The Barbaresca or Barbaresca Siciliana is a breed of large

fat-tailed sheep The fat-tailed sheep is a general type of domestic sheep known for their distinctive large tails and hindquarters. Fat-tailed sheep breeds comprise approximately 25% of the world's sheep population, and are commonly found in northern parts of Af ...

from the Mediterranean island of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, in southern Italy. It derives from the cross-breeding between indigenous Sicilian

Pinzirita The Pinzirita or Pinzunita is a breed of domestic sheep indigenous to the Mediterranean island of Sicily, Italy. Its name derives from ''pinzuni'', the Sicilian language name for the chaffinch, ''Fringilla coelebs'', which it is thought to r ...

sheep with fat-tailed Barbary (or Barbarin) sheep of

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

i origin. These were probably brought to the island after the

Muslim conquest of Sicily The Muslim conquest of Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major Byzantine stronghold on the island, Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Musli ...

in the 9th century; Arabic texts preserved at

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...

document the movement of large numbers of sheep to the Sicilian interior. The Barbaresca is raised throughout most of Sicily and in Abruzzo. It is a triple-purpose breed, yielding meat, milk, and wool. The wool is not now in demand and the Barbaresca is kept principally for meat and milk production. It yields approximately 140–160 litres of milk per lactation, with 6–9% fat. The Barbaresca is one of the seventeen

autochthonous Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to: Fiction * Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis * Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick * Autochthon, a Primordial in the ...

Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. In 1983 the breed population was estimated at 75,000 head, of which 5500 were registered. In 2013 the number registered for the breed was 1260.

References

Sheep breeds originating in Italy {{Sheep-stub