After capturing Mazara on nearby Sicily, a Hafsid force landed on Malta, besieged the island's main city of Mdina and skirmished with the defenders.

In any case, the attack had a significant demographic impact on the island's small population and it remained imprinted in the Maltese collective memory through Christian legends and traditions referencing the event.

Malta had been subjected to a major Arab raid in 1423–1424, during which farmland and villages were devastated and a number of captives were taken, including the island's bishop Maurus.

[2] In 1425 and 1426, the Gozitans and Maltese respectively revolted against the unpopular feudal lord Gonsalvo Monroy, and in 1428 the islands were officially integrated into the royal demesne of the Crown of Aragon.

[3][4] According to al-Maqrizi, on the 18th day of 833 AH (September 1429) Hafsid ruler Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz II sent out a fleet carrying 15,000 men and 200 horses to invade the Kingdom of Sicily.

Christian sources state that the fleet which reached Malta consisted of 50 galleys and 20 other ships, and that the army was commanded by Kaid Ridavan.

Al-Maqrizi described the city's garrison as Franks or infidels; he stated that 50 of the defenders' "eminent men" were killed during a skirmish, and that a leader was captured and sent to Abu Faris.

[1] Abela wrote in 1647 that "the enemy [was] driven back by the valour of our men, helped by God through the intercession of our Great Protector the Apostle St.

"[1] In 1682, artist Mattia Preti was commissioned to produce a painting of Saint Paul on horseback holding a dagger while defending the Maltese; this is now located in the Annunciation chapel within the Mdina cathedral.