Jusuf ben Aabar governor of Lampedusa

Everyone knows, more or less, the history of Lampedusa, legends, anecdotes and other facts of Lampedusa.Many know of the Phoenicians, the stone circles, the tanks of garum coin minted in Lampedusa.Few know, however, who was in Lampedusa, at the time of the Muslims in Sicily”Ṣiqilliyya”between 827 and 1027 AD

As well as the whole of Sicily, see the map above, the island of Lampedusa was inhabited by a large population of Muslims.How many were there?Lived there permanently?What did they do?To all these questions, you can answer by reading an old code translated in 1792 byAlfonso Airoldi,namely the“Diplomatic Code of Sicily under the rule of the Arabs, Volume 3, Part 1.”What is translated in these pages?

In October of AD 991 the Emir of Sicily he sent three ships, one in Lampedusa, one to one by Aabuniana Ghofirah and (Favignana).These three ships carried three letters and one for Jusuf ben Aabar governor of Lampedusa was written “Abu Alfatuh Jusef well Aabd Allah, out of the goodness of God, Chbir Emir of Sicily and the neighboring islands, greets you, and tell you my size, that when you read this letter you will soon number the people ruled by you in Lampedusa, and wants to know my greatness with distinction than is the rich people who live in this Island, and you will have to enumerate how many are men, women, petioles, large and how many Christians and many Muslims, and what people have ships, or scelandie, because when you know my size, do you think that you have something useful to this Island, and having nothing else to tell you goodbye and is marked as Abu Ben Aabd f Aisatah Jus Allah, out of the goodness of God, Chbir Emir of Sicily and of the neighboring islands, your Lord. Imedina of Balirmu there 2 month of Rabialkem 381 (October 14, 991).

The ship departed from Palermo (Balirmu) arrived in Lampedusa 7 days after the 9th of the month of Rabialkem, as reported in a letter written in response to the governor of the island of LampedusaJusef well Aabarand thus replied: <Chbir Emir of Sicily and neighboring islands,Jusef Aabar wellwith his face to the ground kissing the hands of his size, and says that on the 9th of the month of Rabialkem 381 Balirmu came from a ship in Lampedusa, who brought me a letter from his size day 2 of the same month of Rabialkem 381, in which I read that his size wants to know how much is the people who live in Lampedusa.I immediately numbered the people in my government, and I found311 men, 248 women, and 230 children, and 184 daughtersand all of them under15 yearsof age and all those that I government, and who live in Lampedusa since there are Muslims Christians.The store is not that all these people in the Fishery of the fish, which are salted and then sell to those who come every year to buy it.There is no rich people in Lampedusa, but there are loads more than those who have two small boats in the property, there are however poor, but they all live with their labor.There are neither ships nor scelandie …