Abu l-Qasim (Emir)

Abū l-Qāsim Alī ibn al-Hasan ( Arabic أبو القاسم علي بن الحسن, DMG Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan ; † July 13, 982 near Crotone ) was emir of Sicily from 964 to 982 , the third emir of the Calbite dynasty , which ruled Sicily from 948 to 1053.

prehistory

Italy around the year 1000

Sicily was conquered between 827 and 878 by the Arabs of the Sunni Aghlabid dynasty of Ifrīqiya ( Tunisia ). After the fall of the Aghlabids in 909, the emirs of Sicily initially made themselves increasingly independent. The Shiite Fatimids , who had ousted the Aghlabids in North Africa, succeeded in 948 in enforcing their suzerainty in Sicily as well. Caliph Isma`îl al-Mansûr appointed Hassan al-Kalbi as emir of Sicily. He resided in Palermo , founded the Kalbite dynasty , began new raids to Italy, and successfully began to strengthen his independence. Hassan al-Kalbi went to the new Fatimid capital al-Mansuriya in 954 and died in 964. In Sicily he was followed by his son Ahmad ibn Hassan († 969).

Reign in Sicily

Ahmad ibn Hassan's son and successor Abu al-Qasim followed the same policy. When the Fatimid caliphs moved their seat from Ifriqiya to Cairo in 973 , the island's emirate became even more independent. Although the Fatimids had installed their vassal Buluggin ibn Ziri (971–984) as viceroy in Ifriqiya, but since they had taken their fleet with them to Egypt, control of the calbites in Sicily was lost.

Since the Byzantine Empire plunged into a serious government crisis after the death of Emperor Johannes Tzimiskes in 976, the Greek possessions in southern Italy offered an inviting destination for Abu al-Qasim. He advanced on the mainland, but was held there for a time by Pandulf I "Eisenkopf" , the Lombard prince of Capua , Benevento and Spoleto and then also of Salerno . Pandulf died in March 981, and his sons and successors were too divided and weak to successfully defend themselves against the Saracens.

Thereupon Emperor Otto II marched with an army of armored riders to southern Italy. In order not to jeopardize his actual goal, the enforcement of his claim to power in southern Italy, he accepted the results of the internal struggles for the succession to the throne in the Lombard princes and duchies. Otto's army captured Taranto in 982 and then moved to Calabria , amid repeated skirmishes with Abu al-Qasim's men.

Battle of Cape Colonna and death

On July 13, 982 there was a decisive battle at Cape Colonna near Crotone . At first it looked like a victory for the imperial troops. Abu al-Qasim fell in battle. But his rearguard and the Saracens who had escaped the first phase of the battle regrouped, surprised the now victorious and careless Germans and inflicted a crushing defeat on them. Emperor Otto escaped with difficulty on a Byzantine merchant ship.

literature

• Michele Amari : Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia . 2. editione modificata e accresciuta dall'autore. Pubblicato con note a cura di Carlo Alfonso Nallino. Romeo Prampolini, Catania 1933–1939, (Italian).
• Michele Amari: Biblioteca arabo-sicula . German Oriental Society, Leipzig 1857 (rist. Torino-Roma, Ermanno Loescher, 1880).
• Horst Enzensberger : Capo Colonne, battle with . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 1484.
• Umberto Rizzitano: Gli Arabi in Italia . In: L'Occidente e l'Islam nell'Alto Medioevo . 2–8 April 1964. Volume 1. Centro di Studi sull'Alto medioevo, Spoleto 1965 ( Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo 12, 1, ISSN  0528-5666 ), pp. 93-114.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ahmad ibn Hassan	Emir of Sicily ( Kalbite dynasty ) 969–982	Jabir al-Kalbi