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B. The Italian Cities andthe Arabs before 1095 
 Long before pope Urban II made his impassioned plea at Clermont, the Italian
cities were fighting the Saracens on land and sea. During the four centuries
preceding 1095 they suffered from seemingly endless raids and plunderings;
sometimes they allied themselves with the enemy to attack other cities; on
oc casion they met him with force, and these occasions increased in number
and gained in success. Eventually, in 915 the southern cities, in alliance
with Byzantine and papal forces, drove the Saracens from their last stronghold
on the peninsula, and a cen tury later the northern cities attacked the various
Arab maritime bases nearby. Finally, in the eleventh century the Pisans and
Genoese raided the African coast itself, and forced terms of peace upon the
Saracen leader, among them the promise to refrain from further piracy. With
this victory and peace, made in 1087, control 
 The principal primary sources are: M. Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula (3
vols., Turin and Rome, 1880-1 889); Annales Barenses (MGH, SS., V); Annales
Bertiniani (MGH, SS., I); Annales Laurissenses (MGH, SS., I); Annales Laurissenses
maiores et Einhardi (MGH, SS., I); Annales Pisani di Bernardo Maragone (RISS,
VI, part 2); Chronica Sancti Benedicti Casinensis (MGH, Scriptores rcrum
Langobardicarum); L. de Mas-Latrie, Traités de paix et de commerce
et documents divers contenant les relations des chrétiens avec les
arabes d'Afrique septentrionale au moyen-áge (Paris, 1 866); La Cronaca
Veneziana del Diacono Giovanni (Fonti per la storia d'Italia, IX, Rome, 1890);
Lupus Protospatarius, 4nnales (MGH, SS., V). 
 Among the secondary sources which should be consulted are the following:
M. Amari, 
Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia, (3 vols., catania, 1933—1939); J.
B. Bury, "The Naval Policy 
of the Roman Empire in Relation to the Western Provinces from the Seventh
to the Ninth 
Century," Centenariodella nascita di MicheleAmari, vol. II (Palermo, 1910),
21—34; R. CaddeG 
(et al.), Storia marittima dell'Italia dall'evo antico ai nostri giorni (Milan,
1942); Cambridge 
Medieval History, vol. II, chapters X-XII; vol. III, chapters II, III, VII;
vol. IV, chapters v, 
XIII; vol. V, chapter v; Daniel C. Dennett, "Pirenne and Muhammed," Speculum,
XXIII 
(1948), 165—190; F. E. Engreen, "Pope John the Eighth and the Arabs,"
Speculum, XX 
(1945), 318—330; U. Formentini, Genova nel basso impero e nell'alto
medioevo (Milan, 1941); 
J. Gay, L'Italie méridionale et l'einpire byzantin depuis l'avenement
de Basile Jer jusqu'â la 
prise de Ban par les Normands (Paris, 1 904); L. M. Hartmann, Geschichte
Italiens im Mittel 
alter (4 vols., Leipzig, 1 900—1915), and Wirtschaftsgeschichte Italiens
im fruhen Mittelalter 
(Gotha, 1904); W. Heywood, A History of Pisa (Cambridge, 1921); P. K. Hitti,
History of 
the Arabs (5th ed., London, 1951); R. J. H. Jenkins, "The ' Flight' of Samonas,"
Speculum, 
XXIII (1948), 217—235; H. Kretschmayr, Geschichte von Venedig (a vols.,
Gotha, 1905—1934); 
Abbé J. Lestoquoy, "The Tenth Century," Economic History Review, XVII
(1947), ,—14.; 
A. R. Lewis, Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean, A. D. 500—1100
(Princeton, 1951); 
R. S. Lopez, "Mohammed and Charlemagne: a Revision," Speculum, XVIII (,43),
14—38; 
A. Schaube, Handelsgeschicbte der romanischen I7öMer des Mittelmeergebiets
his zum Ende der 
Kreuzzüge (Munich and Berlin, 1906); and A. A. Vasiliev, A History of
the Byzantine Empire 
(Madison, 1952). 
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