Norman Kings of Sicily and the Rise of the Anti-Islamic Critique: Baptized Sultans

379 Pages·2016·12.19 MB·English

by  Joshua C. Birk (auth.)

joshua c. birk
NORMAN KINGS
OF SICILY
AND THE RISE OF
THE ANTI-ISLAMIC
CRITIQUE
Baptized Sultans
Norman Kings of Sicily and the Rise of
the Anti- Islamic Critique
Joshua C. Birk
Norman Kings of
Sicily and the Rise of
the Anti-Islamic
Critique
Baptized Sultans
Joshua C. Birk
Smith College
Northampton, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-47041-2 ISBN 978-3-319-47042-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47042-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016962716
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my parents, Raye Birk and Candace Barrett, whose steadfast
love and support helped make this book possible
A
cknowledgments
I am indebted to a number of institutions which helped make this research
possible. Medieval Academy of America as well as both the History
Department and Graduate Division of the University of California pro-
vided the financial research to craft the dissertation that served as the
foundation for this book. Thank you to the librarians and archival staff at
the Archivio di Stato di Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano di Palermo,
Archivio Storico Diocesano di Catania and Biblioteca Centrale della Regione
Siciliana who demonstrated enormous patience with and offered invalu-
able advice to a confused American graduate student attempting to navi-
gate the Sicilian archives. The National Endowment for the Humanities,
the American Academy in Rome, Eastern Illinois and Smith College
offered the resources, time and support to complete this manuscript.
A vast number of friends contributed their thoughts and ideas to this
book. I want to give special thanks to Maureen Miller, Joana Drell, Kim
Bowes, Jonathan Coit, Sarah Cunningham, Vera Tobin, Suko Toyofuku,
Philip Levis and Scott Williamson for reading over various sketches and
versions of this project. The conversations that Brian Catlos and Sharon
Kinoshita fostered around their Mediterranean Seminar have helped me
find broader contexts for the specifics of my research. My colleagues at
Smith College, particularly Jeffrey Ahlman, Marnie Anderson, Ernest
Benz, Darcy Buerkle, Craig Davis, Daniel Gardner, Sergey Glebov, Jennifer
Guglielmo, Suleiman Mourad, Elizabeth Pryor, Ann zulawski and Nadya
Sbaiti provided invaluable insight, support and guidance throughout the
entire writing process. I have also been fortunate to work with four bril-
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
liant young scholars, Rosie Taylor, Jessa Fries, Elizabeth Haas and Amalia
Stark, as research assistants over the course of writing this manuscript.
I cannot adequately express my appreciation to my teachers. Amy
Remensyder’s lectures enthralled me as an undergraduate and encouraged
me to become a medievalist. Stephen Humphreys first directed me to
study medieval Sicily. Sharon Farmer has a unique gift for realizing when
her students have found something; she recognized that I had stumbled
on a wonderful research project well before the thought occurred to me.
Ed English and James Brooks through their seminars, readings and gen-
erous critiques showed me that history could be an art and gave me the
tools to help me pursue this project. Finally, Carol Lansing, my adviser,
has been and continues to be a constant source of support, advice and
inspiration. I can’t thank all of you enough.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Saracen Soldiers: Muslim Participation in Norman
Military Expeditions 33
3 A “Semi-Pagan Tyrant?” 81
4 T he Case of Philip of Mahdiyya: A Medieval Murder
Mystery 139
5 L iminality as Centrality: The Sicilian Eunuch Tradition 173
6 C ommunity as Collateral 207
7 T he End of Muslim Sicily 265
8 Epilogue 303
ix
x CONTENTS
Bibliography 325
Index 361
A b
bbreviAtions for ibliogrAphy
ANS Anglo-Norman Studies
ASSO Archivio storico per la Sicilia orientale
BAS2 Biblioteca arabo-sicula, ossia Raccolta di testi
arabici che toccano la geografia, la storia, la bio-
grafia e la bibliografia della Sicilia
BISIME Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il
Medio Evo
EHR The English Historical Review
FSI Fonti per La Storia D’Italia
HSJ The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval
History
JMH Journal of Medieval History
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
MGH Ldl MGH. Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum
(Ldl)
MGH SS MGH. Scriptores (in Folio)
MGH SS rer. Germ. MGH. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum
scholarum separatim editi
MGH SS rer. Germ. N.S MGH. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova
series
RIS Rerum italicarum scriptores
xi