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Siculo Arabic was a dialect of Arabic spoken in Sicily between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries.

While there was an invasion of Sicily by Arabs in 652 AD, Arabic settlement started when in 827 an Aghlabid Arab army from Tunis landed in Mazara. By 878, all Sicily was conquered and Arabic became the official language of the island till the mid-10th century. (Greek remained in use in some enclaves in the eastern part of the island and survived as Vulgar Sicilian.)

The Normans entered Sicily in 1060, and over the following 30 years they replaced the Arab Emirs (in Palermo from 10 January 1072, and in Noto from 1091). However, the Normans allowed the Arabic language to remain in use, starting the Norman-Arab Era. Most Siculo-Arab literature was lost when the Aragonese arrived.

May God guard a house of Noto, and may the swollen clouds flow above it!
With filial regret I yearn for the country, towards which the abodes of its beautiful women draw me
And whoever has left in his soul the imprint of an abode, to that place he desires to return in the body
Long live that populated and cultivated land, may even the traces and ruins live in it!
I yearn for my land, in whose dust were consumed the limbs and bones of my ancestors!

Ibn Hamdis, Siculo-Arab poet from Noto

After only a century, however, the Norman Hauteville dynasty died out and the south German (Swabian) Hohenstaufen dynasty ruled starting in 1194, adopting Palermo as its principal seat from 1220. But local Christian-Muslim conflicts fueled by the Crusades were escalating during this later period, and in 1224-1231, Frederick II, grandson of Roger II, expelled the last remaining resisting Muslims (about 5,000) from Sicily to Lucera in Apulia (which then formed part of his kingdom), while the rest of the Arab population concentrated in the West became Catholic. With the conversion, Siculo-Arabic lost its last use in daily life in Sicily. Siculo-Arabic remained in use in mainland Italy (Lucera) until it became extinct in the early 14th century.

Today Arabic influence is noticeable in hundreds of Sicilian words, most of which relate to agriculture and related activities. This is understandable since the Arabs introduced to Sicily the most modern irrigation and farming techniques at the time and a new range of crops - nearly all of which remain endemic to the island to this day.

Some words of Arabic origin:

• babbaluciu - snail
• burnia - jar
• cafisu - measure for liquids (from qafiz)
• cassata - Sicilian cake (from Cashta)
• gebbia - artificial pond to store water for irrigation (from gabiya)
• giuggiulena - sesame seed (from giulgiulan)
• saia - canal (from saqiya)
• tanura - oven (from tanur)
• zaffarana - Saffron (from safara)
• zagara - blossom (from zahar)
• zibbibbu - type of grape (from zabib)
• zuccu - tree trunk (from suq; similar to Aragonese soccu and Spanish zoque).

It should be borne in mind that throughout the Arab epoch of Sicilian history, a large Greek population remained on the island and continued to use the Greek language, or most certainly, a variant of Greek heavily influenced by Arabic. What is less clear is the extent to which a Latin-speaking population survived on the island. While a form of Vulgar Latin clearly survived in isolated communities during the Arab epoch, there is much debate as to the influence it had (if any) on the development of the Sicilian language, following the relatinisation of Sicily. The most probable conclusion is that if there was any influence, it is likely to have been minor. This view is supported by the fact that there are few Sicilian words reflecting an archaic Latin form (as may be found, for example, in Sard). However, some forms do exist, so the tantalizing prospect of a Sicilian form of a Vulgar Latin surviving the Arab period and influencing the modern development of Sicilian remains open.