The siege of Syracuse in 868 was conducted by the
Aghlabids
The Aghlabids ( ar, الأغالبة) were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya and parts of Southern Italy, Sicily, and possibly Sardinia, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a c ...
against
Syracuse in
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, then a possession of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, during the long
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 ...
. During the siege the Aghlabids defeated a Byzantine fleet which came to the relief of the city. Because the siege failed to take the city, the Muslims resorted to pillaging the countryside surrounding it before they retired. A decade later, the Aghlabids finally conquered the city after the
siege of 877–878.
See also
*
Siege of Syracuse (877–878)
The siege of Syracuse from 877 to 878 led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Roman capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzant ...
References
Sources
*
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868
860s conflicts
Syracuse 868
Syracuse 868
Byzantine Sicily
History of Syracuse, Sicily
Military history of Sicily
860s in the Byzantine Empire
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