During the eleventh century, churches (both public and private) proliferated and by the twelfth each casale seems to have had one, which probably fostered social cohesion and identity.
The term casale was also used in Latin documents to refer to the small rural settlements of Islamic Sicily, called manzil or raḥl in Arabic.
Each had a manor house and a church, while most possessed common mills, ovens, cisterns, dovecotes, threshing floors, crofts and pastures.
[5] The inhabitants were called villeins (villani or rustici) and each possessed a house and one or two carrucae, the basic unit of arable land.
Each casale had a headman, called a raʾīs in Arabic (raicius in Latin), elected by the families (ḥamāyil, singular ḥamūla).
All administration was in the hands of the raʾīs, who supervised farming, collected taxes, administered justice and mediated disputes.