Al-Qasim, unable to flee back to his…
July 982 CE
Al-Qasim, unable to flee back to his stronghold in Sicily due an imperial naval blockade, faces the Imperial army in a pitched battle south of Crotone at Cape Colonna on July 14, 982.
After a violent clash, a corps of Otto II's heavy cavalry destroys the Muslim center and pushes towards al-Qasim's guards, with the Emir killed during the charge.
Despite the Emir's death, the Muslim troops do not flee the battlefield.
The Muslims regroup and manage to surround the Imperial soldiers, slaughtering many of them and inflicting a severe defeat upon the Emperor.
According to the historian Muslim Ibn al-Athir, Imperial casualties number around four thousand.
The Lombard Princes Landulf IV of Benevento and Pandulf II of Salerno, German Bishop Henry I of Augsburg, German Margrave Gunther of Merseburg, the Abbot of Fulda, and numerous other Imperial officials are among the battle's casualties.