Noto in the context of Iblean Mountains

The history of Islam in Sicily and southern Italy began with Arab colonization in Sicily, at Mazara, which was captured in 827. The subsequent rule of Sicily and Malta started in the 10th century. The Emirate of Sicily lasted from 831 until 1061, and controlled the whole island by 965. Though Sicily was the primary Muslim stronghold in Italy, some temporary footholds, the most substantial of which was the port city of Bari (occupied from 847 until 871), were established on the mainland peninsula, especially in mainland southern Italy, though Arab raids, mainly those of Muhammad I ibn al-Aghlab, reached as far north as Naples, Rome and the northern region of Piedmont. The Arab raids were part of a larger struggle for power in Italy and Europe, with Christian Byzantine, Frankish, Norman and indigenous Italian forces also competing for control. Arabs were sometimes allied with various Christian factions against other factions.

In 965 the Kalbids established the independence of their emirate from the Fatimid Caliphate. In 1061 the Normans took Messina, and by 1072 Palermo and its citadel were captured. In 1091 Noto also fell to the Normans, and the conquest was complete. Malta fell later that year, though the Arab administration was kept in place, marking the final chapter of this period. The conquests of the Normans established Roman Catholicism firmly in the region, where Eastern Christianity had been prominent during the time of Byzantine rule and even remained significant during Islamic period. In 1245, Muslims were deported to the settlement of Lucera, by order of Frederick II, king of Sicily. In 1300, Giovanni Pipino da Barletta, count of Altamura, seized Lucera and exiled its population, bringing an end to the medieval Muslim presence in Italy.

Simon (fl. 1162) was the Norman Count of Syracuse and a member of the Hauteville family. He may be an illegitimate son of Roger II of Sicily, but more likely a son of Henry, Count of Paterno, the brother-in-law of Roger I. He was probably a descendant of his predecessor Tancred.

In 1162, when Frederick Barbarossa was seeking allies for a planned invasion of the Kingdom of Sicily, he made a treaty with the Republic of Genoa, offering them the entire Ligurian coast and the lands of Simon in Sicily. These lands included the cities of Syracuse and Noto and 250 knight's fees (caballariae) in the fertile plain around Noto, the Val di Noto. When the Emperor Henry VI reissued his father's charter to Genoa on 30 May 1191, he retained the promise of Simon's lands, even though Simon was by then dead.

Val di Noto (lit. 'Province of Noto') is a historical and geographical area encompassing the south-eastern third of Sicily; it is dominated by the limestone Hyblaean plateau. Historically, it was one of the three valli of Sicily.
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Helorus, Heloros, Helorum, or Elorus (Greek: Ἔλωρος or Ἕλωρος, Ptol., Steph. B. or Ἕλωρον, Scyl.; Italian: Eloro), was an ancient Greek city of Magna Graecia in Sicily, situated near the east coast, about 40 km south of Syracuse and on the banks of the river of the same name. It is currently an archaeological site in the modern comune of Noto.