There are moments in Sicily’s long and varied history that blaze as bright and warm as its sun. In no era are the remains of such splendour more evident than that of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, which reached its zenith in the mid-12th century and saw the emergence of a multi-ethnic hybrid culture that still has the power to inspire and enthral visitors to this day.
The Normans came to Sicily in the mid-11th century from southern Italy, where landless errant knights had carved out fiefdoms at the expense of the local inhabitants, invited by warring Arab emirs of the rival cities of Sicily who hoped to use them to further their own ends. The move backfired and over a period of thirty years the Normans, led by Robert Guiscard (the ‘crafty’) and his brother Roger, took hold of the island piece by piece. The papacy gave its blessing to the campaign and in the name of Christendom granted the title of king to Roger’s son, who was duly crowned Roger II in Palermo in 1130.
Yet in spite of their success the new ruling Norman elite were very much a minority, with most of the population being of either Greek or Arab descent. A policy of tolerance and co-operation was therefore necessary if the fledgling Norman state was to survive. This was particularly the case concerning the administration of the island itself. Greek and Arab officials remained in post and many were even promoted. Some administrative titles even derived their names from Arabic predecessors, such as ‘amiratus’ and ‘admiral’ (from the Arabic ‘emir’). Documents were produced in Latin, Arabic, and Greek, ensuring employment for scribes who were competent in multiple languages.
One of the main reasons for the success of the Norman conquest was that, rather than mercilessly defeating their enemies, they instead offered favourable terms, allowing conquered communities to continue to govern themselves. Although ultimately subject to the Norman authorities, quadis (Muslim officials) could go on dispensing justice in accordance with sharia law and communities could still thrive and prosper through trade. This extended to the right of native populations to worship openly. Religious toleration was an essential characteristic of Norman rule and conversion was never an active policy. Ibn Jubayr, a Spanish Muslim visiting Sicily in 1185, was impressed by the level of toleration shown to the native Muslim population. ‘Your days & nights… will pass in full security’ he declared, 'even though your countenance, your manners and your tongue are strange’. He even reported how Christian women dressed in style of those of Muslim women, complete with robes and henna tattoos. At a time when similar communities elsewhere were experiencing persecution, a Jewish community thrived in Siracusa, evidence of which can be found in the remains of the city today.
At the centre of this policy of tolerance and co-operation were the Norman kings themselves, who sought to embody the diversity of the subjects under their rule. Although granted their title by the papacy from the very beginning the kings of this hybrid Norman Sicily styled themselves as hybrid rulers. In contemporary depictions they are almost exclusively dressed in the robes of a Byzantine emperor, whose style of rule they sought to emulate. Roger II, who was tutored by Greek scholars, even went as far as to design a tomb made of porphyry, modelled on those of Byzantine rulers. Charters from the time of Count Roger I attribute to him the Arabic title ‘sultan’, whilst coins minted in Agrigento identify him as ‘imam’ (leader) and ‘malik’ (sovereign). Even the royal coronation robes were produced by native Arab seamstresses and Christian texts were woven into the fabric in Arabic. Norman kings also placed their trust in the native Arab population, recruiting men for the army and having Arab physicians at court.
This hybrid society was aided by Sicily’s position at the centre of the Mediterranean, which made it a focal point for the transference of ideas and scholarship. Sitting as it did at the crossroads of various civilisations, Sicily was one of the touchpoints in Europe allowing for the exchange of intellectual ideas and knowledge. Scholars like Henry Aristippus took advantage of the abundance of Greek texts to produce a Latin translation of Plato. Arabic medical texts were particularly sought after and volumes filled the library at the medical school established in Salerno, in southern Italy, which became one of the main centres for studying medicine in Christian Europe. All this made Sicily a place where, according to one contemporary Rommauld of Salerno, ‘men of wisdom of different sorts from the various parts of the earth’ were drawn.
This thirst for knowledge was nowhere more apparent than at the royal court itself. Roger II, fluent in both Greek and Arabic, took a particular interest in Arabic scholarship, patronising poets including the Qu’ran reciter ‘Abd ar-Rahma-n ibn Muhammed ibn ‘Umar as well as commissioning the cartographer Ibn al-Idri-si to compile a geographical compendium of the whole known world. Yet the kings of this period were never able to translate this desire for knowledge beyond the royal court and, aside from the medical school established in Salerno, no academic institutions were established in the same way as in Cordoba. It remains one of the great lost opportunities of Sicilian, and indeed European, history.
For the modern visitor, the legacy of this hybrid Norman-Arab-Greek culture is most evident in the architecture that survives from the period. The devastating earthquake of 1693 destroyed the cities of the Arabs and Normans in the east, such as Catania and Siracusa, but churches, castles, and palazzi have survived, peppered across the island, giving us a flavour of the richness of its wonders that still have the power to captivate travellers today. The shortage of skilled craftsmen from the Latin west meant that the Normans relied heavily on native Greek and Arab workforce, who designed and built these structures using their own well-practiced techniques and styles. Yet whether by simple expediency or by design (skilled craftsmen were actively imported), the results of the Norman church and castle building programme in Sicily was the creation of a hybrid style that mixed architectural features found in Latin, Greek, and Arab societies.
The church of San Maria Assunta in the hill-top town of Erice exhibits this blend of styles, with Romanesque lancet windows sitting alongside decorative horseshoe arches that are a feature of Islamic architecture. The town’s castle that still dominates the western approaches to the island dates firmly from the period of Norman rule and yet, with its strong square towers and slim V-shaped crenulations, it could be mistaken for a Moorish fortress in Andalucía. In the great cathedral at Cefalù slender arches, a common feature in Islamic architecture, are used to lead the visitor triumphantly to the stunning mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the eastern apse – the work of Greek craftsmen of the purest Byzantine style – with inscriptions visible in both Latin and Greek.
Nowhere is this combination of styles more spellbinding than in the Cappella Palatina, the private chapel of the royal family that forms part of the Palazzo dei Normanni complex in Palermo. Here the visitor is treated to a sumptuous display of master craftsmanship, with the styles blending in perfect harmony. The foundations are of western origin, with a central nave made up of rounded stone archways in the Romanesque style. But the eye quickly moves up to the Byzantine-style mosaics on the walls, depicting angels, saints, and prophets in splendorous technicolour. Surmounting it all is the impossibly intricate wooden muqarnas ceiling, with its geometric patterns providing the observer with the impression that they are looking at stalactites. The work of Arab craftsmen, they are the equal of any of their kind that survive from the medieval Muslim world, including the Alhambra. Many of its surfaces include painted depictions of flora and fauna, whilst one panel depicts a ruler in Arabic dress, believed to be Roger II himself. These depictions painted by Muslim artists, featuring as they do in a religious building, are an extremely rare example of their kind anywhere in the world. Indeed, such is the case that UNESCO has designated nine locations in Sicily associated with the Norman period as World Heritage Sites, in recognition of their testimony ‘to the fruitful coexistence of people of different origins and religions’.
The extent to which the continuation of this policy was motivated by pragmatism or consciously deliberate is a source of continuing date amongst historians. It would be wrong to project our modern conceptions of multiculturalism onto the past; policy was born out of necessity and a need to survive, and the same was true in England in 1066, and yet the Normans of William the Conqueror imposed themselves with a savagery and arrogance that was felt for generations by their native subjects. The same cannot be said of the Normans in Sicily, however – it is clear that something special did exist for one, brief shining moment that can inspire us today. Whatever the motives of the Norman rulers, they certainly were not insincere in their embracing of local customs, culture, and art, and rulers such as Roger II and Frederick II had a genuine love for Sicily that often rankled their northern contemporaries. Whilst it is true that this was never extended beyond the court and that successive generations sought to ‘colonise’ Sicily by introducing Latin peoples to the island, forcing out those ‘native’ administrators and courtiers, it is not their legacy but that of Roger, and his 12th-century contemporaries, which has survived, in all its magnificence, in places such as the Cappella Palatina.