46 CALIPHS OF AFRICA. 



w-ith its unhappy condition, invited the Catholic 

 princes to relieve it from the cruel devastations of 

 the Arabs. The piety and cupidity of the republics 

 of Genoa and Pisa were awakened at the call : and, 

 notwithstanding- the dreadful annoyance of the Greek 

 fire, they succeeded in annihilating the power of the 

 vSaracens. The liberators contended long and ve- 

 hemently for the possession of the island, and the 

 skill of Italian diplomacy was exhausted in settling 

 the rival claims. The Emperor Frederic Barba- 

 rossa, in the year 1165, bestowed the investiture of 

 the whole island on the Pisans. These measures, 

 however, were ill calculated to procure repose ; an 

 equal partition was soon after made between the 

 contending states, which induced those jealous re- 

 publics to lay aside their animosities, and enjoy their 

 booty in peace.* 



In the year of Christianity 909, Abu Abdallah, 

 emir or governor of Sicily, defeated the caliph of 

 Cairoan, and drove the family of the Aglabites from 

 the throne, Avhich they had occupied more than a 

 century. The conqueror, having seized the western 

 capital, bestowed the vacant caliphate on Obeidallah, 

 one of the posterity of Ali, who assumed the title of 

 Mahadi, or Director of the Faithful, built a new city 

 which he called Mahadia, and claimed the distinction 

 of being the founder of the Fatimite dyriBstj in Africa, 

 where he soon put an end to the power of the Edris- 

 ifes, so called from their founder Edris, a descendant 

 of Ah, who fled from Mecca (A. D. 784), and had 

 wrested the countries of Fez and Tangier from the 

 caliphs of Bagdad. For five centuries a succession 



* For the conquests of the Saracens in Italy and the Mediter- 

 ranean, in addition to the authorities already cited, the reader 

 may consult the annalists Baronius and Pagi ; De Gnigncs 

 (Hist, des Huns, tome i.) ; Muratori (Script, rer. Ital.) ; Carusii 

 (Bibl. Hist. Sicil.); Cod. Dipiom. Arabo-Sicil., Malaferra, and 

 Giannone (Istona Civil di Nap.); Anuzi (Hist, de Sardaigne); 

 Meursius (lib. ii. cap. 7, 15, 21); Belon. (Obscn-ations, &c, 

 ehap. 3-20); and Tournefort (Voyage du Levant, tomei.). 



