Editing Islam in Italy (section)

===Saracens===
<!--[[File:SIC-Mappa.png|thumb|right|Italiens Region Sizilien]]-->

The Italian island of [[Pantelleria]] (which lies between the western tip of [[Sicily]] and North Africa) was conquered by the [[Umayyad]]s in 700. The Arabs had earlier raided [[Roman Empire|Roman]] Sicily in 652, 667 and 720 A.D.; [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] in the eastern end of the island was occupied for the first time temporarily in 708, but a planned invasion in 740 failed due to a rebellion of the [[Berber people|Berbers]] of the [[Maghreb]] that lasted until 771 and civil wars in Ifriqiya lasting until 799.

Arab attacks on the island of [[Sardinia]] were less significant than those on Sicily and eventually failed to achieve the island's conquest, although they induced its separation from the Roman Empire, giving birth to a long period of Sardinian independence, the era of the [[Sardinian medieval kingdoms|Judicates]].

====Conquest of Sicily====
{{Main|Emirate of Sicily}}
[[File:Bologna Mosque.jpg|thumb|The Bologna Ahmadi Mosque]]
According to some sources, the conquest was spurred by [[Euphemius (Sicily)|Euphemius]], a [[Byzantine]] commander who feared punishment by Emperor [[Michael II]] for a sexual indiscretion. After a short-lived conquest of Syracuse, he was proclaimed emperor but was compelled by loyal forces to flee to the court of [[Ziyadat Allah I of Ifriqiya|Ziyadat Allah]] in [[Ifriqiya]]. The latter agreed to conquer Sicily, with the promise to leave it to Euphemius in exchange for a yearly tribute. To end the constant mutinies of his army, the [[Aghlabid]] magistrate of [[Ifriqiya]] sent [[Arabian]], [[Berbers|Berber]], and [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian]] rebels to conquer Sicily in 827, 830 and 875, led by, among others, [[Asad ibn al-Furat]]. [[Palermo]] fell to them in 831, followed by [[Messina]] in 843, [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] in 878. In 902, the Ifriqiyan magistrate himself led an army against the island, seizing [[Taormina]] in 902. [[Reggio Calabria]] on the mainland fell in 918, and in 964 [[Rometta]], the last remaining Byzantine toehold on Sicily.

Under the Muslims, agriculture in Sicily prospered and became export oriented. Arts and crafts flourished in the cities.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Palermo, the Muslim capital of the island, had 300,000 inhabitants at that time, more than all the cities of Germany combined. The local population conquered by the Muslims were Romanized Catholic Sicilians in Western Sicily and partially Greek speaking Christians, mainly in the eastern half of the island, but there were also a significant number of Jews.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100821054137/http://www.cliohres.net/books/3/Dalli.pdf Archived link]: ''From Islam to Christianity: the Case of Sicily'', Charles Dalli, page 153. In ''Religion, ritual and mythology : aspects of identity formation in Europe'' / edited by Joaquim Carvalho, 2006, {{ISBN|88-8492-404-9}}.</ref> These conquered people were afforded [[freedom of religion]] under the Muslims as [[dhimmis]]. The [[dhimmi]] were also required to pay the [[jizya]], or poll tax, and the [[kharaj]] or land tax, but were exempt from the tax that Muslims had to pay ([[Zakaat]]). The payment of the Jizya is  payment for state services and protection against foreign and internal aggression as non-Muslims did not pay the Zakaat tax. The conquered population could instead pay the Zakaat tax by converting to Islam. Large numbers of native Sicilians converted to Islam. However, even after 100 years of Islamic rule, numerous Greek-speaking Christian communities prospered, especially in north-eastern Sicily, as dhimmis. This was largely a result of the Jizya system which allowed co-existence. This co-existence with the conquered population fell apart after the reconquest of Sicily, particularly following the death of King [[William II of Sicily]] in 1189. By the mid-11th century, Muslims made up the majority of the population of Sicily.

[[File:Raphael Ostia.jpg|thumb|left|The battle at Ostia in 849 ended the third [[Arab raid against Rome|Arab attack on Rome]].]]

====Emirates in Apulia====
From Sicily, the Muslims launched raids on the mainland and devastated [[Calabria]]. In 835 and again in 837, the Duke of [[Naples]] was fighting against the Duke of [[Benevento]] and appealed to the Sicilian Muslims for help. In 840 [[Taranto]] and [[Bari]] fell to the Muslims, and in 841 [[Brindisi]].<ref>Romilly James Heald Jenkins, ''Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, AD 610–1071'' (Toronto University Press, 1987), 186.</ref> Muslim attacks on [[Rome]] failed in 843, 846 and 849. In 847 Taranto, Bari and Brindisi declared themselves emirates independent from the Aghlabids. For decades the Muslims ruled the Mediterranean and attacked the Italian coastal towns. Muslims occupied [[Ragusa, Italy|Ragusa]] in Sicily between 868 and 870.

Only after the [[Siege of Melite (870)|fall of Malta in 870]] did the [[Western World|occidental]] Christians succeed in setting up an army capable of fighting the Muslims. Over the next two decades, most of the territory held by Muslims on the mainland was liberated from Muslim rule. The Franco-Roman emperor [[Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Louis II]] reconquered Brindisi in 869, Bari in 871 and beat the Arabs at Salerno in 872.<ref>{{cite book|author=Barbara Kreutz|title=Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|year=1996|pages=55–56}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Barbara Kreutz|title=Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|year=1996|pages=25–28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Brindisi bizantina – Brindisiweb.it |url=http://www.brindisiweb.it/storia/brindisi_bizantina.asp |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=www.brindisiweb.it}}</ref> The Byzantines retook Taranto in 880.<ref name=":0b">{{Cite book |last=Musca |first=Giosuè |title=L'emirato di Bari |publisher=Dedalo |year=1992 |isbn=9788822061386 |location=Bari |pages=136}}</ref> In 882 the Muslims had founded at the mouth of [[Garigliano]] between Naples and Rome a new base further in the north, which was in league with [[Gaeta]], and had attacked [[Campania]] as well as Sabinia in [[Lazio]]. In 915, [[Pope John X]] organised a vast alliance of southern powers, including Gaeta and Naples, the Lombard princes and the Byzantines. The subsequent [[Battle of Garigliano|Battle of the Garigliano]] was successful, and all Saracens were captured and executed, ending any presence of Arabs in Lazio or Campania permanently.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Peter Partner|title=The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance|date=1 January 1972|publisher= University of California Press|isbn=9780520021815|pages=[https://archive.org/details/landsofstpeterpa0000part/page/81 81–2]|edition=illustrated|url-access=registration|url= https://archive.org/details/landsofstpeterpa0000part/page/81}}</ref> A hundred years later, the Byzantines called the Sicilian Muslims to ask for support against a campaign of German emperor [[Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto II]]. They beat Otto at the [[battle of Stilo]] in 982 and for the next 40 years largely succeeded in preventing [[Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor#Conflict with Byzantium|his successors from entering southern Italy]].

In 1002 a Venetian fleet defeated Muslims besieging Bari. After the Aghlabids were defeated in Ifriqiya as well, Sicily fell in the 10th century to their [[Fatimid]] successors, but claimed independence after fights between [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] and [[Shia Islam|Shia Muslims]] under the [[Kalbids]].

====Raids in Piedmont====
After they had conquered the [[Visigoths|Visigoth]] Kingdom in Spain (729–765), the Arabs and Berbers from [[Septimania]] and [[Narbonne]] carried out raids into northern Italy, and in 793 again launched an offensive into northwestern Italy (Nicaea 813, 859 and 880). In 888, Andalusian Muslims set up a new base in [[Fraxinet]] near [[Fréjus]] in French [[Provence]], from where they started raids along the coast and in inner France.

In 915, after the [[Battle of Garigliano (915)|Battle of Garigliano]], the Muslims lost their base in southern Lazio. In 926 King [[Hugh of Italy]] called the Muslims to fight against his northern Italian rivals. In 934 and 935 [[Genoa]] and [[La Spezia]] were attacked, followed by Nicaea in 942. In Piedmont the Muslims got as far as [[Asti]] and [[Novi Ligure|Novi]], and also moved northwards along the [[Rhône]] valley and the western flank of the [[Alps]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}} After defeating [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian troops]] {{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}, in 942–964 they conquered [[Savoy]] and occupied a part of Switzerland (952–960) {{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. To fight the Arabs, Emperor [[Berengar I of Italy|Berengar I]], Hugh's rival, called the Hungarians, who in their turn devastated northern Italy. As a result of the Muslim defeat at the [[Battle of Tourtour]], Fraxinet was lost and razed by the Christians in 972. Thirty years later, in 1002, Genoa was invaded, and in 1004 Pisa.{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

Pisa and Genoa joined forces to end Muslim rule over [[Corsica]] (Islamic 810/850-930/1020) and [[Sardinia]]. In  [[Sardinia]] in 1015 the fleet of the Andalusian [[Taifa of Dénia|lord of Dénia]] come from  Spain, settled a temporary military camp as a logistic base to control the Tyrrhenian Sea and Italian peninsula, but in 1016 the fleet was forced to leave its base due to the military intervention of maritime republics of [[Genoa]] and [[Pisa]].

====Sicily under the Normans====
[[File:Palermo san giovanni eremiti.jpg|thumb|right|[[San Giovanni degli Eremiti]]: Arabian-Roman-Norman symbiosis]]
[[File:Pluviale of the holy roman empire.jpg|thumb|Arabic inscription on the [[Coronation Mantle]] of King [[Roger II of Sicily]]]]

The cultural and economical bloom in Sicily that had started under the Kalbids was interrupted by internecine fights, followed by invasions by the Tunisian [[Zirids]] (1027), Pisa (1030–1035), and the Romans (1027 onwards). Eastern Sicily (Messina, Syracuse and Taormina) was captured by the Byzantines in 1038–1042. In 1059 [[Italo-Normans|Normans]] from southern Italy, led by [[Roger I of Sicily|Roger I]], invaded the island. The Normans conquered Reggio in 1060 (conquered by the Romanin 1027). Messina fell to the Normans in 1061; an invasion by the Algerian [[Hammadid]]s to preserve Islamic rule was thwarted in 1063 by the fleets of Genoa and Pisa. The loss of Palermo in 1072 and of Syracuse in 1088 could not be prevented. [[Noto]] and the last Muslim strongholds on Sicily fell in 1091. In 1090–91, the Normans also conquered Malta; Pantelleria fell in 1123.

A small Muslim population remained on Sicily under the Normans.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D61331F935A15757C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|title=TRACING THE NORMAN RULERS OF SICILY|first=Louis|last=Inturrisi|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=26 April 1987 |access-date=10 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303151440/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D61331F935A15757C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|archive-date=3 March 2009|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.leeds.ac.uk/history/studentlife/e-journal/Stonehouse_Aidan.pdf |title=The Administration of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily |access-date=2007-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227122934/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/history/studentlife/e-journal/Stonehouse_Aidan.pdf |archive-date=2008-02-27 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Roger II of Sicily|Roger II]] hosted at his court, among others, the famous geographer [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]] and the poet Muhammad ibn Zafar. At first, Muslims were tolerated by the Normans, but soon pressure from the Popes led to their increasing discrimination; most mosques were destroyed or made into churches.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}} The first Sicilian Normans did not take part in the Crusades, but they undertook a number of invasions and raids in Ifriqiya, before they were defeated thereafter 1157 by the [[Almohad dynasty|Almohads]].

This peaceful coexistence in Sicily finally ended with the death of King [[William II of Sicily|William II]] in 1189. The Muslim elite emigrated at that time. Their medical knowledge was preserved in the [[Schola Medica Salernitana]]; an Arabian-Roman-Norman synthesis in art and architecture survived as [[Norman architecture|Sicilian Romanesque]]. The remaining Muslims fled, for example to [[Caltagirone]] on Sicily, or hid out in the mountains and continued to resist against the [[House of Hohenstaufen|Hohenstaufen]] dynasty, who ruled the island from 1194 on. In the heartland of the island, the Muslims declared [[Benavert|Ibn Abbad]] the last Emir of Sicily.

To end this upheaval, emperor [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]], himself a Crusader, instigated a policy to rid Sicily of the few remaining Muslims. This cleansing was done in small part under Papal influence but mostly to create a loyal force of troops which could not be influenced by non-Christian infiltrators. In 1224–1239 he deported every single Muslim from Sicily to an autonomous colony under strict military control (so that they could not infiltrate non-Muslim areas) in [[Lucera]] in Apulia. Muslims were recruited however by Frederick in the army and constituted his faithful personal bodyguard, since they had no connection to his political rivals. In 1249, he ejected the Muslims from Malta as well. Lucera was returned to the Christians in 1300 at the instigation of the pope by King [[Charles II of Naples]]. Muslims were forcefully converted, killed or expelled from Europe . However a Muslim community was still recorded in Apulia in 1336<ref>Norman Daniels, ''The Arabs and Medieval Europe'',  London, Longmann Group Limited, 1975</ref> and very recently in 2009,  a genetic study revealed a small genetic Northwest African contribution among today's inhabitants near the region of Lucera.<ref>"An inspection of Table 1 reveals a nonrandom distribution of Male Northwest African types in the Italian peninsula, with at least a twofold increase over the Italian average estimate in three geographically close samples across the southern Apennine mountains (East Campania, Northwest Apulia, Lucera). When pooled together, these three Italian samples displayed a local frequency of 4.7%, significantly different from the North and the rest of South Italy (...). Arab presence is historically recorded in these areas following Frederick II's relocation of Sicilian Arabs",''[http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ejhg2008258a.html Moors and Saracens in Europe estimating the medieval North African male legacy in southern Europe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420193332/http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ejhg2008258a.html |date=20 April 2009 }}'', Capelli et al., European Journal of Human Genetics, 21 January 2009</ref>