The history of Malta during the islamic era

Abstract

In 1970, during the final years of Malta’s Nationalist administration and while NATO still held strategic sway over the island, a lesser-known Arab-Libyan intellectual arrived in Malta. His name was Mohamed Mustafa Bazama. His purpose? To explore the deep-rooted historical ties between Malta and Tripoli, particularly when both were under the rule of the Order of St John. But Bazama’s findings would go far beyond mere local history. He uncovered a narrative with broader significance for the entire Arab world. Bazama’s book, written in Arabic, is divided into two parts, following a traditional Arab methodological structure. The introduction deals with the Malta of his time; the other with Malta’s past. His contemporary reflections focus on Malta’s potential importance to the Arab world, not only due to its geographical position but because, in his view, it still retained an Arab cultural and linguistic influence. This, he argued, was evident in the Maltese landscape, architecture, and especially in the language. More strikingly, Bazama advocated for Malta’s neutrality in global affairs, anticipating a position that would later become a cornerstone of Dom Mintoff’s foreign policy. Bazama appears to have arrived at this vision independently before Mintoff developed it politically. At the time of his visit, Malta remained a NATO-linked territory. Still, Bazama’s analysis likely resonated with the views of Muammar Gaddafi, who was by then the leader of Libya, explaining, in part, the latter’s eagerness to support a neutral Malta. Despite this ideological alignment, Bazama was no admirer of Gaddafi. When the Libyan leader came to power, Bazama distanced himself, relocating to Cyprus, then Sardinia, and eventually becoming active in the Italian Socialist Party of Bettino Craxi. Bazama’s contribution, however, extended well beyond politics. He also pioneered Arab historiographical sources to bear on Maltese history, especially those ignored mainly by Western scholarship. He was the first modern writer to highlight the overlooked observations of the 10th-century Arab geographer Ibn Ḥawqal. Bazama challenged the simplistic citation of Ibn Ḥawqal’s claim that Malta was inhabited only by donkeys and sheep. He pointed out that scholars typically stop there, but Ibn Ḥawqal continued to write about Malta, offering valuable commentary on why the Arabs lost control of the island. According to Ibn Ḥawqal, both Malta and Crete fell out of Arab hands due to corruption and sexual misconduct, particularly prostitution, an accusation that may also carry implications of homosexual activity, though Bazama leaves this interpretation open. Here, Bazama makes a critical historical misreading. He assumes that Ibn Ḥawqal referred to the Norman conquest of Malta in 1091. But this could not be the case: Ibn Ḥawqal died in 988 CE, long before the Normans arrived. In his own time, Malta was already lost to the Arabs, though not yet taken by the Normans. This is why later Arab sources like al-Qazwini say that Muslims only returned to the island in 1048.