Chapter 37
December 1061 (453 from Hegira) in Tragina.
If the human chronicles have some form of utility, it is attributable to the teachings that man should draw from the continuous repetition of history.
Amir, although younger and inexperienced, had placed attention on the past. A few decades earlier, when Akḥal, among the last kalbite emirs, had turned to Constantinople, starting Maniakes's Sicilian experience, his enemies had appealed to Saracen Africa. Now the story was repeating itself: at ibn al-Thumna's alliance with the Guiscard, his enemies responded by asking for help again from ibn Bādīs, lord of Ifrīqiya. However, it would not have been the Berber Ali to present himself to the court of Mahdia in search of help, but the Palermitan nobles opposed to the decision of the gēma.
