor, he was compelled by the loyal forces to flee to Africa at the court of Ziyadat Allah. The latter accepted to conquer Sicily, with the promise to leave it to Eufemius in exchange of a yearly tribute, and entrusted its conquest to the 70 years old qadi Asad ibn al-Furat. The Muslim force counted 10,000 infantry, 700 cavalry and 100 ships, reinforced by Eufemius' ships and, after the landing at Mazara del Vallo, knights. A first battle against the Byzantine loyal troops occurred on July 15 near Mazara, resulting in an Aghlabid victory.
Asad subsequently conquered the southern shore of the island and laid siege to Syracuse. After a year of siege, and an attempted mutiny, his troops were however able to defeat a large army sent from Palermo, also backed by a Venetian fleet led by doge Giustiniano Participazio. But when a plague killed much of the Muslim troops, as well as Asad himself, the Muslism retread to the castle of Mineo. Later they returned to the offensive, but failed to conquer Castrogiovanni (the modern Enna, where Eufemius died) and retreated back to Mazara. In 830 they received a strong reinforcement of 30,000 African and Spanish troops. The Spanish Muslim defeated the Byzantine commander Teodotus in the July-August of that year, But again a plague forced them to return to Mazara and then to Africa. The African units, which had been sent to besiege Palermo, managed to capture it after a year-long siege in the september 831.
Ziyadat Allah sent his cousin on the island in Abu-Fihr in 833. The Byzantines were defeated in the early 834 and in the following year, his troops reaching as far as Taormina. The war dragged on for several years with minor Ahglabid victories, the Byzantines resisting in their strongholds of Castrogiovanni and Cefalù. New troops arrived in the island by the new Emir Al-Aghlab Abu Affan, which occupied Platani, Caltabellotta, Corleone, Marineo and Geraci, granting the Muslim the total control of western Sicily. In 836 Muslim ships helped Andrew II of Naples, besieged by Beneventan troops, and with Neapolitan support in 843 Messina was also conquered. In 845 also Modica fell and the Byzantines suffered a crushing defeat near Butera, losing c. 10,000 men. Lentini was conquered in 846 and Ragusa in 848.
In 851 the governor and general Al-Aghlab Abu Ibrahim, whose rule had been highly appreciated by his new Palermitan and Sicilian subjects, especially if compared to the former Byzatine vessations, died. He was succeded by Abbas ibn-Fadhl, the ferocious victor of Butera. he started a campaign of ravages against the lands still in Byzantine hands, capturing Butera, Gagliano, Cefalù and, most of all, Castrogiovanni (winter 859). All the Christian survivors from that fortress were executed, children and women sold as slaves at Palermo. The fall of the most importan fortress in the island pushed the emperor to send a large army in 859-860, but this was defeated by Abbas, as well as the fleet which had carried it. The Byzantines reinforces led many of the cities subjugated by the Muslim to revolt, and Abbas devoted the years 860-861 to reduce them. Abbas died in 861, replaced by his uncle Ahmed ibn-Jakub and, from February 862, by Abdallah, son of Abbas; the latter was in turn replaced by the Aghlabids with Khafagia ibn-Sofian, who captured Noto, Scicli and Troina. In the summer of 868 the Byzantines were defeated near Syracuse.
