THE ARABS

827 -1060

As previously said, in 826 the revolt of Euphemius was only the pretence for the invasion of the island, after several attempts in the 7th and 8th century. The Arabs started the systematic conquest of Sicily in 827 with the naval expedition from Ifriqiya, the current Tunisia, and in 831 they occupied Palermo which became the capital city of the island. The subjugation was completed after the occupation of Siracusa in 878 and that of Taormina in 902. In 910 the fall of the Aghlabid dynasty led to the dominion of the Fatimid dynasty, the Tunisian and Egyptian ones one after the other,  from the first half of the 10th century Sicily was ruled by the native dynasty of Emirs. The period of greatest splendour of their domination is between 948 to 1040, when the Kalbids of Palermo were the vassals of the Fatimid Caliphates. During the two and half centuries of the Arab dominion, Sicily enjoyed great economic prosperity for the intensified and innovated cultivations (citrus fruits, mulberry and cotton) and the redistribution of land properties; as far as culture and civilization are concerned it was part of the medieval Arab Muslim society, to which it gave a considerable support with poets, philologists and jurists. The fall of the Kalbids destroyed the unity of the island which that was subdivided among several local lords. One of these was Ibn al-Thumna, Emir of Catania, who took the field against the rival Emir of Girgenti in 1061 and called the Normans for help, as they had just settled in Messina for the need of new territories.