Sabir al-Fata was a freedman who served the Fatimid caliph al-Mahdi Billah as a governor and military commander.
Life
editAs his sobriquet of al-Fata (lit. 'the young hero') demonstrates, Sabir was a Slavic (saqaliba) military slave who had been set free and made an officer of the Fatimid army.[1] His original master had been Ibn Qurhub.[2]
He served under the first Fatimid caliph, al-Mahdi Billah, as governor of Kairouan.[3] In 927/28, he was sent to Sicily with a fleet of 44 ships to launch an offensive against the Byzantine Empire's provinces in southern Italy.[2][4] In 928 with 30 ships, and joined by the Fatimid governor of Sicily, Salim ibn Abi Rashid, he attacked a locality named al-Ghiran ('the caves') in Apulia, and proceeded to sack the cities of Taranto and Otranto.[5][2] At the sack of Taranto, on 17 August 928, some 6,000 inhabitants are reported to have been killed.[4]
The outbreak of a disease forced them to return to Sicily, but then Sabir led his fleet up the Tyrrhenian Sea, forcing Salerno and Naples to ransom themselves with money and precious brocades.[2][4][6] In 929, with four ships he defeated the seven ships of the local Byzantine strategos on the Adriatic coast, and sacked Termoli.[4][6][7] He returned to the Fatimid capital, al-Mahdiya, on 5 September 930, bringing 18,000 prisoners with him.[4][8]
His successes encouraged Caliph al-Mahdi to prepare a new, even larger naval expedition against the Byzantines in Italy, but the arrival of a Byzantine embassy led to the conclusion of a treaty instead (931/32).[6][8][9]
References
editSources
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- Halm, Heinz (1991). Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden [The Empire of the Mahdi: The Rise of the Fatimids] (in German). Munich: C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
- Lev, Yaacov (1984). "The Fāṭimid Navy, Byzantium and the Mediterranean Sea, 909–1036 CE/297–427 AH". Byzantion. 54: 220–252. ISSN 0378-2506.
- Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.