CALIPHS OP AFRICA. 55 



possession of the island, and the skill of Italian di- 

 plomacy was exhausted in settling the rival claims. 

 The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, in the year 1165, 

 bestowed the investiture of the whole island on the 

 Pisans. These measures, however, were ill calcu- 

 lated to procure repose ; an equal partition was soon 

 after made between the contending states, which 

 induced those jealous republics 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, which 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 dis- 

 tinction of being the founder of the Fatimite dynasty 

 in Africa, where he soon put an end to the power of 

 the Edrisites, so called from their founder Edris, a 

 descendant of Ali, 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 of fleeting dynasties ravaged and dis- 

 tracted these western provinces. Various kingdoms 

 were formed, the most considerable of which were 

 those of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. From Leo 



* 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 Guig-nes (Hist, des 

 Huns, tome i.); Muratori (Script. Rer. Ital.); Carusii (Bibl. Hist. 

 Sicil.) ; Cod. Diplom. Arabo-Sicil., Malaterra, and Giannone (Is- 

 toria Civil di Nap.); Anuzi (Hist, de Sardaigne) ; Meursius (lib. 

 ii. cap. 7j 15, 2l); Belon (Observations, &c. chap. 3 20); and 

 Tournefbrt (Voyage du Levant, tome 5.) 



