Editing Islam in Italy (section)

====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]].