The Arab attacks on the islands started from around the year 836 during which time Malta and its islands were still under Byzantine rule, but the islands were only overcome in the year 870 by Aglabid Arabs originating from what is now Tunisia who used Sicily as a springboard for their invasion, that island having been occupied by them some thirty years previously.

To better protect their new territories the Moslems sectioned off a part of the old Roman town of Melita and defended it with a ditch, calling this citadel Mdina, and did the same thing to the capital of the sister island, Gozo; the elite of the small number of Arabs then on the islands, probably dwelt in these towns but Arab villages were scattered on both islands: such as Bahrija in Malta (baharija: Arabic for oasis) and the village of Gharb in Gozo (gharb: Arabic for West - that hamlet being the most westerly of the Maltese Islands). The names of the two principal islands, Melita and Gaulos. Were changed to Malta and Ghawdex and two of the smaller islands were named Kemmuna and Filfla, named after the cummin seed and peppercorn respectively. The Arabs introduced the water-wheel, the sienja, an animal-driven device for raising water, now obsolete, and, much more importantly, the cultivation of the cotton-plant, the mainstay of the Maltese economy for several centuries.