Narrating Muslim Sicily: War and Peace in the Medieval Mediterranean World

245 Pages·2019·11.512 MB·English

by  William Granara

Narrating Muslim Sicily
The Early and Medieval Islamic World
Published in collaboration with the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
As recent scholarship resoundingly attests, the medieval Mediterranean and
Middle East bore witness to a prolonged period of flourishing intellectual and
cultural diversity. Seeking to contribute to this ever-more nuanced and contextual
picture, The Early and Medieval Islamic World book series promotes innovative
research on the period 500–1500 AD with the Islamic world, as it ebbed and
flowed from Marrakesh to Palermo and Cairo to Kabul, as the central pivot.
Thematic focus within this remit is broad, from the cultural and social to the
political and economic, with preference given to studies of societies and cultures
from a socio-historical perspective. It will foster a community of unique voices
on the medieval Islamic world, shining light into its lesser-studied corners.
Series editor
Professor Roy Mottahedeh, Harvard University
Advisors
Professor Amira Bennison, University of Cambridge
Professor Farhad Daftary, Institute of Ismaili Studies
Professor Simon Doubleday, Hofstra University
Professor Frank Griffel, Yale University
Professor Remke Kruk, Leiden University
Professor Beatrice Manz, Tufts University
Dr Bernard O’Kane, American University in Cairo
Professor Andrew Peacock, University of St Andrews
Dr Yossef Rapoport, Queen Mary University of London
New and forthcoming titles
Cross Veneration in the Medieval Islamic World: Christian Identity and Practice under
Muslim Rule, Charles Tieszen (Fuller Theological Seminary/Simpson University)
Power and Knowledge in Medieval Islam: Shi’i and Sunni Encounters in Baghdad,
Tariq al-Jamil (Swathmore College)
The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval
Central Asia, Robert Haug (University of Cincinnati)
Writing History in the Medieval Islamic World: The Value of Chronicles as
Archives, Fozia Bora (University of Leeds)
Female Sexuality in the Early Medieval Islamic World: Gender and Sex in Arabic
Literature, Pernilla Myrne (University of Gothenburg)
Narrating Muslim Sicily
War and Peace in the Medieval
Mediterranean World
William Granara
I. B. TAURIS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, I. B. TAURIS and the I. B. Tauris logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2019
Copyright © William Granara 2019
William Granara has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
Cover design: Adriana Brioso
Cover image: Arabonormand style portrait of Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154),
Cappella Palatina del Palazzo Reale (Palatine Chapel of the Royal
Palace) Palermo, Italy. (© The Yorck Project, 2002)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
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regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased
to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-7883-1306-3
ePDF: 978-1-7867-3613-0
eBook: 978-1-7867-2607-0
Series: Early and Medieval Islamic World
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Notes on Transliteration and Translation vii
Acknowledgements viii
Preface x
1 Sicilian Islamic History as Grand Récit 1
2 Treason as Historical Anecdote and Literary Trope in
Narrating Muslim Sicily 35
3 Land, Law and Jihad: Al-Dawudi’s Anti-Fatimid Polemics 69
4 Of Minarets and Shipwrecks: Ibn Hamdis and the Poetics of Jihad 99
5 In Praise of Norman Kings: Arabic Panegyrics beyond
Its Boundaries 143
Postscript 181
Notes 187
Bibliography 200
Index 205
Illustrations
List of Plates
1 Jug of Mazzara del Vallo, Museo, Regionale Galleria, Palermo
2 The Church of Saint John of the Hermits (San Giovanni degli
Eremiti): A sixth-century church converted into a mosque
during Muslim rule and restored as a church by Roger II c.1136,
Palermo
3 Mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the royal Palatine Chapel
(Cappella Palatina) commissioned by Roger II c.1132, Palermo
4 Statue of William II at the front of the Cathedral of Monreale
(begun by William II c.1174), Monreale (Sicily).
List of Maps
1 Sicily: The Provinces xvi
2 Sicily: The Cities xvi
3 Sicily: The Cities in Arabic xvii
4 Southern Italy: The Cities xviii
5 Sicily, North Africa and Europe. xix
All maps and images have been provided by the author.
Notes on Transliteration and Translation
For the transliteration of Arabic names, terms and bibliographical citations, I
follow the Library of Congress system with some modifications; I omit both
macrons for long vowels and diacritics for ‘emphatic’ consonants. I use the
apostrophe for the hamza and the inverted apostrophe for the ‘ayn.
All translations from Arabic, French and Italian are my own unless
otherwise indicated.
Acknowledgements
This book has been in the making for a long time. It was conceived in my
graduate school days at the University of Pennsylvania, where I began to take an
interest in medieval Sicily, especially Islamic Sicily. My professor and mentor,
George Makdisi (RIP), immediately pointed me in the direction of Michele
Amari, and his Biblioteca Arabo-Siciula and Storia dei Musulmani di Sicila
became my scholarly scriptures. Professor Makdisi’s guidance throughout my
early years of research and writing was invaluable.
I thank my colleague and friend, Professor Roy Mottahedeh, for his
mentoring, wise counsel and encouragement to bring this book to fruition.
To Thomas Stottor, Rory Gormley, and the staff at I. B. Tauris, I extend my
gratitude. I thank my copy editor Kate Rouhana for her exceptional skills and
guidance, and to Eric Edstam for his skill and patience in helping me through
the final editing. I also thank the Office of the Divisional Dean of Arts and
Humanities at Harvard for its generous support for this project.
A special round of thanks as well goes to Robert Wisnovsky and Wilfred
Rollman who took the time to read my completed manuscript and offer
important suggestions.
Since joining the faculty in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations at Harvard in 1993, I have had the privilege of working with a
bright constellation of scholarly luminaries. The late Wolfhart P. Heinrichs
(RIP) was the first to nudge me to publish a lecture I delivered at Harvard’s
Humanities Center on Ibn Hamdis. He spent many hours with me working
through some of the more obscure verses of Ibn Hamdis. His vast knowledge
and erudition and his passion for Arabic poetry continue until now to be most
infectious. I also thank my colleagues Khaled Al-Masri and Shady Nasser,
who sat patiently with me reading and rereading literally hundreds of lines
of Ibn Hamdis and arguing convincingly over variant interpretations. I also
owe a debt of gratitude to my dear friends, former Shawwaf visiting professors
at Harvard, Gaber Asfour and Ridwan Al-Sayyid, who shared my interest
Acknowledgements ix
in Sicily and imparted their knowledge of Arabic literature and Islamic law
onto me. I have been honoured to work and supervise a number of graduate
students, and I cite Nicola Carpentieri and Ali Asghar Alibhai, whose work on
medieval Sicily has enriched me tremendously.
I express my gratitude and respect as well to two eminent scholars of
medieval Sicily, Jeremy Johns and Alex Metcalf, whose magnificent work has
been indispensable to my own research.
My hearty thanks and affection as well go to my ‘gang’ of friends and
scholars who, over the many years, have patiently listened to me go on and
on about Sicily, Palermo, Ibn Hamdis and the Normans – more often than not
‘as exuberant topers grasping the silver cup of grape-induced intoxication’, as
Ibn Hamdis would put it. I toast Laila Parsons, Rob Wisnovsky, Ilham Khuri-
Makdisi, Eve Troutt Powell, Sahar Bazzaz, Ayman El-Desouky and Sinan
Antoon.
Finally, I thank my parents, Eugene J. and Irene Pellegrini Granara for
encouraging me and supporting the many years of my education, and to whom
I dedicate this book.