According to many scholars , the name and origin of the town are traced back to the period of Arab rule . According to Ibn al-Athir ( '' The Complete History '' , VII .370.5 – 7 ) , in AH 268 ( 881/82 CE ) , the Aghlabid commander Abū Ṯawr was defeated by the Byzantines ( probably commanded by the '' strategos '' Mosilikes ) and his was army annihilated , with only seven men surviving . The locality was later named in Arabic '' Qalʿat Abī Ṯawr '' ( " Castle of Abū Ṯawr " ) , which is the origin of the modern name . Others instead maintain that the name derives from the Arabic word " qal ' at " ( fortress ) and the Sicilian " vuturu " ( vulture ) meaning of " fortress of vultures . " The town existed under Byzantine rule pre Arab conquest as Aziz Ahmad in “ A Islamic History of Sicily ” ( edinburgh university press 1975 ) states that in 852 Abbas raided Caltavuturo in the northern part of the Island and took many prisoners who were sold as slaves , The town was the site of the so-called Caltavuturo massacre on 20 January 1893 , when local authorities killed 13 and wounded 21 peasants that had occupied communal land that they claimed was theirs
Caltavuturo massacre
Caltavuturo massacre
Caltavuturo