HISTORY OF THE MOORISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE BY S. P. SCOTT AUTHOR OF “THROUGH SPAIN” Corduba famosa locuples de nomine dicta, Inclyta deliciis, rebus quoque splendida cunctis HROSWITHA, PASSIO S. PELAGII IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II. [Illustration] PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Published March, 1904 _Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U. S. A._ CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. CHAPTER XV THE MOSLEM DOMINATION IN SICILY PAGE Classic Souvenirs of Sicily--Its Great Natural Advantages--It becomes the Stronghold of the Papacy--Invasion of the Arabs--They besiege Syracuse--Strength of that City--Failure of the Enterprise--Capture of Palermo--Rapid Progress of the Moslems--Condition of Italy--Arab Alliance with Naples--Messina taken--Betrayal of Castrogiovanni--Rout of the Greeks near Syracuse--Feuds of the Conquerors--Their Successes in Italy--Second Siege of Syracuse--The City is stormed and destroyed by Ibn-Mohammed--Peril of Rome--Appearance of the Normans in the South of Europe--They invade Sicily--Siege of Palermo--Subjection of the Island--Influence of the Moslems over their Conquerors--General Condition of Sicily--Its Civilization--Palermo and its Environs--Science, Art, and Literature--The Great Work of Edrisi--Arab Occupation of Sardinia, Crete, Corsica, and Malta 1 CHAPTER XVI THE PRINCIPALITIES OF MOORISH SPAIN