lite was captured and destroyed by the Aghlabids in 870. According to Al-Himyar?, at the time the city was ruled by the Byzantine governor Amros (probably Ambrosios). The duration of the siege is not known, but it must have lasted for a couple of weeks or possibly some months. The Aghlabid force was led by an engineer Halaf al-H?dim, who lost his life in the fighting. A new wali, Saw?da Ibn Mu?ammad, was then sent from Sicily to continue the siege. After some time, Melite fell to the invaders, and the inhabitants were massacred, the city was destroyed and its churches were looted. Marble from Melite's churches was used to build the castle of Sousse in modern-day Tunisia. According to Al-Himyar?'s account, the island remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in around 1048 or 1049 by a Muslim community and their slaves, who built a settlement called Medina on the site of Melite, making it "a finer place than it was before." The Byzantines attempted to retake the city in around 1053–54, but were repelled by the defenders. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the city was already a thriving Muslim settlement by the beginning of the 11th century, so Al-Himyar?'s account might be unreliable in this aspect. The city of Medina, later called Mdina in Maltese, remained the capital city of Malta throughout the medieval period until 1530, when the Order of St. John established their se