Summary:
This is a landmark book that concisely put together the unique history and melding of cultures that characterized the Norman Era in Sicily. The scholarship of Arab, Greek, Jewish and Norman history in the early medieval period is not new, but it has gained greater prominence in discussing the history of Sicily. In this book, examples of people that represent the cultures present in Sicily at this time, and their contributions are shared in short vignettes, while also giving a framework of what multiculturalism looked like in a time before this term existed the way it does today. The people and concepts describe cover everything from royal history to language to religion to law, and each chapter describes more about the history of Sicily.
Key Quote, Information, or Chapter:
One of my favorite chapters was on Abdullah al Idrisi, also known as Muhammad al Idrisi. al Idrisi was a Muslim cartographer, scholar, and poet, and came to Sicily to work in the Norman Kingdom. He is best known his silver planisphere, which was the most accurate map of the world for several centuries, and showed the world as round. Mendola and Alio describe how al Idrisi was born in Morocco, and came from an aristocratic family, which included branches in Cordoba and Palermo. He was educated in Cordoba and Marrakesh, and his work was well-known throughout the Muslim World. In addition to his famous map, he wrote a travel book called the "Book of Roger," published in 1154. This covered everything from watching spaghetti made in Trabia, as described by Mendola and Alio, to the number of lakes along the Nile River, to a description of the weather in London. Mendola and Alio point out that some of his achievements has been suppressed in the West, but that his scholarship placed Norman Sicily "alongside Cordoba, Byzantium, Alexandria, and Baghdad."
Reflections of il Moro:
It is works like this that vividly and clearly connect the dots of history that have deepened the understanding and impact of the amalgamation of cultures that contribute to Sicily and Sicilian culture today. When I first read this book, it opened the door to looking into other scholarship about the Normans, about the Arabs that preceded them, about the Spanish that came soon after, and about other parts of Sicilian history. Louis Mendola and Jacqueline Alio have made a landmark contribution to Sicilian history and scholarship in writing this book.
