History of the Jews in Sicily of the Temple of Jerusalem. Rabbi Akiva visited the city of Syracuse during one of his trips abroad. The Jews lived in many Sicilian cities such as Palermo, Messina and Catania. From the late 7th century, Sicily joined with Calabria to form the Byzantine Theme of Sicily. In the 6th century, communications were sent to Pope Gregory I about the plight of the Jews in the Kingdom of Sicily. In 831, Sicily came under the Arab dominion, which treated the Jews justly. In 1072 Sicily fell to the Normans and the Jews were again brought under the supremacy and jurisdiction
Frederick III of Sicily the Simple, though he himself did not use an ordinal. Frederick was born in Barcelona to Peter III of Aragon and Constance of Sicily, daughter of King Manfred of Sicily. When his father died in 1285, he left the Kingdom of Aragon to his eldest son, Alfonso, and that of Sicily to his second son, James. When Alfonso died in 1291, James became king of Aragon and left Frederick as regent in Sicily. The war between the Angevins, who contested the title to Sicily from their peninsular possessions centred on Naples (the so-called Kingdom of Naples), and the Crown of