The military conquest and the terms of the settlement

The Norman conquest of Sicily lasted more than thirty years, from the first exploratory raid in the late summer of 1060, to the surrender of Noto, the last Muslim stronghold, in February 1091. Pitched battles and great sieges were comparatively rare. The difficulty of the terrain, Count Roger's shortage of manpower, and his determination to keep the conquest in his own hands and out of the grasp of potential rivals, combined to make surrender on terms the normal process through which military and political power was transferred from the Muslims to the Normans.

From the first, the Normans were ready and able to treat with the Muslim communities of the island. During their advance through Calabria, the de Hautevilles had already come into contact with Muslim communities, and the Latin sources claim that they had succeeded in winning the co-operation of some of their new subjects: for example, after the autumn raid on Sicily in 1060, the inhabitants of Reggio ‘wished to demonstrate their fidelity to the Duke [Robert Guiscard]. And, in order to avoid suspicion, both the Christians and the Saracens who lived there armed themselves against the Pagans of Sicily’. Moreover, when the brothers launched their invasion proper, in May 1061, they did so at the invitation and in support of a Sicilian Muslim qāʾ id, Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Thumna.