The Siege of Syracuse took place from the autumn of 827 until the summer or fall of 828 and was the first attempt by the Islamic Aghlabids to conquer the Sicilian city of Syracuse, then part of the Byzantine Empire.
A few months before the start of the siege, an Aghlabid army had landed from present-day Tunisia on the south coast of Sicily, near Mazara. After the Muslims defeated the Byzantines there, they moved towards Syracuse, the capital of Byzantine Sicily. The city was under siege throughout the winter and until the summer of 828. The Arab besiegers lacked provisions and members under an outbreak of the plague that their leader, Asad ibn al-Furat, took the life. After Byzantine reinforcements had arrived, the new Arab leader, Mohammed ibn Abi'l-Jawari, decided to cancel the siege and withdraw with his troops in the castle of Mineo and later in Mazara.
From the southwest of Sicily, the Arabs continued the struggle in the following decades. Slowly but surely the whole island was conquered. In 877-878 Syracuse was besieged again, but this time it was taken.
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