page_title: Byzantine Malta
section_title: Muslim conquest
hierarchical_section_title: Byzantine Malta / Muslim conquest
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Colonnes romaines réemployées au ribat de Sousse (Tunisie)
context_page_description: Malta was ruled by the Byzantine Empire, from the time of the Byzantine conquest of Sicily in 535-6 to 869-870, when the islands were occupied by Arabs. Evidence for the three centuries of Byzantine rule in Malta is very limited, and at times ambiguous. Historians theorise that Byzantine Malta was exposed to the same phenomena affecting the Central Mediterranean, namely a considerable influx of Greek settlers and Hellenic culture, administrative changes brought about by the reorganisation of Sicily along the lines of a Byzantine theme, and significant naval activity in the Mediterranean following the rise of Islam.
  Byzantine sources are scant on the Maltese islands, although a handful of records group them together as the nominal Gaudomelete, a term that first appears in the pseudoepigraphical Acts of Peter and Paul. The islands were a place of relegation and exile. With Muslim expansion in North Africa, Malta shifted from a military base and trade post linking Sicily and the other Byzantine possessions in the Italian peninsula to the Exarchate of Africa, to an outlying satellite and guardpost of Byzantine Sicily.
context_section_description: With the loss of the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa first, and eventually the loss of Sicily, Malta found itself in an increasingly politically fragmented Mediterranean. Malta lost out on its position between the Aegean and North Africa when the Byzantine Empire lost the grain producing provinces of Africa. The islands experienced a less favourable economic situation, the abandonment of the Marsa main port and warehouses, as well as Arab raids. These led to a decreased potential for transhipment of goods through Malta and the provision of maritime services.  
  This new geopolitical fragmentation was mirrored by developments in Malta, as rural settlement sites were either abandoned or witnessed serious declines in the eight and ninth centuries, with burial sites across the islands being abandoned, implying the abandonment of open spaces in rural and coastal areas and a move to fortified nuclei. The main urban centre of the island, Melite, was heavily modified during this period, with changes including the strengthening of fortifications and the addition of a fortress within the town.
  From the second half of the seventh century onward, Muslim raiders were active in the Central Mediterranean. Although its strategic position meant that Malta came under increasing pressure, there are no references to raids on Malta before the ninth century. There is a reference to a probable raid on Malta in the chronicles of Ibn al-Athir in 835-836, saying that Abu Iqal, from the al-Aghlab dynasty, prepared an expedition which attacked the islands near Sicily and obtained great plunder. This attack is usually taken to be nothing more than a reconnaissance raid, as historians view the attack to be too early for a definitive conquest of Malta. All Greek and Arab sources agree that the conquest of Malta occurred later. 
  Of all the islands around Sicily, Malta was the last to remain in Byzantine hands, and in 869 a fleet under Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Ubaydallah ibn al-Aghlab al-Habashi attacked it. The Byzantines, having received timely reinforcements, resisted successfully at first, but in 870 Muhammad sent a fleet from Sicily to the island, and the capital Melite fell on 29 August 870. The local governor was captured, the town was plundered—Ahmad al-Habashi reportedly took along the local cathedral's marble columns to decorate his palace—and its fortifications razed. The fall of Malta had important ramifications for the defence of what remained of Byzantine Sicily: with Reggio Calabria and now Malta in their hands, the Muslims completed their encirclement of Sicily, and could easily interdict any aid sent from the east. 
  Ibn Khaldun reports that the conquest of Malta by the Aghlabids happened as early as 868. Ibn al-Khatib dates the conquest of Malta, and the capture of its "king" between 11 February and 12 March 875, while Al-Nuwayri refers to the same general period, without giving a specific date. Ibn al-Athir recounts that in 869-870, the Emir of Sicily sent an army to Malta, as the island was being besieged by the Byzantines who then fled. This date is also confirmed by a Greek chronicle from Cassano, Calabria, saying that the island of Melite surrendered on 29 August 870. This date is again confirmed in another Arab source, the Kitab al-'Uyun, which says that Malta was conquered by Abdallah I, and gives the date for the conquest to be three days before Ramadan 256 AH, that is, 28 August 870. Historians explain the slight discrepancy due to uncertainties in lunar observations relating to the Islamic calendar.
  The siege of Melite (modern Mdina) was initially led by Halaf al-Hādim, a renowned engineer, but he was killed and replaced by Sawāda Ibn Muḥammad. The city withstood the siege for some weeks or months, but it ultimately fell to the invaders, and its inhabitants were massacred and the city was sacked.
  However, Ibn al-Athir states that by 870 Malta was already a Muslim settlement, and that the Arab-held island was being besieged by a Byzantine fleet. After a relief force was sent from Muslim Sicily, the Byzantines retreated without a fight o
caption: The marble and columns found in the Ribat of Sousse were pillaged from Malta in 870.
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