Chapter 2 - ...and a Hammer (875-883)
The struggle for dominance across South Italy went beyond the borders of Langobardia and the Emirate of Bari, further to the South and across the Sea, the Aghlabid Sultanate of
Ifriqiya, or Africa, had been busy expanding its power through the last decade under the watchful eye of Sultan Muhammad II. The Aghlabids had first sailed out of Africa in the year 827 AD, determined to make the isle of Sicily their next acquisition. Their armies first launched themselves upon the provincial Roman capital of Syracuse, descending upon its walls fiercely all to no avail. They had overestimated their abilities and lacked the proper siege equipment to bring its walls down, and so it would remain unconquered. The same could not be said for the other Roman holdings in the island however. One by one they had all fallen like dominoes to the mighty warriors from Ifriqiya, and by 867 only Syracuse remained under Roman control.
The Roman Empire still stood as the preeminent power in the Mediterranena, but had been slow to respond against this threat out of Africa. Far to the East, Emperor Basil I "the Macedonian," had been contending with Paulician heretics in Eastern Anatolia for the past decade, struggling to defeat them due to the support provided to them by the Muslim Arabs at the Empire's borders, eager to support the chaos brewing within the Empire. Well aware of this conflict, Sultan Muhammad II would launch one final campaign against the Romans of Sicily. Like a lightning strike the Aghlabids would coordinate a two-pronged attack upon the fortress, raining upon both the Roman garrisons at the walls and their fleet off the coast of Syracuse simultaneously, ensuring no defenders could escape of seek aid from their nearby holdings in Calabria or Malta.
By 870 AD the walls of Syracuse would finally give in, concluding the Aghlabid conquest of Sicily, but their attacks did not cease. They would continue their campaign against the Romans by laying siege to the city of Melite in Malta, capturing it by 872 AD and completely depopulating it through the savage murder and enslavement of its people. Muhammad II had hoped to continue his streak of successes across the mainland, but his transport fleet heading to Calabria would be struck by a freak storm within the sight of the coast, sinking the vast majority of his fleet. What few men remained alive after that ordeal soon found themselves put through the sword as they washed up at the beach where eager Romans awaited them sword in hand. Despite that disastrous turn of events the Aghlabids still had much to celebrate as their conquest of Sicily had been finally achieved, even seizing the key ports of Malta in the process.
The Aghlabid Siege of Melite in Malta, March of 872 AD.
Just as the events of the Siege of Melite were unfolding in Spring of 872, in the province of Sebasteia the armies of Emperor Basil I had begun clashing against the Paulician rebels in one last flurry of steel. The combined Paulician and Arab combatants outnumbered the Imperial host gathered there but their numbers proved useless as the heavily armored Cataphracts cut through them like butter, putting an end to their rabble once and for all.
The loss of Syracuse and Malta greatly hampered Roman ability to control the Mediterranean, and Emperor Basil was well aware of the part luck had played in the defense of Calabria. Had the storm not occurred Calabria would have likely fallen prey to the Aghlabids as well, all but putting an end to Roman presence in Italy (albeit their sole fortress of Lecce at the heel would remain). With so many troubles back at home it would only be a matter of time before he found himself distracted again, providing the Aghlabids another opportunity to strike at Calabria.
The Emperor could not allow such a thing to happen and thus he sailed for Italy with a great host of men to strengthen the garrisons at Reggio, Catanzaro and Cosenza, ordering the construction of several new towers and fortresses to better defend these key cities of Roman Calabria. The Emperor wished to take the fight back to the Aghlabids in Sicily, but recent defeats off the coast of Syria against the Caliphate's navy had left the Imperial fleet severely weakened and it would take nearly a decade before such a campaign could be launched. Waiting that long would make the Empire appear weak against its enemies, inspiring foes to launch new strikes at the fringes of the Empire they believed weak. With Sicily out of his reach, Emperor Basil I began planning instead to strike at the upstart Emirate of Bari, wishing to break it before it could materialize into yet another rival of the caliber of the Aghlabids.
The Roman reinforcements sailing to Calabria, 873 AD
When Sawdan had been chosen to succeed Mufarrag as the third Emir of Bari, one of the key reasons for which he had been selected were his ties with all three religious communities within the great city. He had been born a Muslim of
Amazigh (Berber) descent and so he was a member of the ruling class of the great city, making him eligible for the title. During Mufarrag's reign he had served as ambassador to the neighboring states of Benevento, Salerno, and even the Roman city of Lecce, and thus was well known to the Christian rulers of the region which would find engaging in diplomacy with him far more favorable than with an unknown Muslim fresh off the mainland. Sawdan had also become acquainted with the local clergy of Bari and reassured them of their rights were he to ascend to the throne, and their riches helped Sawdan
convince some of his fellow Muslims to side with him. Lastly, Sawdan was known to frequent the Jewish quarter of the city often, engaging in board games and philosophy with the scholars of the time. He was not bright enough to bring forth any of his own teachings, but he knew well enough how well these learned men enjoyed the sound of their own voice and thus he listened well, earning their friendship through the years.
As Emperor Basil I's activities in Calabria intensified, he and his men came into conflict with the local Jewish communities. Many of his men came with great zeal to defend their lands from the heathens, and paid little mind to the difference between Jews and Muslims, engaging in violent attacks against them. Entire towns were cleansed off their Jewish population as they were killed or driven off as they fled persecution from Basil's men. It was here that Sawdan's ties with the Jewish community allowed him to attract the bulk of the fleeing refugees, refugees that in due time would gladly participate in the defense of their new home Bari.
At first Emir Sawdan had only seen the Emperor's prescence in Italy as a response to the Aghlabid conquests, but as more and more refugees arrived to the city they carried with them word of his plans to strike at Bari, which the refugees had heard slip out of the mouths of their harassers. Phrases like "there's no point in fleeing North, we shall soon strike there and deal with you all over," were common enough among the Romans, forcing Sawdan to once more send word to Egypt requesting aid from Sultan Muhammad Tulunid, his father-in-law.
The Egyptian Sultan did not hesitate to respond and once again sailed from the East to assist his daughter's husband and defend the Ummah in Italy. The Egyptian host arrived in the autumn of 876 AD, and with the combined forces of Bari numbered nearly 7,000 swords, about 2,000 short of what Emperor Basil I could muster if he gathered all the imperial forces for an attack. While Sawdan remained cautious at the face of their numerical inferiority, he was confident the defender's advantage would grant him the edge needed to defeat the Romans. They'd be unprepared to assault the Barese in their home territory, especially those heavily armored cataphracts of theirs.
Much to the chagrin of his generals who insisted he waited for the Spring, Emperor Basil I launched his campaign in the Winter of that same year, 876 AD. Emperor Basil crossed the Adriatic and landed in the port of Avlona in Northern Greece, where the bulk of the imperial armies had gathered and awaited transport to Lecce, the Roman holding sitting at the heel of the Italian peninsula and from where they would launch their attack on Bari. His naval officers had warned him that such an operation could be treacherous as Winter storms were oft to blow ships off course, but Basil I had become aware of the Tulunid landing in Bari and of Sawdan's construction of defenses along their border and hoped he could strike before they could truly dig in and become a problem.
It is often said that the human spirit is indomitable, but even it cannot fight back against the forces of nature. Just as his officers had foretold, Basil I's invasion fleet was blown off course several leagues to the North, and rather than landing in the Roman holdings at the heel, his forces were met with the coasts of Bari, just a mile or two outside the city. They were easily spotted along the way by fishing vessels who alertted the Emir promptly, and when the Romans disembarked they were met with the combined Barese and Egyptian armies, leading to their slaughter.
The disastrous Roman landing and charge at the Battle of Bari, with the walls of the city on the background; 31 of December of 876 AD.
The fighting at the beaches of Bari proved fierce, and soon sand and sea alike were dyed red with the blood of fallen combatants. The Romans were weary from their journey at sea, but the impromptu manner in which the battle unfolded left the Barese with little time to mount any sort of palisade or defense at the beach that could provide them a bigger advantage. Bogged down by mud and water, and weighed down by their soaked cloths and heavy armor, the Romans were unable to dislodge the Muslim faithful from the beach however, and were cut down where they stood. Only a a meager fraction of the original Roman forces remained standing when the Emperor gave the order of retreat, and even fewer would actually leave the beach alive as they were left behind by the frightened Emperor who chose to flee in a hurry rather than wait for his men to board, fearing that the Barese would too board and give pursuit.
News of the Roman defeat at the beaches of Bari soon spread all across the East, eventually making their way to the ears of the Bulgarian Tsar Boris who did not delay to make preparations and seized the chance to strike at their rivals to the South. The Bulgarian Tsardom had recently undergone baptism and embraced Christianity in order to find acceptance with fellow rulers in Europe, leveraging the support of the Kingdom of East Francia and the Pope in Rome against Constantinople and Emperor Basil. While Tsar Boris I had left behind his heathen ways, the Romans remained his enemy and thus he launched an invasion of his own in the Balkans. Boris would unsuccesfully lay siege to Constantinople, who stood fast behind its Theodosian Walls despite the might of the Bulgarian host. Despite their failure to take "the City of the World's Desire," much of the Empire's lands this side of the Bosporus had been put to the torch. By Spring of 880 AD Emperor Basil would sue for peace against his Bulgarian foe and cede the lands around Adrianople and beyond, granting the Bulgarians a port on the Aegean and cutting off Thrace and Constantinople from Thessalonika and Greece proper.
Tsar Boris I cutting down some fleeing Romans in flight after a victory in the plains of Thrace; Winter of 879 AD.
Had the Bulgarians not chosen to strike so soon, Emperor Basil may have been able to gather the Calabrian garrisons and strike back at the Emirate of Bari, as these men never made it to the battle at the beach nor suffered under the Bulgarians' attacks and thus remained unouched by war. Instead Emperor Basil was forced to respond to the much more pressing threat in Greece and abandoned the Calabrian garrisons to their fate. For the next six years the Barese and Egyptian armies would put many of the recently constructed fortresses of Calabria to the torch, looting and pillaging as they went. Where towns and villages once stood only the black scars of fire and ash remained. Despite this wanton brutality, Sawdan earned a reputation as a just monarch for allowing any Romans who yielded without a fight to be spared and resettle within the walls of Bari. Those who faced the swords of the Tulunids however were not so lucky and would be harried off to be sold in the markets of Alexandria as slaves.
As these events unfolded in Calabria, Caliph Abdallah of the Abbasid Sunni Caliphate had began marching his armies deep into Anatolia, exploiting the recent Roman defeat in Thrace at the hands of the Bulgarians. The Empire had descended into a state of anarchy without any semblance of an imperial army to speak of. Local garrisons had been forced to organize among themselves for their defence as Emperor Basil jumped from one crises to another. By January of 883 AD the last of the Roman fortresses in Calabria had fallen and more than a year had passed since there had last been reinforcements sent from across the Adriatic, for they had been too busy dealing with Arabs and Bulgarians at their borders.
Emir Sawdan had attempted to sign peace with the Romans, sending envoys to Constantinople more than once but none had managed to make their way back. Whether it had been a storm that took them, caliphal raiding vessels, or even the work of Roman Aegean pirates reveling in the chaos of Imperial anarchy, only God could know. By August of that same year Sawdan had grown tired of awaiting for diplomats to settle a peace deal and simply took on the title of the new Emir of Calabria, and garrisoned the cities of Reggio, Catanzaro and Cosenza bringing along with them Muslim settlers from Bari to make up for the many losses during the war and ensure these cities remained loyal to their new ruler.
Southern Italy at the end of the year 883 AD. The isle of Sicily is now fully under Aghlabid control. while the lands of Calabria now form part of the Emirate of Bari
