Article Review: Signs of the Times: Arabic Signatures as a Measure of Acculturation in Norman Sicily by Jeremy Johns Nadia Jamil

The charter to build the Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo with Roger II's signature in Arabic at the top

Summary:
In this article, Johns and Jamil look at the documented evidence of the use of Arabic signatures by the kings and royal court of the Normans from Roger II to Frederick II, with the emphasis on Roger II. The article examines limited evidence of the use of an Arabic signature, specifically in the charter to build the Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo, and the discussion from other sources. The article makes the argument that Roger II used scribes to establish the signature in order to project power and status, and suggest rulership over all of Sicily. The article also compares the signature attributed to Roger II to others in his court, and the differences in what was said and what it conveyed.

Key Quotes, Information, or Chapter:
- Although little attention has been given in recent scholarship to signature practices in the Islamic world, it was an area of focus in Medieval times, including the use of a motto of religious significance

- King Roger’s (II) translation of documents was not by chance but was the result of importing and hiring script writers from outside Sicily in Arabic, Greek, and Latin, and was done to enhance the view of his leadership and show his authority over all aspects of the island

- This is also reflected in imagery and architecture - King Roger was depicted not just as a Latin king, but also in Byzantine imperial robes of a bygone age, and in the guise of an Islamic sultan.”

- “That extraordinary flourishing of art and architecture in Norman Sicily lasted only sixty years, from the coronation of King Roger (II) on Christmas Day, 1130, to the death of his grandson, William II, in 1189. On William’s death the dynasty failed, and the increasingly fragile hold of the Norman kings upon their subjects was broken. The Latins attacked the Muslims, who fled to the mountains of the interior and in their hilltop refuges created an independent rebel emirate that fought on until the final destruction of the Muslim community in 1246.”

- Frederick II attempted to recreate something of the atmosphere that had surrounded his grandfather but was unable to reproduce the unique palace culture of Norman Sicily.”

- Ibn Jubayr visiting Sicily in 1184-85:



- “King Roger’s alama alama is preserved, and is one of the few documents from the Fatimid period to survive. It is a document giving consent to build Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, the church founded by his vizier, George of Antioch and is written in Greek and Arabic.”

- The alama reads “Praise be to God, and thanks for His blessings”

- One challenge is that this does not seem to be a regular feature of documents for King Roger

- When used in 1130 and 1143, it is modeled after Fatimid rulers

- King Roger’s standard signature was in Greek, but likely not written by him, it was done by scribes

- The alama is likely also done by a scribe, an expert in Arabic calligraphy

- For our purposes, the point to stress is that Roger’s Arabic signature does not indicate the extent to which he was Arabicized, but rather the pains that he and his ministers took to ensure that he appeared to be so. Roger’s

alama helps to explain how it came to be believed, for example by Ibn Jubayr, that he and his successors could read and write Arabic—a deliberate fiction that contributed to the illusion that they resembled Muslim rulers.”

- “The Cappella Palatina, for example, was not the spontaneous product of the fusion of Arab, Greek, and Latin cultures in Sicily, but rather the deliberate creation of King Roger and his ministers, who imported mosaicists from Byzantium, painters from Fatimid Egypt, and masons and stone carvers from Campania and Puglia, who each contributed a part to the artificial and composite royal image. Once in Palermo, of course, these foreign ateliers influenced both each other and their Sicilian pupils, so that there rapidly developed local traditions of mosaics, painting, sculpture, and so on.:”

- “No document bearing the alama of either William I or William II has survived, but the alama of King Roger is preserved at the head of an original document in the archive of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo. We believe this to be the only surviving alama of a ruler from the Fatimid period and, with the single exception of the alama of the Fatimid vizier Bahram that dates from March 1136 (see below), the earliest known example of an alama on an original document.”

- In the document that with King Roger’s alama , the charter for Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio includes land in Misilmeri that includes 10 Muslim households, all listed in Arabic

- There is scant evidence that the use of the alama was standard, and there are decades that go by without any documents showing evidence of this. It is challenging to say with certainty the extent to which King Roger II engaged with Arabic.

- Roger II was educated in Greek, but despite this, appeared unaccustomed to writing his name, and often signed documents with a cross and had scribes sign it in Greek

- Similarly, it is believed that Arab calligraphers were responsible for the signature on documents, and on the document examined, it appears that the writer tried to complete the signature in one stroke, and is comparable to other Fatimid rulers of the time

- That said, this is not an indication of Roger II use or proficiency in Arabic, but is a projection of how he wanted his rule to be perceived, especially by Muslim subjects and the larger Muslim world

- While Roger II did not write his signature, William Malconvenant, a high ranking administrator under William II, did sign his name in Arabic

- In documents written in Latin, he would sign with a cross and then add his name in Arabic - written in the Kufic script, and from left to right

- To learn Kufic, it is likely that he was instructed by an Arab scribe - in his position, he likely was mostly interacting with other Latin language speakers/writers - and adding this signature was for them to potentially believe that he knew Arabic in some form, and was close to royalty

- Multi long proclamations “were symbols of the royal policy of populus trilinguis — visual proclamations that the cohesive rule of the king had united the three linguistic communities of the island into a single Sicilian people

- From the reign of Roger II until the fall of the kingdom, the Norman kings employed eunuchs as household servants, palace officials, and administrators.

- Peter, a Berber, rose to an administrative position, and was one of the key people that ran the kingdom, along with Richard Palmer and Matthew of Salerno, and helped lead military attacks as well as put down rebellions in Sicily. After William I died, Richard Palmer joined the rebellious barons, and Peter fled to the Almohads, taking on the name Ahmed.

- Martin, a member of the royal diwan (court) had a similar signature to Peter (My trust is in God)

- Richard, another member of the royal diwan, signature read “Nothing is hidden by God”

- It is highly likely that the environment of the royal diwan allowed for collaboration across Peter, Martin, and Richard

- The eunuch, ‘Ammar was the most direct, his signature listed his actual name and added “God and the Muslims are sufficient for me” - this put him at risk if it was revealed what was said

- The authors acknowledge that by examining the signatures, it is shown how falsehoods are claimed and truth is concealed to meet a political end. This important conclusions can be drawn from examining a small detail, the signatures on documents

Samples of signatures from members of the royal court. 

Reflections of il Moro:
Did Roger II speak Arabic? Roger II’s use of Greek and Arabic are debated. Some sources share that he was tutored directly in both languages, had high fluency, and could speak multiple languages. In this paper, which is over 20 years old now, it is argued that he did not speak Arabic and likely had poor writing skills overall. The authors argue that Roger II’s use of an Arabic signature was more a projection of power than it was a reflection of Roger II’s language use. The researchers suggest that this was a fabrication for political power, building the argument on several assumptions of why there is limited evidence. Considering that Roger II famously commissioned Muhammad al-Idrisi to complete the geographical نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق (The Excursion of One Eager to Penetrate the Distant Horizons), sometimes known as the Book of Roger, it is hard to believe that Roger II did not have some level of engagement with learning Arabic. But what was more interesting about this article was learning more about Arabic signatures in medieval times. Ranging from “My trust is in God” to “God and the Muslims are sufficient for me,” the signatures reflect the depth of Muslim culture during this time of transition, and the challenges that Muslims faced as the Normans took Sicily out of the dar al-Islam and into the political structure of Europe.

Link to the full research article

Article Review: "The End of Muslim Sicily: A Poetics of Fitna" by Nicola Carpentieri

The muqarnas in the Palatine Chapel, that captures art and culture of Sicily during the end of Muslim rule and start of Norman rule. Photo by blog author.

Summary: 

Nicola Carpentieri uses the poetry of two Sicilian poets, al-Tamīmī and Ibn Ḥamdīs, to share an argument that the end of Muslim rule in Sicily meets the description of a fitna that resulted Norman conquest rather than the traditional description from Arabic sources that focuses on the Norman’s actions.. Through poetry, Carpentieri uses the poets’ internal descriptions of their own history to show how the unraveling of the Muslim community (umma) was an affront to both power and religion. This is steeped in an understanding of the history of Islam, how initial divisions early in the establishment of Islam were understood, and how people then related future conflict to those events. While Sicily’s conflict was not the result of differences in the branches of Islam (although that was present in some ways), Carpentieri argues, based on the poetic record, that it was experienced by those involved as a fracturing of the religious community that opened up the ability for the Normans to take power.

Key Quotes, Information, or Chapter:

- “Muslim presence on the island would endure for five centuries into the Norman, Hohenstaufen, and Angevin periods.”

- “little attention has been paid to poetic narratives about the end of Muslim Sicily. This [paper] is concerned with two such narratives, composed by the obscure poet Abū Muḥammad Qāsim ibnʿAbd Allah al-Tamīmī and his better-known colleague Ibn Ḥamdīs.”

- “Through their verses, the two poets sought to enshrine the loss of Sicily in the lore of the Arabian ode and the collective experience of turmoil within the Muslim umma (community).”

- fitna - commonly used as a reference to a civil war, “fitnogenic” - characterized the unrulyness of the Sicilian Muslim colony, which constantly rebelled

- “the word fitna to [describe] turmoil in the island and how the fall of the Kalbid emirate and the civil strife that ushered the Normans into Sicily, that is, the quintessential “Sicilian fitna,” were not addressed as episodes of fitna at all by Arabic historians. But Sicilian Arabic poetry provides us with a different narrative”

- “At the end of the tenth century, Muslim Sicily was collapsing from within”

- “Taking advantage of the turmoil, their vassals across the island proclaimed themselves independent, and Sicily was de facto split in independent principalities, or taifas”

- The continuous bickering of the Sicilian petty princes would eventually consign the island to the Normans, who accomplished its conquest at the end of the eleventh century.”

- An example of the continuous rebellion of Sicily: “al-Akḥal proposed to the Sicilians that they be exempt from a new tax that he would impose only on the North Africans. To this proposal the Sicilians replied that making a distinction between them and the Africans had become impossible since they had been intermarrying for so long. Unperturbed, al-Akḥal went on to propose the very same offer to the North Africans. The North Africans, apparently less scrupulous than their cousins, accepted. As a consequence, a land tax (kharaj) was imposed only on the “Sicilians.” And sure enough, the Sicilians responded with another rebellion.”

- The Fatimid-aligned Zirids in Tunisia sent an army that overthows al-Akhal with the Sicilians, but this ends up leading to a larger rebellion and backfires on the Zirids.

- “By 1040, the Kalbid kingdom had disintegrated. In place of centralized rule, local warlords had seized the main urban centers across the island and proclaimed themselves independent. Soon a power struggle would ensue, drawing the island into civil war. Once again, the Muslims turned against one another. From the chaos of the Sicilian civil war there emerged a strongman: Ibn al-Thumna, lord of Syracuse and Catania.”

- “​​Aided and abetted by Ibn al-Thumna, the Normans cross the Strait of Messina over to Sicily. They find no resistance all the way to Castrogiovanni and take possession of one town after the next. When Ibn al-Thumna is ambushed and killed by fellow Muslims in 1062 the Normans continue in their enterprise, possibly still aided by Ibn al-Thumna’s Muslim army”

- “A-Muʿizz’s successor, Tamīm, refused to abandon the hope of recovering Sicily. In 1063 he dispatched a larger army commanded by his son Ayyūb. These reinforcements were received by Ibn al-Ḥawwās, who was holding out in his impregnable citadel of Castrogiovanni. Ayyūb and his army were encamped at Agrigento”

- “So he marched against Ayyūb with his own army, and fought him in pitched battle. But the people of Agrigento stood by the North Africans, and fought with them against Ibn al-Ḥawwās. In the fray, the latter was struck and killed by an arrow. The army hailed Ayub as king of the Sicilians (mallaka al-ʿaskaruʿalay-him Ayyu‐ba).”

- ibn al-Athīr’s conclusion:

- “fitna is generally applied to disturbances or outright civil war. It suggests the idea of dissension within the umma, that borders on apostasy and the loss of divine guidance.”

- “As a state of rebellion against the divine Law, it is at once crime and punishment.”

- “fracture the cohesion of the community, plunging it into strife”

- “it is clear that al-Tamīmī was part of the Sicilian khaṣṣa —or landed aristocracy—who colonized Sicily in the ninth century”

- “the poet mourns the loss of Muslim Sicily to the Normans and the calamitous events of the Sicilian fitna that led to the invasion. The poem is highly telling of how first-hand accounts of the fitna differed from later elaborations by Arabic historians: al-Tamīmī is unequivocal in accusing the Sicilian Muslims of having called disaster upon themselves and of having brought about the end of Muslim Sicily.

- “Sicilian Muslims turn their swords against one another, and even stab in the back those fighting the real enemy (i.e., the Normans). This clear reference to Ibn al-Thumna, who summons the Normans in aid against Ibn al-Ḥawwās, would not have been lost on al-Tamīmī’s audience. Ibn al-Thumna himself, let us recall here, falls prey to an ambush by the Muslims.”

- “Ibn Ḥamdīs’s verses insist on how turmoil and infighting breach religious codes, conjuring the specter of sectarian antagonism as the great puppeteer behind the scenes of the fitna.”

- “it is clear that al-Tamīmī and Ibn Ḥamdīs were looking beyond the coast of their beloved island to an audience understood as the Maghribī Muslim community in its entirety”

- “...in their eyes it was the Muslims, and not the Normans, who broke Sicily’s heart and drained her life’s blood”

Some scenes of Muslim culture in Sicily from the Palatine Chapel. Photos by blog author. 

Reflections of il Moro: 
Carpentieri uses modern historical methods of reviewing primary documents and using accounts of those from the cultural setting, or most impacted by the events, to construct a stronger understanding of this pivotal historical moment of change in power, politics, and religion in Sicily. Carpentieri shows through the analysis of the poetry of Sicilian Muslims that there was a deeper conflict of “divine law” that would be described as a fitna, and was the result of the splintering of the community, making it vulnerable to the Normans, who were invited in by one of the competing Muslim leaders (an act that repeatedly happened in different ways through Sicilian history). The poetry and the accompanying historical record also highlight an important part of Sicilian Muslim identity. At the time of this transition, two centuries into Muslim rule, the distinction between Sicilian, African, and Muslim did not exist in the way we may think of it today. This is highlighted as an aside to the poetry, when al-Akḥal attempts to tax Sicilian Muslims. Although there is a distinction between Sicilian-born Muslims, and recent arrivals, there is a unified Sicilian Muslim identity rooted in their connection to Islam and (primarily) to North Africa. Again, when looking at the larger historical context, this makes sense. Ibn Ḥamdīs, for example, came from a Muslim family that had been established in the southeast of Sicily for 6-7 generations. Lastly, the poetry highlights something that many in the Sicilian diaspora can relate to today: The profound loss of home. Similar to this time period, in the latest history of changes in political power due to the unification with Italy, Sicilians have experienced the need to leave, and carry the profound loss of home with them. The poetry of al-Tamīmī and Ibn Ḥamdīs, beyond demonstrating the ways how to understand the end of Muslim rule in Sicily, reflect this loss and feeling of home that are still relevant to Sicilians today.

Link to full article by Nicola Carpentieri