Naples and the Arabs, a century-long history

"Quatto, li luoche de la Sarracina: Puortece, Crumano (San Giorgio a Cremano), la Torre (del Greco) e Resina" (Four places were related to the Arabs: Portici, San Giorgio a Cremano, Torre del Greco and Resina), an ancient adage which indicated the places where the Arabs (also known as the Saracens) settled in the Province of Naples.

As early as the eighth century, the Arabs began their rapid attacks on the coasts of Campania. The sea separated but also united the Arab peoples to Naples and its province during several events and in a quite complex relationship made up of victories and defeats, of integration and segregation on both sides.

In August of the year 846, a Muslim fleet - led by the fearsome Muhammed al-Talibi and composed of 73 ships departing from Sicilian ports and carrying 500 horses and as many horsemen - brought several teams of predators on Miseno’s beach. The speed of the Arab pirates’ incursion was such as to prevent any intervention by the soldiers of the Duchy of Naples.

Afterwards the Duke of Naples Sergio I sent his fleet - consisting of the ships of Naples, Amalfi, Sorrento - to Gaeta under the command of his second son Cesario Console who succeeded in winning over the Saracen fleet in the besieged port. Many enemy vessels were sunk, others were stuck into a furious storm. Admiral Cesario Console and his fleet returned to the port of Naples where they were triumphantly welcomed: it was the moment of integration and coexistence.

Today’s Piazza Mercato (Mercato Square) was called the “Arabs’ Field” at that time. Among the Arabs’ tents, the Neapolitans bought spices and products imported from the sea as like moving in a bazaar. Here was the place where the spirit of community and integration of the Neapolitans with foreign peoples began to grow.

That of the Arabs has been a century-long lasting history, but it is necessary to highlight that the incursions continued also in the centuries subsequent to the Middle Age and, indeed, starting from the sixteenth century new coastal attacks were carried out by Turkish pirates who marked an important phase of the Mediterranean’s history. New invasions but also new interactions and combinations among different styles and cultures which have finally shaped the multifaceted and unique imagine of the Tyrrhenian gulf. Sarracini That of the Arabs has been a century-long lasting history, but it is necessary to highlight that the incursions continued also in the centuries subsequent to the Middle Age and, indeed, starting from the sixteenth century new coastal attacks were carried out by Turkish pirates who marked an important phase of the Mediterranean’s history. New invasions but also new interactions and combinations among different styles and cultures which have finally shaped the multifaceted and unique imagine of the Tyrrhenian gulf.