In 1015 and again in 1016, the forces of Mujāhid al-ʿĀmirī from the taifa of Denia and the Balearics, in the east of Muslim Spain (al-Andalus), attacked Sardinia and attempted to establish control over it. In both these years joint expeditions from the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa repelled the invaders. These Pisan–Genoese expeditions to Sardinia were approved and supported by the Papacy in aid of the sovereign Sardinian medieval kingdoms, known as Judicates, which resisted autonomously after the collapse of the Byzantine rule on the island. Modern historians often see them as proto-Crusades.[1] After their victory, the Italian cities turned on each other. For this reason, the Christian sources for the expedition are primarily from Pisa, which celebrated its double victory over the Muslims and the Genoese with an inscription on the walls of its Duomo.[2]
- ^ Tyerman 2006, 55.
- ^ Orvietani Busch 2001, 168 n35. The only Genoese record of their participation in 1016 is a passing mention in the Annales ianuenses of Caffarus, where he is quoting the words of some ambassadors for Genoa when they were seeking favour from the Emperor Frederick I in 1165. For French translations of all the pertinent primary sources, cf. Pierre Guichard and Denis Menjot (ed.), Pays d'Islam et monde latin, Xe–XIIIe siècle: textes et documents (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2000), 20–23.