The Contest for Sicily in the Eleventh Century

This chapter details the early history of the Zirid dynasty and its initial interactions with the Normans. On their appointment as emirs of Ifriqiya, the Zirids waged perennial wars against rival tribes across northwest Africa and eventually met their match in the form of the Banu Hilal, who drove the Zirids from their inland capital of Sabra al-Mansuriya to the coastal stronghold of Mahdia in the middle of the eleventh century. The displacement of the Zirids to coastal Ifriqiya reoriented their foreign policy toward the Mediterranean and especially Sicily, where they sought to expand their power. Zirid armies arrived on the island and made alliances with local rulers, as did another group of enterprising newcomers to Sicily: the Normans. In a handful of military encounters between the two dynasties, the Normans emerged victorious and forced Zirid armies off the island. Nonetheless, both groups eventually decided that conflict was less profitable than mutually beneficial trade, which led to the establishment of a commercial partnership between them.