Chapter 15
Beginning of year 1061 (452 from the Hegira), inside the walls of Qasr Yanna
On a January morning, as the fog cleared, between the battlements of the walls of Qasr Yanna, the lookout had to stand up so as not to fall dizzy below. On the hills east of the mountain, just before Rabaḍ, Mohammed ibn al-Thumna had deployed his army. The Qā'id of Catania was the most powerful and influential lord of all Sicily; nothing strange if that army exceeded all expectations. While in fact Ibn al-Ḥawwās could count on the support of the people he controlled, indigenous converts and people of Berber descent dedicated to agriculture, ibn al-Thumna had the support of the Arab nobility of rank and therefore of the men subjected to each of the optimized his allies; even Balarm's gemā59, the assemb
