Chapter 48
Spring 1062 (454 from the Hegira). Catania
The news of the death of ibn al-Thumna traveled and shook, from west to east, every Sicilian village and district. Like a cold shiver down his spine, he traveled the streets of the island, disconcerted every inhabitant, and finally reached the corridors of the deceased Qā'id palace.
As was easy to guess, the submissive enemies in the past and those repressed in the present raised their heads, imagining that their revenge had arrived. By contrast, the loyalists who believed in Mohammed's continued rule beyond his death stood as the closest descendant. After a few days, while on the threshold of the umpteenth civil war, someone remembered that the possible solution had been held in the prisons of the building for a year. Amir represent
