On this day, the city of Syracuse, the Byzantine capital of Sicily, fell to the Aghlabid forces after a siege lasting 10 months. The Aghlabids had tried several times without success to capture Syracuse since their arrival in Western Sicily in the 820s and the new governor Ja’far ibn Muhammad was determined to change their fortunes. The inhabitants of Syracuse, unsupported by the Byzantine fleet which was busy transporting marble for a new church in Constantinople, had to face great hardships and famine. When the Aghlabids finally managed to make a breach in the seaward walls and to break through it into the city, the defenders either fell in battle or were taken prisoner. With the capture of Taormina in 902, the Muslim conquest of Sicily was effectively complete.
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