Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/410

382 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 Ziyādatallāh I, the third prince of the race of Aghlabids, requested help, and promised, after the conquest of the island, to regard himself as Ziyādatallāh's vassal. The latter took counsel with his all-powerful minister, the Ḳāḍī 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 Ḳāḍī 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 'Abbās ibn al-Faḍl, 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