Crete, captured by refugees from Spain, who, exiled from that country for treason during the reign of Al-Hakem I., were subsequently driven from Alexandria by the infuriated populace, whose hospitality they had abused, remained in the hands of the Moslems until 961, when it was reconquered by the Greeks. The Spanish Arabs about the year 806 descended upon the coast of Corsica. The timely aid of King Pepin prevented the immediate loss of that island, which, however, was occupied by the Saracens in 810. The despairing Corsicans, who had betaken themselves to the mountain solitudes, solicited the aid of Charlemagne, who sent a powerful fleet to their relief. The Moslems, after a series of sanguinary engagements, were absolutely exterminated by the ferocious warriors of the West; but the unfortunate Corsicans fared little better than their enemies, for it is stated by respectable authority that nine-tenths of the population perished within less than three years from the effects of the Saracen invasion. The shores of the island are still covered with ruins of extensive towns and cities dating from that period, indicating the former prosperity of the inhabitants, as well as the frightful calamities which they must have endured at the hands of the truculent adventurers of Spain and Africa. Malta, acknowledged in the Middle Ages, as now, to be the key of the Eastern Mediterranean, was for two hundred and twenty years an important dependency of the Sicilian Emirate. Taken by the Moslems in 870, it was occupied by the Norman troops, led by Count Roger in person, in 1090. The subjects of the Greek Emperor were put to death or enslaved, but for the native Maltese the Arabs manifested an unusual partiality. Their lot was far more tolerable than that of the tributary Christians of Sicily, their religion was unmolested, their taxes were moderate, the privileges conceded to them more favorable than those ordinarily accorded to infidels. The inhabitants of all these islands, except Sicily, which made war upon an extensive scale, subsisted by piratical depredations and by trade in slaves, in which reprehensible practices the Moors of Malta early obtained an undisputed and infamous pre-eminence. In this chapter has been traced an incomplete outline of the origin, progress, and decline of the Moslem domination in Sicily, a subject which, if elaborated, would embrace many volumes. From this imperfect sketch, however, the reader may form an idea of a civilization centuries in advance of that of any contemporaneous people, with the single exception of the Spanish Arabs; a civilization which, fostered and perpetuated under the brilliant reign of the Emperor Frederick II., effected such a memorable revolution in the ideas and opinions entertained as indisputably correct by the devout and the credulous of many preceding ages. CHAPTER XVI THE PRINCIPALITIES OF MOORISH SPAIN 1012–1044