Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily

Abstract

In the late eleventh century, Sicily - originally part of the Islamic world - was captured by Norman, French and Italian adventurers, led by Roger de Hauteville. For the next 150 years, Roger and his descendants ruled the island and its predominantly Arabic-speaking Muslim population. Jeremy Johns' 2002 book represents a comprehensive account of the Arabic administration of Norman Sicily. While it has generally been assumed that the Normans simply inherited their Arabic administration from the Muslim governors of the island, the author uses the unique Sicilian Arabic documents to demonstrate that the Norman kings restructured their administration on the model of the contemporary administration of Fatimid Egypt. Controversially, he also suggests that, in doing so, their intention was not administrative efficiency but the projection of their royal image. This is a compelling and accessible account of the Norman rulers and how they related to their counterparts in the Muslim Mediterranean.

Comparative analysis of medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in Italy and Tunisia

“…Two small islands, situated in the north-east of the bay of Tunis, are named Zembra and Zembretta. The 7 km road which connects the isle of Jerba to the continent (Tunisia), built by the Romans, is still in service and named "The Roman roadway" [ 1 ].…”

Parading Staurothekes in Norman Sicily: Relics, Community, and the Conversion of the Other†

“…Another important stage of the ceremony was the adoption of a Christian name, Latin in the case of King Roger II's godson "Roger-Ahmad," or alternatively Greek. 71 High-ranking Christian baptisms and the ceremonies of those who converted from another religion, whether important individuals or entire groups, probably involved the handling of liturgical objects. The iconography of St Ananias of Damascus baptising the pagan Saul of Tarsus, who later became St Paul, appears as part of the mosaic programmes of Monreale Cathedral and the Cappella Palatina (Fig.…”

Arabic Inscriptions in the Cappella Palatina: Performativity, Audience, Legibility and Illegibility

“…54 Whereas the royal priest Grisandus usurped the royal monopoly to set up a trilingual memorial to his Norman father, and even a quadrilingual monument to his mother, 55 other Latin churchmen, such as Stephen du Perche, archbishopelect of Palermo, disapproved so strongly of the Saracen ways tolerated in Sicily that he wrote to Pope Alexander III urging him to intervene. 56 Not only would the Arabic inscriptions in the Cappella Palatina have been viewed in very different ways by such diverse individual viewers but those viewers are likely to have displayed their reactions in very different ways according to whether they were in the presence of the king and his ministers or alone in the company of their most trusted friends.…”