The Medieval MediterraneanIslamic and Norman Sicily (800–1200) |
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Topic 29. Formation of the new kingdomAfter Roger's coronation in Palermo on Christmas Day 1130, divisions within the kingdom remained and the new king diverted much of his energies for the next decade consolidating his power on the mainland and expelling disaffected and rebellious lords. Topic 30. Consolidation and development of the kingdomOver ancient remains in Palermo, a new palace was built which would rapidly become the focus of political, cultural and administrative life for the duration of the Norman period. Roger – and perhaps more importantly – George of Antioch began constructing a kingship with imperialistic outlooks and trappings to match. The royal demesne in Calabria and Sicily was managed directly by the new centralised offices of the fiscal administration, whereas control over the mainland continued to be devolved through a system of vassalage and military services provided by lay lords. Topic 31. Law, authority and kingshipThe trial and execution for apostasy of one of Roger II's most trusted eunuchs in 1153 is recorded independently by both Latin and Arabic sources. The context of the trial is significant since it occurred in the wake of Norman and Almohad expansion across North Africa, and at a time when intrigues between rival factions in the royal palaces in the final days of Roger II were beginning to erupt into the open. These tensions would ultimately destabilise the kingdom and re-orientate its political direction during the reign of Roger's son and successor, William I. Topic 32. Art and architecture of the royal palacesA wide range of art objects and original architecture from the Norman period have survived and provide rare sources of illumination for the kings' lifestyles as well as for the presentation of the image of the ruler and, thus as a form of political propaganda. While much royal art and architecture remains ultimately open to precise interpretation, it is clear that the kings' consciously drew on Romanesque, Byzantine, Islamic precedents perhaps to project the impression of divinely sanctioned power and by doing so boost their sense of legitimacy, which was lacking in the opinion of their many detractors. Topic 33. The royal fiscal administration of lands and menThe main offices of the royal dīwān derived their inspiration from models found in Fatimid Cairo, but they continued to renovate and reform a complex blend of pre-existing Sicilian practices based on records kept largely in Arabic. Crown property came to be organised around two basic operations: the division of lands into provinces and their component estates whose boundaries were defined at inquests by officials with the help of local elders, and secondly, the compilation of lists recording the names of taxpaying household heads. Typically, these were sub-divided according to their area and fiscal status. The resulting documentation is not only a uniquely rich source for understanding the development of the administration and transmission of royal authority, but is also fundamentally important for the reconstruction of Sicily's shifting settlement patterns and socio-religious history during the twelfth century. Introductory readingSummary of charters from the royal diwan (.pdf file. Limited access) Topic 34. The trial of Philip of MahdiyyaPhilip was one of Roger II's most trusted eunuch servants and high-ranking officials who appeared to have a bright future ahead of him since he had been raised by personally by the king, oversaw the running of the palace, and also commanded the royal fleet. However, on his return to Palermo from a successful expedition against the Ifriqiyan town of Buna, he was arrested. His trial and execution for apostasy towards the end of 1153 was recorded by independent Latin and Arabic sources, and reveal something of the emerging political tensions in the months before Roger's own death in February 1154. Topic 35. The Norman conquest and loss of AfricaFrom the 1130s, but particularly during the 1140s, the Normans looked to extend their sway over the politically fractured region of Ifrīqiya by attacking its ports and by appointing elites through whom indirect control could be managed from Palermo. By 1148, the old Zirid capital, Mahdiyya had fallen to a Norman fleet led by George of Antioch. Some evidence suggests that the area experienced a brief economic recovery thereafter. However, the eastward expansion of the Almohads and increasing discontent with Ifrīqiya itself served to undermine the stability of Norman overseas possessions with repercussions both at home and abroad. Topic 36. William I and the crises of 1155–6During 1155, the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, crossed the Alps and was crowned in Rome. One of the most important- and persistently rebellious- lords on the mainland, the king's cousin Robert of Bassunvilla, the recently made Count of Loritello, rose in revolt and the northern parts of the kingdom, such as Capua where Roger had re-asserted his authority in the 1130 and the Abruzzi into which he had expanded in the 1140s, followed suit, with many of the rebel nobles coming from long-established families in the south. The threat to the integrity of the kingdom was compounded by the opposition of Pope Adrian IV and the arrival of a Byzantine army in south Apulia in autumn of 1155. Then, between September until December, William fell seriously ill, sparking dangerous rumours of his death. Insurrection spread across Apulia where the key towns of Bari, Trani, Bríndisi and Táranto fell. At Bari, the royal citadel was destroyed, while rebellion broke out on the island of Sicily itself. William was forced to quash the revolt on the island first by directing his army against the ‘Lombard' town of Butera which had been the stronghold of his rebellious cousin and master constable of Apulia, Count Simon of Policastro, before turning his attention to the mainland during spring of 1156. Having retaken Bríndisi and Bari, the opposition forces soon split, retreated or were defeated with relative ease, while the town of Bari itself was smashed in retribution for its treachery. Campania was pacified and Robert of Bassunvilla temporarily exiled. The resolution of the revolts resulted in the treaty of Benevento in June 1156, signed in the town where Pope Adrian had been besieged. Topic 37. The History of Hugo FalcandusFalcandus' long and fundamentally important account covers events from the end of Roger II's reign until 1169, and has exerted a profound impact on the historiography of the reign of William I and the early years of William II under the regency of Margaret. However, it is quite obvious that Falcandus was fiercely hostile towards certain elements within the kingdom to te extent that much of his writing must be treated with great caution. Moreover, difficulties of interpretating his work are compounded by the question of authorship since it is unclear who 'Hugo Falcandus' actually was. On the changing political landscape in Palermo, Falcandus sheds light on the unpopularity of Maio of Bari, the king's chief minister between and 1154–60. Although he was not descended from either a noble nor a Norman family, Maio's father had been a royal judge in Apulia and he had risen to prominence from the mid-1140s via a bureaucratic route in the royal administration in Palermo. After the deaths of George of Antioch in 1151 and Robert of Selby the following year, he became amir of amirs and, even before Roger's death in 1154, he appears to have held a tight grip over the levers of political and administrative power, thereby drawing hostile attention from the nobility led by a Norman lord, Matthew Bonnellus, who was strongly implicated in Maio's murder in 1160. Topic 38. The revolts of 1161–2The sacking of the royal palace followed by widespread revolts on the island and the mainland threatened the integrity of the kingdom and, until it was crushed, it further undermined William's ability to maintain peace and order. It also revealed the extent to which religious tension, especially between the Muslims and the 'Lombards', increasingly tended to manifest itself violently in times of political instability, perhaps especially after the humiliating Norman retreat from, and evacuation of, Mahdiyya in 1160. Topic 39. Stephen of Perche and the French contingentsBetween 1166 and 1168, political life in Palermo was dominated by a French contingent, among whom Stephen was the most prominent and favoured as Margaret's cousin. He became chancellor and archbishop of Palermo before being ousted after an anti-French revolt in Messina. Stephen, or rather his portrayal in the sources, uncovers more of the political workings among the familiares regis of nobles and Latin-rite prelates and their relationships with others in the palaces and with the wider population of Sicilian Muslims, Greeks and Lombards. Topic 40. Science, translation and patronageThe Norman period in Sicily played a key role in the 'Twelfth-Century Renaissance' during which philosophical and scientific texts from ancient Greece, and Arabic texts and commentaries from the Islamic world were translated into Latin, thereby stimulating science and learning in western Europe. These were occasionally supplemented with new works commissioned by the kings and some of their closest advisors. The translations were made for patrons in secular rather than monastic settings, and the kingdom was particularly well-placed as a site for such cross-cultural transfer of knowledge with its high-level patronage, multiple centres of learning, and the availability of numerous bilingual translators in both Sicily and the Italian mainland. Topic 41. The familiares regisAfter the murder of Maio in 1160, William I's amir of amirs, the familiares regis system becomes clearer. It initially consisted of a triumvirate whose members included Henry Aristippus, Count Silvester of Marisco, Richard Palmer bishop-elect of Syracuse, and later Qā'id Peter and Matthew of Salerno. After Peter's defection to the Almohads in 1166, the familiares consisted of Richard Palmer, Matthew of Salerno, Count Richard of Molise and the royal eunuchs qā'id Richard and qā'id Martin. For a brief time after the expulsion of Stephen of Perche, there were as many as ten familiares, before political life from the 1170s came to be dominated by a triumvirate whose leading protagonists were Walter, archbishop of Palermo on the one hand, and his rival the (vice-)chancellor, Matthew of Salerno on the other. Topic 42. External relations and overseas diplomacyDue in part to source survival for the 1170s, we are less well informed about political machinations around the palaces, than we are about relations with the wider medieval world. Two notable events from this decade (William II's marriage to Joanna the daughter of Henry II of England in 1177 and the treaty of Venice signed in the same year between the kingdom, the papacy, the Germans and the north Italian Lombard towns) highlight the growing importance of long-distance diplomatic relations and Sicily's growing status and acceptability as a major European power, as well as securing a lasting peace with the German kings. Topic 43. The foundation of MonrealeWilliam II's foundation of the Benedictine abbey of Santa Maria Nuova at Monreale (c.1174) and the grants made between 1178 and 1183 conceded vast areas of wealthy crown lands, inhabited largely by Muslims to a single, new church which was located only a few kilometres from of the archbishopric of Palermo itself. The reasons behind this exceptional foundation are unclear although there are several combinations of likely possibilities. In any event, it was one of the defining acts of William II's reign, shaping political rivalries at Palermo as well as serving to qualify royal-papal relations. In addition, the confirmation of grants issued by the diwan are fundamentally important for understanding the management of the royal demesne and for offering a 'snapshot' of the Muslim communities who lived there only a few years before they rose in revolt. Topic 44. The Monreale census lists of lands and menAs a result of William II's grants made to the chruch at Monreale, a census of lands and men in western Sicily was conducted by official from the royal diwan. From this, three vast rolls of parchment survive. They date from between 1178 and 1183 and were issued to confirm the grants. The 'lists of men' (Arabic: jara'id al-rijal; Greek, plateiai) were written in Arabic and Greek, and contain over 2,000 names of the local, mainly Arab-Muslim population. A land register, which was written in Arabic and translated into Latin, recorded the boundaries of fifty estates in western Sicily. These documents are essential for our knowledge of the local population; their villages and fiscal status; their occupations and professions, as well as for understanding familial and tribal ties and relations with their Christian neighbours. Primary source study materials: the Christians of Corleone #1 (.pdf); the Christians of Corleone #2 (.pdf); image of the manuscript (.jpg); transcription of names (.pdf) Topic 45. Ibn Jubayr in SicilyThe visit to Sicily of the Andalusi pilgrim and administrator between December 1184 and March 1185 is one of the most important eye-witness accounts of Norman period. Ibn Jubayr described his experiences as he passed from Messina along towns on the northern coast until he reached Trapani where he met the leader of the Muslim community, Abu l-Qasim ibn Hammud. He also visited William II's palaces in both Messina and Palermo and interviewed several key informants, most notably among the surviving royal eunuchs. Source materialsThe Rihla of Ibn Jubayr, (Broadhurst translation), pp. 351–60 Introductory readingTopic 46. Abū l-Qāsim and the MuslimsTopic 47. The reign of TancredSources materialsLetter to Peter, treasurer of the church of Palermo (translation in Loud and Wiedemann, pp. 252–63) Introductory readingTopic 48. Markward and the 'amirate in the mountains'Source materialsGenoese Annals of Ottobuono Scriba (.pdf Translation by Graham A. Loud) Chronicle of Richard of San Germano (.pdf Translation by Graham A. Loud) A list of villeins recorded in the Rollus Rubeus chartulary of Cefalu' cathedral (Latin text and English translation by Alex Metcalfe) Introductory reading
Topic 49. The Norman legacyIntroductory readingTopic 50. Frederick II and the Staufen dynastyIntroductory readingTopic 51. The Sicilian VespersIntroductory reading |
List of topic areas1. Early history of the central Mediterranean 2. Sources for medieval Mediterranean history 3. Introduction to Mediterranean historiography 4. Geography of Sicily and the central Mediterranean 5. Arab-Muslim North Africa (647–827) 6. Late Byzantine Sicily and the Muslim conquest 7. Christians under Muslim rule 8. The Amirate of Bari 9. Law and learning in Muslim Sicily 10. Rebellions in the Fatimid period 11. Taxation, land tenure, the army and administration 12. Ibn Hawqal In Sicily 13. The Muslim Civil War (c.1030–60) 14. South Italy before the Normans 15. Al-Mujāhid's attack on Sardinia 16. The rise of the Normans in south Italy 17. The Hilalian ‘invasion' of Zirid Ifrīqiya 18. The Norman conquest of Sicily (1061–72) 19. The Norman conquest of Sicily and Malta (1072–91) 20. Muslim responses to the Norman conquest 21. Ecclesiastical lordships 22. The rise of new administrators 23. The early Norman administration of lands and men in Sicily 24. Rebellious lords and the incastellamento question 25. The regency of Adelaide 26. Christodoulos and George of Antioch 27. Roger II as Count of Sicily 28. Sicily and the Mediterranean (1118–28) 29. Formation of the new kingdom 30. Consolidation and development of the kingdom 31. Law, authority and kingship 32. Art and architecture of the royal palaces 33. The royal fiscal administration of lands and men 34. The trial of Philip of Mahdiyya 35. The Norman conquest and loss of Africa 36. William I and the crises of 1155–6 37. The History of Hugo Falcandus 38. The revolts of 1161–2 39. Stephen of Perche and the French contingents 40. Science, translation and patronage 41. The familiares regis 42. External relations and overseas diplomacy 43. The foundation of Monreale 44. The Monreale census lists of lands and men 45. Ibn Jubayr in Sicily 46. Abū l-Qāsim and the Muslims 47. The reign of Tancred 48. Markward and the 'amirate in the mountains' 49. The Norman legacy 50. Frederick II and the Staufen dynasty 51. The Sicilian Vespers
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