380

First Raids on Sicily

[c. 664 history of the expansion of the Saracens, for the conquest of Sicily is connected in the most intimate way with the occupation of Northern Africa, and could only succeed after the conditions in the latter territory had somewhat improved. It is the same movement which took the Saracens across the Straits of Gibraltar. The subsequent advance of the world of Islām against Eastern Europe and the occupation of Constantinople by the Turks are in no way connected with the original movement as described here; the events now related below are the last ramification of the Arabian exodus.

As Michele Amari says in his classical work on the Muslims in Sicily, only a glance at the map is needed to shew that Sicily must be involved in continuous war with the Saracens after their occupation of Africa. And yet this same great historian represents the first naval expedition against Sicily not as starting from Africa but from Syria, and that too at a time when the subsequent Caliph Mu'awiya was still governor of Syria. The strongly contradictory reports about this event may most easily be reconciled by regarding the first appearance of an Arabian fleet in Sicily as taking place under the Caliphate of Muʻāwiya, and connecting it with the expedition of his African governor, Mu'awiya ibn Hudaij, against the Byzantines (664). Arabian tradition also accepts this Ibn Hudaij as the leader. It is quite probable that he himself never saw Sicily, but that the raid was made under his orders by his representative, ‘Abdallah ibn Kais. It is however quite certain that this naval expedition did not start from Syria but from the Pentapolis (Barka); the Syrian fleet had opportunities of booty nearer home; of the Pentapolis however we learn from the papyri that it was an important naval base in the seventh century, and here the fleet operating in the west received recruits from the fleets coming from Egypt. This opportunity serves to point out once again that, with the exception of special occasions, the regular war of the Arabs against the Byzantines consisted of individual summer campaigns, which bore the name κoûρσoɩ and took place by water or on land. From this old custom piracy, that terrible scourge of the western Mediterranean, was developed in course of time as the great kingdoms became split up into small states, and the name Corsair is also etymologically related to the word KoûρσOV. The despatch of the fleet by Ibn Hudaij was such a κoupσov. The booty consisted of captive women and church treasures, images, which according to the Arabian historians Mu'awiya endeavoured to sell for gold as quickly as possible among the idol-worshipping Indians.

Just as this first expedition against Sicily was connected with the occupation of Northern Africa, so we must not disconnect the occasional raids of the following decades from the ever-increasing use of the fleet in the western seat of war. It can therefore cause no surprise that during the régime of the great pacificators of the Berbers, i.e. under Hassan and Mūsā, war was waged on Sicily more frequently.

740-827]

Conquest of Sicily

381

At that time also the small island of Pantellaria, the stepping-stone between Africa and Sicily, was occupied by the Arabs, and Sardinia was plundered. It is needless to recount in detail all these numerous piratical expeditions against the islands of the Mediterranean. They were the terror of the residents on the coast, but very little was in reality attained by them. In any case Sicily must have been well defended. But if Syracuse itself could only purchase the retirement of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān ibn Ḥabib by payment of tribute (740), and even if this ruler, after acquiring the sovereignty in Northern Africa, attempted to gain Sicily also, these matters were but incidents which had no influence on the course of history. During the second half of the eighth century Sicily was scarcely troubled at all by its tormentors, for, as we have seen, Northern Africa was almost in a state of anarchy.

It was not until after a more powerful State had been formed by the Aghlabids that the expeditions against Sicily were at once renewed. Not only the Aghlabids but also the Idrisids and even the Spanish Muslims took part in these piratical raids, each as a rule on their own account but occasionally working conjointly. When the Sicilians had perhaps succeeded in completing a treaty with the Aghlabids and looked forward to a period of rest and peace, then the vessels of the Idrisids would suddenly appear. A large proportion of these expeditions have another connexion, for the raids are episodes in the long fight between the Franks and the Spanish Umayyads, but in the case of many of these sudden attacks we cannot now determine the State to which the Saracens in question belonged. One expedition in the year 813 is specially well known to us, because it advanced far to the northward and even touched on Nice and Civita Vecchia. In the same year or shortly afterwards Reggio also received a first Saracenic visitation. Corsica in particular was in the midst of the fighting, whilst Sardinia was better able to defend itself; the smaller islands, e.g. the Pontine group and even Ischia (8-12 Aug. 812), were occasionally attacked - in fact, a revival of the Saracen expansion began. But still great successes could not be recorded, for on the one hand various Saracenic fleets were lost at sea through storms, and on the other hand not only the Byzantines but also Charles the Great took energetic steps to secure their lands against the ravages of the Saracens, though they generally confined themselves to acting on the defensive. As for such a thing as paying the Saracens off in their own coin by undertaking a piratical expedition to Northern Africa, that occurred but once, when the African coast between Utica and Carthage was terrorised by a small Frankish fleet under Earl Bonifacius of Tyrrhenia.

There was no really serious advance of the Saracens against European territory, until the year 827. Acting not on their own initiative, but called in to the assistance of a Christian insurrection, the Aghlabids conquered the rich island of Sicily. By this means an outpost of Islam

382

Conquest of Sicily

[829-859

was pushed forward close to Italy, and it followed as a matter of course that the Saracens became an important factor in the diversified confusion of the States of Central and Southern Italy.

The occasion was a military revolt, such as was of everyday occurrence in Sicily, the "Siberia" of the Byzantine Empire. The details are not clear, but we may probably assume, with Amari, that Euphemius, the leader of the rebels, was compelled to flee from the Byzantine governor, Photeinos. He went to Africa to Ziyadatallah I, the third prince of the race of Aghlabids, requested help, and promised, after the conquest of the island, to regard himself as Ziyādatallah's vassal. The latter took counsel with his all-powerful minister, the Kāḍī Asad ibn al-Furāt, then seventy years of age, who, as head of the clergy, was leader of the internal policy of the Aghlabids, founded as it was on orthodoxy, and who moreover must be described as a military leader of eminence. The opportunity was favourable, and therefore no delay could be brooked in carrying the religious war to the long-coveted island. Apart from this, no better opportunity could be found to keep the ever-insubordinate Arabs and Berbers employed. Thus the undertaking was resolved on and at once commenced.

The aged Kādi himself undertook to lead the army, consisting of 11,000 men, which landed at Mazara, defeated Photeinos, and advanced to Syracuse. But at this stage of the proceedings a reverse followed. The town was impregnable; an epidemic, to which Asad himself succumbed, broke out among the besieging troops; Euphemius was murdered; the Byzantines sent fresh troops, but Ziyādatallāh was unable to send reinforcements on account of the unrest in Africa. The Africans therefore were compelled to retire on Mazara and Mineo, and it began to appear as if this energetic attempt to conquer the island would fail. The blockaded Africans however were relieved by Spanish co-religionists (829), and then the aspect of affairs was changed. Palermo was conquered in the beginning of September 831 by fresh troops from Africa. The Muslims even began to form connexions with the States on the Continent, of which we shall see more presently. The Byzantines were forced back step by step. For all that, the war lasted over ten years longer before the capture of Messina (probably 843) by the Aghlabid prince, Abu-l-Aghlab Ibrāhīm. Byzantium could no longer help the Sicilians, for all the troops were required in the East. They still held out however at a few points. The apparently impregnable Castrogiovanni, situated on a high sugar-loaf mountain, which even to the present has maintained a remarkably sinister medieval character, did not fall till the year 859, after a long defence, into the hands of 'Abbas ibn al-Fadl, who had succeeded Ibrāhīm. But the energy of the undisciplined African soldiery did not last beyond this stage, and even before the island was completely conquered the Arabs and Berbers were at daggers drawn and the Saracenic advance appears to have

814-1061]

Invasion of Italy

383

come to a standstill here from the same reasons as in Southern France. The last energetic prince of the house of the Aghlabids, Ibrāhīm II, ✓ further succeeded (21 May 878) in capturing and destroying Syracuse. Later on he came himself to Sicily and attacked with brutal cruelty the only Christian communities who were still independent, in the Etna district, and he also destroyed Taormina (902). The conquest of Sicily was thus completed. The re-conquest by the Normans did not begin till 1061.

Ibrahim II met his death in the same year before Cosenza, after having carried the religious war across the straits into Calabria. He was not the first Saracen on Italian ground, for immediately after the conquest of Palermo the Aghlabid generals had interfered in the internecine quarrels of the Lombard States in Southern Italy, and thus these Aghlabids had soon become the terror of Southern and Central Italy. Everyone who has travelled along the incomparable coast between Naples and Palermo knows the numerous "Saracen towers," the ruins of the coastguard towers, from which the approach of Sicilian or African fleets had to be announced. Even to-day, in the time of a peaceful, money-bringing invasion of foreigners, there still dwells in the memories of the people occupying this favoured country the recollection of that other invasion of quite other character, the Saracen calamity, which for centuries restricted all healthy development. This forms the final chapter in the spread of Islām into Central Europe. In depicting it we must rely mostly on western sources, as the Arab-Berber robberStates which sprang up in Southern Italy never attained civilisation enough to have literary records, and Sicilian and Eastern writers tell us little about Italy.1

As in Sicily so in Italy the Saracens did not come without an appeal. For a long time past the Duchy of Benevento had endeavoured to annex the free town of Naples, which was besieged at various times and was compelled to agree to the payment of a tribute, which however was at once suspended whenever any resistance appeared possible. After having unsuccessfully requested Louis the Pious (814-840) to intervene, and having also been unable to find any sufficiently powerful allies in his own neighbourhood, Duke Andreas of Naples turned to the Saracens in Sicily. These availed themselves eagerly of this opportunity to interfere in Italy and in the year 837 they relieved Naples, at that time besieged by Duke Sikard of Benevento. Sikard retired with indignation, but the alliance thus formed by Naples lasted for many a long year to the benefit of both parties. The Duchy of Benevento was a natural enemy to both of them and it could not be otherwise than agreeable to the Neapolitans when, shortly afterwards, Sikard's troops were defeated by Saracens at Brindisi, and the town itself was burnt. In fact Naples even returned the assistance rendered in 837 by helping the Saracens in 842-843 to conquer Messina.

1 The following account utilises the results of Amari and Lokys.

384

Dealings of Sikonolf

[839-844

After Sikard's death the Duchy of Benevento was divided into two principalities; Radelchis resided in Benevento and Sikonolf in Salerno, and the two were constantly fighting. This self-destruction on the part of the sole great power of Southern Italy was of course in the highest degree welcome to the Saracens. Sikard died in 839, and immediately afterwards the Saracens of Sicily were once more in Calabria. They even advanced as far as Apulia, and though the conquest of Bari was not at first attained, Taranto fell and was not relieved even with the help of the Venetians, whom the Byzantines had called to their assistance (840). The victorious Muslims pushed forward to the Adriatic, burned Ossero on the island of Cherso, and Ancona, and even appeared temporarily in the neighbourhood of Venice, whose trading ships they captured. In 842 also the Venetians suffered a further defeat. Bari, which was to be the main base of the Saracens for thirty years, had already fallen (probably 841). Radelchis, pressed hard by Sikonolf, had called the masters of Sicily to his assistance, and they had begun by taking Bari from their ally. Radelchis had of course in his distress to accept this with a good grace and come to terms with these strange and unruly allies. The Saracens under the Berber Khalfūn advanced from Bari as a base against Sikonolf, but after a bloody battle they were driven back on Bari, which in the meantime they had converted into a strong fortress. As the Muslims constantly received reinforcements this one victory served Sikonolf but little; and Radelchis too, especially after he had received (in 842), whether he liked it or not, his infidel allies under the leadership of Masar into his capital, Benevento, became the puppet of the Saracens, who ravaged the whole country with their despotism and cruelty a terrible scourge for friend and foe alike.

In spite of all such misfortunes however Radelchis was of course under the circumstances victorious over his adversary. As Sikonolf could not help himself in any other way, he too sought Saracen allies. He is said to have applied to the Spaniards, whose numerous raids into Provence, Northern Italy, and in fact as far afield as Switzerland do not come within the scope of this chapter. It is moreover much more probable that Sikonolf did not draw his auxiliaries directly from the Iberian peninsula, but from Crete, where a Muslim robber-State had been in existence since 826, founded there by Spanish Saracens who had been expelled for mutiny from their country. With these new troops, who were more easily governed, as they had no neighbouring great power on whose support they could calculate, Sikonolf succeeded in defeating his opponent and locking him up in Benevento. He was however unable to take the town owing to difficulties in his own camp, and so everything remained in the same state as before. Masar with his Saracens swept through the whole country, plundering as he went, and undertook expeditions far towards the north.

These advances however of the Saracens, starting from Bari and