The Muslims of Norman Sicily, c.1060-c.1194

Abstract

Recent scholarship has begun to question the 'Norman-ness' of the Norman conquest of South Italy and Sicily and to devote attention to their subject peoples. While considerable advances have been made by Byzantinists and - to a lesser extent - by those who study the Lombards of the mainland, Islamicists have made little progress beyond the work of Michele Amari, the great nineteenth century historian. This study attempts to examine the Muslims of Norman Sicily and to take account of evidence that has only come to light since Amari wrote. Its form and the methods employed are largely dictated by the nature of the sources. The chronological perimeters are determined on the one side by the Norman invasion of 1060 and on the other by the fall of the de Hauteville dynasty in 1194. No attempt is made to give a general account of Sicily before the Norman conquest, nor of the Muslim rebellions and of the destruction of Muslim Sicily in the first half of the thirteenth century. [...]