Emirate of Sicily
Emirate of Sicily | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 965–1072 | |||||||||
 Italy in 1000. The Emirate of Sicily is coloured in light green. | |||||||||
| Capital | Palermo | ||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Emir | |||||||||
• 948-964 | Hassan al-Kalbi | ||||||||
• 990-998 | Yusuf al-Kalbi | ||||||||
• 1017-1037 | al-Akhal | ||||||||
• 1040-1053 | Hasan as-Samsam | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 965 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1072 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Emirate of Sicily was an Islamic state on the isle of Sicily from 965 to 1072.[1]
Failed invasion
In 535, Emperor Justinian I made Sicily a Byzantine province, and for the second time in Sicilian history, the Greek language became a familiar sound across the island. As the power of the Byzantine Empire waned, Sicily was invaded by the Arab forces of Caliph Uthman in the year 652. However, the invasion was short-lived and the Arabs left soon after.
Invasion due to Euphemius
In around 700, the island of Pantelleria was captured by Arabs, and it was only discord among the Arabs that prevented an attempted invasion of Sicily coming next. Instead, trading arrangements were agreed with the Bzyantines and Arab merchants were allowed to trade goods with them at the Sicilian ports.
By 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 drove out to North Africa.[1] He offered rule of Sicily over to Ziyadat Allah the Aghlabid Emir of Tunisia in return for a place as a general and safety; an Islamic army of Arabs, Berbers, Spaniards, Cretans and Persians was sent.[1] The conquest was a see-saw affair: with considerable resistance and many internal struggles, it took over a century for Byzantine Sicily to be conquered. Syracuse held for a long time, Taormina fell in 902, and all of the island was eventually conquered by 965.[1]
Period as an Emirate
In succession Sicily was ruled by the Sunni Aghlabid dynasty in Tunisia and the Shiite Fatimids in Egypt. The Byzantines took advantage of temporary discord to occupy the eastern end of the island for several years.
After suppressing a revolt the Fatimid caliph Ismail al-Mansur appointed Hassan al-Kalbi (948-964) as Emir of Sicily. He successfully managed to control the continuously revolting Byzantines and founded the Kalbid dynasty. Raids into Southern Italy continued under the Kalbids into the 11th century, and in 982 a German army under Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor was defeated near Crotone in Calabria. With Emir Yusuf al-Kalbi (990-998) a period of steady decline began. Under al-Akhal (1017-1037) the dynastic conflict intensified, with factions within the ruling family allying themselves variously with the Byzantine Empire and the Zirids. By the time of Emir Hasan as-Samsam (1040-1053) the island had fragmented into several small fiefdoms.
The Arabs 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. A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqual, 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.
Throughout this reign, continued revolts by Byzantine Sicilians happened especially in the east and part of the lands were even re-occupied before being quashed. Agricultural items such as oranges, lemons, pistachio and sugarcane were brought to Sicily,[2] the native Christians were allowed freedom of religion but had to pay an extra tax to their rulers. However, the Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as inner-dynasty related quarrels took place between the Muslim regime.[1] By the 11th century mainland southern Italian powers were hiring ferocious Norman merecenaries, who were Christian descendants of the Vikings; it was the Normans under Roger I who freed Sicily from the Muslims.[1] After taking Apulia and Calabria, he occupied Messina with an army of 700 knights. In 1068, Roger de Hauteville and his men defeated the Muslims at Misilmeri but the most crucial battle was the siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely in Norman control by 1091.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Brief history of Sicily" (PDF). Archaeology.Stanford.edu. 7 October 2007.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Privitera, Joseph. Sicily: An Illustrated History. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0781809092.
- ^ "Chronological - Historical Table Of Sicily". In Italy Magazine. 7 October 2007.
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