Ibn al-Thumna
Description / Bio
Ibn al-Thumna was a qāʾid of Sicily in the mid-eleventh century. His base of operations was Catania and Syracuse but Geniza letters mention him in Palermo as well. After a losing battle with a rival qāʾid of Agrigento, Ibn al-Thumna turned to the Normans for help. Geoffrey Malaterra, the late eleventh-century Norman chronicler, describes Ibn al-Thumna's central role in the early years of the Norman conquest of Sicily. He was killed in 1062, a fact celebrated in one Geniza letter.