Showcases the importance of cultural exchange through an exploration of Sicily’s Arabo-Islamic past
The period of Arabo-Islamic domination of parts of Sicily, and the consequent large Muslim presence on the island from 800 to the mid-13th century constitutes a crucial epoch whose influence remains an integral part of the island’s architectural and cultural landscape. This volume builds on existing scholarship and goes beyond the ‘Arabo-Norman’ construct to afford greater recognition to the island’s Arabic and Islamic history. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the chapters examine Sicily’s mercantile, artistic and architectural links to the Muslim world, including the subjects of the Fa imids of Ifriqiya and their Kalbid allies in Sicily. It also reflects upon the Arabo-Islamic philosophical legacy at the court of Frederick II, Muslim accounts of medieval Sicily, Fa imid influence on the arts, women’s textile production, discussions of linguistics and literature, and various other aspects of Sicily’s diverse cultural and religious life during this period.
1. Sicilys Islamic Heritage: A Pervasive Culture - Nuha Alshaar
Part One: Sicily and North Africa: Sociocultural and Political links
2. Sociocultural links between Sicily and Ifrqiya in the Middle Ages -
Mohamed Hassan
3. The Kalbids of Sicily: Stalwarts of Fimid Ifrqiya - Shainool Jiwa
Part Two: Arabo-Islamic Philosophical and Intellectual Traditions of Sicily
4. From Averroes to Dante: A Mediterranean Encounter Between Philosophy and
Religion - Massimo Campanini
5. Two Examples of Arabic Texts in Sicily: Between Linguistics and Philosophy
-Patrizia Spallino
6. Psychological and Epistemological Concepts in Ibn Sabns al-Masil
al-iqilliyya (The Sicilian Questions) - Beate Ulrike La Sala
Part 3: Sicily and its Textile and Artistic Traditions
7. Common Threads: Women and the Making of Fimid and Norman Textiles -
Delia Cortese
8. Architectural and Numismatic Traces of Arabic Cultural Exchange between
Sicily and Greater Syria - Ammar Abdulrahman and Alaa Aldin, al Chomari
9. On the Artistic Culture of Medieval Sicily - William Tronzo
Part 4: Sicily, Literature, Language, and Identity
10. Intellectual and Poetic Traditions of Sicily during the Fimid and
Kalbid Rules - Nuha Alshaar
11. Arabic-Muslim Accounts of Medieval Sicily and the Quran: An Intertextual
Reading - Nesma Mohamed Taher Mostafa Elsakaan
12. Consequences of the Reconquista in Greater Sicily for the Core Vocabulary
of Maltese - Geoffrey Hull
13. Three Worlds in one Island (Muslims, Jews, and Christians) - Giovanna
Summerfield
Appendix of Arabic PoetryNotes
Nuha Alshaar is Associate Professor at the American University of Sharjah and Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Her publications include On God and the World: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 49-51(with Madelung, W., Baffioni, C., & Uy, Oxford University Press, 2019) and Ethics in Islam: Friendship in the Political Thought of al-Tawd and his Contemporaries (Routledge, 2015). She is also the volume editor of The Quran and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Sources and Approaches across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies: Proceedings of the 24th Congress of the L Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (with Verena Klemm, Peeters, 2013). She has also contributed several book chapters and articles to prestigious publications.
