Calbites
The calbites ( Arabic بني كلب, DMG Banī Kalb ) were a Muslim dynasty in Sicily that ruled there from 948 to 1053, with a brief interruption from 1036 to 1040.
history
Ascent
As part of internal disputes in the Byzantine Empire , the Aghlabids from Ifrīqiya / Tunisia landed in 827 with 10,000 men under Asad ibn al-Furāt near Marsala in Sicily. As the attack on Syracuse failed, the long-term conquest of the island began. So Palermo was conquered in 831. The new capital Syracuse fell in 878, and it was not until 902 that Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold, was conquered. At the same time, extensive raids took place through large parts of southern Italy, with Taranto and Bari even establishing their own emirates . During this time, power struggles for rule took place among the Muslims. The island was nominally under the rule of the Aghlabids and later the Fatimids .
Isma`îl al-Mansûr (* 913; † 953), the third Fatimid caliph , appointed Hassan al-Kalbi as governor of the island after the suppression of the uprising led by Abu Yazid in North Africa and civil war-like unrest in Sicily in 948 . He managed to stabilize his rule as an emir , found a dynasty and repel Byzantine attacks. He and his successors also succeeded in making their emirate more and more independent from Ifriqiya, especially after the Fatimid caliphs moved their seat from Ifriqiya to Cairo in 973. 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.
blossom
Even under the Kalbites, the raids into Italy continued until the beginning of the 11th century, whereby in 982 a German army under Otto II was defeated in the Battle of Cape Colonna near Crotone in Calabria by Emir Abu al-Qasim , although the Emir was even fell in battle.
Under the Kalbites, Sicily with Palermo was an important economic center of the Mediterranean world and a center of Islam in Italy . The Muslims imported lemons, bitter oranges, sugar cane , cotton and mulberry trees for silkworm breeding and expanded the irrigation systems for agriculture. Sicily was also of great importance as a hub for trade between the Middle East, North Africa and the Italian maritime republics such as Amalfi , Pisa and Genoa . Palermo became one of the main trading centers in the western Mediterranean, and the diverse needs of the rapidly growing city spurred the dense settlement of its hinterland. This happened partly with the forcibly resettled Sicilians, but also with streams of Islamic immigrants from North Africa, which was ravaged by droughts and famine, and in the 11th century also from the Iberian Al-Andalus . In addition, there were also many Berbers deported from North Africa , who were settled in Sicily as punishment for their resistance there against the Fatimids. Around the middle of the 11th century, it is estimated that around half a million Muslims lived in Sicily, mainly in the west of the island.
Decline
With Yusuf al-Kalbi (990-998) the decline of the dynasty began, as he had to leave the government to his sons and the Zirids from Ifriqiya intervened in Sicily. Under al-Akhal (1017-1037) the dynastic conflicts intensified, with the parties allied with Byzantium and the Zirids. From 1036 to 1040 the Zirid Abdallah succeeded in seizing power and thus briefly interrupting the rule of the Kalbites. Even if the Zirids could not establish themselves permanently in Sicily, the Sicilian emirate disintegrated into several small principalities under the last calbite, Hasan as-Samsam (1040-1053). After the calbites became extinct in 1053, the southern Italian Normans under Roger I landed in Sicily in 1061 and began the conquest of the island, which was completed in 1091. The Muslims were able to stay in the country and played an important role in the administration, army and economy of the Norman Empire until the 12th century.
Calbian rulers of Sicily
- Hassan al-Kalbi (948–954), † 964
- Ahmad ibn Hassan (954–969), son of Hassan al-Kalbi
- Abu l-Qasim (969–982), son of Ahmad ibn Hassan
- Jabir al-Kalbi (982-983)
- Jafar al-Kalbi (983-985)
- Abd-Allah al-Kalbi (985-989)
- Yusuf al-Kalbi (989-998)
- Ja'far al-Kalbi (998-1019)
- al-Akhal (1019-1037)
- Interlude: Abdallah (1037-1040), (Ziriden)
- Hasan as-Samsam (1040-1053)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ian Morris et al., Stanford University Excavations on the Acropolis of Monte Polizzo, Sicily, II: Preliminary report on the 2001 Season, p. 192 ( PDF )
literature
- Bernd Rill: Sicily in the Middle Ages. The empire of the Arabs, Normans and Staufers. Belser Verlag, Stuttgart et al. 1995, ISBN 3-7630-2318-6 .
- 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).