Chapter 47
Spring of 1062 (454 from the Hegira) Tragina
Amir had said it: Mohammed's terror would have crossed the whole of Islamic Sicily and every man who would have hated him would also have wished his death. And so the lord of Noto's iqlīm ended his days pierced by the hand of those who despised him, of those who judged his alliance with the infidels of the Strait a betrayal of Allah. Ibn al-Thumna had retraced the journey of Eufemio, the Christian General who had delivered Sicily to the men of the Prophet centuries earlier, and had followed the steps of Akhal, the one who had called the troops of Maniakes on the Island; like all these he received his final reward with an ignominious death. Furthermore, the hand that had been raised against Mohammed was a trusted hand, confirming the
