During the Muslim rule, from 948, Sicily was governed by the Kalbita Emirate, who carried out a territorial reorganisation of the island by dividing it into three large areas, called the Valleys. This subdivision, already reported in a Norman document of 1094, described as “antiquae divisiones saracenorum”, remained in force until the Bourbon administrative reform of 1812. The three territorial compartments were identified as the Val di Mazara, relating to western Sicily, the Val di Noto and Val Demone, to the eastern area.
