in may 982, abu'l-qasim returned to italy hoping to confront the advancing german emperor otto ii. around rossano calabro, abu'l-qasim spotted the german army and realized that he had hugely underestimated its size. he attempted to retreat back to sicily, but otto caught up with him around capo colonna. in the battle of stilo, the outnumbered kalbid force was able to surround and defeat the german forces with an unexpectedly strong cavalry charge; otto himself only escaped by swimming to a greek merchant ship, but abu'l-qasim was killed in the melee.