Sicily

Sicily, off the southern tip of Italy, is the largest and most populous island in the Mediterranean and a region of Italy. Greek colonists, above all at Syracuse, settled it from about 750 BCE, and it became Rome's first province outside the Italian peninsula. Byzantine from 535, it was part of the church that produced early medieval popes such as Leo II, a Sicilian by birth. Muslim rule followed from the 9th century, then a Norman county from 1071 and kingdom from 1130. Jews lived on the island from Roman times; under Spanish rule its community, estimated at 25,000 to 37,000, was expelled in 1492, while about 9,000 converted and stayed.

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