The First Raid on Sicily and Abdallah ibn Qays's Plunder

أول غزوة لصقلية وسبي عبد الله بن قيس لها

between 660 and 680 CE

In al-Baladhuri: Mu'awiya ibn Khudayj al-Kindi raided Sicily in Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan's days — the first to raid it — and it kept being raided thereafter. Al-Waqidi said: Abdallah ibn Qays ibn Mukhallad al-Dazzaqi plundered Sicily, taking gold and silver idols crowned with jewels which he sent to Mu'awiya, who forwarded them to Basra to be carried to India and sold there for their price.

Overview

Al-Baladhuri says that Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj al-Kindi raided Sicily in the days of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, that he was the first to raid it, and that it continued to be raided after him. ¹

The capture by Abd Allah ibn Qays

Al-Baladhuri, from al-Waqidi, reports that Abd Allah ibn Qays al-Dazzaqi took captives in Sicily, and found idols of gold and silver set with jewels. He sent them to Mu'awiya, who sent them on to Basra to be carried to India and sold there. ¹

The date

The source gives no particular year, saying only "in the days of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan". The period is therefore set approximately between 660 and 680 CE, and it is derived from Mu'awiya's reign, not from a dated statement in the text.

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform

Heraclius's dinars and the Persian Baghliyya dirhams reached Jahiliya Mecca and traded only as bullion: their mithqal twenty-two qirats less a fraction, ten dirhams seven mithqals, the ratl twelve uqiyyas of forty dirhams — weights the Prophet confirmed, and Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, and Mu'awiya after him. Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr struck a few dirhams under Ibn al-Zubayr, later broken; then Abd al-Malik asked and tested, wrote al-Hajjaj to strike dirhams at fifteen qirats of the dinar-qirats, and struck the Damascene dinars — which came to Medina with Companions and Followers there and none objected. Al-Hasan ibn Salih: the Ajam dirhams ran great and small — twenty, twelve, ten qirats — and when Islam needed the mean for zakah they summed forty-two and struck the third, fourteen qirats, so ten Arab dirhams weigh seven mithqals. Quraysh's weights: the dirham for silver, the dinar for gold, ten dirham-weights to seven dinar-weights, the sha'ira a sixtieth of a dirham, the uqiyya forty dirhams, the nashsh twenty, the nawa five — all confirmed when the Prophet entered Mecca. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, asked who first struck engraved dinars, said 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan — dinars came Byzantine, dirhams Kisrawi and few Himyari'.

The First Raid on Sicily and Abdallah ibn Qays's Plunder

At a glance

In time

Overview

The capture by Abd Allah ibn Qays

The date

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

Abd al-Malik's Coinage Reform