3. Andalusian caliphate
Abd al-Rahman III revived the title of Caliph for the Umayyads and brought the Hispano-Muslim power to its height. Culture, arts, architecture, and superior naval power marked al-Andalus’s success. Minor Muslim campaigns went into France but nothing militarily significant. The city of Cordova becomes a seat of culture where men of many faiths, nationalities, and allegiances meet. At the end of the first millennium, the power of the Caliph weakened and became a subordinate to that of the chamberlain. Eventually, after the chamberlain’s power weakened also, the Caliph was overthrown in 1031. In the power vacuum that ensues, Christian powers to the north and Muslim powers from the south (based in North Africa) take advantage.
929 Sunni Islam in the east is at a low point. The Abbasid Caliphs have become puppets to their advisors the Shiite Buwayids and the Fatimids have taken the Holy Cities (Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem). In response, Abd al-Rahman III establishes his capital at Cordova and sees it fitting to revive the Umayyad title of Caliph.
930 Badajoz falls to Abd al-Rahman III after a siege of over one year.
931 The Byzantines carry out an unsuccessful attack on Franxinetum.
932 Caliph Abd al-Rahman suppresses the last of the rebels after the capitulation of Toledo.
933 Ramire II emerges as ruler of Leon and goes to war with the Muslims of Spain.
936 Abd al-Rahman begins construction of the palace at Madinat al-Zahra. After its completion about fourteen years later, the structure will include a mosque, barracks, gardens, and quarters for merchants, civil servants, and dignitaries.
937 The Christian nations of Spain found an ally in the rebel governor Muhammad ibn Hisham of Saragossa. Saragossa falls to Abd al-Rahman, but the governor is pardoned and reappointed to his post. Around this juncture, Abd al-Rahman invests heavily into soldier slaves –of German, Frankish, Italian, Russian, etc. backgrounds– called Mamluks (not to be confused with the Mamluks of India or Egypt which came from other ethnicities) purchased from Genoese, Venetian, and Pisan traders.
939 Abd al-Rahman’s forces, under the Slav (
Iskalabi, the generic term for the Mamluk soldiers) leader Najd, receive their first defeat after losing to the Christian forces of the King of Leon and the Queen of Navarre at the battle of al-Khandak (The Ditch). Suggestions exist that the jealousy of the Arab leaders against the favored Slavs led to disunity and ultimately loss. The warring nations soon sign a truce and establish friendly relations. Queen Tota of Navarre will eventually send her son Sancho the Fat to Cordova for obesity treatment. The renowned Jewish physician Hasday ibn Shaprut will attend Sancho.
940 Ahmad ibn Ila, governor of Badajoz, crushes Ramire’s army and devastates the land.
Abd al-Rahman builds a great aqueduct. Umayyad Spain is famous for its technological advancements in irrigation.
946 Isaac Velázquez translates the Gospels into Arabic in Cordova. A need for Arabic Gospels exists since the first language of many of Muslim Spain’s Christian population was Arabic.
947 An influx of ambassadors comes to the court of Abd al-Rahman from Constantinople, the ruler of the Slavonians, Charles the Simple of France, and the King of Germany.
949 Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porpyrogenitus sends a manuscript of the famed pharmacologist of antiquity Dioscorides as a present to Abd al-Rahman III.
950 Ramire II dies.
952 Battle of Orbe between Muslims and Huns takes place.
Conrad of Burgundy massacres Muslims.
953 Otto I of Germany sends John of Gorze, Abbot of Gorze in Lorraine (960-974), on an embassy to Cordova to request that the Caliph cease his support for the Muslims based at Franxinetum (the settlement included not just Muslims but Christian, Jewish, and “pagan” mercenaries). Abd ar-Rahman will send a return envoy in the person of Recemundus, bishop of Elvira, three years later.
954 Muslims sack Abbey at St. Gallen and Grenoble.
955 Ordono III sues for peace with Abd al-Rahman. Abd al-Rahman founds Almería.
956 Al-Masudi, a renowned geographer, writes in his
Muruj adh-Dhahab of Cordova native Khashkhash ibn Saeed ibn Aswad sailing from Delba (Palos), crossing the Atlantic, possibly to the American continent.
In response to a Fatimid attack on Spain by a Sicilian fleet, Abd al-Rahman sends his navy, which at the time was among the best of the world, to bombard parts of the North African coast.
957 Ahmad ibn Ila, now governor of Toledo, defeats the Galicians and Leonese under Sancho.
959 A coup expels Sancho from leadership. He flees to his relative in Navarre. In this year, after their requests to the Caliph, Abd al-Rahman reinstalls Sancho to his throne.
961 Abd al-Rahman III dies at age 73. Industry, agriculture, arts, sciences, and the navy all flourished under his rule. A Saxon nun called Cordova the world’s ornament. It boasted an enormous population, contained over 3,000 mosques, a university that rivaled the best in the world, lighted streets, and 80,000 shops.
The reign of Umayyad al-Hakam II begins. He greatly patronized scholarship and disliked warfare. He was also a bibliophile who was said to have amassed a library of 400,000 volumes. In the capital, he established 27 schools for the children of poorer citizens. Literacy rate prospers under his rule.
962 Hakam leads an expedition against rebel forces.
966 Sancho of Leon submits to the Umayyads.
The Danes, under Harald Blatand (Bluetooth), defeat Andalusian Muslims near Lisbon.
The Jewish Khazar kingdom in Eastern Europe collapses. Many of its citizens go to Muslim Spain.
972 Hakam sends a successful expedition to Mauritania in North Africa to combat the Fatimids.
973 William, Count of Arles, moves for local feudatories to band together against Muslim invasion. Fraxinetum is lost to the Muslims.
976 Al-Hakam II dies leaving his eleven-year old son Hisham II as heir to the caliphate. Muhammad ibn Abu `Aamir, the secretary of state, overtakes the leadership of Spain and assumes the title Hajib al-Mansur (“The Victorious Lord Chamberlain”). The Hajibs will retain the real power of the state. The Galicians and the Basques revolt. Hajib’s forces crush them sacking Barcelona in the process.
985 Hajib’s forces sack the monastery of San Cugat.
988 Hajib sacks Leon.
991 Hajib al Mansur declares his office to be hereditary.
997 Hajib seizes the church of Santiago de Compostela and sacks numerous churches and monasteries during his military campaigns more because of their wealth--monasteries sometimes rendered banking services--rather than their religious symbolism. He employs Christians in his armies.
999 Gerbert is consecrated as Pope Sylvester II. Around 952, he entered an abbey. After growing tired of monasticism, he is said to have gone to Muslim Spain (around 960) where he learned the sciences. He became so learned in these sciences that many in his homeland accused him of acquiring this knowledge via a pact with the devil.
Abu Bakr ibn Omar al-Gutiya, an Andalusian historian and descendent of Gothic Princess Sara, states that Ibn Faruq of Granada sailed from Cadix into the Atlantic, landed in the Great Canary Islands, and went west to Capraria and the Pluitana islands.
1002 Hajib al-Mansur dies and is succeeded by his son Abd al-Malik, under the title Hajib al-Muzaffar.
1008 Hajib Abd al-Rahman Sanchol (meaning
little Sancho, after his maternal grandfather who was the King of Navarre) begins his reign in Spain. He poisons his brother Abd al-Malik to attain the throne. This act will result in his execution.
1009 Muhammad II ascends as Umayyad ruler in Spain. Suleiman al-Musta’in succeeds him that same year with the help of the Christian Castile and Leon.
1010 Muslim chroniclers call this the year of the Catalans because of the region’s intervention in the civil strife of the Muslims.
Muhammad II begins his second reign in Spain. Again he loses his power within a year, this time to Hisham II who also begins his second reign.
1013 Suleiman assumes power for a second time in Spain.
1016 Ali al-Nasr of the Hammudid dynasty ascends to power in Spain (the caliphate will alternate between families in Spain until the ultimate fall of the Umayyads in 1031).
1018 Abd ar-Rahman IV becomes Umayyad ruler of Spain. Al-Qasim al-Mamun, a Hammudid, replaces him this year.
1021 Yahya al-Mutali, a Hammudid, assumes power in Spain.
1022 The Hammudid al-Qasim begins his second reign as Caliph in Spain.
1023 Abd ar-Rahman V returns the Umayyads to the throne of Caliph in Spain. He proves to be one of the more apt, but still unfortunate, rulers during this turbulent period for the dynasty with the scholar ibn Hazm as his vizier. Abd ar-Rahman will be dragged from his hiding place in a bathroom heater and executed in front of his successor Muhammad.
1024 Muhammad III al-Mustakfi ascends to power as Spain’s caliph. He will try to avoid assassination by disguising himself as a singing girl in a veil. In a frontier village, one of his officers discovers and poisons him. Al-Mustakfi’s daughter is the beautiful and renowned poetess Walladah.
1025 Hammudids gain the caliphate again in Spain with the second ascension of Yahya.
1027 Hisham III, an Umayyad, rules as Caliph in Spain.
1031 Umayyads lose control of Spain with the deposition of Hisham III. Muslim Spain is split up into petty kingdoms.
4. Post Caliphal Spain through the Reconquista
After the overthrow of the Umayyads, Muslim Spain was broken up into many petty states. The temporary interventions and unifications by the Almoravid and the Almohad dynasties from North Africa served only to delay the inevitable fall. The Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula took advantage of this and conquered each state one by one. Many Spanish national heroes flourished during this period with El Cid being among the most notable. Christian monarchs brought the Reconquista to full swing following the 1085 capture of the former Visigothic capital of Toledo.
1055 Taking advantage of a disunited Muslim Spain, Ferdinand I drives many of the Muslims from various cities. The attacks at Bobastro are considered especially atrocious. Mutazid, ruler of Seville, agrees to pay tribute and saves his kingdom.
Ismail ibn Naghzalah dies. This Jewish vizier of the Zirids in Spain wielded almost supreme authority in Granada.
1063 King Ramiro I of Aragon attacks al-Muqtadir of Saragossa and captures Graus. The King of Castile sends his son Sancho to help al-Muqtadir recover the city. In his first significant military affair Rodrigo Díaz--later known as El Cid, a national hero in Spain--fighting on the side of Sancho, sees action. The Aragonese meet defeat as King Ramiro falls in battle.
1064 A large French cavalry joins the Spaniards for the first time against the Muslims during attacks on Barbastro.
1069 Sancho IV of Navarre and al-Muqtadir of Saragossa (Zaragoza) negotiate a treaty.
1070 Abu Walid Ahmad ibn Zaydun (born 1003), the renowned Andalusian poet, dies. He was active in the Cordovan court affairs but had a falling out after he fell deeply in love with the Caliph al-Mustakfi’s daughter, the poetess Walladah, which resulted in ibn Zaydun spending time in jail and exile. After several years in this state, al-Mutadid al-Abbadi appointed ibn Zaydun as vizier and commander of the troops with the title of
dhu-al-wizaratayn, he of two vizierates (one of the sword and one of the pen). Under ibn Zaydun’s influence, al-Mutamid sent an army in 1068 to take Cordova from Jahwarid control.
1072 Alfonso VI spends nine months in exile in Toldeo under Muslim protection of al-Mamun.
1075 Al-Mamun, ruler of Toledo and Valencia, now controls Cordova. He dies later this year. Mutamid, ruler of Seville, sacks Cordova and reduces Toledo.
1081 After a falling out, Alfonso VI of Castile banishes El Cid. The latter spends the next five years as a mercenary soldier of the Muslims in Zaragoza.
1082 Al-Muqtadir dies leaving his kingdom between his sons Yusuf al-Mu’tamin (who received the western half based on the capital Zaragoza) and Mundhir al-Hayib.
El Cid defeats an attack by al-Hayib (whose allies included the Christian realms of Aragon and Barcelona) at Almenar.
1084 El Cid routs the attempted invasion of Zaragoza by the joint army of the kingdom of Aragon and al-Hayib.
1085 Al-Musta’in succeeds his dead father al-Mutamin as ruler of Zaragoza.
Toledo falls to King Alfonso VI of Castile. Incidentally, Alfonso took a Muslim Queen named Zayda, who became mother of his son Sancho.
1086 Yusuf ibn Tashfin and the Almoravids cross into Spain from North Africa in October to aid the Muslims. At the battle of Zallaka, the forces of Mutamid and Yusuf ibn Tashfin crush Alfonso’s army (which was three times larger). In the winter, Alfonso and El Cid reconcile.
1087 The poetess Walladeh, daughter of Spain’s Umayyad Caliph Al-Mustakfi, dies. She owed her fame to her eloquence, as she could rival any poet in the court and also to her nobility. Her home in Cordova saw gatherings of poets, wits, and savants.
Al-Zarqali (Arzachel, born 1028) dies. This Andalusian Muslim excelled in the field of astronomy developing an astrolabe and producing his
Toledan Tables.
1089 At the request of Mutamid of Seville, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crosses into Spain for a second time to aid the ailing Muslim principalities. Many Spanish Muslims begin to rally around and defect to Yusuf seeing him as a unifier of the weakened regions.
Alfonso banishes El Cid again, although the latter remained a subject of the king. Tribute from Muslim states normally going to the king ends up in the treasury of El Cid.
1090 El Cid exacts tribute from al-Hayib and al-Qadir of Valencia.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin returns to Spain this time conquering it and annexing it to his African holdings. The Almoravids annex the states of Granada (the Zirid ruler is deported to Morocco) and Baza.
1091 Cordova and Seville fall to Yusuf ibn Tashfin. The Almoravids deport Mu’tamid, ruler of Seville, to Morocco where he remains until his death in 1095. Alfonso’s forces fail in dislodging the Almoravids this year.
1092 El Cid renews an alliance with Musta’in of Zaragoza and brings peace between the latter and the King of Aragon.
King Alfonso makes alliance with maritime Italian cities for naval assistance against Valencia in return for trade concessions. Alfonso lifts the siege of Valencia to deal with an invasion of his territories by El Cid.
Murcia and the castle Aledo fall to the Almoravids.
The unpopular al-Qadir of Valencia is deposed and executed; Ibn Jahhaf takes the throne.
1093 El Cid begins attacks on Valencia which falls the next year.
1094 El Cid repulses an Almoravid attack, under Yusuf’s nephew Muhammad, on Valencia at the Battle of Cuarte. The Almoravids meet defeat for the first time in Spain at this battle.
1095 In what was considered the harshest act of El Cid’s regime, Ibn Jahhaf is burned alive for deceit and the crime of regicide.
1097 El Cid, with his ally King Pedro I of Aragon, defeats the Almoravids, again under Muhammad, at the Battle of Bairén.
1098 Murviedro falls to El Cid.
Muslims participate in Count Roger’s attacks on Amalfi and Capua.
1099 El Cid dies in Valencia; many mourn his demise. Even some of his Muslim enemies respected his ability as a soldier; the name El Cid is a derivative of the Arabic
sayyid, meaning “master”.
1102 Almoravids reconquer Valencia
1104 Peter I, king of Aragon, dies. It was said that he only knew how to write in Arabic script.
1106 Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the first Almoravid ruler, dies. His son Ali, known as Abul Hassan, ascends to power.
1118 The Christians capture Saragossa and other important strongholds.
1122 The confraternity of Belchite, an Aragonese town, comes into existence to thwart Muslim attack in eastern Spain. Historians know the order will exist up to 1136 and then fade as Christian power in the area becomes secure.
1138 The Andalusian philosopher Ibn Bajjah (Avempace, born 1106) dies. He was a physician, poet, astronomer, and vizier in the Almoravid court.
1139 The Count Alfonso Henriques of Portugal defeats the Muslims at the Battle of Ourique.
1143 The Almoravid Ali ibn Tashfin dies. Tashfin Ibn Ali succeeds him.
1145 The Almohades, another power out of North Africa, take control of the Moroccan empire after Tashfin is killed (incidentally, in 1160 they would be responsible for kicking the Normans out of North Africa). Abdul Moumin becomes their first ruler.
1147 Abdul Moumin sends troops to aid the Almoravids against the Christians and virtually annexes al-Andalus to his realms. The Almohad realms will extend from the border of Egpyt all the way to the Atlantic and southern Spain.
1151 Abdul Moumin takes Mahdieh from the Franks
1163 Abdul Moumin dies. His son Muhammad succeeds him but is deposed in favor of his brother Abu Yakub Yusuf.
1169 Muslim forces capture Alfonso Henriques at Badajoz. He is later released.
1171 Alfonso Henriques captures Santarem from the Muslims
1184 Abu Yusuf Yakub dies leaving the throne to his son, the celebrated Yakub. Almohade power attains its height.
Alfonso Henriques repulses a Muslim attempt to recapture Santarem.
1195 Yaqub defeats Alfonso VIII of Castile at the Battle of Alarcos
1196 Yaqub besieges Toledo. He agrees to lift the siege after the mother of Alfonso IX of Castile implores him to spare the city. Yakub is moved by her emotions and sends her back with jewels and other valuables.
1198 Ibn Rushd, the famous Averroes, dies. He was the most original philosopher of the Andalus, and an influential scholar on medieval Europe.
1199 Yakub al-Mansur dies. He was a great ruler who fostered scholarship, established hospitals, and organized the army. Yakub was even in contact with the great Saladin. His son Muhammad succeeds him.
1204 The renowned Jewish thinker and native of Cordova Musa ibn Maymun dies. Amidst political turmoil, he had left Spain for the court of Saladin.
1212 Alfonso VIII with Crusaders from France, Germany, and Italy defeat the Almohades at the Battle of al-Aakab (known as Las Navas de Tolosa by the Spaniards).
1214 Almohade ruler Muhammad dies. His son Yusuf assumes power at age sixteen.
Alfonso VIII founds the university at Palencia which employs Muslim and Jewish instructors.
1223 Sid (the title of the Almohade chief) Abu Muhammad Abdul Wahid comes to power after the death of Yusuf.
1224 Sid Abdul Wahid is assassinated. The Almohades elect Abu Muhammad to power.
1227 Yahya al-Mutasim becomes the Almohads’ new ruler.
1228 Seville, under Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud, breaks away from the Almohades while Idris is on an expedition in Africa. More separation occurs as Zayyan assumes power in Valencia.
1229 Idris ascends to Almohad leadership.
5. The last Muslim power in Spain
The Nasrids held the only viable Muslim state on the peninsula in the south known as Granada. Early in this period the former Muslim seats of power such as Valencia, Seville, and Cordova all fell to the Castillians. More than ten leaders with the name Muhammad ascended to the throne in this dynasty, some more than once. Granada paid tribute to the Castillians until internal turmoil allowed the latter to take complete control of the last vestige of the Muslim political unit in Spain.
1230 Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr, known as Ibn al-Ahmar (son of the red, due to his red hair), establishes Nasrid dynasty (1230-1492) in southern Spain with Granada as the capital. Muhammad I will begin construction of the famous Alhambra palace. He enters into alliance with the King of Castile Ferdinand III against Ibn Hud. Civil war cripples Muslim Spain.
1234 After conquering Chivert, the Knights Templar attempt to lure back Muslims by allowing them to recover all property and possessions.
1236 Cordova falls to the Castilians.
1238 Valencia falls to the Castilians. Despite the success of the
Reconquista, the Spanish end up having to colonize many of their conquered lands with Muslims to keep up productivity and minimum population requirements for military security. Subsequently, many
mudejars, Muslims living within Christian domains, receive tax exemptions and freedom of religion in order to continue to contribute to Spanish lands. A push for colonizing Jews also occurs but the population does not meet the quota.
During this crusading period many festivals will evolve celebrating the Christian re-conquest with mock battles including
Fiesta de Moros y Cristianos.
1239 Castilians take Acira.
1242 The Almohade Idris dies. His successors for a time fall to internal dissension and assassination.
1245 The Tarragona metropolitan appeals to Pope Innocent IV to excommunicate all those in Valencia who continue to colonize the area with Muslims.
1246 With the fall of Murcia, Zayyan is driven to Tunis.
1248 Seville falls to the Castillians.
The Hospitallers, another order of knights, settle a hundred Muslim families at the Albufera lagoon. Bernard of Juneda receives permission from King James I to settle Muslims in the Spanish holdings of Artesa, Tales, and Cavallera. Simon Pérez of Foces receives a charter from King James to establish a village for Muslims in Benejama of the Almizra district. King James exempts from tax the Muslims settled in the village of Alcocer.
1256 Alfonso X orders the translation of the
Picatrix. This book of magic originates from the
Ghayat al-Hakim fi’l sihr (The Function of assay in magic), a work attributed to the 10th-century mathematician and astronomer al-Madjriti. The
Picatrix becomes one of the West’s most celebrated works on magic. Due to works like this and others, Muslims will often be associated with sorcery and necromancy. Other Arabic works, of more scientific content, especially in astronomy and engineering, are translated into Catillan and Latin in the court of Alfonso X.
1258 The Knights of Calatrava colonize their Burriana (in Spain) estates with Muslims.
1260 The Christian state of Castile, with all other Spanish Muslim states conquered, makes Granada a vassal and thus only nominally independent.
1261 Ibn al-Ahmar repulses an attack on Granada by the King of Castile.
1262 The Marinid ruler of Morocco Abu Yusuf Yaqub dispatches a force to Granada to aid it against Castille.
1264 Mudejars of Andalusia and Murcia revolt against Alfonso X upon the incitation of Granada.
1266 The Mudejar revolt in Murcia is put down.
1267 Christian conquest of Portugal is complete.
1268 King James I charters William of Rocafull to colonize his Fortaleny holdings with Muslims.
1272 Muhammad I dies. He is succeeded by his son Abu Abdullah, who adopts the name Muhammad II, also known as “Al-Faqih,” or the Jurist.
1274 With the help of the Marinids, Muhammad II defeats the Castilian attack on Granada.
1282 Marinid ruler Abu Yusuf Yaqub sends aid to Alfonso of Castile against his son Don Sancho.
1284 Alfonso X of Castile and Leon dies. He patronized Muslim academics even bringing in the scholar Abu Bakr al-Raquti to his court.
1285 During the French invasion, Spain uses six hundred mudejar troops from Valencia to defend Gerona.
Abu Yusuf Yaqub leads a campaign against Don Sancho. The two powers sign a peace treaty; one of the terms states that all the Arabic manuscripts in Castile’s libraries are to be transferred to Fez.
1286 Ibn us-Said (Abul Hassan Ali) dies; the Granada native was born in 1214.
Marinid ruler Abu Yusuf Yaqub dies in Spain.
1302 Muhammad II dies and is succeeded by his son Muhammad III.
1309 After fiascos with Morocco and Castille, a revolt led by his uncle Abul Juyush, Nasr overthrows and imprisons Muhammad III. Nasr reestablishes peace with the Moroccan powers bringing Granada into conflict with Castille and Aragon.
1314 Abul Walid Ismail I deposes his uncle Abul Juyush Nasr.
1316 The military order of Montesa, succeeding order in Valencia to the Templars, colonizes several districts of Perpunchent with Muslims.
1319 Ismail defeats a Christian army at the battle of Sierra d’Elvira and annexes some towns.
1325 In a palace revolution, instigated by the Christian kingdom, Ismail is assassinated. His reign was a highlight of Granada power in a dynasty full of intrigue. Muhammad the IVth comes to the throne as successor.
1333 Muhammad IV recaptures Gibraltar. He falls to assassins as another victim of court conspiracy. His brother --Abul Hajjaj Yusuf I, a patron of the arts, succeeds him. Yusuf I expands the Alhambra palace and builds the Alcazar Palace.
1340 Christian forces gain victory over Granada and the Marinids at the battle of Salado.
1347 Mudejars form part of the troop drafted by the Crown to subdue Christian nobles in Valencia.
The mudejars of Valencia are said to petition the Crown to allow the death penalty, without monetary compensation, for any Muslim woman who has an affair with a non-Muslim man.
1354 Yusuf I becomes the fifth ruler of Granada to be assassinated (stabbed while praying in the mosque). His son Muhammad V comes to the throne.
1359 Muhammad V flees to Morocco after a palace revolution led by his stepmother. His stepbrother Ismail ibn Yusuf comes to the throne, but after a few months is assassinated.
1360 The tyrannical Abu Said, reigning as Muhammad VI, occupies the throne of Granada following Ismail's II assassination.
1361 Ibn Khaldun, a renowned historian, enters the service of the ruler of Granada.
Muhammad V leaves North Africa for Seville where Pedro I “the Cruel” receives him. Here, it is said, Pedro offers Muhammad V troops to regain his throne in Granada.
1362 Nasrid leaders invite Muhammad V back to the throne due to the cruel policies of Abu Said. The latter flees to Castille where Pedro I puts him and his party to death. Muhammad V’s second reign of twenty-nine years is marked by the patronage of art, the building of public works, promotion of trade, and encouragement of education.
1367 In a battle of the Hundred Years War, Muslim genitors fight under Don Tello, brother of King Henry (Enrique) of Castille, against Edward the Black Prince and Pedro the Cruel at Najera. The battle is won by Edward and Pedro. Because popular support in Spain lay with King Henry, Pedro will appeal to Granada for support. Muslims fight under Pedro’s banner against Henry and Bertrand Du Guesclin. Pedro will lose this battle and because of the large number of Muslims, Guesclin gave the orders that no prisoners are to be taken.
1368 Pedro “the Cruel” and soldiers from Muslim Granada besiege the pro-Henry Cordova. Inclement weather forces the allied army to withdraw.
1369 Pedro “the Cruel” marches on Toledo from Seville with forces comprised of many Granadine Muslims. He will die at the hands of his half-brother Enrique.
1391 Muhammad V death causes universal mourning. Due to his pro-Castile policies, Muhammad’s son and successor, Abu Hallaj Yusuf II, garners enemies in Morocco.
1392 Abu Hallaj Yusuf II falls victim to poison after hardly a year in office. Muhammad VII seizes power from his older brother Yusuf.
1405 Christian powers in Spain resolve to end Muslim rule in Granada. The subsequent attacks end in a stalemate with the powerful army of Muhammad VII. The powers settle on a truce.
1408 Muhammad VII dies. Yusuf III takes power; his reign is marked by both an economical and political rise of Granada. Harmony between the Castilians and the Muslim in Spain exists throughout his reign.
1423 Yusuf III dies, his son Muhammad VIII succeeds him.
1427 Following a revolt, Muhammad VIII flees to Tunis. Muhammad IX, a Nasrid prince, occupies the throne.
1429 Muhammad VIII recaptures the throne of Granada.
1432 After a loss at Hinguervuda to the Castilians, Muhammad VIII escapes to Malaga. With the help of Castile, Yusuf IV comes to power; he dies within a few months. For a third time, Muhammad VIII ascends the throne of Granada.
Castilians annex the border towns of Jimena, Huesca, and Humela.
1445 Muhammad X overthrows and imprisons Muhammad VIII.
1454 The pro-Castile Saad ibn Ismail dethrones Muhammad X.
1462 Saad ibn Ismail fails to pay tribute to Castile provoking an attack on Granada that sees the loss of Muslim territory.
1465 Saad dies and his son Abul Hassan comes to power. Abul Hassan strengthens the army and refuses to pay tribute to the Castilians. He is able to capture some border towns, like Zahra.
1469 Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon wed uniting Christian Spain under one banner.
1482 War between Granada and Castile breaks out. Al-Hamah (Alhama) falls to the Castilians. To add to the worries of Abul Hassan, his son Abu Abdullah Muhammad XI, through Abul Hassan’s Christian wife, revolts in Granada.
The pope begins granting funds to King Ferdinand that aid in the eventual expulsion of Muslim power.
1483 Ali reassumes leadership as Nasrid ruler in Spain.
1484 Christian and Muslim blacksmiths are said to establish a union named after St. Eligius.
1485 Muhammad XII az-Zaghall begins his rule in Spain.
1486 Loxa and Malaga fall to the Castillians.
1487 Christian powers install Muhammad XI, also known as Boabdil and oldest son of Abul Hassan, to the throne of Granada. Muhammad XII flees to Morocco.
In Valencia, the Muslim son of a legist converts to Christianity and takes the name Juan Andres. In 1515, his book condemning Islam as a fraudulent and immoral religion will be published.
1492 On the second of January Granada capitulates to the Christians, thus ending over 750 years of Muslim rule. The subsequent spill of refugees into North Africa and bitter feelings between the Muslims and the Europeans will eventually lead to the infamous Barbary Wars. Isabella and Ferdinand wear Moorish clothing during the conquest as that and other Spanish Muslim cultural trends –such as food, makeup, architecture– are in vogue. Boabdil will die in exile in Fez in 1538.
Christopher Columbus receives his contract for his first voyage at Alhambra Palace in Granada. While in Gomera (Canary Islands), he falls in love with Beatriz Boabdilla (Abu Abdullah). Two of Columbus’s captains, the Pinzons (Bin Zayn), were of Muslim descent related to the Moroccan sultan Abu Zayn Muhammad III (1362-66) of the Marinid Dynasty.
6. Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula after Granada’s fall
Following the expulsion of Muslim power from Spain, many Muslims were given the choice between expulsion and baptism. Those that only superficially converted eventually began to revolt until even all the Christianized Muslims sought refuge from the peninsula. The refugee Muslims, or their descendents, that sought safety in North Africa helped to start a new era in Mediterranean warfare which became known as the Barbary wars. Andalusian culture, as defined by its former Muslim residents, permeated into North Africa and some Ottoman domains.
1496 Portuguese King Manuel I orders expulsion of all Muslims and Jews by October 1497
1499 A minor revolt in Albaicin, Granada’s Muslim quarter, occurs against a policy of mass baptism.
1500 Minor Muslim rebellions break out in Spain.
1501 Spain takes more forceful steps in the mass conversion of its Muslim population. A royal decree orders a huge bonfire of Arabic books in October.
1502 Queen Isabella offers the Muslims of Castilian territory the option of baptism or exile; many choose baptism due to the strict conditions of emigration.
Francisco Boabdilla (Abu Abdullah), Royal Commissioner, puts Christopher Columbus in chains and brings him from Santo Domingo to Spain.
1504 A jurist from Oran issues a fatwa allowing Muslims of Granada to utilize taqiyya, outward renunciation of faith while maintaining inward loyalty, to withstand Christian pressure to covert.
1524 Pope Clement VII issues a bull to relieve Charles V of any obligations he has to the Muslims in Spain.
1526 A royal decree forces Muslims in Aragon, Spain to accept Christianity. These converted Muslims are known as
moriscos. The Inquisition in Granada is established to ensure the sincerity of the Moriscos.
1529 Khairuddin Barbarossa brings Moriscos to Algeria from Spain.
1546 Suleiman and Charles V acknowledge a truce
1557 Moriscos are prohibited from using Arabic, wearing traditional clothes, using their surnames, public bathing, celebrating matrimonial rites, or listening to traditional music.
1561 Draghut Rais (Turghud Ali) destroys seven Spanish galleys.
1568 On Christmas Eve the moriscos of Granada revolt, led by Muhammad ibn Ummayya against Spanish rule. Support for this rebellion is drawn primarily from the Alpujarra region’s villages. The revolt rises from 4,000 members to possibly 30,000 by the summer of 1569. North African Muslims under the Sardinian-born Oloudj (Uluj) Ali begin to send aid to this movement. 4,000 Turks and Berbers are said to have been among the ranks of the rebels in 1570.
1569 Don Juan of Austria, the King of Spain’s half-brother, assumes leadership of the campaign to quell the morisco revolt.
1570 Don Juan suppresses the morisco revolt. The Spanish government decides in November to disperse the morisco population throughout Spain. Many die during the marches after being forced out of their home; even Don Juan of Austria considers their hardships one of the most tragic sights he has seen.
1575 Algerian corsairs capture Miguel Cervantes who is returning to Spain after years of fighting against the Ottomans. He will spend the next five years as a captive of the Barbary nation. Cervantes will reflect the traumatic experience in many of his works including
The Dungeons of Algiers, The Gallant Spaniard, The Captive’s Tale, and his masterpiece
Don Quixote. The Algeria of this time is said to be one of the most multicultural nations in the Mediterranean region. Converts to Islam (known as
renegados) from every European nation, as well as Indians from America, reside there beside native Arabs, Berbers, and Turks.
1579 Moriscos are forbidden to live near the coasts of Andalusia and later Valencia (1586).
1580 Morisco conspiracy in Seville is revealed; authorities punish the leaders and enforce strict regulations on the Morisco population.
1601 Three members of the party of Husayn Ali Beg covert to Christianity during the Persian ambassador’s stay in Rome. The embassy moves on to Spain.
1602 The Persian ambassador leaves Spain for his native land returning a few members short. While in Spain, another three members of the Persian ambassador’s party abandon Islam for Catholicism: Ali Quli Beg, the ambassador’s nephew and now godson of Philip III; Uruch Beg, the First Secretary of Embassy; and Buniyad Beg, the ambassador’s cook. Their Christian names are Don Philip of Persia, Don Juan of Persia, and Don Diego of Persia, respectively.
1603 Don Juan of Persia completes his
Relaciones in Spain. He divides the piece, an account of his experience, into three books: a description of Persia government, land, and history; recent battles between the Ottomans and the Persians; and his personal journey from Persia to Europe.
1605 Don Juan of Persia dies in Valladolid, Spain.
1610 The last Muslim revolt in Spain occurs; many Muslims are deported following this rebellion.
1690-1691 Hamet ben Hassu, ambassador of Moroccan ruler Muley Ismail, comes to Spain to negotiate the release of 500 Muslim captives and 5000 Arabic manuscripts. An account of his observations was kept at the Royal Library of Madrid. Hamet, about 10 years earlier, had served as ambassador to England as well.
1769 A report of the Spanish Inquisition to Carlos III claims verification of the existence of a mosque in Cartagena established by moriscos.
1808 2nd May (in the infamous “Dos Mayo” riot), Napoleon’s Mamluk guard present in Madrid to suppress a local revolt against French invaders. The exotic garb of the Mamluk harkening back to the days of Moorish rule in Spain is seen as an exacerbating factor in Spaniard response. Francisco Goya painted a depiction of an attempted revolt against the Mamluk. They will participate in the battles of Medina del Rio Seco and Benavente this year. The Mamluk will have two more stints in Spain in 1810 and 1811.
1936-1939 The Spanish Civil War occurs. General Francisco Franco utilizes Moors (Moroccans) in his forces to fight off the Loyalists of the Second Republic. Known as the
regulares, these volunteers were tribesman from the Rif commanded by Spanish officers. Widespread unemployment in Spanish Morocco prompted thousands of Moroccans to enlist.
Regulares were known for their efficiency, stealth in “dead ground”, and brutality.
Regulares also gained fear from them for their use of triangular knives and machine guns. Nationalists made the regulares “honorary Christians” and the troops were a significant part of Franco’s victory parade.
7. Early excursions into Sicily and other Mediterranean islands
Muslims established their first navy seventeen years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (in June 632). As these early Muslims consolidated their Arabian holdings, eventual conflict came about against the Byzantine Empire who controlled parts of northern Arabia. War raged between the rising power of the Arabs and the, at the time, the decadent power of the Byzantines (they would come to see a revival around the 10th and 11th centuries). Since the Eastern Roman Empire held many Mediterranean islands, the Muslims thought it strategically important to take some of these bases. While the Umayyad dynasty remained in power, the Arab-Byzantine wars spanned three continents with the Mediterranean serving as a major front. Even after the Abbasids reduced Umayyad holdings to the Iberian Peninsula, the latter dynasty still made occasional campaigns in the Mediterranean. Often at times tension between the Berbers and the Arabs in North Africa hindered more successful campaigning in the region during this period.
649 Caliph Uthman’s reign establishes Islam’s first naval force: Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan-governor of Syria, Palestine, and Jordan--dispatches a fleet of 500 ships under Abdullah ibn Qays Harthi to conquer Cyprus. During Uthman’s reign, Muslim armies expand deeper into North Africa, Asia Minor, and Central Asia.
652 Muawiyah dispatches his namesake Muawiyah ibn Khudayj on the Muslims’ first raid against Byzantine Sicily. Despite having an alliance with Gregory, the Byzantine governor in North Africa, the Muslim flotilla doesn’t make much headway aside from some loot and captives.
653 Muslim led by Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan control Cyprus.
Umm Haram dies. She took part in the battle of Cyprus. She fell off her mount after the victory and was buried in Cyprus.
654 Muslims raid the island of Rhodes.
667 Abdullah ibn Qays leads the Umayyad fleet on another expedition against Sicily. It returns with some jewel-studded icons of silver and gold. A possibility exists of follow-up campaigns against the island by Abdullah in 668 or 669.
672 Muslims occupy Rhodes
674 Muslims wrest part of the island of Crete.
697 Byzantine and Berber refugees from North Africa flee to Sicily following the Muslim conquest of Carthage. Sicily becomes a base from which the defeated lead attacks against the Muslims. Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean and its ownership by the enemy (Byzantium), Sicily –since the initial attacks in 652–becomes a focal point of attacks from the Muslim forces.
704 Musa ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad’s governor of North Africa, sends his son on campaigns against the Mediterranean islands of the Balearics, Sicily, and Sardinia.
710 Musa sends an expedition against Sardinia.
711 Muslims attack Byzantine Sardinia. An account by Ibn Athîr relates that due to the atrocities committed by the Muslims, a storm destroyed many ships on the return voyage.
727 Bishr ibn Safwan leads a Muslim force from North Africa against Sicily.
728 Ubayda ibn Abd al-Rahman, successor to Bishr, dispatches Uthman ibn Abu Ubayda to head a campaign against Sicily.
729 Ubayda sends Mustanir ibn al-Harith on another attack against Sicily.
730 From Syria, a Muslim force raids Sicily.
732 Abd al-Malik ibn Qatan raids Sicily.
Abdallah ibn Ziyad leads a Muslim attack on Sardinia.
733 Byzantines use Greek fire to defeat a Muslim attack on Sicily led by Abu Bakr ibn Suwayd.
734 Ubaydullah ibn Habhad, governor in North Africa, sends an unsuccessful attack against Sicily.
735 Ubaydullah ibn Habhad dispatches an attack against Sardinia.
740 Ubaidallah ibn al-Habhâb, governor in Africa, calls off a siege of Syracuse, Sicily, upon payment of tribute. The expedition, under Habib ibn Abu Ubayda, designed to conquer the island has to be delayed due to a Berber revolt in North Africa.
753 Abd al-Rahman, son of Habib ibn Abu Ubayda, sends his brother Abdullah on what is to be the most successful Muslim expedition against Sicily to date. Like the one in 740, this too must be called off on account of a revolt in North Africa. The Byzantines take advantage of the distracted Muslims and refortify their position in the Mediterranean making them safe from Muslim attack.
798 Muslims invade the Balearic Islands.
800 Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab, a former officer in the Abbasid army, begins his reign as Emir in Ifriqiyya (Tunisia). Members of his dynasty (the Aghlabids) will become major players on the Mediterranean scene.
810-820 Muslims attack Sardinia, Corsica, etc.; they occupy the Balearic Islands, Nice and parts of Southern Italy.
812 Abul Abbas Abdullah I becomes the next Aghlabid ruler.
813 Aghlabid ruler Abul Abbas Abdullah I concludes a ten-year peace treaty with Gregory, the Byzantine patrician of Sicily.
Pope Leo III lets Charlemagne know that Muslim emissaries sailing to Sicily are using Venetian boats.
817 Aghlabid emir in Tunis, Ziyadat-Allah I, begins his reign.
818 Umayyads control the islands of Corsica, Izira, Majorca, and Sardinia.
819 Muhammad ibn Abdullah bin al-Aghlab commands a Muslim expedition from North Africa against Sicily.
825 The rebels who were defeated by al-Hakam in 814 conquer Crete with the support of Egypt.
8. Muslim Sicily
The betrayal of a rogue Byzantine officer gave Muslims, specifically the North African Aghlabid dynasty, an opportunity for the conquest of Sicily. The Muslims embarked on what was to be a 130-year conquest of the island. Like Spain, Sicily became an exemplary Euro-Islamic state marked by an appreciation for erudition of all peoples and the diversity within its own population. Muslim power passed from the Aghlabids to the Fatimids who gave control of the island to the Kalbites. In much the same way as the island came into the hands of the Muslims, it was so taken away. A disgruntled governor appealed to the Normans (Vikings) in Italy for aid against his own coreligionists.
Euphemius, Byzantine naval commander, revolts in Sicily against Constantine, the Byzantine strategist of the island. He occupies Syracuse but is ousted by one of his own officers. Euphemius seeks support of the Aghlabid emir Ziyadatullah in North Africa by offering suzerainty over the island, but maintaining governorship for himself.
826 The forces of Euphemius join the Aghlabid fleet –which is comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Spanish Muslims from Crete, and possibly Persians – led by Asad ibn Furat, the
qadi (judge) in Sicily. Some Muslim historians have conjectured that Asad ibn Furat is the progenitor of the family of Napoleon Bonaparte; Asad’s descendant’s were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart.
827 The forces of Euphemius join the Aghlabid fleet –which is comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Spanish Muslims from Crete, and possibly Persians – led by Asad ibn Furat, the
qadi (judge) in Sicily. Some Muslim historians have conjectured that Asad ibn Furat is the progenitor of the family of Napoleon Bonaparte; Asad’s descendant’s were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart.
828 Asad ibn Furat dies of disease that broke out in the Muslim camp during the siege of Syracuse. The army elects Muhammad ibn Abi al-Jawari to leadership.
829 Minting of the first Sicilian Muslim coinage takes place during the first siege of Castrogiovanni. Muhammad ibn Abi-l-Jawari dies during this siege. Zuhayr ibn al-Ghawth is chosen as his successor. The Sicilian towns of Mineo and Mazara are under the Aghlabids.
830 Ziyadatullah sends reinforcements to the Muslim force in Sicily. Asbagh ibn Wakil, a scion of the Berber tribe of Hawwara and soldier of fortune, lands in Sicily with some followers from Spain. This group augments the Aghlabid force until the death of Absagh after some of the Spanish Muslims returned home.
831 Palermo in Sicily falls to the Muslims.
832 Ziyadatallah appoints his cousin Abu Fihr Muhammad ibn Abdullah as
wali (governor) of Sicily.
835 A revolt breaks out in the Aghlabid army. The rebels kill Abu Fihr and take refuge with the Byzantines. Ziyadatullah appoints Fadl ibn Yaqub as temporary governor of Sicily. After five months, Abul Aghlab Ibrahim ibn Abdullah, brother of Abu Fihr, ascends to governorship of the island.
837 Aghlabids attack Castrogiovanni, which became the center for the partrician and Byzantine administration on the island since the fall of Palermo, and enter the city. A truce is signed and the Aghlabids return to Palermo. Alexis Mousélé, son-in-law of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus and governor of Sicily, is recalled to Constantinople after being accused of conspiring with the Muslims.
838 Aghlabid emir Ziyadatullah dies. His brother Abu Iqal al-Aghlab ibn Ibrahim succeeds him. Reinforcements are sent to Sicily.
840 The Sicilian towns of Platani, Caltabellotta, Corleone, and possibly Marineo and Geraci surrender to the Muslims.
The Muslims of Sicily campaign in the Adriatic in the region of Istria and launch attackes against Osero in the island of Cherso.
841 Muhammad I takes power as Aghlabid emir.
842 The Muslims in Sicily now occupy the whole of the Val di Mazara region and enter into alliance with Naples.
845 The Aghlabids occupy Modica in Sicily.
846 The forces of Aghlabid officer Fadl ibn Jafar occupy Lentini in Sicily.
851 Abul Aghlab dies after sixteen years of holding governorship of Sicily. Abbas ibn Fadl succeeds him.
856 The reign of Aghlabid ruler Ahmad commences.
859 Castrogiovanni falls to the Muslims, under Abbas ibn Fadl, in Sicily. The capture of this town was essential as it allows the Muslims to control east Sicily. The Byzantine emperor sends reinforcements to Sicily to recover losses. Many formerly Byzantine towns revolt against the Muslims; however, Abbas defeats all of them in a battle near Cefalu.
863 Ziyadat-Allah II and then Abul Gharaniq Muhammad II reign as Aghlabid rulers.
864 Noto, Sicily falls to the Muslims.
865 The ruler of Leon sues for peace with the Muslims.
Byzantines defeat an Aghlabid force, under Khafaja’s son Muhammad, near Syracuse.
868 Muhammad, son of Khafaja, defeats a Byzantine fleet near Syracuse.
869 After the assassination of his father Khafaja, Muhammad becomes governor of Sicily.
870 Malta falls to the Muslims under the Aghlabid prince Ahmad ibn Omar with reinforcements from Sicily.
871 Palace eunuchs assassinate Muhammad ibn Khafaj. The Sicilian Muslims choose Muhammad ibn Abu Husayn as successor, but the Aghlabid Emir in North Africa replaces this choice with Rabah ibn Yaqub.
873 Abul Abbas ibn Abdullah becomes governor of Sicily. Abu Malik Ahmad replaces him this same year.
875 Ibrahim II becomes the new Aghlabid emir in Tunis.
877 Under the new Aghlabid governor Jafar ibn Muhammad, the Muslim forces besiege Syracuse. A Byzantine fleet relieves the city.
878 The Muslims resume the siege of Syracuse and in spring it falls. Soon after, Jafar ibn Muhammad dies in an ensuing palace conspiracy. Husayn ibn Rabah succeeds him.
880 Byzantines occupy Taranto.
881 Hasan ibn Abbas becomes governor of Sicily.
882 Muhammad ibn Fadhl replaces Hasan ibn Abbas as Sicily’s Muslim governor.
885 Sawada ibn Muhammad ibn Khafaja, new governor of Sicily, leads an attack on Taormina but doesn’t take the town.
886 A rebellion in Sicily breaks out between the Arabs and the Berbers. The rebels will send Sawada back to North Africa and choose Abul Abbas ibn Ali as governor. However, the Aghlabid Emir will send Sawada back to the island with a successful force to suppress the rebellion.
889 Another rebellion breaks out in Sicily, this time between the native Sicilian Muslims and the North African Muslims, that will last until 894.
891 Muhammad ibn Fadl replaces Sawada as governor in Sicily.
898 The conflict between the Arabs and Berbers in Sicily restarts.
899 After Ahmad ibn Omar had difficulty pacifying the civil strife, Abdullah, the son of the Aghlabid Emir Ibrahim II, leads a force sent to restore order.
902 Muslims, led by Ibrahim II, wrest control of Sicily from Byzantines with the fall of Taormina. Following the fall of Taormina, Ibrahim ibn Ahmad lands on mainland Italy and marches from Calabria to Cosenza. He falls ill and dies while besieging Cosenza. Italians saw his death as Divine deliverance.
Abdullah II succeeds Ibrahim as Aghlabid emir.
903 Ziyadat-Allah III becomes the new Aghlabid ruler.
909 Fatimids, a dynasty of Shiite Muslims who claim descent from Fatima the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, rise to power defeating the Aghlabids and taking over their domains. In Sicily Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abul Fawaris, a former deposed governor of the island, champions their cause.
910 Ibn Abu Khinzir, also known as Hasan ibn Ahmad, replaces Ali ibn Ahmad as Sicily’s Fatimid governor.
912 Ali ibn Omar al-Balawi becomes governor of Sicily.
913 Arabs and Berbers revolt against the Fatimids in Sicily electing Ibn Qurhub as their Emir. For this period, Sicily returns to Sunni rule.
916 Rebellion breaks out against Ibn Qurhub in Sicily. The rebels appeal to the Fatimids and Sicily will thus be returned to their rule.
917 Salim ibn Rashid ascends to the Fatimid governorship of Sicily, a post he will hold for the next twenty years.
937 After a revolt in Sicily, the Fatimid Caliph al-Qaim replaces Salim ibn Rashid as governor of the island with Khalil ibn Ishaq.
947 Following the suppression of the North African rebellion, Fatimid Caliph al-Mansur sends Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi as governor to deal with the rebels in Sicily. After his success there, Hasan will establish a semi-autonomous dynasty in Sicily recognizing Fatimid suzerainty.
948 Control of Sicily passes from the Fatimids to the Arab Kalbites, their first leader being al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi.
962 Ahmad ibn Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi wrests control of the Christian parts of Sicily that declared their independence.
965 Byzantines recapture Taormina.
Muslims conquer Rometta completing the 130 years of Muslims conquest in Sicily. Sicily prospers under its Kalbite Emirs, dependents of the Fatimids. The medical university is said to rival those in Baghdad and Cordova.
966 Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi dies during the siege of Rametta.
970 Abul Qasim Ali ibn Hasan becomes governor of Sicily.
973 Ibn Hawqal visits Sicily.
983 Jafar ibn Muhammad becomes governor of Sicily following the deposition of Jabir ibn Abul Qasim.
986 Abdullah ibn Muhammad succeeds his deceased brother Jafar as Sicily’s governor. Abdullah dies this year and is succeeded by his son Abul Futuh Yusuf.
998 Jafar ibn Yusuf replaces his father, who was incapacitated from a stroke, as governor of Sicily. Kalbite rule in Sicily begins to decline with him.
1000 Around this year, paper manufacturing filters into Sicily. Papermaking was well underway in Baghdad, Damascus, and Transoxiana. Some historians attribute the Muslim world’s knowledge of paper to the Chinese prisoners of war captured during the Battle of Talas in 751. Christian Europe will not see mainstream papermaking until much later.
1015 With the help of Berber and Negro slaves, Ali ibn Yusuf revolts against his ruling brother in Sicily. Ali is defeated and executed.
1019 Palermo revolts against the Kalbites. The paralyzed Yusuf deposes his son Jafar in favor of his other son Ahmad, known as al-Akhal.
1034 The Byzantines send an embassy to the Sicilian court. For the time being the Muslims will be on the defensive from the Italian states.
1035 Byzantines seek truce with the Kalbite-Zirid alliance.
Abu Hafs, leading a revolt in Sicily, succeeds in receiving aid from the Zirids.
1038 Abu Hafs defeats and executes al-Akhal.
Byzantine General Maniakes attempts to re-establish Christian control in Sicily. Despite some success in holding Messina for two years, the Byzantine attempt did not yield long-term results. Harald Sigurdson, younger half-brother of St. Olave (Olaf Sigurdson, former king of Norway), accompanies the Byzantine forces.
1040 Muslims recover control of Sicily after Maniakes is recalled to Constantinople.
1044 The Kalbite dynasty ends in Sicily with the deposition of Hasan al-Samsam. As with the Andalus, Sicily will split up into several petty principalities.
1060 Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Thumna emerges as a powerful force in Sicily defeating some of the petty states and occupying Syracuse. Ibn al-Thuma loses support after his failed siege of Castrogiovanni under the leadership of his brother-in-law Ibn Hawwas.
1061 The Normans begin invading Muslim Sicily with the fall of Messina; civil strife among the Muslims facilitates the eventual success of the Normans. Ibn al-Thumna, following his defeat, is said to have invited the Normans under Roger and his brother Robert Guiscard to Sicily.
1062 While Roger returns to Italy, Ibn al-Thumna dies in battle. The Normans must vacate Troina and Petralia.
1063 Normans conquer Cerami and reoccupy Troina in Sicily.
1068 Misilmeri in Sicily falls to the Normans opening the way for an attack on the capital, Palermo, and eventually the entire western island.
1072 Normans conquer Palermo. Muslim's resistance in the island is lead by an individual the European chronicles call Benavert.
1076 Normans besiege the Muslim Sicilian town of Salerno. In this and other engagements, historians mention the presence of Muslim regiments within the invading Norman army.
1077 Trapani falls to Normans.
1079 Normans annex Taormina in Sicily.
1081 Benavert wins over the Norman commander of Catania, who is a Christian convert from Islam, but eventually is driven south.
1085 Muslim Sicilian town of Syracuse falls to Norman control.
1086 Benavert is killed and the Normans take Syracuse.
1087 Hammud, the princeof Castrogiovanni surrenders to Roger, accepts Christianity, and receives a land grant in Calabria. Castrogiovanni becomes a part of Norman Sicily.
1091 Noto in Sicily falls; the Normans, under Count Roger, rule Sicily. The Norman conquest effectively ends over 250 years of Muslim rule, but not Muslim influence; Muslims continued to be a big part of court life during Norman rule.
9. Muslims in Non-Muslim Sicily
Despite ousting the Muslims from power, the Normans were very receptive to the former’s culture. The new dynasty employed Muslim scholars in its courts, soldiers in its army, and even women in its harems. With the switch from Norman to Swabian power, Muslim influence steadily declined. When Frederick II brought many of the rebelling Muslims to a colony called Lucera on the Italian mainland, much of the Muslim presence slowly became insignificant. During the height of the Ottoman power, raids on the Sicilian coasts became frequent until that Muslim power also declined.
1101 Count Roger dies. His widow, Countess Adelaide, rules as regent of Sicily and Calabria for ten years.
1111 Roger II becomes ruler of Norman domains in Sicily and Calabria.
1127 Banu Maymun raids the Norman domains of Patti, Catania, and land near Syracuse.
1130 The Papacy crowns Roger II King of Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, the principality of Capua, the honor of Naples, and protectorate of Benevento on Christmas Day. Due to successful naval campaigns in North Africa, Roger will later add King of Ifriqiyya to his name. Many Muslims play active roles in his court such as Abu’d-Daw, Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Omar, and the celebrated al-Idrisi. His reign also sees the employment of “palace Saracens,” castrated Muslims who had converted to Christianity. These eunuchs, who hold very prominent official roles, will often be accused of being covert Muslims and protecting Christian reverts to Islam. Roger begins construction of the Palatine Chapel in the Royal Palace at Palermo exhibiting some of the finest elements of Latin, Byzantine, and Arab architecture.
1135 Zirids make a truce with the Normans following an internal strife in North Africa.
1153 Philip, the “palace Saracen”, is executed in December. Roger II discovered Philip, despite being raised from childhood as a Christian, was actually a convert to Islam when he found that the eunuch sent oil to Medina to light lanterns at the tomb of the Prophet. Arabic sources say that the downfall of Philip resulted after the leniency he showed Muslims during the sack of Buna, North Africa.
1154 Roger II dies. William I succeeds him. William spoke fluent Arabic, kept a harem, and kept a bodyguard of Negroes commanded by a Muslim.
1163 The “palace Saracen” Gawhar is tortured and then drowned for allegedly stealing the royal seals. Peter succeeds him as Master Chamberlain.
1166 William II succeeds his deceased father as Norman ruler in Sicily. Like his father, he keeps a harem, speaks Arabic, and patronizes Muslims in his court. Many of the women in his harem are Muslim and are said to be secretly converting the Christians concubines to Islam.
1167 Peter the “palace Saracen” flees to al-Maghrib (North Africa) after an unsuccessful naval assault on Mahdiyya.
1189 William II dies. Nobles faction Sicily despite William’s wishes to have Constance, the daughter of Roger II and wife of German emperor Henry VI, to succeed him on the throne.
1190 A Muslim revolt in Sicily settles.
1194 The Swabian rule replaces the Norman rule in Sicily with the island’s conquest by Henry VI. With the change from an administration that was sympathetic to the Muslims, many feel threatened with the new regime.
1197 Muslim riot in Sicily upon the death of Henry VI.
1199 Markward of Anweiler, an Hohenstaufen agent before being expelled from Sicily, arrives in Trapani in Sicily –with aspirations of conquering the island– and wins support of many resident Muslims.
1200 Papal armies arrive in Sicily to combat Markward and his forces, which count Muslims among their numbers. Markward will go on to control the island until his death in 1202.
1206 Pope Innocent III sends a letter to various
qadi-s (judges) in Sicily stating that the Muslims would be rewarded for their continued support of the crown.
1219 Muslim rebels, under Muhammad ibn Abbad, sack the Spedale di San Giovanni de’ Leprosi, nearly to Palermo’s gates, and take captive of the bishop of Girgenti.
1222 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen –Holy Roman Emperor, ruler of Germany and King of Naples and Sicily, and (after 1225 via a marriage with the heiress) the King of Jerusalem– leads a successful assault against the base of Muhammad ibn Abbad in Iato. A legend exists of Ibn Abbad’s daughter continuing the resistance after his defeat and ambushing some of her would-be-conquerors before committing suicide rather than being captured.
1223 Frederick II sends another military force to Sicily to crush Muslim opposition. Frederick II begins resettling the Muslim rebels on mainland Italy in a Muslim colony known as Lucera. Some evidence suggests that transfers may have started after the rebellion in 1222.
1224 Frederick II establishes the University of Naples, the first European university to be founded by a definite charter. The institution housed many Arabic manuscripts which were translated and distributed to Universities of Paris and Bologna. Thomas Aquinas studied here for a time.
1226 Fakhr ad-Din ibn ash-Shaykh, envoy of the Ayyubid sultan in Egypt, arrives at Frederick's II court to discuss an alliance.
1228 The Sixth Crusade begins. Frederick II and Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt actually complete the first crusade absent of bloodshed with the signing of a treaty that gives Jerusalem to Frederick. Ironically, despite achieving the goals of the Crusades, Frederick and the Pope are at odds which sees the former become excommunicated.
1236 Abd al-Aziz, nephew of the ruler of Tunis, comes to the Kingdom of Sicily.
1240 Giovanni Moro, possibly a Black African Muslim convert to Christianity, holds influence in the court of Frederick II.
1242 Ibn Sab’in, a Murcian philosopher of Neoplatonic tendencies and Sufi, finishes his
Al-Ajwiba ‛an al-As’ila as’Saqaliyya (Answers to Sicilian Questions). This treatise is a response to the questions of Frederick II sent to various Muslim rulers regarding philosophy and theology.
1243 A small Muslim rebellion breaks out in Sicily. After three years, Frederick defeats it and sends its members to Lucera. Islamic presence in Sicily nearly ceases completely.
1250 Frederick II Hohenstaufen dies. Despite his battles suppressing Muslims in his Sicilian realms, he heavily supported Islamic customs and Arabic culture to the point where he was derogatorily referred to as a baptized sultan. He kept a harem and an Oriental-like court. He also maintained friendly relations with the Ayyubid sultans in Egypt. One of their diplomatic exchanges brought the first giraffe (the word from the Arabic
zarafah) to medieval Europe and a white bear and white peacock to Egypt.
1254 Giovanni Moro abandons the Hohenstaufen cause and joins Pope Innocent IV.
1260 Manfred, son of Frederick II, becomes King of Sicily.
1261 An emissary from Baybars, Sultan of Egypt, comes to the court of Manfred.
1266 Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX defeats Manfred, the last Hohenstaufen, at the Battle of Benevento. Receiving papal support to take possession of the Kingdom of Sicily the previous year, Charles of Anjou now becomes King Charles I. Charles I levies heavy taxes on Lucera but permits the practice of Islam.
1285 Charles I dies at Foggia.
1289 Charles of Salerno is crowned King of Sicily. He continues the employment of Muslim soldiers as well as Muslim tentmakers and weapons manufacturers.
1293 Muslims fight for Charles II in the War of the Sicilian Vespers
1345 Salem de Messana dies. This resident of Palermo was one of the last prominent Muslim merchants in Sicily
1402 A Muslim serves as headman in western Sicily’s tunny-fisheries.
1533 Khairuddin Barbarossa raids Sicilian and Italian coasts.
1561 Ottomans raid Sicily.
10. The Mediterranean islands after the Sicilian conquest
Different Muslims and Christian European powers traded control of various Mediterranean islands after Sicily was consolidated. What was once considered a Muslim lake, the Mediterranean was then culturally and religiously divided. At the end of the Middle Ages, it became a theater of war between the Ottomans and rival Christian powers.
903 The Muslims capture the Balearic Islands defeating the Franks.
960 Muslims conquer Sardinia.
961 Byzantines retake Crete and end over 140 years of Muslim control on the island.
1026-1035 Muslim forces from Sicily combined with the Zirids from North Africa attack Byzantine holdings of Illyria, some Greek islands, and the Thracian coast.
1090 The Muslims are expelled from Corsica and Malta.
1192 Richard I of England captures Cyprus.
1231 The Templars of Majorca receive a Crown charter from King James I to settle Muslims in their share of the island. To coax the Muslims, King James offers them regalian tax exemption and protection. Dom Pedro receives the lordship of the island.
1240 Prince Peter of Portugal, Majorca’s lord, receives a reprimand from Pope Gregory IX urging him not to settle any Muslims on the island.
1287 The Muslim population succumbs to slavery upon the fall of Minorca to the Spanish.
1353 The Byzantine Empire gives Ottoman sultan Orkhan the fortress of Tzympa after being loaned Turkish troops. The fort, located on the European side of Hellespoint, gives the Ottomans their first foothold in Europe.
1397 Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I invades Greece capturing many strongholds until the Greeks sue for peace and become a tributary of the Ottomans. This came a year after defeating a coalition of the Europe’s Christian forces –in one of the largest crusading armies, it contained forces from France, Germany, England, Hungary and ships from the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, Genoa, and Venice– at the Battle of Nicopolis (in Bulgaria) and devastated the countryside around Budapest in Hungary.
1430 Ottoman Turks, under Sultan Murad II, capture Salonika in Greece from Venetians with help from the Duke of Milan.
1461 Ottomans conquer Greece and the Aegean.
1482 Jem Sultan (b. 1459), son of Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II, sends a letter to Pierre d’Aubusson, with his two trusted companions, Doğan Bey and Firenk Suleyman Bey, requesting refuge. Jem Sultan temporarily stayed in Pisidia after losing the war for succession to Ottoman throne to his brother Bayazid II. He is advised to seek asylum in Europe rather than Asia as the Christian rulers seeking leverage against the rising Ottomans would be more amenable to Jem’s position. Firenk Suleyman was a European convert to Islam (Firenk being a corruption of“Frank” meaning “French” or “European”) who provided superior communication capacities with the Knights. On 29 July, Jem (also spelled Cem) will land in Rhodes to a welcoming and curious crowd. Jem’s residence is known to the present day as the Palace of Zizim. After 34 days in Rhodes, Jem set sail to France accompanied by his entourage of 57 and a 300 knight escort.
1499 At the first Battle of Lepanto, the Ottoman navy defeats the Venetians annexing some Venetian islands and coastal holdings in the Aegean and Ionian seas.
1516 A Mamluk ambassador comes to Rhodes to demand the surrender of Prince Murat, son of Jem Sultan. Murat fled Cairo fearing he woud be given up to the Ottomans and executed. The Knights refused the Mamluk offer. Murat converted to Catholicism and took the name Pierre Mehmet Sayd. In 1492, Pope Alexander establishes the Principate de Sayd as a fief for the descendents of Jem and King Ferrantino names Pierre Mehmet Viscomte de Sayd. Some branches of Maltese nobility claim direct descent to this Ottoman line even today.
1522 The island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean falls to Suleiman the Magnificent. The Knights are allowed to leave the island with their property and the citizens are granted freedom of worship and property. Suleiman demands the surrender of Prince Murat, known as Pierre Mehmet Sayd, and has him executed. Some records state that Little Jem, grandson of Jem Sultan, was also executed, but European records state that he went with the Knights to their new base in Malta.
1551 Ottoman navy sweeps the Western Mediterrancean. Bastia in Corsica falls.
1556 Ottomans attack Corsica.
1565 Ottoman Admiral Draghut Rais dies during an attack on the Knights of St. John stronghold of the island of Malta. The siege is lifted.
1566 Suleiman the Magnificent dies.
Ottomans capture the Genoese held island of Chios.
1570 Ottomans begin a conquest of the island of Cyprus from Venice.
1571 In response to the capture of Cyprus, the Christian forces– Spain, the papacy, and Venice– under Don Juan defeat the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto (Greece). The victory is a significant one for the Christians as it shatters the image of Turkish naval invincibility; however, due to internal instabilities and the immediate renovation of the Ottoman navy, Europe cannot consolidate the win. Christendom counts Miguel Cervantes, renowned author of Don Quixote, among the many wounded; he lost the use of his left arm earning the nickname el manco de Lepanto (the one-handed soldier of Lepanto). The Ottomans suffer heavy losses, but thanks to Uluj Ali, the Turkish left were saved.
1669 Candia falls giving Crete to the Ottomans.
1685 Venetians attack Ottoman Greece.
1687 The Venetian force occupies Greece. During the battle, the Parthenon sustained heavy damage. During transportation to Venice as trophies, the chariots and horses of Athena fell and were badly damaged.
1718 The Peace of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire and Venice and Austria followed Ottoman wars with the two European powers over Crete, Greece, and parts of the Balkans.
1798 A Tunisian raid on the island of San Pietro, near Sardinia, sees the capture of nearly 1,000 slaves.
1803 Napoleon forces Tunis to free all the slaves captured in the San Pietro raid in 1798
1821 Greek insurrection against Ottoman rule begins in Morea igniting the Greek War for Independence.
1822 Greeks proclaim their independence at Epidauros. The Ottomans occupy Chios initiating the Battle of Chios. The Ottomans invade the Grecian peninsula and besiege Missolonghi.
1823 Ottomans lift the siege on Missolonghi.
1825 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud appeals to Egypt’s Muhammad Ali for help against the Greek revolt. The latter sends his son Ibrahim with a fleet and an army to Morea while the Ottomans dispatch Reshid Pasha from the north. The European powers give their support to the Greeks.
1827 At the Battle of Navarino of the Greek War for Independence, French, British, and Russian ships destroy the Turko-Egyptian fleet.
1828 Egyptian forces begin the evacuation of Greece.
1832 The Treaty of London officially establishes Greece as an independent country.
1877 Turkey transfers Cyprus to British control.
1930 Turkey signs Treaty of Friendship with Greece and joins the League of Nations.
1953 The French force Moroccan Sultan Muhammad V into exile in Corsica.
11. Muslims in Italy
Initially, attacks on Italy seemed to be extensions of the Sicily campaigns. Significant steps were made by the Muslims: establishing of ties with the merchant states, founding of a temporary Islamic state, and the invasion of Rome. After Sicily began to fall to the Normans, the Pope started to use his power to take advantage of the crusading spirit and call international crusades against the Muslims. The next noteworthy Muslim presence occurred during the 13th century when Frederick II established a Muslim colony at Lucera. After it was dismantled, the Muslim impact remained in the form of ambassadors, scholars, etc. Since Rome was the spiritual head of Europe at the time, it came into heavy contacts with the Ottomans. Sultan Muhammad II made use of Italians in all functions of his reign. He died in hopes of conquering the south European nations. Throughout these centuries Italian art from carpets to painting reflected contacts with the Muslim world.
810-820 Muslims attack Sardinia, Corsica, etc.; they occupy the Balearic Islands, Nice and parts of Southern Italy.
813 Muslims attack Nice, Corsica, Civita Vecchia (near Rome).
836-909 Aghlabids invade Italy.
837 Muslims first gain a foothold on mainland Italy after coming to the call of the Napolitans against the Lombards of Benevento.
838 Muslims allied with Naples attack the Adriatic coast of Italy temporarily occupying Brindisi after defeating a Venetian fleet.
841 The dynast of Benevento, Radelchis, appeals to the Muslims for aid against his rival Sikenolf, governor of Bari. The Muslims accept and occupy Bari. In response, Sikenolf fruitlessly seeks the aid of the Muslims in Crete against the Muslims in Italy.
843 With the help of Naples, the Aghlabids capture Messina and the strategic Straits of Messina.
846 Pope Leo IV implores the coastal cities of Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta to join forces against Muslim invasion. Under Cesarius, son of the duke of Naples, the Italian fleets defeat the Muslims (a heavy storm facilitated this victory). Many of the Muslims captured and forced into labor, are used to fortify the Vatican City.
The Muslims reach the Italian town of Arrezo; the name derives itself from “Saracino” (Saracen was the common name for Muslims). This is the origin for the festival held in this city on the first Sunday of September at the Piazza Grande known as the Giostra del Saracino (Joust of the Saracen).
849-866 The Muslims occupy the Apulia region of Italy. Mufarraj ibn Sallam declares his independence in Bari occupying 48 fortresses in the region and raiding Napolitan lands.
851 The Muslims in Bari attack Calabria threatening Benevento and Salerno.
858 The Muslims of Bari raid Benevento. They defeat a Frankish relief force.
859 Prince Adelchis of Benevento pays the Muslims tribute. By this time, the Muslims have penetrated Campagna and raid the suburbs of Naples. The Volturno valley and Venafro are occupied.
866 Louis II attacks the Muslims in Italy occupying Matera, Venosa, and Canosa but fails to take Bari.
The Muslims besiege Ragusa until a relief force led by Nicetas Oryphas arrives.
869 Louis II unsuccessfully besieges Bari again.
871 Louis II successfully conquers Bari from the Muslims.
872 Muslims take the offensive in all direction of southern Italy defeating Prince Adelchis of Benevento and his Lombard troops three times.
873 Louis II conquers the Muslims of Capua.
875 Louis II dies. His campaigns against the Muslims prevented their occupation of a larger portion of Italy.
A Muslim fleet sails up the Adriatic to Grado and sets fire to Comacchio on the return voyage.
876 Muslims are joined by Italian states of Naples, Salerno, and Amalfi in attacking the Roman coast. Pope John VIII is forced to pay tribute.
880 Atanasio, the bishop of Naples, appeals to the Muslims for aid. Pope John VIII anathematizes him.
881 Muslims of Sepino, in alliance with Count Guy of Spoleto, occupy the valley of Volturno again after overrunning Isernia and Bojano.
882 Muslims establish a base at Garigliano.
886 The Byzantines wrest Calabria and parts of Apulia from the Muslims.
888 The Muslims defeat a Byzantine fleet near Reggio. In the counterstrike, the Byzantine capture the enemy commander Mujbir ibn Ibrahim.
901 After the Byzantines send forces to take advantage of the civil disorder of Muslim portions of Sicily, Abdullah ibn Ibrahim counterstrikes with an attack on Reggio on the Italian mainland.
905 The Muslims at Gargliano raid Capua, then in alliance with Naples.
911 Muslims colonize the Alpine Passes.
915 Pope John X, with aid from other Italian states, drives Arabs from their base at Garigliano. Central Italy is freed from Muslim invasions. Some view this victory as the best show of Italian unity during the century.
Ibn Qurhub sends an expedition against the Italian mainland. Eustathius, the Byzantine strategist of Calabria, pays tribute to the invading Muslims.
920 Muslims attack the Italian Piemonte in the east and upon Marseille in the west.
925 Expeditions from Sicily attack the coasts of Lombardy and Calabria.
929 Fatimids raid Naples and Salerno.
934 Fatimids, based in North Africa, capture Genoa.
935 Following the capture of Genoa, a Muslim flotilla defeats a Byzantine fleet sailing in Corsican waters.
942 Muslims occupy Mount Jupiter (Great St. Bernard).
952 Muslims sailing up from al-Madhiyya establish a short-lived mosque in Reggio in southern Italy.
956 Kalbites attack Calabria.
972 St. Maiolus, while returning to Cluny from Rome, is captured by Muslims when he tries to use the St. Bernhard route. Muslims ransom him for 1,000 pounds of silver.
976 Abul Qasim leads a Muslim expedition into southern Italy.
982 The Kalbite forces of Abul Qasim defeat the Frankish Emperoro Otto II in Capo Colonna in Calabria.
986 Muslims occupy Gerace and advance to Cosenza in Italy.
994 Muslims occupy Matera in Italy.
999 Gerbert is consecrated as Pope Sylvester II. Around 952, he entered an abbey. After growing tired of monasticism, he went to Muslim Spain (around 960) where he learned the sciences. He became so learned in these sciences that many in his homeland accused him of acquiring this knowledge via a pact with the devil.
Abu Bakr ibn Omar al-Gutiya, Andalusian historian and descendent of Gothic Princess Sara, states that Ibn Faruq of Granada sailed from Kadesh into the Atlantic, landed in the Great Canary Islands, and went west to Capraria and Pluitana islands.
1002 Venetians take Bari from the Muslims.
1005 The Pisans inflict a heavy defeat on the Muslims in the strait of Messina.
1006 Byzantines, with Pisan aid, repel a Muslim attack.
1009 Muslims again march through Calabria and occupy Cosenza.
1011 Muslims sack Pisa.
1012 Mujahid ibn Abdullah of Denia, with a Muslim fleet from Spain, attacks Pisa (the event is also dated in 1015). Since about 1010, Mujahid looked to establish himself in the Mediterranean with the conquest of the Balearic Islands.
1016 Muslims besiege Salerno.
1020 Muslims in alliance with the Apulian Rayca occupy Bisgnano in Italy.
1021 After seven years of battle, the Pisans and Genoese defeat Mujahid.
1029 Muslims from Sicily with Rayca raid the southern coast of Italy attacking the castle of Obbiano.
1031 Muslims raiding Italy occupy Cassano.
1032 The Byzantines and the Ragusans defeat a Muslim fleet in the Adriatic. Another fleet from North Africa suffers defeat off the west coast of Greece.
1074 The Zirids send a flotilla to attack Nicotra in Calabria in response to Norman incursions in Sicily. The Normans repulse this attack.
1084 Benavert raids the coast of Calabria and the suburbs of Reggio. He takes the monastery of Rocca d’Asino and all its priests captive. This prompts the Norman conflict with the Muslims to take on the aura of a crusade.
1088 Count Roger occupies Butera and exiles the Muslim inhabitants to Calabria.
1113 Zirid ships raid Naples and Salerno.
1122 The Banu Maymun, clients of the Almoravids, sack Nicotra in Calabria.
1145 A bishop from the Outremer (the independent Crusader states in the Middle East) tells the Pope about a wealthy and powerful Christian monarch from the east who has come to aid in the fight against Islam.The Prester John legend enters history with this rumor. The basis for this mythical figure may stem from the victory of the Qara-Khitai people in Central Asia over the Muslim Seljuk Turks in 1141.
1177 Pope Alexander III sends an embassy to the mythical Prester John; it will never return.
1202 The Fourth Crusade is summoned. This one ironically is not carried out against the Muslims but the Christian-held Constantinople. This event agitates bitter feelings between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic realms. The dispute will prove detrimental when the Ottomans rise and Europe is split.
1218 Egypt becomes the target of the Fifth Crusade backed by Italian states seeking commercial dominance. This crusade was marked by heavy naval engagements and failed to achieve its goal.
1223 Frederick II sends another military force to Sicily to crush Muslim opposition. Frederick II begins resettling the Muslim rebels on mainland Italy in a Muslim colony known as Lucera. Some evidence suggests that transfers may have started after the rebellion in 1222.
1237 Frederick II uses the Muslims of Lucera in his military campaigns in Northern Italy.
1239 A leopard keeper is known to exist in the Muslim colony of Lucera; by 1280, up to six Muslim leopard keepers are employed in the colony.
Muslims of Lucera are among the troops that advance against Frederick’s Milanese enemies.
1240 Muslims work as camel keepers in Lucera.
1243 Pope Inncocent IV receives Abdullah, brother of Ibn Sab’in, as envoy of the Almohad ruler.
1245 At the Council of Lyons, called by the Pope, Frederick II is criticized for his support for Muslims (which include accusations of taking Muslim concubines), especially his stand on the colony at Lucera.
1254 Giovanni Moro abandons the Hohenstaufen cause and joins Pope Innocent IV.
1255 Pope Alexander IV sends an army against Manfred, son of Frederick II who recently came into conflict with the papacy following the slaying of a papal auxiliary, and his base with the Muslims at Lucera.
1260 Manfred becomes King of Sicily.
1264 Pope Urban IV calls a crusade against Manfred and the Muslims of Lucera (due to their support of Manfred).
1265 A month after being consecrated, Pope Clement IV also calls a crusade against Manfred and his Muslim supporters. The Pope will also preach crusades against the Muslims of Spain and Africa.
The Pope and other European monarchs receive embassies from the Ilkhans (the Mongol dynasty of Persia) proposing collaboration against the Mamluks of Egypt.
1266 Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX defeats Manfred, the last Hohenstaufen, at the Battle of Benevento. Receiving papal support to take possession of the Kingdom of Sicily the previous year, Charles of Anjou now becomes King Charles I. Charles I levies heavy taxes on Lucera but permits the practice of Islam.
1268 Muslims rebel in Lucera upon the arrival in Italy of Conradin, Frederick’s grandson.
1269 The Muslim rebels in Lucera surrender. Many Muslims become fugitives all over Italy.
1270 Muslims in Lucera find employment in falconry.
Charles I orders that all Muslim fugitives must be returned to the colony.
1273 Ibrahim, captain of the Muslim forces for the Angevins, leads his group to parts of Achaea.
Leone, a Lucerine Muslim, becomes the captain of the Angevins’ Muslim forces in Durazzo. A month later, Musa replaces him as commander of the 200 Muslim stationed.
1275 The Muslim knight Riccardo, real name Abu Abdullah, gathers 100 archers from the colony at Lucera to fight in the Angevin campaigns in Durrazo, Albania.
Ibrahim replaces Musa as commander of the Muslims at Durazzo.
1276 Charles I reissues the laws prohibiting Muslims from leaving Lucera. Around this time, Christians from Provence are settled in Lucera.
1277 Charles I grants Musa tax immunity for his service in Durazzo.
1278 Riccardo and Leone select fifty Lucerine laborers to work on the castle at Melfi in Italy.
1279 Charles I orders that fifty-three of the best Muslim archers from Lucera are to be selected to go to Durazzo.
1280 Charles I orders 300 Muslim crossbowmen, under Riccardo, to report to Brindisi for eventual shipping off to Durazzo. They will participate in the unsuccessful siege of Berat’s castle.
1282 Charles orders 100 horses to be supplied to the 100 Muslim crossbowmen fighting in the royal army in Sicily. 500 Muslim foot soldiers are recruited for the army.
1283 The Aragonese bring war onto the Calabria region of Italy. Leone, the Muslim knight, leads Muslim soldiers for the royal army in Nicotera in Calabria throughout the 1280s. In this year Musa is ordered to recruit Muslim archers for the army.
1284 Musa, Suleiman, and Salem serve as the captains for the Muslim forces during the siege of Scalea in Italy.
1285 Charles I dies at Foggia.
1289 Charles of Salerno is crowned King of Sicily. He continues the employment of Muslim soldiers as well as Muslim tentmakers and weapons manufacturers.
Riccardo ascends to the position of captain of the city of Lucera, the only Muslim to hold that position. This same year he is accused of committing crimes against the king’s property among other things. Charles II orders his property and possessions seized. Profit from Riccardo’s property is used for the War of Sicilian Vespers.
1294 The judge Pietro Spitaneta, an exile of Benevento, returns to his city with 1,000 Muslims causing unrest in the region.
1295 Charles II issues a letter to the Muslims of Lucera affirming that he does not want them unjustly disturbed.
1296 Charles II grants the Muslim knight Abd al-Aziz the tenement of Tertiveri. The conditions upon the land grant are similar to the fiefdoms granted to Christian nobles.
1298 The Muslim knight Abd al-Aziz receives a lease for lands from the monastery of Santa Sofia ofBenevento.
Muslims in Lucera become famous for tentmaking; tents are sent to Lucera for repair and experts were sent from Lucera to Naples.
1300 Under the orders of Charles II, Giovanni Pipino, count of Altamura, leads a successful assault on Lucera. The colony is dismantled and many of the inhabitants are enslaved. The mosque is destroyed and no Islamic architecture remains.
1302 Charles II permits the establishment of 200 Muslim hearths in the land of Civitate.
1304 Muslim slaves from Lucera are sought as fugitives.
1315 Muslim slaves left from the dismantled Lucera colony are still known to escape and become fugitives.
1328 Robert the Wise, son of Charles II, orders officials to track down Muslims still residing in southern Italy to tax them for the defense of the kingdom.
1344 Venice negotiates a five-year dispensation from the papacy’s sanction against trade in Syria and Egypt as long as no arms or war materials are traded. By the next year, the Republic will open service to Alexandria.
1348 The Black Plague reaches Europe devastating populations all over the continent. It is believed that Genoese ships brought the plague over from Caffa, a city on the Black Sea, which Genoa owned at the time. A couple of years earlier, the Golden Horde (Mongol rule in Russia) besieged the city by catapulting infected bodies over the walls of the Crimean city thereby spreading the disease to the population. Caffa proved to have a very profitable slave market where Eastern slaves (mostly Tartars but also Circassians, Armenians, and many others) of both Muslim and Christian origin were brought to Italy.
1363 Following the expansion of Italian trade in the East and the devastating effects of the Black Plague, the Priors of Florence issue a decree on 2nd March to allow the importing of foreign slaves, provided they were not Christian (a provision that did not always hold true). In addition to the ethnic variety brought in from the Caffa markets, slaves from Africa and the Middle East were brought over to serve in the households of Tuscany. By the end of the 15th century, with the loss of the Black Sea markets and the decline of markets in the Levant, this importation of Eastern slaves steadily comes to an end.
1397 In Florence, the incomplete Registro degli schiavi reports that between 1366 and 1397, registered slave traders in the city sold 274 Tatars (majority female), 30 Greeks, 8 Turks, 4 Circassians, 13 Russians, 5 Bosnians or Slavs, 1 Cretan, and some Arabs or Saracens.
1400 Tamerlane, Muslim conqueror from Central Asia, invades Syria and captures Damascus. He disrupts the Damascene trade in pottery and glass in the Mediterranean as part of his policy is to transfer craftsmen to his capital of Samarkand. Ceramics and glassware from Damascus were in demand in many European states, but after its capture and destruction, the industries will never completely recover. Trade in the Mediterranean shifts in favor of Europe. The Venetians employed Syrian techniques of making and painting glass over a century ago into their own craft.
1442 The Mamluk sultan sends the doge of Venice ambassadorial gifts including scarce Chinese porcelain, which will become popular among many of the elite of the Mediterranean.
1453 Constantinople falls to the Ottomans, under Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople is renamed Islampul and eventually the modern Istanbul. A wave of fear grips much of Europe, especially Italy as this is perceived as the fall of Eastern Christian power. Muhammad reportedly had been surprised at the reaction in Italy, given his close relations with some Italian powers and the notion that both Italian and Turks shared a common. Trojan heritage which should have taken pride in a defeat over Greeks.
1454 Venice signs a commercial treaty with the Ottomans.
1461 The Pope publishes his controversial
Epistola ad Mahometem, in which he claims the Ottomans are greater than the current Christian rulers and if the Sultan accepts Christianity, the Pope would invest him as successor to the Emperors of Rome.
1471 Scholars have concluded that Venetian diplomatic exchanges with Persian ruler Uzun Hasan between now and 1474 bring Persian artisans, and their influence in various crafts, such as Mahmud al-Kurdi to Venice.
1478 Bernardo Bandini Baroncello flees to Istanbul after murdering Giuliano de’ Medici in the “Pazzi Conspiracy.” Muhammad II orders the arrest and extradition back to Florence of Bernardo, where he is tried for murder and executed. In appreciation, Lorenzo de’ Medici, brother of Giuliano, commissions Bertoldo di Giovanni to make a portrait medal of the Sultan.
1479 Gentile Bellini, sent by the Doge of Venice to Muhammad II, goes to Istanbul where he will paint his famous portrait of the Ottoman ruler.
1480 Ottoman sultan Muhammad II lands in southern Italy and captures Otranto. His death impedes plans of a conquest of Rome.
1487 Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Qait Bay dispatches an embassy to Florence to negotiate a commercial treaty. Among the gifts is a giraffe, among the earliest seen in Europe. The negotiations include discussions about moving Jem Sultan from France.
In Ancona, officials arrest two agents of Sultan Bayazid. It is believed they may have been assassins sent to rid the Sultan of his brother Jem in France. Their fate is unknown.
1488 Ferdinand of Spain sends Innocent VIII a gift of 100 Moors. The Pope distributes the exotic slaves among nobility and cardinals.
1489 Jem Sultan arrives in Rome to the court of Pope Innocent VIII.Jem Sultan develops friendly relations with many at the court especially the pope’s son Franceschetto Cibo. Jem rejects an offer by the pope to convert to Christianity. A few days after his arrival, Jem discovers a Turkish assassin sent to kill him. Cibo had the man tortured into confession.
1490 The Pope has Cristoforo Castracano, also known as Macrino and cousin of Boccolino Guzzoni, drawn and quartered. After being removed by the Pope from his fief in Marche de Ancona, Macrino seeks refuge with Bayazid II agreeing to assassinate Jem. In Venice, Macrino is arrested and given to the Pope. Under torture, Macrino admitted to a number of assassins being sent to kill Jem.
Mustafa Pasha, an Ottoman envoy, meets Innocent VIII to negotiate terms regarding Jem. Mustafa and Jem arranged a meeting where Jem received a letter from his brother. While Mustafa was still in Rome, an envoy from Sultan Qait Bay came to Rome to attempt to pay the pope to have Jem sent to Cairo. The Pope kindly declined after he already accepted payment from Bayazid II.
1492 Jem witnesses part of a festival celebrating the Spanish conquest of Granada from the Moors. In a letter to the Pope, King Ferdinand of Spain stated that King Ferrante of Naples covertly assisted the Muslims of Spain during their last hours.
1493 Ottoman envoy Kasim Bey, Chasimpueg in Italian chronicles, arrives in Rome to provide payment for Jem’s upkeep to the new Pope Alexander VI. Kasim Bey and Jem have a chance to meet and speak with each other.
In Ferrara, Ercole I d’Este hires Sabadino Moro (also known as Sabadino Negro), from Cairo, to manage a carpet shop. Sabadino will stay on until 1530.
Al-Hassan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzani al-Fasi (also al-Hassan al-Wazzan), the future Leo Africanus, is born in Spain to a middle class family. His family will soon moved to Fez where he received most of his education. From here he would journey throughout North, West, and Central Africa recording his travels.
1494 Twelve Turks attended the ceremony of investiture and coronation of Alfonso II as King of Naples. During Mass, the Turks were excused.
A dispatched Ottoman embassy, including Kasim Bey, is attacked and robbed in Ancona. Citizens of Ancona rescue Kasim so as to divert wrath of an Ottoman attack. Diplomatic letters fall into the hands of the Pope’s enemies.
1495 Jem Sultan leaves Rome with French King Charles VIII after over 5 years with the papacy. In Naples, Jem becomes progressively sick and eventually succumbs to an illness, possibly pneumonia, despite attempts by Charles’s physicians to help.
1496 An Ottoman envoy comes to Gaeta to discuss payment for Jem’s body.While attempting to depart, French troops arrest the Ottoman diplomat and records do not say what became of him.
1499 An Ottoman ship lands on the port of Lecce with the message that if King Federigo of Naples does not turn over Jem’s remains, the kingdom would suffer an attack. The King acquiesced and Jem’s remains were turned over to the Ottoman envoys. Upon receiving the body of Jem, Bayazid II confirmed friendly relations between Naples and the Ottoman Empire.
1500 The Ottoman navy, under Kamal Rais, defeats the Venetians at the second Battle of Lepanto, also known as Modon. This success allows the Ottoman cavalry to cross the Julian Alps into Italy as far as Vicenza.
Italian artisans integrate Muslim geometric patterns into their ceramics.
1504 Leonardo da Vinci enters into negotiations with Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II to construct a 350-meter bridge over the Bosphorus. Bayazid soon drops the plan.
1506 Sultan Bayazid invites Michelangelo to perform the bridge construction, but negotiations fall through.
1507 Taghri Berdi, a Mamluk ambassador, concludes a treaty in Venice. Taghri Berdi –a man of unclear origin, although likely Spanish Christian or Jewish–aided in the negotiation in 1489 between the Republic and Mamluks concerning Cyprus. Of the 20 treaties between Venice and Mamluk Egypt, this is the only one where the Mamluks sent a representative to the Republic.
1514 The first known instance of the printing of an Islamic book in the West occurs: an Arabic book on the times of prayers printed in Italy under the patronage of the Pope Leo X.
King Manuel of Portugal sends to Rome gifts and samples of his conquests including a white elephant from India and its two Muslim handlers, a black “moor”, and al-Farab, a “Saracen.” Al-Farab would stay on to attend the elephant until its death 2 years later.
1518 Christian corsairs capture a ship with al-Hasan al-Wazzan on board near Tunis. With Africanus is a draft in Arabic of his book The History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things Therein Contained. The corsairs take him to Rome where Pope Leo X receives him. Soon the Pope frees the captive and baptizes him as Giovanni Leoni (Yuhanna al-Asad, in Arabic), but he becomes known as Leo Africanus.
1521 Leo Africanus stays at Campo Marizio quarter in Rome. A census taken a few years later reveals the names of numerous courtesans such as Maria the Moor.
1525 Leo Africanus completes his correction of Johannes Gabriel’s attempt at Latin translation of the
Quran.
1526 Leo Africanus finishes his book on his account of his travels in Africa.
1533 Khairuddin Barbarossa raids Sicilian and Italian coasts.
1535 Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici dies. His court included a highly diverse troop including Turkish and Moorish Horsemen, Mongol archers, black African wrestlers, and Indian divers. On his death, this mourning group carried the cardinal on their soldiers from Itri to Rome.
1537 Suleiman the Magnificient declares war on Venice. The island of Corfu and the land around Taranto experience attacks.
A Venetian printing house publishes an Arabic
Quran with intent to sell to Ottoman lands. Due to the numerous errors, most copies were destroyed.
1538 Under Admiral Khairuddin Barbarossa, the Ottoman navy defeats a coalition force of Spanish, Venetian, and papal fleets under Andrea Doria at the Battle of Prevesa. Barbarossa then captures the coastal Italian cities of Reggio, Citraro, Sperlonga, and Fondi.
1539 Venice sues for peace with the Ottomans.
1543 Pope Paul III founds the College of Neophytes to assist converts from Islam and Judaism in Rome.
1547 In Venice, Andrea Arrivabene published the first
Quran in Italian
1550 Leo Africanus's
The History and Description of Africa and the Notable Things Therein Contained is published in Italian. It is held as one of the best accounts of the region until the 19th century. He wrote other works including
The Epitome of Muslim Chronicles, The Faith and Law of Muhammad according to the Malikite School of Law, and the collective biographies
On Some Illustrious Men among the Arabs (with On
Some Illustrius Men among the Jews).
1552 Leo Africanus dies. Many believe he died in Tunis where he returned to Islam.
1599 Uruch Beg, son of a Persian nobleman and one of four secretaries to the Persian ambassador, leaves Isfahan with Sir Anthony Sherley for the countries of Europe.
1600 The journey of Uruch Beg and the Persian ambassador Husayn Ali Beg takes them to Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Prague, and throughout Italy including Rome.
1601 Three members of the party of Husayn Ali Beg covert to Christianity during the ambassador’s stay in Rome. The embassy moves on to Spain.
1645 The Ottomans begin an attack on the Venetian island of Candia in retaliation for the capture of a Turkish merchant fleet.
John Evelyn witnesses the conversion of a Turk and a Jew to Christianity in Rome.
1854 Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War.
1929 King Amanullah of Afghanistan abdicates and is exiled to Italy.
1944 Goums, Moroccan regiments in the French army, play a significant part in the Allies’ capture of Rome. Prized for their mobility in mountainous terrain and clad in their striped djellaba-s (long traditional dresses) accompanied by a supply train of 4000 mules, the Goums traversed the thought-to-be impregnable Aurunci Massif range. Despite distinguishing themselves in battle, many Goums are cited for atrocities against Italian civilians—an incident of rape from this will provide the backdrop for a future Sophia Loren movie. Goums will go on to serve in liberating Marseilles with Algerian counterparts in Germany; they previously participated in campaigns in Sicily. Following the War, they will serve in Indochina.
12. Nordic-Muslim Relations
Muslim activity seemed to be sparse in Northern Europe although a presence, especially economically did exist. Vikings made raids on Muslims lands in Spain and down from Russia to the Abbasid holdings in the east, so the Nordic peoples were not entirely ignorant of what the Islamic world had to offer. Even though not too many Muslims are known to have settled the Viking regions, many northerners did come to stay in Muslim lands, especially during the time of age of corsairs in the 16th and 17th centuries.
910 The dirham, a silver coin, begins to filter in large quantities to Sweden and Gotland from Islamic Central Asia.
921 Ahmad ibn Fadlān, a 10th century Arab Muslim writer and traveler, began his travel to , as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars. When he returned to Baghda, he wrote a famous account of his travel, the
Kitāb ilā Malik al-Saqāliba. This text was one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the Vikings (whom he called Rūs, or Rūsiyyah = Russians) of the Volga, by the Black Sea, the Caspian and other northern regions. Ibn Fadlān's adventures were the inspiration for the well known novel
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (filmed as
The 13th Warrior (1999) directed by John McTiernan, with Antonio Banderas as Ibn Fadhlan) in which the Arab ambassador is taken even further north and is involved in adventures inspired by the Old English epic
Beowulf
950 Al-Tartushi, a Jewish merchant from Cordova, visits Hedeby in Denmark. Hedeby, the largest commercial center of the Vikings, attracts merchants from all over the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
1616 Simon Danser –known as Diablo Reis, or “Captain Devil”– leads an Algerian fleet in an attack on Iceland. Despite remaining covertly Christian, Danser proves to be a great addition to the naval exploits of the North African realms.
1627 Murad Reis –with a crew of Moors, English, and a Dutch pilot– raid Reykjavik, Iceland obtaining salted fish, hides, and four hundred slaves.
1672 Forced baptisms of Muslims are reported in Sweden this year and again in 1695.
1709 After losing to the Russians at Poltava, Swedish monarch Charles XII seeks asylum within the Ottoman Empire. He will remain in Turkish domains for five years.
1732 The Ottoman ambassador Mehmed Said Efendi arrives in Stockholm to collect Swedish debt for the Empire (upon his departure from Ottoman lands, King Charles XII borrowed money from the empire) and assess the Russo-Swedish relations.
1978 A Muslim school opens in Copenhagen.
1990 Somali refugees start to arrive in Finland via Moscow. A previous Muslim community in Finland comprised of Mongol-descent people (Tatars) from the Russian Empire.
13. Muslims in Britain
Muslim presence in the British Isles is better known at the end of the Middle Ages when the British and the Ottomans began cultivating relations. Problems between the two worlds arose during the Crusades and the exploits of corsairs of the Mediterranean. As Britain’s involvement with India increased, many Indian Muslims came to the islands. With the height of British colonialism during the Victorian Era, Muslims of all nations came to the isles. By the beginning of the 20th century, quite an established Muslim community formed.
774 Anglo-Saxon ruler King Offa Rex mints coins imitating that of Arab currency. Ironically, inscribed in Arabic on the coins is the Muslim profession of faith (shahada) with “Offa Rex” inscribed upside down.
1504 Two “blackamoor” girls are brought to the Royal Court in Scotland where they are baptized, given the names Elen and Margaret, and educated.
1509-1547 Tudor King of England Henry VIII reigns. In addition to Scots, Spaniards, Italians, and many other European races, Turks and Tartars are counted among his mercenary troops. The Tudor monarch was known to make heavy use of foreign troops.
1579 Via negotiations with William Harborne, the Ottomans open correspondence with Queen Elizabeth.
1581 England’s Sir Francis Drake releases 100 Ottoman men from Spanish captivity.
1583 England begins its diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire by dispatching William Harborne as ambassador to Istanbul.
1584 A money collection is taken in London to free sixty Englishmen held in Muslim captivity.
1586 The first record of a Muslim convert to Christianity in England takes place: Chinano (who adopts the name William), a man from an island bordering Greece. Chinano had spent 25 years in Spanish captivity before his release by Sir Francis Drake. Men like Chinano are believed to have been galley slaves to the Spanish, freed by the English, and brought to the Isles until they could be returned to Ottoman lands. During this period, the English government heavily pushes for an Anglo-Turkish alliance against Catholic nations.
1600 Queen Elizabeth receives a sixteen-member Moroccan embassy.
1605 An allowance is paid to a Turkish captive who embraced Christianity in England and assumed the name John Baptista.
1607 Mustapha, an Ottoman official known as a chiaus, seeks audience with King James to discuss exploits of English sea captains in the Mediterranean Sea. The King was very reluctant to receive him and some English treated him with suspicion. Soon, the word chiaus entered English colloquialism as a synonym for swindler.
1613 In a parish register, an entry includes the marriage of a Samuel Munsur (Mansur?), a Blackamore, to a Jane Johnson at St. Nicholas’s Deptford.
1617 A Turkish ship is captured on the Thames.
1624 In England, a general collection is taken to ransom 1500 Englishmen enslaved in North Africa.
1625 North African corsairs seize captives from Plymouth, England. About 60 men, women, and children are taken from Church of 'Munnigesca' in Mounts' Bay (Cornwall) by the corsairs
1626 2,000 wives petition the King, the Duke of Buckingham and Parliament for aid in ransoming their husbands from Muslim detention.
The Spainish capture two renegade captains: a Francis Barney, pilot of a Tunisian ship, and a Robin Locar of Plymouth, who adopted the name Ibrahim.
1631 Murad Reis sacks Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland. A suggestion exists that a Catholic named Hackett –who may have purposely allowed himself to be captured by the corsairs– guided Murad to the capture of Baltimore in order to weaken English influence there. Other evidence points to conspiracy: Murad’s release of the Celtic prisoners, not the English ones; Hackett’s hanging for treason against interests of the English, not the Irish, on the island.
1634 North African corsairs continue to invade the British Isles. They capture two barks from Minehead sailing to Ireland.
1635 Corsairs from Salé capture a ship off Scilly (British Isles).
1636 Three fishing boats with fifty men are captured by the “Turks” near Black Head, between Falmouth and the Lizard. The British coasts are said to be teeming with the North African corsairs.
1637 London receives an ambassador from the Moorish Corsair Republic of Salé. The ambassador, a Portuguese convert, impresses the English with his character and culture.
1640 The families of 3,000 English captives in Algeria petition the King for their ransom.
The British Parliament establishes a Committee for Algiers whose main task is to ensure the ransoming of English captives.
1645 Seven Barbary ships land in Cornwall.
1654 William Erbery, the Welsh millenarian, born 1604 is accused of preaching Islam; he denies all allegations.
1658 John Durie praises a Muslim convert to Protestantism in London. Efforts are made to try and get Muslims to accept Christianity, but lack of appeal, both theologically and culturally, ensures little success to this.
1659 Yusuf, an Ottoman administrator from Negropont, is baptized in England and takes the name Richard Christophilus.With the influx of Muslim merchants and diplomats into England due to improved Anglo-Ottoman relations, a race for Muslim converts begins between the Cromwellian party and the Anglicans.
1668 A patent in England authorizes the collection of money in all churches and chapels for two years for the ransoming of English captives in the Ottoman dominions.
1714 George I becomes King of England taking with him from Hanover his two protégés, Mustafa and Mehemet. Mehemt’s mother and Mustafa’s son will also reside in England. Due to their prominence in the court, Mustafa and Mehemet are depicted in the murals of Kensington Palace.
1716 King George I ennobles Mehemet, who adopts the surname von Königstreu (true to the king).
1721 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1717-1718, actively promotes smallpox inoculation (called variolation) as done by the Turks. After the two daughters of the Prince of Wales were variolated, the practices would spread more. Edward Jenners' vaccination would not come until 1796. The practice of inoculation was known since ancient times in various parts of the world including China, India, and Africa.
1726 Ludwig von Königstreu, formerly Mehemet, a servant of King George I, dies. Mustafa takes over his duties.
1733 Ayyub ibn Suleiman and Thomas Bluett set sail for England. Ayyub (Job), an African Muslim from a respectable family, was captured and enslaved in Africa. He was sent to Maryland but escaped to Pennsylvania where he was arrested. Upon hearing his plight, Thomas Bluett and some other gentlemen took up his cause and helped him try to win his freedom. In more than a year in England, Ayyub impresses noblemen and the wealthy with his civilized decorum, religious debates, and writing of three copies of the Quran from memory. The Spalding Gentlemen’s Society even inducts Ayyub as a member before his return to Africa.
1765 Mirza Itesa Modeen (I’tisam ud Din), an emissary of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam, travels to Britain.
1768 Dr. Alexander Russell sends a letter to Earl of Morton, President of the Royal Society of London, recounting a letter from his brother Patrick, a physician at Aleppo concerning smallpox inoculation practices in the Middle East.
1772 Claud Russel, employee of the East India Company, brings Munshi Ismail to England to be his personal Munshi (teacher).
1776 Muhammad Husain comes to Britain to study astronomy and anatomy.
1777 Munshi Mahomet (Muhammad) Saeed puts out an advert in a London newspaper as a teacher of Arabic and Persian.
1784 Dean Mahomed (1759-1851), member of the Bengal Army of the English East India Company, emigrates from his native India to Cork in colonial Ireland with Captain Baker, an Irish officer in the Army. Mahomed, a native of Patna and descendent from Shiite immigrants to India, belonged to a family of Muslim service elite (his father achieved the second highest rank that an Indian could get in the Company’s army).
1786 In Cork, Dean Mahomed elopes with a young student named Jane Daly.
1793 Ottoman Sultan Selim III sends an emissary to London in an attempt to improve contacts with Western Powers. Ambassadorial missions to Berlin, Paris, and Vienna will soon follow.
1794 Dean Mahomed publishes The Travels of Dean Mahomet becoming the first English book written and published by an Indian author.
1799 Mirza Abu Talib Khan, a native of Lucknow, tours England and Ireland (also Asia and Africa) until 1803. He spends time with the aristocracy of the Isles including a visit to the Baker household where he meets Dean Mahomed. He applauds many aspects of English society including division of labor between genders; however, he feels that Muslim women in India held more rights, despite not being as active in the community. Muslim women in India could have property while English women had to wait until the Married Women’s Property Act in 1882
1807 Dean Mahomed moves to London.
1808 Dean Mahomed’s daughter Amelia is born. Mahomed finds employment in a vapour bath establishment offering “shampooing” or therapeutic massage.
1810 Dean Mahomed establishes his Hindoostanee Coffee-House at 34 George Street, Portman Square in London offering Indian foods and an Indian atmosphere.
1812 Due to the high expenses of his Coffee-House, Dean Mahomed declares bankruptcy.
1814 Dean Mahomed settles in Brighton, a resort town on the southern coast of England, where he becomes a shampoo surgeon at the Devonshire Place bath-house. He will establish another Indian- themed business with his Indian Vapor Baths and Shampooing Establishment.
1822 Dean Mahomed first publishes his
Shampooing, or, Benefits Resulting From the Use of The IndianMedicated Vapor Bath, as Introduced Into This Country, by S.D. Mahomed (A Native of India).
1824 In an Anglo-Netherlands treaty, Malay goes to the British.
1825 Dean Mahomed, reaching the pinnacle of his success by becoming the Shampooing Surgeon to King George IV and then William IV, installs an Indian vapor bath at the Pavilion.
1834 Mahomed Ebrahim Palowkar (b. 1811 in Bombay) comes to Britain with his father Abu Syed to petition the East India Company concerning their lands.
1835 Palowkar marries an Irish woman named Eleanor Deegan.
1838 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II sends an envoy to London to court an alliance through trade concessions. It is unsuccessful.
1839 The Ottoman Tanzimat (Reorganization) reform movement begins. This period will see rapid changes in Ottoman administration including numerous high ranking officials receiving their higher education and postings in the Western nations. Rashid Pasha (1800-1858) serves as Ottoman ambassador to Paris and London in the 1930s. One of his disciples and future grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Ali Pasha (1815-1871), will also serve as ambassador to London in the 1840s. Fuad Pasha (1815-1869), a very well educated student of the former and associate of the latter personality, will also received appointment at the Ottoman London embassy before rising in public office in his own nation.
1842 James Abdoolah (Abdullah), a native of Bombay, comes to Britain as a servant to a Bombay Artillery Major.
1850 For the first time in Britain, an attorney swears on the
Quran on his admission.
1851 Dean Mahomed dies.
1854 Muhammad Ali ben Said, an African slave, enters the service of Russian aristocrat Nicholas Trubetzkoy. With his master, Muhammad (also known as Nicholas Said) will tour Germany, London, Paris, and Italy. In Germany, Said attends a conference with many European leaders leading him to ponder about the plight of his people back in Africa. In 1860, he will set sail for America where he will eventually join the Union army in the Civil War.
1855 Mahomed Ebrahim Palowkar dies a respected tobacconist in Bishopsgate at age 44. Because of the belief during World War I that Palowkar is a German name, Mahomed’s descendents changed their name to Wilson.
1859 Imam Shamil, leader of a resistance movement in the Caucasus region against Russian imperialism, surrenders to the Czar’s forces. Throughout his struggle against the Russians, Shamil became a popular figure among the English public. Newspapers covered his exploits and Caucasus affairs became commonplace in English politics. Shamil’s significance to the English was due to the assumption that his war impeded Russian designs on British India. Shamil even made appeals to Queen Victoria for aide.
1861 Indian Muslim Mir Aulad Ali, who married an English woman, becomes Professor of Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit at Trinity College in Dublin. His tenure ended in 1898.
1869 The opening of the Suez Canal sees many Muslims find employment with the British.
Syed Ameer Ali –activist, scholar, and jurist from Cuttack, Orissa– comes to England on a government scholarship. He will go on to devote most of his work to the betterment of Muslims.
1877 Queen Victoria is proclaimed Queen-Empress of India.
1882 The Islamic reformer and revivalist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani leaves Calcutta for a short stay in England. While there, he publishes many newspaper articles such as “English policy in Eastern countries” and “The Reasons for the war in Egypt.” Al-Afghani stands at the forefront of intellectual Muslim resistance against imperialism during this period. He considers nationalism –as well as other ideals such as communism and nihilism– to be evils that divide people and contradict their nature. Al-Afghani preaches a unity amongst Muslims that supersedes the limitations of national or cultural lines.
1884 Syed Ameer Ali marries Isabella H. Konstam, sister of the actress Gertrude Kingston, in Little Portland Street.
Frederick Akbar Mahomed (b.1849), grandson of Dean Mahomed, dies in England. He was an acclaimed physician earning numerous prestigious awards and positions as well as contributing to the study of hypertension.
1885 Al-Afghani visits England in July and meets with Randolph Churchill, Secretary of State for India, and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff. Their discussions for joint Anglo-Islamic settlements and efforts against Russian encroachment on Muslims of Central Asia bear no fruit. During this period, al-Afghani establishes contacts with Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Ultimately, he leaves England this year for Persia.
1887 Queen Victoria receives several Indian servants including Muhammad Bux and Abdul Karim.
1888 Frederick Mahomed (b. 1818), son of Dean Mahomed, dies. He opened up a successful fencing academy and gymnasium in Brighton. Of his eight children, his five sons each had an Arabic name in addition to their Anglo-Saxon ones. One of the sons explained that the family was proud of their descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
1889 In England, building of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking commences with the sponsorship of Hungarian Orientalist Dr. Leitner.
Queen Victoria promotes Abdul Karim to the position of
munshi (teacher) and begins learning about Indian culture including language and religion.
1891 After being exiled from Persia for his revolutionary ideas, al-Afghani makes his way to London where he continues his struggle for Muslim unity and reform. Again he writes several newspaper articles; however, this time he also attacks the corruption of the Persian administration. He leaves London the following summer for the Ottoman court.
1894 Abdul Karim receives the title of Hafiz rising to the position of Queen Victoria’s Indian Secretary and earning the award of the Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. Despite winning the Queen’s favor, Abdul Karim meets prejudices among many of the members of the English nobility.
1897 Aziz Ahmad, from Lucknow, founds an Indian Mission at his home in Glasgow. The mission focuses more on educating incoming lascars rather than preaching to them.Aziz Ahmad, a convert to Christianity, came to Glasgow sometime around 1883 (dates for his conversion and settlement are sketchy). He lived with his Scottish wife and three children lecturing on Islamic studies. He contributed many articles to Indian newspapers criticizing the Christian missionaries in India and British colonial rule. The articles spark an investigation by the police at the behest of the Indian Criminal Investigation Bureau; police found Ahmad to be harmless. He disappears from the Glasgow directory around 1925.
1899 Dr. Leitner dies and the Woking mosque becomes property of his heirs.
1901 After Queen Victoria dies, Abdul Karim returns home to Agra.
1905 Reverend E.B. Bhose, a Bengali chaplain at St. Luke’s Lascar Mission in Victoria Docks, dies. In his reports for the Lascar Mission, he reports the celebration of Muslim holidays by the lascars while in port.
1908 Syed Ameer Ali becomes the first president of the London branch of the All-India Muslim League.
Dr. Nazim and Ahmed Riza, two leading the Committtee of Union and Progress (the Young Turk’s political front), travel to London to seek an Anglo-Ottoman alliance. Their goals are not met.
1911 The British Red Crescent Society, a Muslim version of the Red Cross, forms.
1913 Under the sponsorship of British Muslim Lord Headley, Khwaja Kamaluddin buys the Shah Jahan Mosque and establishes a center for Muslim missionary work.
1914 Indian lascars make up 17.5% of the total seamen employed on British ships. Muslims comprise a large portion of these lascars.
Many Muslims, part of the eventual 1 million total Indian soldiers, fight on the side of the British in the Great War.
1925 M.A. Khan, R.E. Franklin, and South-Africa-born Indian Muslim Sulaiman Katwaroon begin the Indian Freedom Association, later the Indian Freedom League, in England.
1926 Mehmet VI, the last Ottoman Sultan (r. 1918-1922) dies in exile in San Remo. During his exile, he became the only Ottoman Sultan to make the hajj to Mecca (Jem Sultan also made the hajj, but he was not considered Sultan of the entire Ottoman Empire).
1928 Lord Headley, with the Nizam of Hyderabad, opens the London Nizamiah Mosque Trust.
Syed Ameer Ali dies at age 79 in Sussex.
1934 The Jamiat ul-Muslimin is established in east London.
1943 Shah Abdul Majib Qureshi and Ayub Ali establish the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League in London.
1944 Many Muslims come to the British Isles following World War II as labor migrants.
1970 The Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Eire is established.
1974 A Muslim father founds the Muslim Parents Association (MPA) in Bradford.
1978 Union of Muslim Organizations establishes the National Muslim Education Council for the United Kingdom.
1981 The Bradford Council for Mosques is established.
1990s Muslims figure prominently various facets of western life as activists and scholars such as Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Martin Lings, Jamil Sherif, Gai Eaton, Zaki Badawi, Rana Kabbani, Tariq Ali, Ziauddin Sardar, Akbar S. Ahmed, Ayyub Khan Din, Shabbir Akhtar, Hanif Kureishi, and more.
1994 The London borough of Waltham Forest produces the first Muslim woman to be elected mayor.
Very watered down version of events and misssing emphasis on Prominent Civilization based approach to the Muslim heritage. I saw Civilization , as Muslim Territories themselves were split up between themselves across history so there really was not 1 big chunk it routinely reformed and changed shape. Area were aquired and lost over time due to administrative reasons
Just becasue these were Muslims Kingdom did not meant there was no struggle to get their son into governments
