Norman Sicily in Muslim sources: space and circulation in the Mediterranean of the 11th and 12th centuries

• Grant number: 24/19206-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Cândido da Silva
• Grantee: Arthur Marques Atalião Grecco
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/02912-3 - A connected history of the Middle Ages: communication and circulation from the Mediterranean Sea, AP.TEM

Abstract

This research proposes a comparative analysis of mentions of the circulation of people in the Mediterranean that involved Norman Sicily in the 11th and 12th centuries presented in the works of three Muslim authors: The Diwan, by 'Abd Al-Jabbar Ibn Muhammad Ibn Hamdis; the "Book by Rogério", by geographer Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Al-Idrisi; and the Rihla of Abu Husayn Ibn Jubayr.The Mediterranean is a topic of great interest in recent Historiography.Contemporary studies have been searching to visualize the capacity of this maritime space to act as a connector between communities, from different angles. According to this understanding, circulation and communication phenomena that occurred from the Mediterranean are a fundamental aspect for the history and formation of societies that were established around it and on it they acted.Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean basin, occupying a strategic position in the central portion of this sea, between its west-east extremes, and the main intermediate territory between the Italian peninsula and North Africa. The Norman rule of island was built from the conquest of a territory that was previously under Muslim control.The aim of the research is to evaluate the similarities and differences in the authors' perceptions of a territory not only under non-Muslim rule, but recentlylost by Islam, by the interactions it developed with the rest of the Mediterranean. This research is part of the Thematic Project A Connected History of Middle Ages: circulation and communication from the Mediterranean, and aims to contribute to the analysis of the articulationestablished between spaces and communities that had the sea as their axis.