Two obstacles checked the rush of the Muhammadans upon Europe. A certain Charles the Hammer, king of the Franks, withstood them in the west. And in the east they were flung back from the walls of Byzantium. But the real reason for the ebbing of the tide was that the Muhammadans had split up into different factions, each holding to its portion of the conquered lands.
The stated goal of Muhammad's immediate successors, the "righteously guided" caliphs, was to establish a single caliphate, dominating Europe, Africa, and Asia. This caliphate would eliminate all other religions, and establish Islam as the only faith for the world. This goal was frustrated, not only by resistance with which Charles Martel and the Byzantines defended themselves, but also by internal divisions and power-struggles. Nonetheless, the amazing military strength of Islam had captured a huge amount of territory, and their occupying armies kept local populations subjugated:
Their conquests brought them face to fact with the barbarians who had quartered themselves on the ruins of the Roman Empire and had become Christians. Europe became the neighbor of near-Asia. The front line of Christendom could look across at the advanced posts of Islam. No-man's land had disappeared.
It seemed as if a stalemate might occur: Islam might content itself with northern Africa, southwestern Asia, Spain, and Turkey. Europe might content itself with what remained to it. But the Spanish were not content to remain subject to a foreign occupying army.
In the west, where Spain was the battleground, the Christian Franks retook the passes of the Pyrenees and gained ground steadily. In the east the Muhammadans gradually edged across Asia Minor.
During the next phase - the second century of Islam - Muslims would organize a sustained invasion and occupation of Italy, or more precisely, the southern half of the Italian peninsula. This objective would require naval power; troops would leave northern Africa from points near Carthage, capture islands along the way, and storm Italy.
It was in the center that the Muhammadans held the upper hand - in the sea itself. The Arabs took kindly to sea. They built ships and changed slowly from warriors to warrior-merchants. They made themselves at home on the islands, especially Sicily, and they sailed up the Tiber almost to the walls of Rome.
In fact, the residents of Italy would suffer greatly at the hands of the Muslims. Italy was in no way prepared to defend itself against an invasion from the sea. Historian Will Durant wrote that
Having conquered Syria and Egypt, the Moslem leaders realized that they could not hold the coast without a fleet. Soon their men-of-war seized Cyprus and Rhodes, and defeated the Byzantine navy (652, 655). Corsica was occupied in 809, Sardinia in 810, Crete in 823, Malta in 870. In 827 the old struggle between Greece and Carthage for Sicily was resumed; the Aghlabid caliphs of Qairwan sent expedition after expedition, and the conquest proceeded with leisurely bloodshed and rapine. Palermo fell in 831, Messina in 843, Syracuse in 878, Taormina in 902. When the Fatimid caliphs suceeded to the Aghlabid power (909) they inherited Sicily as part of their domain. When the Fatimids removed their seat to Cairo their governor of Sicily, Husein al-Kalbi, made himself emir with nearly sovereign authority, and established that Kalbite dynasty under which Moslem
occupational armies in Sicily achieved maximum strength. The Islamic domination over Mediterranean islands was a long and bloody process. The island of Corsica, for example, was first attacked by Muslims from northern Africa in 713 A.D.; Byzantines, Lombards, and Franks were able to defend effectively until 806, when Muslims from Spain - a subgroup of the Islamic armies occupying the Iberian peninsula - also began to attack Corsica. Caught in a pincers movement, Corsica was continually attacked by Moorish Muslims from Spain on the one side, and Muslims from northern Africa on the other side. Islamic troops occupied parts of the island, sometimes for several years, but the Franks continued to defend. Until 930 A.D., frequent Muslim attacks continued.
Starting in 705 A.D., the Muslims of northern African began attacking the island of Sardinia. Due to the savagery of the assaults, the town of Tharros - which had been continuously inhabited for centuries - was permanently abandoned. Other towns, like Caralis and Porto Torres, were evacuated and left empty for several years, but later repopulated when the area became safe again. Such permanent safety would appear after intense fighting in the years 1015 and 1016, when forces from the Italian mainland aided the Sardinians in defending themselves.
The long years of Islamic onslaughts against Crete, Malta, and Sicily were even more vicious. But islands were only an means to an end: the Muslims wanted to invade and hold more territory on the European continent itself. French coastal cities were besieged, like Narbonne, which was occupied by Islamic armies until it was freed by Pepin the Short in 759.
All of this was a prelude to the invasion of Italy. Italian coastal cities had long been subjected to raids by Muslims: a hit-and-run tactic in which one or more ships approached, soldiers from those ships would enter the town, grab anything of value they could take, kill men, rape women, and set the town on fire on their way out. After years of such raiding, a large-scale invasion took place in 841 A.D., in Bari, a port city in southeastern Italy.
Spreading throughout the peninsula, Islamic armies would occupy the southern parts of Italy for several decades. Although they did not permanently hold Rome, it was raided and sacked in 846.
The Italy strategy was conceived by the Muslims as part of a broader approach to Europe - Spain in the southwest, Byzantium in the southeast, and Italy - together with the southern coast of France and various Mediterranean islands - in the central south. This strategy was designed to keep European defenses spread thin; it succeeded to the extent that Spain was held for centuries, and to the extent that the Byzantine territory continually shrank over the centuries.
Whether Europe survived because of its defenses, such as they were, or whether it survived because internal factional competition prevented the harmony needed to coordinate the hoped-for worldwide caliphate, remains unclear. But in any case, the invasion of Italy was a central part of the unfolding events.
