Taranto : Italy
Arab domination
The first years of the 9th century were characterized by the internal fights that weakened the Longobard power. In 840, a Longobard prince, who was held prisoner in Taranto, was freed by his partisans, brought to Benevento, and made duke. At the same time, the Saracens took control of Taranto, exploiting the weak Longobard control. Taranto became an Arab stronghold and privileged harbour for forty years. It was from here that ships loaded with prisoners sailed to the Arab ports, where the prisoners were sold in the slave market. In the same 840, an Arab fleet left Taranto, defeated in the gulf of Taranto a Venetian fleet of 60 ships, summoned by the emperor Theophilus, and entered the Adriatic sea, sacking the coastal cities. In 850, four Saracen columns departed from Taranto and Bari to sack Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Abruzzi. In 854, Taranto was again the base for an Arab raid, led by Abbas-ibn-Faid, which sacked the Longobard province of Salerno. Two Arab fleets arrived to Taranto, in 871 and later in 875, carrying the troops which sacked Campania and Apulia. The situation of southern Italy worried Emperor Basil the Macedonian, who decided to fight the Arabs and take the harbour of Taranto from them. In 880, two Byzantine armies, led by generals Procopius and Leo Apostyppes, and a fleet, commanded by the admiral Nasar took Taranto from the Arabs, ending a forty years dominion. Among the first actions taken by the Byzantine ruler Apostyppes was the enslavement and deportation of the Latin-Longobard original inhabitants – who had almost completely converted to Islamic – and the import of Greek colons, in order to increase the population. Taranto became one of the most important cities in the Thema Longobardia, the Byzantine possession in southern Italy.
Second Byzantine domination
The city suffered from other Saracen raids, such as in 922. On 15 August 927, the Saracens, led by the Slavic Sabir, conquered and destroyed the city, enslaving and deporting to Africa all the survivors. Taranto had no inhabitants, until the Byzantine conquest in 967. The Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II Phocas understood the importance of a strong military presence and harbour in southern Italy, and rebuilt the city. He added several military fortifications, and made Taranto a stronghold of Byzantine resistance against the uprising Norman power in south Italy. However, the weakness of the Byzantine local government exposed Taranto to other Saracen raids. In 977, it was attacked by Saracens led by Abn’l-Ksim, who took many prisoners and sacked the city, burning some parts of Taranto. In 982, emperor Otto II started his war against Saracens from Taranto, but he was defeated by Abn’l-Ksim in the battle of Stilo (Calabria).
