Destroying the Myth of Arab Sicily

Written by Filiusapollinis

During this time of grave crisis for the identity of our continent, some people in Sicily feel the need to tie themselves to an exotic, foreign and brief period in the remote past. For these reasons, some Sicilians are now exalting the period known as Arab Sicily.

In this article I will summarize the history behind this false myth.

First, the myth of Arab Sicily was founded in the second half of the 18th century when the Maltese forger Giuseppe Vella reinvented himself as a “scholar” and “expert on Arab culture and language”. He falsified and created from scratch a supposed “Entire History of the Muslims of Sicily”. [1]

The real studies on Islamic rule in Sicily began with Michele Amari. Amari was a historian, orientalist and later a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, who dedicated his time to studying the Muslim period in Sicily.

But why exalt a mere two centuries of foreign occupation, when Sicily was one of the main cradles of civilization of the classical world since the time of the Italics and the Greek city-states?

It is necessary to remember that between the end of the 1700's and the entire 1800's there was a passion among the aristocrats and nobles of Europe for the East and eastern civilization, which resulted in oriental studies that were quite accurate and thorough.

Enrico Amari, an anti-bourbonist, was a perfect representative of orientalist thought in Italy: he came to support extreme theses such as the supposed “Arab heritage” of the Sicilians.

Why do I speak of anti-bourbonism? Because as we all know, during the Congress of Vienna the Bourbon dynasty did not scruple to unite Naples and Palermo into a single crown (the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), thus provoking a feeling of reaction in many Sicilians.

Amari saw the Islamic period as the only true point of historical rupture between we islanders and the mainland inhabitants of central and southern Italy, with whom we have always been affiliated with and are very similar to. His positive interpretation of Islamic Sicily aroused much dismay among the intellectuals of the time, both Sicilian and Neapolitan, as well as intellectuals from various other parts of Italy and Europe, which resulted in the famous phrase of Benedetto Croce: “Arab Sicily is an invention of Michele Amari”.

[Editor's note: By exalting Islamic Sicily, Michele Amari believed he could undermine the historical connection between Sicily and mainland Italy and therefore undermine the union of the crowns of Naples and Sicily.]

In fact, before the forger Vella, there were no memories of Islamic Sicily, neither amongst the Sicilian population nor amongst the intellectuals of the time.

The history of Sicily and the Sicilian people has always been linked to the fate of Europe ever since the Greek colonies, when Syracuse excelled in the Mediterranean and rivaled Carthage, Athens and Rome, and which also was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The wonderful city of Akragas (modern Agrigento) was the birthplace of brilliant minds such as Empedocles, and gave us world heritage sites such as the Valley of the Temples. We can also mention the ancient city of Selinunte. Then there is Catania and the Roman city of Taormina, whose monumental legacies can still be clearly seen today with the astonishing amphitheater.

Let's not forget the Baroque wonders of the Val di Noto, or the Byzantine cube churches.

Or the fascinating autochthonous city of Segesta, founded by the Elymians, an indigenous people of Sicily whose Italicity is proven by recent linguistic studies, against those who would like to claim that they were a foreign people who arrived from somewhere else. [2] [3]

Or the exceptional Morgantina which, contrary to popular belief, was not a Greek city, but belonged to the Italic people called the Morgetes [4], who were later culturally hellenized. Greek, Roman and Italic culture is the foundation of the Sicilian people.

I could go on and on, but now let's speak of the Islamic invasion.

Despite the scarcity of certain sources (only four) [5], we know that the invasion of the Saracen army began in the year 827. According to legend, it was thanks to the treachery of Euphemius, a Byzantine admiral from Messina.

The resistance of the Sicilians was incredible, especially in the two eastern valleys where the war continued almost until the year 1000 (Rometta did not fall until 965). This is why Catania and some of the cities of Val Demone never fell under Islamic rule. [6]

Just to give a comparison: it took the Muslims just six years to subjugate the whole of Iberia (except Asturias) and by the seventh year they already conquered the south of France.

During the war the invading Islamic army was guilty of crimes that are often ignored by historians, especially against those cities that preferred to resist rather than surrender, such as the massacre at Palermo, where out of 70,000 inhabitants of the city only 3,000 were left alive [7]. There was the Battle of Enna which killed 9,000 Christian resisters; and the inhabitants of Selinunte who were boiled alive in hot oil; [8] and the Siege of Syracuse, in which about 4,000 people were killed and the city razed to the ground before being rebuilt many years later. [9]

Some say that Arabs gave impetus to the arts, science, architecture, agriculture and were tolerant of Christians (who were the vast majority of the Sicilian population). In reality many of these claims need to be re-evaluated because we only have two direct witnesses to the lifestyle of Sicily during the Islamic period: Ibn Hawqal and Theodosius, a monk of Syracuse. [10]

Among other things, contemporary accounts show that Sicily was one of the more peripheral and most neglected parts of the whole Caliphate. [11]

We do know however that during their occupation they introduced new crops such as citrus fruits, dates, mulberry and sugarcane. So true is this that the majority of words in modern Sicilian that are of Arabic origin (although only about 5% of the overall lexicon [12]) are mostly words pertaining to agriculture.

Unlike the Iberian peninsula, there is virtually no trace of construction during the Islamic period; the little bit that does exist are just a few monuments in Palermo, but the mosaics and the dome are from the Norman period.

Despite two centuries of Islamic occupation, complete assimilation and islamization never happened (indeed, even some pre-Christian pagan cults survived in some parts on the eastern side of the island [13]). A large part of Sicily, especially in the east, preferred to live as dhimmi (non-Muslim subjects) with all the serious problems that derive from such a status (segregation, jizya tax, land tax, posts assigned to Muslims, wearing distinctive badges, unable to use saddles on horses, unable to build structures taller than Muslim buildings, unable to publicly practice Christianity) [14], rather than accept conversion to the new Islamic religion. [15]

So why do people speak of Arab Sicily? It would be more accurate to call it Islamic rule on a foreign land.

The other interesting question would be this: who were these Muslims of Sicily?

There are two schools of thought: one is that of Michele Amari, who claims that Sicily (at least the western part) was entirely repopulated by Berbers, Andalusians and Arabic elites. And the other, supported primarily by Jean-Marie Martin, instead believes that the majority of the island's Muslims were composed of native Sicilian converts, governed by a Berber and Arabic ruling class. [16]

In the year 948 the part of Sicily that fell under Muslim rule was established as an Emirate, formally bound to the Fatimids, but de facto independent under the Shiite Kalbid dynasty.

But in the early decades of the 11th century Islamic power began to decline.

There were numerous internal revolts resulting in fragmentation, various attempts at Byzantine reconquest, internal power was disrupted (the Emirate of Sicily was divided into three parts: the Val di Noto and Val Demone in the east, and the Val di Mazara in the west), the Norman knights descended into the southern Italian mainland, and the Muslim warlord Ibn Al-Thumna asked the Norman Duchy of Calabria for help against rival Muslims rulers in Sicily. In 1059, during the Council of Melfi, Pope Nicholas II entrusted the papal investiture of Count of Sicily to the brothers Robert Guiscard and Roger of Hauteville.

The Norman reconquest of Sicily begins here.

In 1061, that which is sometimes mistakenly referred to as “a war by a small group of adventurers from northern Europe” instead turned into an event of world importance. An event so important that, in conjunction with the conquest of Toledo and Madrid (which took place in 1085), it is regarded as the beginning of the Crusades.

In any case, the so-called small group of Normans would not have been able to conquer anything if they did not have the help of the Christians of Sicily (the vast majority of the population in the two eastern provinces and a significant portion in the Val di Mazara), soldiers from the Kingdom of Lombardy (not to be confused with the current Italian region), foot soldiers from Langobardia Minor (central-southern Italy) and the Pisan navy.

The army, led by the Norman knights Roger of Hauteville and Robert Guiscard, landed in Messina, which was easily occupied thanks to the help of the Sicilians of Val Demone.

In just three years the entire north-eastern part of Sicily was fully conquered by the Christians. The objective then turned to Palermo, the capital of the Islamic Emirate, which fell to the Normans on January 10, 1072.

It was a terrible blow for the Muslims and soon the cities of Trapani, Jato, Taormina and Cinisi also fell. All that remained was Noto, Butera, Agrigento and Syracuse, which were finally conquered between 1086 and 1091. [17]

Even today, in memory of that great undertaking, numerous Sicilian cities still celebrate the Christian victory in the war. For example, the Feast of the Madonna of the Militias of Scili, which commemorates a battle that took place near the town of Ragusa during the Norman reconquest. There is also the Battimento of Aidone, a historical reenactment practiced since the 17th century, which recalls a legendary battle between Christians and Muslims near Aidone.

At the end of the war of reconquest the Latin sovereigns reorganized Sicily economically, culturally, politically and religiously.

The Papacy called for an immediate and total re-Christianization of Sicily, but Roger I tolerated (as far as we can speak of tolerance in the Middle Ages) both Greek Rite Christians and Muslims, without forcing them to convert.

However, having lost their dominance on the island, the vast majority of Muslims chose to leave Sicily and emigrated to Islamic lands such as the Maghreb and Muslim Iberia. [18] [19]

A valuable record of this great exodus has been handed down to us by Ibn-Hamdis, a poet who chose the path of exile, as well al-Ballanubi and al-Mazari who also chose to leave Sicily after the Muslim defeat. The latter was born in Mazara del Vallo (Sicily), but chose to exile himself to Ifriqiya (North Africa). He encouraged the remaining Muslims to also leave Sicilian territory.

That is why, to compensate for this demographic decline, the new Norman rulers encouraged mainland Italians to repopulate extensive territories on the island, a historical fact which has been unjustly neglected, but which would go on to have a decisive effect on the ethnic formation of the Sicilian people. [20]

There was considerable migration of settlers from Longobardia Minor (Southern Italy), especially from Campania, Puglia and Calabria, who settled mainly in the western part of the island. [21] They were followed by settlers from the historical Lombardy (modern Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia), who repopulated entire territories of central-eastern Sicily. [22]

Today there are fourteen areas in Sicily of Gallo-Italic origin, but numerous phonetic and lexical traces can be found in almost forty towns. [23]

Colonists also arrived from Genoa, Pisa, Venice, Florence, Alessandria and Lucca. There were also a small number of colonists from Provence, and a few Bretons and Normans (the latter were mainly clergymen, nobles and soldiers). They were invited by the new sovereigns to repopulate various districts of major cities [24] and became integrated with the Christian population already present in Sicily.

This played a key role in the cultural and linguistic education of the Sicilian people. [25] [26]

In fact, contrary to the romantic notion that the new sovereigns were so magnanimous, the grace period between Christians and Muslims was very short and ephemeral. According to the descriptions given by the Muslim traveller Ibn Jubayr and by Archbishop Romuald Guarna, the Muslim community was in crisis and suffering a demographic decline.

The surviving Muslim communities were gradually isolated and segregated from the Christian ones [27] and all too often the Muslims were targeted and persecuted, which eventually turned into systematic mass extermination, such as was done already in 1092 against the Islamic community of Pantalica [28], followed by the deportation of the inhabitants of Butera to Calabria, who were replaced by Italian colonists [29], as well as the attacks by Matteo Bonello and Roger Sclavus who hunted Muslims with their armies. [30]

The result was that the Muslim communities preferred to flee the cities and chose to emigrate to Al-Andalus, the Maghreb, or take refuge in the mountains. [31]

Indeed, as noted by the medieval historian Ferdinando Maurici, after the anti-Muslim riots during the reign of William I, the Islamic presence in Sicily was reduced only to the mountainous area behind Palermo descending towards Agrigento. [32] By now they were a foreign body on a purely westernized and thoroughly Latinized island. We can see the most tangible demonstration of this in the establishment of the Sicilian School of poetry, the first hub of Italian culture.

Sicily, therefore, within a few generations was transformed from a land of Latins, Greeks and Muslims, into a country that had became the corollary of Italy, an Italy that Frederick II wanted to unite.

The small Islamic community survived independently (they even minted their own currency) up until the outbreak of rebellion in the early years of the regency of Frederick II. Taking advantage of the young age of the Swabian king, the Muslims took control of Jato, Entella, Corleone, Cinisi and other places in the Diocese of Monreale.

Therefore in 1221 Frederick II decided to restore order in his kingdom, but the war would continue for several years and was very bloody, so much so that the historian Francesco Renda (and many other writers) bluntly called it an ethnic cleansing. [33] [34]

And in fact the emperor brought the Inquisition to Sicily in 1224 with the constitution “Inconsutilem tunicam” which aimed to “exterminare de insula Saracenos”. But just so there is no confusion: exterminare meant expulsion, not extermination.

In 1222 the army of Frederick II took Jato and captured the Emir and the rebel leader Ibn Abbad, who was hanged in the square with his sons.

Between 1223 and 1225 many of the insurgents surrendered and were expelled from Sicily and deported to remote places, distant from the sea, on the mainland portion of the Kingdom of Sicily, such as Lucera, Girifalco, Acerenza, Castelsaraceno, Stornara, Casal Monte Saraceno and Nocera. [35] [36]

The rebellion was kindled in 1243 until 1246 when the new Jato and Entella were the main centers of these hotbeds of revolt.

Besieged, hungry and about to capitulate, the Saracens surrendered and were all deported to Lucera. [37] They were replaced by Italian colonists, directly invited by the Swabian emperor, who donated the lands of Corleone, [38] Scopello and Vicari to the Italian condottiero Oddone de Camerana, the leader of the Italian colonists.

Note that the migrations do not end here. Sicily was the object of successive appropriations by Italians from Pisa, [39] [40] additional small groups of Italians from Lombardy who settled in Palermo, [41] [42] Catalan merchants, small isolated allocations of Greek and Albanian refugees after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, and soldiers from Liguria, Calabria, Spain and Malta. [43]

Nowadays even genetic research confirms that Arabic genes are non-existent on the island [44] and that the inhabitants of Sicily are genetically a continuation of mainland Italy and distinct from the populations of North Africa and Arabia. [45] [46] [47]

[1] Il portale del sud – La minsogna saracina
[2] Laura Biondi – Elimo parte 1
[3] Laura Biondi – Elimo parte 2
[4] Treccani.it – Morgantina
[5] Alessandro Vanoli – La Sicilia musulmana
[6] Francesco Renda – Storia della Sicilia dalle origini ai giorni nostri (2003), vol. 1, p. 246.
[7] Amelia Crisantino – La Repubblica 12 Luglio 2015
[8] Tomasso Fazello – Storia di Sicilia
[9] Giovanni Battista Rampodi – Corografia dell’Italia vol. 3, p. 1032, 1033, 1034, 1035
[10] Carlo Ruta – Il crepuscolo della Sicilia islamica p. 10
[11] Alessandro Vanoli
[12] Salvatore Giarrizzo – Dizionario etimologico siciliano
[13] Ezio Biuso-Rizzo – Tesoretto siciliano p. 52
[14] Pasquale Hamel – La Sicilia araba tollerante? Ecco cosa insegna la storia
[15] Ezio Biuso-Rizzo – Tesoretto siciliano p. 48, 49, 50
[16] Jean-Marie Martin – La vita quotidiana nell’Italia meridionale al tempo dei Normanni pp. 115-116
[17] Marco Tangheroni – La riconquista cristiana della Sicilia parte 2
[18] The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir
[19] Amedeo Feniello – Ma un tempo si scappava dalla Sicilia nel Maghreb Corriere della sera 05 aprile 2015
[20] Calogero Ferlisi – Il breviario miniato dei carmelitani di Sutera p. 98
[21] Giosuè Musca – Terra e uomini nel mezzogiorno normanno-svevo p. 47
[22] Ugo Falcando – Liber De Regno Sicilie
[23] Salvatore C. Trovato – La fiera del Nigrò p. 155, 156, 157
[24] Atti e memorie della società Siciliana per la storia patria 1899 p.9
[25] Simone Collavini – Conquista, colonizzazione e latinizzazione della Sicilia
[26] Alberto Varvaro e Rosanna Sornicola – Considerazioni sul multilinguismo in Sicilia e a Napoli nel primo medioevo
[27] Carlo Ruta – Il crepuscolo della Sicilia islamica p. 29
[28] Carlo Ruta – Il crepiscolo della Sicilia islamica p. 31
[29] Goffredo Malaterra
[30] Treccani.it – Ugo Falcando
[31] Carlo Ruta – Il crepuscolo della Sicilia islamica p. 39
[32] Ferdinando Maurici – L’emirato sulle montagne. Note per una storia della resistenza musulmana in Sicilia sotto Federico II
[33] Francesco Renda – Federico II e la Sicilia
[34] Calogero Ferlisi – Il breviario miniato dei carmelitani di Sutera p. 98
[35] Julie Ann Taylor – Muslims in medieval Italy: The colony at Lucera
[36] Tonino Del Duca – Origine, vita e distruzione della colonia saracena di Lucera
[37] Fara Misuraca – La resistenza musulmana in Sicilia
[38] Iris Mirazita – Corleone: ultimo medioevo pp. 20-21
[39] Giuseppe Petralia – Banchieri e famiglie mercantili nel Mediterraneo aragonese. L’emigrazione dei pisani in Sicilia nel Quattrocento
[40] Matteo Sanfilippo – Emigrazione e storia d’Italia p. 270
[41] Gaetano Nicastro – Tra Valchiavenna e Sicilia
[42] Gaetano Nicastro – Dal lago di Como alla Sicilia
[43] Matteo Mandalà – Albanesi in Sicilia
[44] Italianthro – Moors expelled from Sicily and Southern Italy
[45] Eupedia – Genetic history of the Italians
[46] Italianthro – Population structure within Italy
[47] Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza – Storia e geografia dei geni umani