The Muslims of Medieval Italy, by Alex Metcalfe

This book by Alex Metcalfe, the theme of which is the Muslims in Sicily and South Italy between 800 and 1300, should be much welcomed by English-language readers. It is more useful, with updated information and thoughtful analysis, than Aziz Ahmad’s A History of Islamic Sicily (1975), the only book in English on the subject for more than thirty years. In the first four chapters, Metcalfe surveys the background of Muslim invasions into Byzantine Sicily, and examines the island under the governance of the Aghlabid, Fatimid, and Kalbite Muslim rulers. His main concern is the transformation of Sicily, especially changes in the demographic structure in terms of languages and religion, caused by the conquest wars which continued intermittently for about 130 years. As the author states, most information about Sicily under Muslim rulers comes from Arabic sources written outside the island in a later period. Accordingly, our knowledge is biased toward political aspects in which later Muslim historians were interested or able to obtain. In order to compensate for this lack of information, Metcalfe cites various Arabic sources as precisely as possible, and utilises recent archaeological output, although Michele Amari’s work Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia (3 vols., 1858–72; 2nd edn., 1933–9), as well as his collections of Arabic sources Biblioteca arabo-sicula (1857–87; Italian translations, 1880–89), continue to be valid and indispensable sources. It is a pity that Metcalfe does not know of this reviewer’s studies on Muslim governors of Sicily published in AJAMES, vii (1992) and Mediterranean World, xiii (1992).

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