Emirate of Sicily

The conquest of Sicily began from Ifriqiya in the days of the Aghlabids. Ibn Khaldun says that the army, in "the year twelve", landed at the town of Mazara, and that the Muslims then besieged Palermo and took it. ¹

The phrase Ibn Khaldun uses at this point is "the year twelve" (sanat ithnatay ashara), which the context places in 212 AH. The conversion to 827 CE is derived from that reading and is not a date stated in the text. ¹

Al-Idrisi says that Roger ibn Tancred began to conquer the island in 453 AH and took all of it over thirty years. ² Counting thirty years from that year gives an end of about 1091 CE. That date is derived from the text's own span and is not stated in it.

Ibn Jubayr describes Palermo in his own time. He records that the Muslims there had separate quarters, a qadi and a mosque, and that the city was under a Frankish king. ^{3 4}