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440 Annali d’italianistica 30 (2012)
eventually prompting them to invade and annex the island between the years 827
and 859. Metcalfe examines the political and economic organization of the new
Muslim holding, including the Islamicization and Arabicization of cities such as
Palermo which became important centers of Islamic cultural and political life.
He also describes Muslim raids in other regions of the Mediterranean, including
Malta, Calabria, Puglia, and even Rome, where the Basilica of Saints Peter and
Paul was sacked in 846.
The second chapter, “The Consolidation of Muslim Authority in Sicily,”
provides an interesting overview of the religious and ethno-political tensions
that were simmering in Sicily between Berbers, Arabs, and Christians during the
Aghlabid rule. Such tensions evolved into the civil wars that rocked the island
between 886 and 900. Of interest in this chapter is also Metcalfe’s explanation
of the system of land tenure and taxation imposed on the indigenous population
by the new conquerors. Non-Muslims would pay both a land and a religious poll
tax, or jizya, but would retain religious autonomy. In the case of conversions, the
jizya was remitted. According to Metcalfe, many communities retained their
Christian faith, even while adopting Arabic culture and language.
The third chapter, “Fatimid Rule in Sicily,” surveys Fatimid hegemony,
pointing out the differences between this dynasty and that of the Aghlabids in
both worldly and spiritual visions. In this same chapter, Metcalfe also examines
the relationship between Sicily and Ifriqiya, the old Roman province of Africa
corresponding to present-day Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria, noting that the island,
despite its origin as a colony, began to develop very complex and, at times,
decidedly antagonistic relationships with the motherland. It was during Fatimid-
Kalbid rule that the town of Palermo reached its prime while the rural economy
of the countryside was transformed by systems of irrigation and the introduction
of new plants, such as citrus fruit, date palms, mulberry, sumac, sugar cane, and
papyrus. According to Metcalfe, the most important product of Sicily was grain,
traded with Ifriqiya for gold. Yet despite the flourishing of the island under
Kalbid rule, from the mid-1030s a new civil war swept across Sicily. This war,
which is discussed by Metcalfe in his fourth chapter, was the result of internal
dissent between the emirs who dominated Sicily, but was also aggravated by
external aggressions on the part of the Byzantines and especially the Normans
who landed on the island in the 1060s, completing their conquest in 1091.
The topic of Metcalfe’s fifth chapter, the Norman conquest of Muslim
Sicily was not a warfare that was inspired by religion but by the opportunity for
political influence and economic gains. It also did not originate from the north of
Europe. While the Normans who landed in Sicily hailed originally from
Normandy, they were already well established in southern mainland Italy where
they served as mercenaries of the Byzantines or as barons and knights titled by
Papal investiture. Subsequent pages of this chapter focus on Robert Guiscard
and his brother Roger de Hauteville, whose successful military campaigns were
aided by tensions that were simmering among the emirs. Such cooperation