Norman conquest of Sicily
Invited in by one of Sicily's feuding emirs, the Norman brothers Robert Guiscard and Roger of Hauteville crossed the Strait of Messina in 1061 and in thirty years took the island from its Muslim rulers: Palermo fell in January 1072 and Noto, the last stronghold, in 1090 or 1091. On the mainland Robert took Bari in April 1071, ending Byzantine rule in southern Italy.
- Date
- May 1061 – between 1090 and 1091start: month known; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 30 years
- Place
- Palermo (Panormus, al-Madina)today: Palermo, Sicily, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Normans, Robert Guiscard, Roger I of Sicily, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Western and Central Europe (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Norman conquest of southern Italy; Норманнское завоевание Южной Италии; Siege of Bari; Осада Бари; Siege of Palermo; Взятие Палермо
In 1059 Pope Nicholas II invested Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia and Calabria and promised him Sicily, then in Muslim hands. The island, ruled by the Kalbid emirs from 948 until the mid-11th century, had broken up into rival lordships, and in February 1061 one of their rulers, Ibn al-Thumna, came to the Normans for help against his rival Ibn al-Hawwas. In May 1061 Robert and his younger brother Roger crossed from Calabria and took Messina. The conquest was mostly Roger's work: he defeated Muslim armies at Cerami in 1063 and at Misilmeri in 1068, and after a siege begun in August 1071 the Normans entered Palermo on 7 January 1072; the inner city surrendered three days later. Robert kept Palermo, half of Messina and the Val Demone and invested Roger as count of the rest of the island, including what was still to be conquered, under his overlordship. Trapani, Taormina, Catania and in 1086 Syracuse followed; Noto submitted in 1090 or 1091 (the sources differ), and in 1091 Roger also landed on Malta and made it tributary, leaving its Arab governors in place.
Meanwhile Robert besieged Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, from August 1068 until April 1071, blockading its harbour with ships chained together. When a Byzantine relief fleet was defeated in sight of the city, the citizens opened the gates — in the same year as the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert. Ten years later Robert carried the war across the Adriatic into the Balkans. In 1130 Roger's son Roger II united Sicily and the Norman lands of southern Italy as the Kingdom of Sicily.
Connections
Related events
- Aghlabid conquest of SicilyJune 827 – 1 August 902 · Western and Central Europethe Normans ended the Muslim rule over Sicily that had begun with the Aghlabid landing of 827
- Nikephoros Phokas retakes Crete: the siege of Chandax960 – between 6 March and 7 March 961 · Balkans and Anatoliathe Muslim conquest of Sicily was completed with the fall of Rometta in 965, while Byzantium's forces were committed to Crete and the East
- Battle of Dyrrhachium18 October 1081 · Balkans and Anatoliahaving taken Bari from Byzantium (1071) and, with his brother Roger, Palermo from the Muslims (1072), Robert Guiscard carried the war across the Adriatic
Same participants
- Battle of Hastings14 October 1066 · Western and Central Europevia Normans
- Battle of Manzikert26 August 1071 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
- Suleiman ibn Qutalmish founds the Sultanate of Rum at Nicaeabetween 1075 and 1081 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
Same place
- Sicilian Vespers30 March 1282 · Western and Central Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- Walk to Canossa25–28 January 1077 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- The Battle of the Alta and the Kyiv uprising1068
- The Cumans reach the Black Sea steppes and the borders of Rus’between 1054 and 1055 – between 1061 and 1062
Balkans and Anatolia
- Suleiman ibn Qutalmish founds the Sultanate of Rum at Nicaeabetween 1075 and 1081
- Battle of Manzikert26 August 1071
- Battle of Dyrrhachium18 October 1081
- Alexios I's chrysobull for VeniceMay 1082
- Michael Psellos writes the Chronographiac. 1059 – c. 1078
+ 2 events
Middle East and Egypt
- Mahmud al-Kashgari compiles the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turkbetween 1072 and 1077
- The Nizamiyya madrasa opens in BaghdadSeptember 1067
- The caliphate of al-Mustansir and the ‘Mustansirite hardship’13 June 1036 – 29 December 1094
- Hasan-i Sabbah takes Alamut1090
Africa
- Hummay founds the Sayfawa dynasty: Islam at the court of Kanembetween 1075 and 1085
- Al-Bakri describes Ghana in the ‘Book of Roads and Kingdoms’between 1067 and 1068
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- Yusuf Balasaguni completes the Kutadgu Biligbetween 1069 and 1070
South Asia
East Asia
- Wang Anshi’s New Policies26 February 1069 – 16 September 1086
- Emperor Shirakawa abdicates: the beginning of cloistered rule3 January 1087
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Battle of the Như Nguyệt Riverbetween January and March 1077
- Polynesians settle the Society Islandsbetween 1025 and 1120
- Anawrahta builds the Pagan Empire1044–1077
North America
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Eight Deer Jaguar Claw unites the Mixtec kingdomsc. 1083 – 1115
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Norman conquest of southern Italy
- Wikipedia (English): Roger I of Sicily
- Wikipedia (English): Muslim Sicily
- Wikipedia (English): Siege of Bari
- Wikipedia (Russian): Нормандское завоевание Южной Италии
- Wikipedia (Italian): Conquista normanna della Sicilia
- Wikipedia (Russian): Рожер I (граф Сицилии)
- Loud G. A. The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Norman Conquest. — Harlow: Longman, 2000.
- Norwich J. J. The Normans in the South, 1016–1130. — London: Longmans, 1967.
- Wikidata: Q135172832