The
Aghlabids and Their Neighbours: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa
Sfax was founded by the
Aghlabids dynasty which ruled some parts of northern African and southern Italy between AD 800-909.
Drawing from snippets of information from various sources, Chiarelli introduces him as a scion of the
Aghlabids and former governor of Tripoli, who was behind the anti-Fatimid uprisings.
The Fatimids were a Shiite dynasty that capitalized on Sunni grievances which were economic and political in nature to evict the Sunni
Aghlabids from North Africa.
This important development, however, did not extend to Southern Italy since, with the
Aghlabids' conquest of Sicily during the 9th century, the island entered into the Arab Muslim area of influence.
It was from here that the
Aghlabids who ruled Tunisia then launched their successful invasion of Sicily.
The first, and longer, is a political history of the Ibadi communities, their inception and their relation to the growing hostile powers,
Aghlabids, Fatimids and Zirids.
Of his six entries under the letter A that are not in the ODB, four are marginal to Byzantium ("
Aghlabids," "Alfonso V," "Arles, Council of," "Avitus, Eparchius") and two are rearrangements ("Anchorite," "Anekdota," covered in the ODB under "Hermit," "Prokopios of Caesarea").
It then began to fragment into regional dynasties: in Spain, the Ummayad, 756-1031 A.D.; in Egypt, the Tulunids, 868-905 A.D.; the Fatamids, 969-1171 A.D.; the Ayyubids, 1171-1260 A.D.; in Morocco and Tunisia, the Idrisids, 788-922 A.D.; the
Aghlabids, 800-909; the Murabits, 10621145; and the Muwahhids, 1145-1223 A.D..
Closer to home, Ibn Tulun had the example of the
Aghlabids of North Africa, with their ongoing project of conquest in Sicily and continental Italy.
In the North African period, the Fatimids, as was true of the
Aghlabids who preceded them, benefited substantially from wealth flowing into the realm as a result of military actions--maritime raiding, predominantly--across the Mediterranean along the coasts of southern Italy.