For thousands of years, the coastal area of northern Africa – known as the Maghreb – had been populated with a polyglot of ethnic groups. There were indigenous Berbers, themselves an ancient melting pot of Iberians, Capsians, and Algerians. There were the early Arab explorers, some Sicani who stopped short in their migration to Malta and Sicily, and many others whose small tribes drifted toward the Mediterranean Sea and the larger region over centuries.
Mazara was the closest Sicilian port to Ifriqiya and so it fate was to be converted to a Muslim military post, a staging area from which they could maintain close contact with their bases in Africa while pushing their ventures further north and east into Sicily. The proximity of Mazara to their homeland was the first attraction, guaranteei
