The siege of Taormina in

962 Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine e ...

was a successful

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

by the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dy ...

governors of

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

of the main

Byzantine 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 ...

fortress on the island,

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

Siege

The siege was led by the

Kalbid The Kalbids () were a Muslim Arab dynasty in the Emirate of Sicily, which ruled from 948 to 1053. They were formally appointed by the Fatimids, but gained, progressively, ''de facto'' autonomous rule. History In 827, in the midst of internal ...

cousins

Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Kalbi () was the second Kalbid Emir of Sicily. He was the son of the first Kalbid emir, al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi, who ruled the island on behalf of the Fatimid Caliphate. Ahmad succeeded his father in May 953 until 968, apar ...

and

al-Hasan ibn Ammar Hasan ibn Ali ( ar, الحسن بن علي, translit=Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; ) was a prominent early Islamic figure. He was the eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He briefly ruled as caliph from Ja ...

, and lasted for thirty weeks, until the city's fall on Christmas Day 962. 1,570 of the inhabitants (approximately one-fifth of the population) went as slaves to the Fatimid Caliph

al-Mu'izz Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Muizz li-Din Allah ( ar, ابو تميم معد المعزّ لدين الله, Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, Glorifier of the Religion of God; 26 September 932 – 19 December 975) was the fourth Fatimid calip ...

; the town was renamed ''al-Mu'izziyya'', and Muslim settlers were brought in.

Aftermath

Followed by the Fatimid victories in the

siege of Rometta The siege of Rometta was a successful siege of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine city of Rometta, in northeastern Sicily, by the Kalbids on behalf of the Fatimid Dynasty, that took place between 963 and 965 and marked the conclusion of the Muslim c ...

and the

Battle of the Straits The Battle of the Straits (Arabic: ''waqʿat al-majāz'') was fought in early 965 between the fleets of the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate in the Straits of Messina. It resulted in a major Fatimid victory, and the final collapse of the ...

in 964–965, the fall of Taormina marked the end of the last Byzantine footholds on Sicily, and the final completion of 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 Muslim ...

References

Sources

* * 960s in the Byzantine Empire 962 960s conflicts Sicily under the Fatimid Caliphate Taormina 962 Muslim conquest of Sicily Taormina {{Byzantine-stub