Caltavuturo


Caltavuturo is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. The neighboring comunes are Polizzi Generosa, Scillato and Sclafani Bagni.

History

According to many scholars, the name and origin of the town are traced back to the period of Arab rule. According to Ibn al-Athir, in AH 268, the Aghlabid commander Abu Thawr was defeated by the Byzantines and his was army annihilated, with only seven men surviving. The locality was later named in Arabic Qalʿat Abī Ṯawr, which is the origin of the modern name. Others instead maintain that the name derives from the Arabic word "qal'at" and the Sicilian "vuturu" meaning of "fortress of vultures." The town existed under Byzantine rule pre Arab conquest as Aziz Ahmad in “A Islamic History of Sicily” states that in 852 Abbas raided Caltavuturo in the northern part of the Island and took many prisoners who were sold as slaves,
The town was the site of the so-called Caltavuturo massacre on 20 January 1893, when local authorities killed 13 and wounded 21 peasants that had occupied communal land that they claimed was theirs.