Al-Idrisi documented the first recorded thin dried pasta near Palermo.
In 1154, the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi described Trabia, a settlement roughly 30 kilometres east of Palermo, in his geographical work written for King Roger II of Sicily. He reported that the area had mills and produced large quantities of thread-shaped pasta, called itriyya, which were shipped to Muslim and Christian markets.
The account is important because it records not merely pasta being eaten, but a substantial dried-pasta industry and export trade in medieval Sicily. Drying pasta made it easier to store and transport, helping explain why ships carried it from Sicily to Calabria and other Mediterranean destinations.
Al-Idrisi’s description does not prove that the product was identical to modern spaghetti. The historical term referred more broadly to thin, thread-like dried pasta, often linked with later Sicilian vermicelli and spaghetti. It also predates the popular Marco Polo story: pasta production in Sicily was documented centuries before his return from Asia.