Muslim Sicily

Early Muslim conquest of Sicily In 535, Emperor Justinian I reconquered Sicily for the Roman Empire, which by then was ruled from Constantinople. As the power of what is now known as the Byzantine Empire waned in the West, a new and expansionist power was emerging in the Middle East: the Rashidun Caliphate, the first major Muslim state to emerge following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632. Over a period of twenty five years, the caliphate succeeded in annexing much of the Persian Sasanian Empire and former Roman territories in the Levant and North Africa. In 652, under Caliph Uthman, an invasion captured most of the island, but Muslims occupation was short-lived, as they left following his death. By the end of the seventh century, with the Umayyad conquest of North Africa, the Muslims had captured the nearby port city of Carthage, allowing them to build shipyards and a permanent base from which to launch more sustained attacks. Around 700, the island of Pantelleria was captured by Umayyads, and it was only discord among the Muslims that prevented an attempted invasion of Sicily at that time. Instead, trading agreements were arranged with the Byzantines, and Muslim merchants were allowed to trade goods at Sicilian ports. The first true attempt at conquest was launched in 740; in that year the Muslim prince Habib, who had participated in the 728 attack, successfully captured Syracuse. Ready to conquer the whole island, they were however forced to return to Tunisia by a Berber revolt. A second attack in 752 aimed only to sack the same city. Muslim conquest In 826, Euphemius, the commander of the Byzantine fleet of Sicily, forced a nun to marry him. Emperor Michael II caught wind of the matter and ordered that General Constantine end the marriage and cut off Euphemius' nose. Euphemius rose up, killed Constantine and then occupied Syracuse; he in turn was defeated and driven out to North Africa. Palermo was made the Muslim capital of Sicily, renamed al-Madinah ("The City"), and it became the base for further conquests on the island. The conquest was an incremental, see-saw affair. With considerable resistance and many internal struggles, it took over a century for Byzantine Sicily to be fully conquered. Syracuse was captured in 878. The conquest of the island was not fully completed until 902, when Taormina was conquered. Even after this, however, some patches of local Byzantine/Christian resistance continued until 967, after the end of the Aghlabid period. Muslim rule In succession, Sicily was ruled by the Sunni Aghlabid dynasty in Ifriqiya until 909, when they were overthrown and replaced by the Shiite Fatimids. Salim ibn Abi Rashid served as Fatimid governor from 917 to 936. He was related by marriage to the Kalbids, a high-ranking family loyal to the Fatimids. Another major revolt for independence shook the island in 937 and was only suppressed in 941. In 948, the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur appointed the Kalbid commander al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi as governor of the island. He became the first emir of the Kalbid dynasty, which effectively ruled the island for the next century on behalf of the Fatimids. Al-Hasan returned to Ifriqiya upon the death of al-Mansur, leaving his son Ahmad as governor of the island, though he returned later to assist in campaigns against the Byzantines. Under Ahmad's tenure, Taormina was conquered again in 962 and Rometta was conquered soon after. It was only after this move to Egypt that the Fatimid caliphs implicitly recognized the Kalbids as hereditary rulers, who thenceforth governed the island as amirs on their behalf. with most (if not all) of the people of Palermo being Sunni, leading to their hostility to the Shia Kalbids. The Sunni population of the island was replenished following sectarian rebellions across north Africa from 943–947 against the Fatimids' harsh religious policies, leading to several waves of refugees fleeing to Sicily in an attempt to escape Fatimid retaliation. The Byzantines took advantage of temporary discord to occupy the eastern end of the island for several years. Raids into Southern Italy continued under the Kalbids into the 11th century, and in 982 a joint Christian army under the Emperor Otto II and the brothers Landulf and Pandulf was defeated at Stilo near Crotone in Calabria. But Emir Abu'l-Qasim was killed in battle and with Emir Yusuf al-Kalbi (986–998) a period of steady decline began. Under (1017–1037) the dynastic conflict intensified, with factions within the ruling family allying themselves variously with the Byzantine Empire and the Zirids. After this period, Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis attempted to annex the island for the Zirids, while intervening in the affairs of the feuding Muslims; however, the attempt ultimately failed. Decline and "Taifa" period receiving the keys of Palermo By the 11th century, mainland southern Italian powers were hiring Norman mercenaries, who were Christian descendants of the Vikings; it was the Normans under Roger de Hauteville, who became Roger I of Sicily, that captured Sicily from the Muslims. Many Anglo-Danish and Varangian mercenaries fought in Southern Italy, including Harald Hardrada and William de Hauteville who conquered parts of Sicily between 1038 and 1040, and Edgar the Ætheling who fought in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. Runestones were raised in Sweden in memory of warriors who died in Langbarðaland (Land of the Lombards), the Old Norse name for southern Italy. The Emirate of Sicily began to fragment amid intra-dynastic quarrels. In waging his war on his rivals, Ibn al-Thumna had collaborated closely with the Normans, each using the other to further their goal of ruling the entire island, and though Ibn al-Thumna's death in a 1062 ambush led the Normans to draw back and consolidate, Ibn al-Thumna's former allies appear to have continued the alliance, such that Muslim troops constituted the majority of the Hauteville "Norman" army in Sicily. The Zirids of North Africa sent an army to Sicily led by Ali and Ayyub ibn Tamin, and these troops progressively brought the qadits under their control, killing al-Hawwàs and effectively making Ayyub emir of Muslim Sicily. However, they lost two decisive battles against the Normans. The Sicilians and North Africans were defeated in 1063 by a small Norman force at the Battle of Cerami, cementing Norman control over the north-east of the island. The sizeable Christian population rose up against the ruling Muslims. Then in 1068, Roger and his men defeated Ayyub at the Battle of Misilmeri, and the Zirids returned to North Africa, leaving Sicily in disarray. Catania fell to the Normans in 1071. Palermo, ruled since the Zirid withdrawal by Ibn al-Ba'ba, a man apparently of Spanish Jewish descent from the city's merchant class who led the city with the support of its sheikhs, would in turn fall on 10 January 1072 after a five-month siege. Trapani capitulated the same year. The loss of the main port cities dealt a severe blow to Muslim power on the island. The last pocket of active resistance was Syracuse governed by Ibn Abbad (known as Benavert in western chronicles). He defeated Jordan, son of Roger of Sicily in 1075, occupied Catania again in 1081, and raided Calabria shortly after. However, Roger besieged Syracuse in 1086, and Ibn Abbad tried to break the siege with a naval battle, in which he died accidentally. Syracuse surrendered after this defeat. His wife and son fled to Noto and Butera. Meanwhile, the city of Qas'r Ianni (Castrogiovanni, modern Enna) was ruled by a Hammud, who surrendered and converted to Christianity only in 1087. After his conversion, Hammud subsequently became part of the Christian nobility and retired with his family to an estate in Calabria provided by Roger I. In 1091, Butera and Noto in the southern tip of Sicily and the island of Malta, the last Arab strongholds, fell to the Christians with ease. After the conquest of Sicily, the Normans removed the local emir, Yusuf Ibn Abdallah from power, while respecting the customs of the resident Arabs. Several Anglo-Danish and Norwegian nobles participated in the Norman conquest of southern Italy, like Edgar the Ætheling, who left England in 1086, and Jarl Erling Skakke, who won his nickname ("Skakke", meaning bent head) after a battle against Arabs in Sicily. ==Society==

The new Arab rulers initiated land reforms, which in turn increased productivity and encouraged the growth of smallholdings, a dent to the dominance of the landed estates. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems through Qanats and introduced new and lucrative crops, including oranges, lemons, pistachio and sugarcane. A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqal, a Baghdad merchant who visited Sicily in 950. A walled suburb called the Kasr (the palace) is the center of Palermo until today, with the great Friday Mosque on the site of the later Roman cathedral. The suburb of Al-Khalisa (Kalsa) contained the Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices, and a private prison. Ibn Hawqual reckoned 7,000 individual butchers trading in 150 shops. The population of the city during this period is uncertain, as figures given by Arab writers during the era were unreliable. Paul Bairoch estimated Palermo's population at 350,000 in the 11th century, while other historians like Stephan R. Epstein estimated it to be closer to 60,000. Based on al-Maqdisi's statement that Palermo was larger than Old Cairo, Kenneth Meyer Setton put the figure above 100,000 but below 250,000. Around 1330, Palermo's population stood at 51,000. Arab traveler, geographer, and poet Ibn Jubair visited the area in the end of the 12th century and described Al-Kasr and Al-Khalisa (Kalsa): Throughout this reign, revolts by Byzantine Sicilians occurred, especially in the east, and part of the lands were even re-occupied before being quashed. The local population conquered by the Muslims were Greek-speaking and Latin-speaking Byzantine Christians, but there were also a significant number of Jews. The Orthodox and Catholic populations were members of one Church until the events of 1054 began to separate them, the sack of 1204 being the last straw as far as the Byzantine "Orthodox" were concerned. Christians and Jews were tolerated under Muslim rule as dhimmis but were subject to some restrictions; they were also required to pay the jizya, or head tax, and the kharaj or land tax, but were exempt from the tax that Muslims had to pay (Zakaat). Under Arab rule there were different categories of Jizya payers, but their common denominator was the payment of the Jizya as a mark of subjection to Muslim rule in exchange for protection against foreign and internal aggression. The conquered population could avoid this subservient status by converting to Islam. About half the population was Muslim at the time of the Norman Conquest. The co-existence with the conquered population fell apart after the reconquest of Sicily starting in the 1160s and particularly following the death of King William II of Sicily in 1189. == Government ==

Seated in what is now the Royal Palace in Palermo, the emir held authority over most affairs of state, including the army, administration, justice, and the treasury. He appointed the governors of major cities, high ranking judges (qāḍī), and arbitrators for minor disputes between individuals (hakam). An assembly of notables called ''giamà'a played a consultative role, albeit sometimes making important decisions in lieu of the emir. It is also very likely that the authorities operated a tiraz,'' an official workshop that produced valuable fabrics such as silk, which were granted as a sign of appreciation to their subject or as a gift to foreign dignitaries. Muslim sovereignty was never absolute across the island, and the creation of three subdivisions served to distinguish different approaches to government. Under the Arab rule the island was divided in three administrative regions, or "vals", roughly corresponding to the three "points" of Sicily: Val di Mazara in the west; Val Demone in the northeast; and Val di Noto in the southeast. Western Sicily was more Islamized and heavily populated by Arabs, allowing for full and direct administration; by contrast, the northeast region of Val Demone remained majority Christian and often resistant to Muslim rule, prompting a focus on tax collection and maintaining public order, as a result, revolts by Byzantine Sicilians continuously occurred in the east where Greek-speaking Christians predominated. Parts of the island were re-occupied before revolts were quashed. By the 11th century, the Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as intra-dynastic quarreling fractured the Muslim government. The fighters or junud in conquering the lands obtained four-fifths as booty (fai) and one fifth was reserved for the state or the local governor (the khums), following the rules of Islamic law. However, this rule was not always respected and in many areas such as that of Agrigento the new owners would not have had the right. But it must be said that this distribution of the lands brought about the end of the large estates and the possibility of better exploitation of the lands. New crops were thus introduced where only wheat had been grown for centuries. Sugarcane, vegetables, citrus fruits, dates and mulberry trees appeared and mining exploitation began. minted in Sicily, 879 Coinage The coin introduced by the Arabs was the dinar, in gold and weighing 4.25 grams. The dirhem was silver and weighed 2.97 grams. The Aghlabites introduced the solidus in gold and the follis in copper. While following the conquest of Palermo in 886 the kharruba was coined which was worth 1/6 of a dirhem. ==Aftermath==

in Palermo (12th century) The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II has been characterized as "multi-ethnic in nature and religiously tolerant". Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and native Sicilians lived in relative harmony. Arabic remained a language of government and administration for at least a century into Norman rule, and traces remain in the language of Sicily and evidently more in the language of Malta today. However, the island's Muslims were faced with the choice of voluntary departure or subjection to Christian rule. The Muslims who could leave, apparently did so, seeking refuge in North Africa. The rest were forced to live under Christian overlordship, but they lived confined in an inner territory of western Sicily, in the area ranging from Palermo to Agrigento. Some Muslims chose to feign conversion and even adopted Greek Christian names, but such a remedy could only provide individual protection and could not sustain a community. The new Roman Catholic monarchs gradually replaced Orthodox clergy with Latin clerics. The Normans also followed a policy of steady Latinization by bringing in hundreds of thousands of Lombard immigrants from mainland Italy and France. Before them, other Lombards arrived in Sicily, with an expedition departed in 1038, led by the Byzantine commander George Maniakes, which for a very short time managed to snatch Messina and Syracuse from Arab rule. The Lombards who arrived with the Byzantines settled in Maniace, Randazzo and Troina, while a group of Genoese and other Lombards from Liguria settled in Caltagirone. After the marriage between the Norman Roger I of Sicily and Adelaide del Vasto, descendant of the Aleramici family, many Northern Italian colonisers (known collectively as Lombards) left their homeland, in the Aleramici's possessions in Piedmont and Liguria (then known as Lombardy), to settle on the island of Sicily. art and architecture combined European and Classical features with Islamic architectural features such as muqarnas Lombard pogroms against Muslims started in the 1160s. Muslim and Christian communities in Sicily became increasingly geographically separated. The island's Muslim communities were mainly isolated beyond an internal frontier that divided the south and western half of the island from the Christian north and eastern half; in particular, the northeast region of Val Demone had remained predominantly Byzantine Greek and Christian, even during Islamic rule. As a subject people, Sicilian Muslims became dependent on the mercy of their Christian masters and, ultimately, on royal protection. After King William the Good died in 1189, royal protection was lifted, and the door was opened for widespread attacks against the island's Muslims. This destroyed any lingering hope of coexistence, however unequal the respective populations might have been. The death of Henry VI and his wife Constance a year later plunged Sicily into political turmoil. With the loss of royal protection and with Frederick II still an infant in papal custody, Sicily became a battleground for rival German and papal forces. The island's Muslim rebels sided with German warlords like Markward von Anweiler. In response, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against Markward, alleging that he had made an unholy alliance with the Saracens of Sicily. Nevertheless, in 1206 Innocent III had attempted to convince Muslim leaders to remain loyal. By this time, the Muslim rebellion was in full swing. They were in control of Jato, Entella, Platani, Celso, Calatrasi, Corleone (taken in 1208), Guastanella and Cinisi. Muslim revolt extended throughout a whole stretch of western Sicily. The rebels were led by Muhammad Ibn Abbād. He called himself the "prince of believers", struck his own coins, and attempted to find Muslim support from other parts of the Muslim world. However, Frederick II, no longer a child, responded by launching a series of military campaigns against the Muslim rebels in 1221. The Hohenstaufen forces rooted out the defenders of Jato, Entella, and the other fortresses. Rather than exterminate the Muslims. who numbered about 60,000, in 1223, Frederick II began deporting them to Lucera in Apulia, where many were enslaved to farm lands and perform domestic labor. A year later, expeditions were sent against Malta and Djerba, to establish royal control and prevent their Muslim populations from helping the rebels. As a result of the Arab expulsion, many towns across Sicily were left depopulated. By the 12th century, Swabian kings and their successors (Capetian House of Anjou and Aragonese House of Barcelona) granted immigrants from northern Italy (particularly Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria), Latium and Tuscany in central Italy, and French regions of Normandy, Provence and Brittany (all collectively known as Lombards.) settlement into Sicily, re-establishing the Latin element into the island, a legacy which can be seen in the many Gallo-Italic dialects and towns found in the interior and western parts of Sicily, brought by these settlers. During the subsequent rule of the Aragonese and Spanish crowns in Sicily, the Spanish inquisition was introduced on the island to free Sicily from its remaining Muslim population. The attacks were aimed primarily at Muslim slaves captured during raids on ships and on the coastal cities of the Barbary Coast and the Ottoman Empire during the 16th and 17th centuries. ==List of rulers==

Aghlabid governors • Muhammad ibn al-Fadl (882–885, 892) Kalbids • al-Hasan al-Kalbi (948–953) • Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi (954–969) • Ya'ish (969–970), usurper • Abu'l-Qasim Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi (970–982) • (982–983) • (983–985) • (985–990) • Yusuf al-Kalbi (990–998) • (998–1019) • (1019–1037) • (1037–1040) • (1040–1053) Taifa period • Abdallah ibn Mankut – Trapani and Mazara (1053–?) • Ibn al-Maklatí – Catania (1053–?) • Muhammed ibn Ibrahim (Ibn ath-Thumnah) – Syracuse (1053–1062) and in later years Catania and Trapani/Mazara • Alí ibn Nima (Ibn al-Hawwās) – Agrigento and Castrogiovanni (1053–about 1065), all Taifas from 1062 • Ayyub ibn Tamim (Zirid) (about 1065–1068) • Ibn al-Ba'ba, Palermo (1068–1072) • Hammad – Agrigento and Castrogiovanni (1068–1087) • Ibn Abbad (Benavert) – Syracuse and Catania (1071–1086) ==See also==