Following the fall of Syracuse to the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya in 878,[1][2] Byzantine presence in Sicily had been limited to the northeastern third of the island (the "Val Demone"). In the aftermath of their capture of Syracuse, the Aghlabids launched repeated raids against the Val Demone in the 880s, but made little headway.[3][4] As the main stronghold remaining in Byzantine hands,[5] the city of Taormina and its environs was one of the chief targets of the Aghlabid attacks during this period, being attacked in 879/80, 881/82, 883, 885, and 889.[3][6] From c. 890 on, the raids ceased, chiefly due to the outbreak of internal quarrels among the Muslims of Sicily, which even resulted in full civil war between the Arab and Berber factions of the Aghlabid army in 898.[7][8]