The Muslims of Medieval Italy.

• Author: Jennings, Michael
• Position: Book review

The Muslims of Medieval Italy. By ALEX METCALFE. The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys. Edinburgh: EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2009. Pp. xiv + 314, ills. $105 (cloth); $32.50 (paper).

Students and scholars of the Islamic Mediterranean have been waiting for this book. A quick browse through available volumes on Islamic Sicily is all it takes to understand why. Unlike the history of the Islamic period in Spain, a narrative that unfolds on a markedly larger geographical and chronological stage, the history of Islamic Sicily has remained poorly understood. While the former has been the subject of a significant amount of academic attention, the latter has too often been relegated to cursory introductory chapters in studies actually devoted to Norman or later medieval Sicily. Norman Sicily indeed stands out as a fascinating historical period to study, but this is in no small part because of the role played by the island's Muslim inhabitants. Metcalfe shines some much needed light on the period of Muslim rule itself.

The Muslims' of Medieval Italy--the title of which is a little misleading since the hook is predominantly about Sicily--is divided into fourteen chapters. After an introduction and an initial chapter on the rise of Islam and the situation in Sicily prior to the Muslim conquest, chapters 2-4 deal with the establishment of Muslim political rule in Sicily. These chapters treat such topics as the protracted military campaigns for domination of the island, the apogee of Kalbid power, and the eventual disintegration and fragmentation of that power during the Sicilian ta'ifa period on the eve of the Norman advance. Chapters 5-7 address the Norman conquest and the many historical issues regarding the Muslim population of Sicily under Norman rule. Norman relations with and activity within Zirid North Africa make up the subject of chapter 8. Chapter 9 proceeds to discuss the serious unrest and anti-Muslim violence of the 1160s. These largely chronological chapters are followed by four thematic chapters that address various aspects of Islamic culture in Sicily, especially under the Normans. Metcalfe then ends The Muslims of Medieval Italy with a look at the creation of the Muslim colony at Lucera under Frederick II.

A cursory glance at the table of contents indicates that the period of Muslim governance of Sicily constitutes less than half of Metcalfe's book. But this was also true of Michele Amari's seminal work on Islamic Sicily, Storia dei...