Early medieval Europe (500–1000)Wars and battles

Aghlabid conquest of Sicily

Invited by the rebel Byzantine commander Euphemius, an army of the Aghlabid emirs of Ifriqiya landed at Mazara in June 827 and over three quarters of a century took Sicily from Byzantium: Palermo fell in 831, Enna in 859, Syracuse in 878 and Taormina in 902. The island remained under Muslim rule until the Norman conquest of the 11th century.

Date: June 827 – 1 August 902start: month known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 75 years
Place: Palermo (Panormus, al-Madina)today: Palermo, Sicily, Italy · Western and Central Europe
Route: Sousse → Mazara → Palermo (Panormus, al-Madina) → Enna (Castrogiovanni) → Syracuse → Taormina
Participants: Aghlabids, Byzantine Empire, Michael II, Emirate of Córdoba
Threads: Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
Also known as: Muslim conquest of Sicily; Арабское завоевание Сицилии; Emirate of Sicily; Сицилийский эмират; Euphemius; Евфимий; Asad ibn al-Furat; Асад ибн аль-Фурат; Fall of Syracuse (878); Падение Сиракуз (878)

Euphemius, commander of the Sicilian fleet, rose against Michael II and had himself proclaimed emperor; driven from the island by loyalist forces, he offered the Aghlabid emir Ziyadat Allah I a yearly tribute in return for help in conquering it. The emir’s council was divided, but the qadi of Kairouan, Asad ibn al-Furat, won it over and was himself given command; the fleet sailed from Sousse in mid-June 827. The siege of Syracuse failed, Asad died of disease in 828 and Euphemius was murdered during talks with the garrison of Enna, but reinforcements came from Ifriqiya and, in 830, from al-Andalus, and in September 831 Palermo surrendered after a year-long siege. Under the name al-Madina, “the City”, it became the capital of the new province; Ibn al-Athir writes, probably with exaggeration, that the siege reduced its population from 70,000 to 3,000.

Byzantium, fighting the Abbasids in Asia Minor and the emirs of Crete in the Aegean, could send only occasional expeditions, and the conquest of the east of the island advanced slowly, by raids and sieges of strongholds. The mountain fortress of Enna fell in January 859; Syracuse was stormed on 21 May 878 after a nine-month siege; and Taormina, the last major Byzantine town, was taken on 1 August 902 by the former emir Ibrahim II. A few fortresses held out until 965. Alex Metcalfe calls the expedition the first major Muslim war of conquest since the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. Under Arab rule Sicily prospered. Arab settlement was densest in the west, conquered first, where Arabic place names are most numerous, while the mountainous north-east (Val Demone), the last region to fall, remained largely Christian.

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Connections

Related events

Umayyad conquest of Hispania711–718 · Western and Central EuropeAlex Metcalfe calls the Sicilian expedition the first major Muslim war of conquest since the invasion of Spain in 711
Andalusian exiles found the Emirate of Cretebetween 824 and 828 · Balkans and AnatoliaFrom 827 Byzantium had to fight the Arab invaders of Crete and of Sicily at the same time
Ifriqiya under the Aghlabids800 – March 909 · AfricaThe army was sent from Ifriqiya by the Aghlabid emir Ziyadat Allah I under the qadi of Kairouan, Asad ibn al-Furat

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Abd al-Rahman I founds the Emirate of Córdobabetween 14 May and 15 May 756 · Western and Central Europevia Emirate of Córdoba
Christianization of Bulgaria864 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
Mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia863 – 6 April 885 · Western and Central Europevia Byzantine Empire

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Sicilian Vespers30 March 1282 · Western and Central Europe

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Great Heathen Army in England865–878 · Western and Central Europe

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The same period

9th century

Sources

Wikipedia (English): Muslim conquest of Sicily
Wikipedia (English): Muslim Sicily
Wikipedia (Russian): Арабское завоевание Сицилии
Metcalfe A. The Muslims of Medieval Italy. — Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Васильев А. А. Византия и арабы: Политические отношения Византии и арабов за время Аморийской династии. — СПб., 1900.
Vasiliev A. A. Byzance et les Arabes. T. 1: La dynastie d’Amorium (820–867). — Bruxelles, 1935.
Wikidata: Q3687154