Identities in touch between East and West: 11th to 21st century (Identities, 12) 9783034344975, 9783034345118, 9783034345125, 303434497X

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IDENTITIES IN TOUCH BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: 11TH TO 21ST CENTURY

Identities. An interdisciplinary approach to the roots of the present Identités. Une approche interdisciplinaire aux racines du présent Identidades. Una aproximación interdisciplinar a las raíces del presente

Vol. 12

Editorial Board: – Flocel Sabaté (Editor) (Institut for Research into Identities and Society, Universitat de Lleida) – Paul Aubert (Aix Marseille Université) – Patrick Geary (University of California, Los Angeles) – Susan Reisz (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) – Maria Saur (London University)

PETER LANG Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford

LUCIANO GALLINARI / HEBA ABDELNABY (EDS.)

IDENTITIES IN TOUCH BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: 11TH TO 21ST CENTURY

PETER LANG Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford

Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at ‹http://dnb.d-nb.de›. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-3-0343-4497-5 pb. ISSN 2296-3537 pb. DOI 10.3726/b19614

ISBN 978-3-0343-4511-8 eBook ISBN 978-3-0343-4512-5 EPUB ISSN 2296-3545 eBook

This publication has been peer reviewed. © Peter Lang Group AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2022 [email protected], www.peterlang.com All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

Luciano Gallinari and Heba Abdelnaby

Preface

This volume contains some of the papers presented at the webinar Art, Culture and Trade as Evidence of Bonds between East and West: 11th to 21st Century, carried out online on 28 and 29 May 2021 within the ASRT/​ CNR bilateral project Intercultural Influence between East and West: 11th-​ 21st Centuries (2018–​2019), whose principal investigators are prof. Ali El-​ Sayed (Damanhour University, Egypt) and Dr. Luciano Gallinari (CNR-​ISEM). Giving an overview of this volume, we can say that the images it proposes on the relations between the Western/​Christian world and the Islamic one in the Mediterranean basin are not in line with what was affirmed in the 1990s by some fortunate publications (for their diffusion), which proposed the image of that geographical area as the theatre of the clash of civilisations. On the contrary, the conclusions that can be drawn from reading the book are much more in line with the 1995 Barcelona Mediterranean Conference, in which the Mediterranean area was considered as a place of culturally and religiously pluralist societies. In fact, the Mediterranean basin has always been not only the demarcation but also the copula and linkage between East and West. It was through the Mediterranean that ships wandered carrying trade from the East to West and vice versa, bringing with them tastes, manners, thoughts, modalities and styles. It was the bind that paved the way to trade relations that even enforced political and diplomatic relations between East and West. Moreover, it was the safe venue that facilitated the movement of individuals and communities between East and West. As a result, throughout the medieval times, groups of all nationalities, races, religions, social statuses and competences moved between East and West. They settled temporarily or permanently in a different country, interacted with its inhabitants and left their fingerprints there. The encounter between the national inhabitants and the foreign incomings has always been an ongoing process that left its marks on both sides.

6 Preface The chapters of this book provide some case studies on the complex and articulated themes of identities in contact, but also of Othernesses, Diversities and Minorities. This is especially true when talking about the Mediterranean basin and the many societies and cultures that have coexisted and coexist there over the last few thousand years and when it comes to the interactions between the three great Monotheisms and the religious identities that have arisen from their encounter/​clash over time. Not to mention the centuries-​long interactions in every aspect of daily life between the great Mediterranean polities: the Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid empires in the Middle Ages and the Spanish and Ottoman empires in the modern age, which created societies that, for their respective eras, could be defined as globalised, using a term very familiar to us today. Arranging the chapters in a chronological order may seem a convenient and simple solution; however, in many parts of the book it allows us to effectively grasp the persistence in History and Geography up to the present day of numerous leitmotivs (corresponding to as many topics of the present volume and the Bilateral Project mentioned above). Entering now more on the themes of this volume, we observe how in Isabella Gagliardi’s chapter the concepts of personal, social and spiritual identity between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages intersect in very interesting ways. The author proposes some cases of men and women who renounced their initial identity in order to be able to devote themselves to an entirely ascetic life in two ways: by simulating the “madness for Christ” –​defined by her as a “social mask” –​ thus assuming another identity socially marginalised and feared by their communities; and even by changing the gender identity as in the case of a madwoman for Christ (Salé in Greek) who disguised herself as a man in order to protect herself in a violent society. Finally, with regard to cultural and identity osmosis between different religious spheres, the figures of two saloi (mad for Christ), Theophilus and Mary of Antioch –​mentioned by John of Ephesus († 586) in the Lives of the Eastern Saints –​“were reabsorbed into Sufi Islam and lemmatised as the ancestors of the Sufi mystic, the perfect saint”. This cultural and religious influence was not confined to the East, but from there reached the Iberian Peninsula. Giuseppe Cacciaguerra’s chapter introduces us to two types of identities: the first, relating to two religious and political communities –​the Muslims and the Byzantines –​who in the early Middle Ages went through

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a phase of open clashes; and the second, the identity of a “privileged” Sicilian city, Syracuse, which in that period was the centre of political and administrative power of Byzantine Sicily. Cacciaguerra underlines an element that is very important to us not only for the history of Sicily but also for the interesting parallels with the chapter on Sardinia and its relationship with the Islamic world of that period, which was written by us. We are talking of the role played by a historiographic tradition of the 19th century which interpreted Syracuse and Sicily as marginal and peripheral lands in the early medieval Mediterranean. Moving away from this historiographic approach, which raises more perplexities, the author emphasises that the archaeological finds show how the city and Sicily continued to maintain a dense network of commercial and also political-​institutional relations with the Byzantine world until at least the 8th century, despite the numerous Muslim attacks they suffered. A further and even more significant change in identity and structure of the city and the island, took place after the mid-​10th century towards a complete Islamisation of the material culture and the “integration into a southern economic area with Ifriquia and Egypt as the main poles”, which downgraded the city’s importance at regional level. Marco Demichelis chapter deals with an extremely delicate but interesting subject: the relations between the Christian and Islamic worlds at the very moment when the latter was beginning to take shape. The author begins his analysis by underlining how up to the turn of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century it is hard to frame Islām as a new religion, even though some “Islamic narratives” to the contrary. Then the author devotes himself to the topic of the continuous negotiation of identities by focusing much of his attention on the Prophet Muḥammad’s quest for various legitimations. The first, on the religious level, by obtaining a personal recognition from the Abyssinian Emperor as the last prophet after Jesus, and a further political and social legitimation of the new “religion” that was taking shape. Again from a “Christian Humus”, on the political level the legitimacy had to come from the Byzantine Empire, according to a narrative present only in Islamic sources such as the letters sent by the Prophet Muḥammad, “already main authority of the Ḥijāz, to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius”. Finally, the scholar points out how this process of legitimation would later be transformed into one of assimilation of the Roman Empire into the nascent Islamic world with a consequent process of “ ‘individual transfer’

8 Preface of authority [that] is empowered in a double parallelism: Heraclius-​ Muḥammad, Byzantine-​‘Abbāsids, in a sort of religious and political continuity”. Luciano Gallinari’s chapter focuses on the important theme of the role that Muslims and the medieval Passiones of Sardinian martyrs may have played in the elaboration of current historical and identitarian reconstructions of Sardinia’s past. The author also stresses that the scarce presence of Saracens in Sardinian history and cultural tradition is another of the characteristic elements of the island’s identity profile, even though from the 8th to the 11th century the island was at the centre of numerous Muslim attacks first from North Africa, and later from the Iberian Peninsula. Despite all these and that some Passiones of Sardinian saints were composed in the mentioned time span, the citations of Saracens/​Arabs are nearly absent in these hagiographical sources: a fact that seems to confirm the data provided by linguistics, popular traditions and archaeological finds found on the island. However, despite all that and the lack, so far, of convincing evidence that Sardinia had been subjected to Muslim rule –​except, perhaps, some small parts of it and for limited chronological periods –​some scholars continue to hypothesise an active participation of the Arabs in Sardinian events, an attitude that the author considers much more interesting from a historiographical point of view than historical in itself. With the chapter by Giovanni Serreli that reconnects to the previous one that is dedicated to the possible role that Muslims may have played in some Sardinian hagiographic sources, we enter an area of opposing relations between Christians and Muslims in the early Middle Ages. More in detail, the author deals with a transfer of some relics of the actual patron saint of Cagliari, probably caused from the recrudescence of Saracen raids against the island. The text begins with the analysis of two fragments of an epigraph, now preserved and exhibited at the MuA, Civic Museum and Archive of Sinnai, in the metropolitan city of Cagliari, which has been interpreted as a reliquary lid datable between the 7th and 8th centuries. The scholar recalls the hypothesis that it would have been brought to the port of Solanas, 30 km east of the ancient city of Caralis –​a territory very rich in toponyms, religious buildings and archaeological sites related to the Byzantine period –​ and remained there for a short period, perhaps to protect it from some Saracen incursion. By referring to some artefacts concerning presumed

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Muslim settlements in the area of Caralis –​an epigraph and a graffito –​ on the nature and use of which recent historiography has very divergent opinions, Serreli hypothesises that the dating of the relics’ displacement can be the 9th or the 10th century AD, two historical periods characterised by several Saracen incursions on the island, which are been differently interpreted by the current historiography. After the first part containing some chapters dedicated to Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, starting from the next chapter the volume hosts several texts dedicated to the relationship between the Islamic world and the Western one concerning the Medieval Age, the Modern Age and part of the Contemporaneity. Richard Knorr in his chapter gives an overview on diplomatic relations between the Commune of Genoa and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria, one of the major Islamic centres in economic growth and military power during the Bahri dynasty (1250/ 60-1382). He underlines that recent studies also have supported the idea that “the Zangids, the Ayyubids, and the Mamluks did not see jihad against the Franks as a total war, preferring ceasefires and truces with the Latin Kingdom to conquest by force”, thus showing a pragmatism/​realpolitik in stark contrast with the rhetoric of the Crusades. The scholar gives numerous examples of how these relations went through very different phases, in relation to large or small events that took place in the Mediterranean, in which other political and economic protagonists of the Mediteterranean area were involved. These included the Byzantine Empire, the Ilkhanate of Persia, a bitter enemy of the Egyptian sultans, and also the other powerful Italian maritime republic –​Venice. The latter displayed a different identity and attitude from its Genoese counterpart, opting for diplomatic relations rather than military rapprochements which created numerous ruptures with its Egyptian counterpart, as evidenced by the numerous peace treaties, mentioned by the author, which were signed between the 13th and 14th centuries by the Genoese and Mamluks. A relationship with many shadows yet to be cleared up. The chapter by Rania Mohammad Ibrahim is dedicated to the economic and trade relations between Dubrovnik and Alexandria in Egypt between the 13th and 16th centuries and stresses that the “trade has built and supported people’s identities”, as in the case of the two Mediterranean cities that hosted many foreigners of different nationalities. In support of this statement, for Dubrovnik she points out that the local Jews, as the ones of

10 Preface other communities in Eastern Europe, “actively contributed to the maritime trade in the Mediterranean in contrast to the Jews of Western Europe, who lived on money-​lending in the Middle Ages”. This is also demonstrated by the cases of Egypt and Syria, which hosted Jewish communities actively engaged in maritime trade, who came from areas of southern Europe such as the Crown of Aragon, Genoa and Venice, among others. These three political subjects also held great sway in the economic life of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, as can be seen from the letter of Sultan Al-​Ashraf Qansuh Al-​Ghouri to the governor of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) issued on 8 November 1515 with which he ordered that Dubrovnik merchants should no longer be subject to the authority of Florentine or Catalan consuls and should have their own consulate in Alexandria. A clear sign of an economic maturity and a peculiar identity of the Balkan community in the eyes of the Egyptian authorities and towards the “Italian” communities. Ali El-​Sayed’s chapter is a sort of a longue durée work that examines over about three centuries the development of the Jewish communities in the Holy Land and Egypt, and their relations with the exponents of the other two Monotheisms that “had played their clear role in shaping the history, and perhaps the identity, of their adherents”. An identity that, according to the author, is still conditioned by the postulate that they are God’s chosen people. The essay focuses mainly on Mamluk Egypt where Jews were able to enjoy a better treatment than in lands directly under the political control of the Christians. The author analyses in detail some particularly important figures in the long process of reacquiring a linguistic, cultural and spiritual identity of the Jews in Jerusalem, such as Musa ibn Maimonides (d. 1204 AD). He was a scholar in whom “the impact of Islamic thinking was evident in the book Guide to the lost (Moreh Hanbochim)”, and who, with one of his fatwa issued to the Jews of Yemen in the 12th century AD, ruled that facing with the choice between converting to Islam and leaving their homes and possessions in Yemen, they must emigrate, in order not to deny their religious and cultural identities. A second important figure on which the author focuses is Obadiah Jare Da Bertinoro, who was assigned at the end of the 15th century to the position of Deputy General Nagid in Cairo, and “represented the beginning of a more developed stage for the Jewish community in Palestine”. The scholar points out that Obadiah succeeded in reviving the status of Jerusalem among the Jewish sects in the east and west, by highlighting their identity.

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A religious and cultural identity that was to be further strengthened by a policy of settlement that was conceived as a way of embodying that identity and that, according to El-​Sayed, is a precursor to current Zionist theory. The last chapter focuses on the massive migration of the Yemeni Jewish communities to Palestine in the mid-​20th century. As Zoltán Prantner and Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar recall “by the end of the 1950s (…) about 99% of this community [more than 50,000 peoples] had left the country and emigrated to the State of Israel” thanks to the Operation “On Eagles’ Wings”. In a long historical excursus, the authors highlighted that Jews resisted Christian propaganda, whose triumph was temporary, and that the Constitution of Medina between the Prophet Muhammad and Jewish communities tried to create a multi-​religious community in Medina, which did not last long because of the resistance that they opposed to him. Despite this, the relations between Muslims and Jews in Yemen up to the mid-​15th century guaranteed to the latter good socio-​economic conditions, freedom of worship and traditions. Only starting from the second half of that century, and generally under the Shiite rulers, Jews suffered many discriminations. This condition did not improve even with the second return of the Ottoman Empire to Yemen in the 19th century. However, the intense contacts with other Jewish communities scattered in the Empire and beyond, “had a clear effect on the rethinking of Yemeni Jewish identity, the development of a kind of national consciousness, and an incentive for their emigration”. Among all these communities, throughout the centuries Yemeni Jews had remained in close contact with its fellow believers in Palestinian territory. The first migrations were extremely disappointing for them, also because of the racial discrimination they suffered: according to the authors, they were “considered … dark-​skinned primitives, entrusted with degrading work”. However, this was not enough to discourage Yemeni Jews from continuing their massive emigration to the State of Israel in the mid-​20th century: a decision whose main reason, according to the authors, was still religious. Another strong point of this volume is that it hosts two chapters on the cultural heritage; with both its tangible and intangible features, it is the result of the interaction between humans and nature; thus, the contribution of minorities, foreigners together with indigenous inhabitants, all created the cultural heritage of each country that reflected its identity and individuality. The formation of cultural heritage is a constant process of

12 Preface formation of identity and consequently the discussion of cultural heritage is always associated with the discussion of identity; they are two sides of the same coin. Two chapters of the current book are discussing cultural heritage in relation to identity. The first is entitled “Identities, Belongingness and Places: Can Travel Literature Connect Cultures? Italian Travelers Discovering Egypt in the XIX Century” written by Maria Antonella Pasci. In this chapter Pasci examines the writings of two Italians who travelled to Egypt during the first half of the 19th century: Amalia Sola and Giambattista Brocchi. Each of the two writers wrote a memoire to record the travel to Egypt, narrating their experience with a different culture and presenting their perception about the heritage, people and places they encountered. Amalia Sola who came to Egypt at the age of 13 in 1818 wanted to express her feelings towards people and places rather than to describe what she saw in Egypt. She wanted to introduce the customs and traditions she experienced in Egypt as an Italian woman. In her memoire, she mentioned all the places she visited during her stay in Egypt such as Alexandria, Rosetta, Asyut and Cairo, highlighting her impressions and feelings and admiring the cultural heritage she encountered. As a woman, certain aspects attracted her attention such as the role of women and their relations to men in the Egyptian society. Sola’s experience as a first woman to lead excavations in Egypt was itself coinciding to her reflections of the role of women in Egypt. In contrast to the sensibility of the travel writing of Amalia Sola, the writings of the geologist, naturalist and mineralogist Giambattista Brocchi about his travel to Egypt were more scientific. Brocchi travelled to Egypt in 1822 to work as a scientist in an expedition to Nubia. His memoire was detailed and analytical in nature due to his scientific background and education, yet it also reflected on places, people, manners and customs and heritage. Brocchi’s background and education also helped him to compare what he saw in Egypt with what he studied, to analyse what he encounters of people, and to introduce detailed visualizing description of places and locations. Maria Antonella Pasci presented in her chapter two different travel literatures introducing different perspectives about the cultural heritage of Egypt. She also demonstrated that travel literature can connect cultures and offer a different point of view, add a sense of belonging and shaping of identities. The second chapter that also revolves in the orbit of cultural heritage and its relation to identity is that of Heba Abdelnaby which is entitled “Fascination with the East: the Foreigners’ Pursuit to Honor and Present

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the Islamic Heritage of Egypt”. In this chapter Abdelnaby discusses how some of the foreigners who settled in Egypt were not only impressed and fascinated with the Islamic heritage but also involved in its preservation and presentation in many ways. Generally, the Islamic heritage of Egypt didn’t receive much attention compared to the ancient Egyptian heritage, till the 19th century, when several circumstance coincided to draw the attention to the importance of the Islamic heritage. Awareness campaigns and the establishment of Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe in 1881 in addition to international interest in Islamic art were among the most important factors that attracted the attention to Islamic heritage. Within that atmosphere, three foreigners working in Egypt had a leading role in preserving its Islamic heritage: the Italian photographer Beniamino Facchinelli, the Italian architect Mario Rossi and the Greek art collector Antonis Benakis. Heba Abdelnaby explained in her chapter how Facchinelli through his work as a photographer for the Comité and also as a freelance photographer working for artists, writers, epigraphists and collectors managed to document the Islamic monuments of Cairo in their actual state. In his photos he highlighted the destruction of many buildings and on the contrary, the beauty of many others. He focused on the unique artistic and architectural elements, demonstrating their individuality and grandeur. Facchinelli’s archive was so important that it was used in many publications and used to study the Islamic monuments during the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th century. The chapter also sheds light on Mario Rossi and his connection to Islamic heritage which enabled him to study extensively the Mamluk and Ottoman architecture. It explained how Rossi inspired his designs from that heritage till he managed to revive the Mamluk style of architecture which he introduced in his designs of the religious buildings he established in different cities of Egypt. Rossi had his own school of architecture and he influenced many Egyptian architects that followed his standards. The third figure that Abdelnaby’s chapter highlighted was Antonis Benakis who was himself an art collector and established a group called “les amies de l’art” to raise awareness about art through the organization of lectures and exhibitions. The group organized a leading exhibition for Islamic art in Alexandria, published a catalogue of its objects and organized lectures about Islamic art. It participated in creating an atmosphere of appreciation and interest in Islamic art, and though its efforts were halted due to the migration of Benakis back to Athens, its efforts were always recognized. Benakis himself continued his efforts and established

14 Preface a museum dedicated for Islamic art in Athens. Heba Abdelnaby’s chapter demonstrated that many Europeans who worked in Egypt were impressed with its Islamic heritage, thus they exploited their expertise to document, collect, preserve and present that heritage. Their endeavour was part of many attempts to honor and present that vivid glamorous heritage. In this way, those two chapters elucidate that cultural heritage is created by many contributors and could be seen and explained from different points of views and different perspectives. Although the cultural heritage of a country is a representation of its national identity, the heritage in general belongs to the whole world thus should be valued, valorized and preserved by all nations. The mutual protection of cultural heritage is therefore the best representation of the intercultural relations between East and West. It is worth mentioning that cultural heritage is an important aspect that our bilateral project highlighted. We organized an international webinar entitled “The Power of Cultural Heritage Is Socio-​Economic Development: Good Practices and Intercultural Bridges in Euro-​Mediterranean Societies” in 11–​ 12 December 2020. The webinar discussed a wide variety of topics related to cultural heritage such as The Present and Future of Cultural Heritage discussing its role in peace building and the importance of social media platforms in preserving and promoting heritage. The webinar devoted a session for Tangible and Intangible Heritage: Travelogue and Newspapers in which several topics were presented about the traveller al-​Harwi and his writings about the heritage of Egypt, the traveller Amalia Sola and her writings about Egypt and a study of Egyptian newspapers demonstrating the Italian-​Egyptian archaeological cooperation to protect the Egyptian heritage. Another session was devoted to Museums and Community Engagements; in its papers the speakers discussed the role of the Post Museum of Egypt in presenting its heritage and the multimedia reuse of cultural heritage. A fourth session also was devoted to Archeological Heritage discussing topics such as the area of S. Eulalia in Cagliari, the Island of Archeologist, the healing heritage, public archeology and the integration of technology for archaeological communication. Luciano Gallinari –​Heba Mahmoud Saad Abdelnaby

Table of Contents

List of Authors ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  17 Isabella Gagliardi Bridge between East and West: The Pattern of Fool for Christ through the Egypt in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages ���������������  21 Giuseppe Cacciaguerra Byzantine and Islamic Amphorae in Syracuse. New Light on Trade Networks and Identities in Early Medieval Mediterranean (8th–​11th Century) ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  45 Marco Demichelis The “Islamic Narrative Path” for Political, Religious, and Bellicose Legitimacy: The Role Played by Christian Historical Figures in Late Antiquity ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  67 Luciano Gallinari The Role of Muslims and Martyrs in the Identity Process of Medieval Sardinia. Historiography versus History �������������������������������  87 Giovanni Serreli The Epigraph of San Saturnino in Solanas (Cagliari, Sardinia) ���������  111 Richard Knorr Genoese-​Mamluk Diplomacy during the Bahri Dynasty: An Overview ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  131 Rania Mohammad Ibrahim Trade between Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and Alexandria 1250–​1517 AD ���� 155 Ali El-Sayed A European Jewish Awakening in Mamluki Land ������������������������������  177

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Table of Contents

Heba Mahmoud Saad Abdelnaby Fascination with the East: The Foreigners’ Pursuit to Honor and Present the Islamic Heritage of Egypt ������������������������������������������������  201 Maria Antonella Pasci Identities, Belongingness, and Places: Can Travel Literature Connect Cultures? Italian Travelers Discovering Egypt in the XIX Century ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  219 Zoltán Prantner and Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar “On Eagles’ Wing”: The History of the Yemeni Jews and Their Exodus to the Promised Land �������������������������������������������������������������  241

List of Authors

Heba Mahmoud Saad Abdelnaby Professor of Islamic Archaeology and former Vice Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University. She was a visiting scholar/ professor at several distinguished institutions such as Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, George Washington University, and Mary Baldwin University. She was also a member of several international research projects. Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar He has been a Senior Fellow of the Egyptian Academy of Sciences & Technologies since June 2013. He is currently a senior researcher in five international work programs and an active participant in three other projects. His current Research Institution is: Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). Giuseppe Cacciaguerra Researcher at the Institute of Heritage Science (ISPC-CNR). His current research topics are (i) Late Roman and Medieval Archaeology of the Mediterranean, focused on trade organization, urban history, rural settlement and socio-economic organization, and (ii) Development of ICT methodologies for Urban and Landscape Archaeology. Marco Demichelis He is Berenson Fellow (2022/2023) at the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, with a project entitled: Paolo Giovio, Giovanni Botero, and Islamic Otherness at the End of the Italian Renaissance. He has previously been Marie Curie Research Fellow (IF 2016) and Senior Research Fellow in Islamic Studies and History of the Middle East in the Institute of Culture and Research at the University of Navarra (2019–2021).

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List of Authors

Ali El-Sayed Currently an Emeritus professor of Medieval History at the History Department, Faculty of Arts, Damanhur University and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He is also the Egyptian PI of the Bilateral Project between the CNR (Italy) and the ASRT (Egypt) entitled: “Intercultural influence between East and West: 11th-21st c.” (2018-2020). Isabella Gagliardi Teacher of History of Christianity and Churches at the University of Florence, she is Membre Associé of Laboratoire d’études sur les monothéismes and Directeur d’Etudes Associé, DEA 2022 at Fondation Maison de Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. Her research’s topics concerns the history of religious movements from the Ancient to Early Modern societies in the Euro-Mediterranean context with a comparative perspective and with a special attention to the women history. Luciano Gallinari Researcher at the CNR-ISEM, PhD in Histoire et Civilisations (EHESS, Paris). Italian PI of the Bilateral Projects between the CNR (Italy) and the ASRT (Egypt) entitled: “Peace Building between East and West (XI–XVI c.)” (2015–2017) and “Intercultural influence between East and West: 11th–21st c.” (2018–2020). Richard Knorr Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Currently a graduate student of the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS). Rania Mohammad Ibrahim Postdoctoral Researcher-Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb University. She is a member of the Cost Action (CA18140) ‘People in Motion: Entangled Histories of Displacement across the Mediterranean’ (PIMo). Maria Antonella Pasci PhD Candidate at the Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi, Roma.

List of Authors

Giovanni Serreli Researcher at the ISEM CNR, he deals with the study of human settlement, defense systems and institutions between Middle Ages and Early Modern Age. He teaches Medieval and Modern Institutions at the ASCa School of Archival, Paleography and Diplomatics. Complete CV: https://cnr-it.academia.edu/ GiovanniSerreli/Analytics/activity/overview Prantner Zoltán He is Associate Professor of the Department of International Studies at the Institute of Welfare Society of the Kodolányi János University

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Isabella Gagliardi

Bridge between East and West: The Pattern of Fool for Christ through the Egypt in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

1. Where Did the Fool for Christ Come from? The traces of a behavioural typology categorisable as “madness for Christ” were found in the pars Orientis of the late ancient and medieval world, where there was even an onomaturgical coinage, deriving a peculiar term to indicate those who followed Christ through the madness simulation. The specific words are salòs (masculine) and salè (feminine)1. In fact, numerous ancient narrations (4th–​12th century) tell about a man and a woman who lived in the Byzantine territories who went down in history as saints “mad for Christ” (saloì). They were ascetics who devoted themselves to simulating madness in order not to risk the spiritual pride and, at the same time, to be free to act in any social situation and thus to frequent even the most suspected outcasts, first heretics or prostitutes, in order to lead them back to God2. Information on these individuals is entrusted to texts 1

2

Cfr. Rydèn, Lennart, “The Holy Fool”, Sergej Hackel ed., The Byzantine Saint, San Bernardino CA: Borgo, 1983: 106–​113, 107; A Patristic Greek Lexikon, Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1961: 1222. Ivanov, Sergej, Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond. Translated from Russian by Simon Franklin, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. The Ashgate Research companion to Byzantine Hagiography, volume II: Genres and Contexts, Stephanos Efthymiadis ed., Surrey-​Burlington: Ashgate, 2014: 368–​372. I wish to thank Paolo Cesaretti, with whom I had the great pleasure to discuss my text devoted to fools for Christ sake: Gagliardi, Isabella, Novellus Pazzus. Storie di santi medievali tra Mar Caspio e il Mar Mediterraneo (secc. IV-​XIV), Firenze: SEF, 2017. Derville, André “Folie de la croix”, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, Marcel Viller ed., Paris: Beauchesne, 1932 -​, V, 1964: 635–​650; Spidlìk, Thomas –​Vandenbrouke, François, “Fous pour le Christ”, Dictionnaire de

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in Greek and Syriac, which fed both the Christian liturgical sources, thus determining the compilation of other hagiographies, and, in the aftermath of Islamisation, other writings dedicated to the madman of God (malāmati), produced especially by the Sufi environment. It is an extreme, radical phenomenon, so it presents conceptual markers more easy to identify: so it became possible following this phenomenon through the different ages and countries in a documented way, not shallow. Thus this chapter illustrates the interpretations and practices of madness for Christ transmitted by Greek, Syriac and Arabic sources, tracing their links and mutual and transversal influences. The sources analysis leads to a first conclusion: in the oldest testimonies that served as an original model and vector of pattern dissemination, the madman for Christ is almost always a monk who has reached such a high level of asceticism and spiritual perfection that he can run the risk of leaving the monastery for living in the world, in order to convert sinners and win souls for Christ. In fact, there are some saloì who remain in the monastery and many of them, perhaps the most famous, who leave it and go among the laity “to make fun of the world”, protected by their granitic faith. The second conclusion to be reached is the model of holiness outlined in the hagiographic and liturgical memories of the saloì was developed in ancient Syria and from there it spread in two geographical directions, one towards the East and the other towards the West, passing the Mount Sinai and arriving in the Egyptian territories. Through the Syriac texts it went eastwards and was conveyed to the territories of the former Sasanian empire, now Islamised, while through Sinaitic and Egyptian monasticism it reached North Africa. From there, the Greek texts of early monasticism migrated to the western part of the Empire, starting in the Justinian era and following the political axis of the Byzantine conquest (Iberian territories and Italian territories) and the political-​religious axis of the alliance between the patriarchate of Alexandria and the patriarchate of Rome. The propelling centre of this kind of sources can be identified in late ancient Egypt, where the memories of Palestinian Sinaitic monasticism were before channelled and after spread all over the mediterranean world.

spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, Ivi, V, 1964: 752–​770 (the next time Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire will be D. Sp.).

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These hagiographical and ascetical accounts were translated into Latin and in this form they became the narrative vehicle of the madness for Christ. These sources were, namely, the Vitas Patrum, Rufinus’ Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Palladius’ Historia Lausiaca, Pascasius’ Liber Geronticon, Valerius de Bierzo’s Liber Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Orientalium and Gregory the Great’s Book IV of Dialogi. So these narrations transmitted the perception and practice of the holy madness to medieval Latinity. The message, coming from the Orient of the monastic beginnings, took root in the Western monastic environment, together with the liturgical memories of the Byzantine saloì and, in particular, of Simeon salós. Thus the hagiography and the liturgy nourished peculiar ascetic experiences, in the pars Occidentis, by reworking in a peculiar way the idea of “becoming foolish for being wise3”. Through the influence exerted by Constantinopolitan sources and anonymous wandering ascetics from the West (e.g. Procopius of Ustjug), the idea of holy madness took root in the Russian area, inspiring the existential choices of the so-​called yourodivij, whose presence is unbroken from the Middle Ages until the end of the 20th century4.

3

4

Lezioni sacre e morali su l’epistole di san Paolo ai Corinti dette nella chiesa cattedrale di Fano dal canonico teologo conte Giuseppe Laviny, patrizio romano e della città di San Severino, Tomo I, Ancona: Nella Stamperia di Pietro Paolo Ferri, MDCCLXIX: 281. Le sante stolte della chiesa russa. Antologia a cura di Lucio Coco e Alex Sivak, Roma: Città Nuova, 2006; Ferro, Maria Chiara, “Tradurre i lemmi russi appartenenti al lessico agiografico slavo ecclesiastico. Difficoltà e proposte”, Studi Slavistici, IX, 2012: 133–​148, 138–​140; Kobets, Svitlana, “The Russian Paradigm of Iurodstvo and its genesis in Novgorod”, Russian Literature, XLVIII, 2000: 367–​388; Pagani Maria Pia, Le maschere della santità: attori e figure del sacro nel teatro antico-​ russo, Bari: Paolo Malagrinò ed., 2004; Pagani Maria Pia, Starec Afanasij. Un folle in Cristo dei nostri giorni, Milano: Àncora ed., 2005; Kobets, Svitlana, “Lice in the Iron Cap: Holy Foolishness in Perspective”, Holy Foolishness in Russia: New Perspectives, Hunt, Prisciulla –​Kobets Svitlana, Bloomington: IN:Slavica Publisher, 2011: 15–​40; Pagani Maria Pia, “The Parodoxical “Show” of the Holy Fool/​Il paradossale “show” del santo folle”, in Otherness/​Alterità, Alessia Bianco ed., Roma: Aracne, 2012: 49–​56, 133–​140; Maravic’ Tatiana, Vado a prendermi gioco del mondo. Dal folle in Cristo a Bisanzio e in Russia al performer contemporaneo, Firenze: VoLo, 2016.

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2. Who Is the Fool for Christ? As is known, the word identifying those who have become insane owing to their love for Christ is the Byzantine salòs (m.) –​salè (f.). Its etymology was discussed at length by specialists; some claimed its Syriac origin while others, on the contrary, ruled it out completely. Peter Hauptmann and Thomas Spidlìk were convinced that the Syriac saklā, used in the Peshitta version of Scripture to translate the noun moròs (mad), which appears in Paul’s First Corinthians 3:18, was the most probable ancestor of salòs5. On the other hand, Antoine Guillaumont, José Grosdidier de Matons and Lennart Rydèn have rejected this etymology because the oldest Syriac version of the Epistle to the Corinthians translates the verse 1 Cor 4:10 (in which moroì appears) as shatayya, while the word saklā is transmitted by the Peshitta seriore version, used by the theologian Isho’dad of Merv († ca. 850) in the 9th century to carry out his own exegesis of the text6. Therefore, saklā actually appears in the sources at a time after the term “salós” came into use7. The term “salós” appears in the oldest Egyptian and Syriac Synaxaria (liturgical calendars) and Kontakarias (liturgical hymnals around the 6th century), together with the formula dià Christòn, and it replaces the canonical aghiòs (holy, saint)8. Salòs ultimately means “holy fool” without 5 6

7

8

Hauptmann, Peter, “Die Narren um Christi Willen in der Ostkirche”, Kirche im Osten, 2, 1959: 27–​49, p. 34, n. 40; Spidlìk, Thomas, “Four pour le Christ en Orient” , D. Sp., V, 1964: 752–​761, 753. Guillaumont, Antoine, “La folie simulée, une forme d’anachorèse”, Ètudes sur la spiritualité de l’Orient chrétien, Antoine Guillaumont ed., Spiritualité orientale, 66, 1996: 125–​130; Grosdidier de Matons, José, “Les thèmes d’édification dans la vie d’André salòs”, Travaux et mémoires. Centre de Recherche d’histoire et de civilisation byzantines, IV, 1970: 277–​328, 279; Ryden, Lennart, Das Leben des heiligen Narren Symeon von Leontius von Neapolis, Uppsala: Studia Graeca Upsaliensia, IV, 1963: 21; Deroche, Vincent, Symeon salos le fou en Christ, Paris: Paris Mediterra, 2000. Isho’dad di Merv, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle, Margaret Dunlop Gibson ed., The Commentaries of Isho’dad of Merv, Bishop of Hadata (c. 850 A.D.), 5.1–​2. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle, (Horae Semiticae, 11) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916, vol. 5, 1: 42, l. 15. Brock, P. Sebastian, La Bibbia in siriaco: Roma, Lipa, 2008 (P. Sebastian The Bible in the Syriac Tradition, (2nd ed. revised), Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Editions, 2006): 13–​18. Grosdidier de Matons, José, Romanos le Mélode et les origines de la poésie religieuse à Byzance :Paris, Beauchesne, 1977: 67–​98; Alexiou, Margaret After Antiquity.

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being preceded by aghiòs and indicates those who sanctified themselves by simulating madness. In other words, from the very beginning, the term clearly identifies a type of holiness and at the same time a very precise sanctification technique: the pretence of madness9.

9

Greek Language, Myth and Metaphor, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002: 52–​65. “Leontii Vita S. Symeoni Sali confessoris”, Migne Migne Jean Paul ed., Patrologiae cursus completus omnium S. Patrum, Doctorum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum sive latinorum sive graecorum, series graeca, Parisiis: 1857–​1866 (the next will be P.G.), 93: 1668–​1748; “Simeone ficte stultus et Johannes solitarii prope Emesam”, Paul Peetersed., Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis, Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 1910 (Subsidia Hagiographica 10): 247; “Symeon salus seu stultus apud Emesam Syria”, François Halkin ed., Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 1957 (3rd ed.): 1677a, 1677b, 1677c, p. 256; Rydén, Lennart, Das leben des Heiligen Narren Symeon von Leontios von Neapolis, Stockholm: Almquist und Wiksell, 1963; Déroche , Vincent, Etudes sur Léontios de Néapolis, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995 [Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 3]; Krueger David, Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius’s “life” and the Late Antique City, Berkeley-​Los Angeles and London:University of California Press, 1996; Ubierna, Paulo, “El santo en la Sociedad Bizantina: una hagiografia de la estulticia de Simeòn de Emesa à Andrès de Costantinopla”, Byzantion nea Hllàs, 1997: 235–​248; Palmer, José Simòn, “El lenguaje corporal de Siméon de Èmesa “loco por causa de Cristo”, El cielo en la tierra (Epìgeos ouranòs). Estudios sobra el monasterio bizantino, Pedro Bàdenas, Antonio Bravo, Immaculada Pèrez Martìn ed., Madrid: Nueva Roma, 1997: 101–​122; Fuerte Francisco Javier, Simeòn “el Loco”: los rasgos demonìacos de un monje aparentemente estraño, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia, 9, 2012: 81–​103; Ivanov, Sergej, Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond; Nicephori presbyteri constantinopolitani Vita S. Andreae sali, in Patrologiae cursus completus omnium S. Patrum, Doctorum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum sive latinorum sive graecorum, series graeca, Jean Paul Migne ed., Parisiis: J.P. Migne Imprimerie Catholique, 1857–​1866, 111: 628 (the next wirll be P.G.); Corollarium, Acta Sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur [..] collecta, digesta, illustrata a Godefrido Henschenio et Daniele Papebrochio, Venetiis: apud J. Baptistam Albrizzi Hieron. fil. et Sebastianum Coleti, 1737–​1741 (the next will be AA.SS.), Maggio 6: 1*-​111*; Mango A. Cyril, “The life of St. Andrew The Fool reconsidered”, Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Slavi, II, 1982: 297–​313; G. Velculescu, Die Vita des Heiligen Andrea Salòs in den rumänischen Handschriften, in L. Taseva, M. Jovčeva, K. Fos [Christian Voss], Leonzio di Neapoli, Niceforo prete di Santa Sofia i santi folli di Bisanzio vite di Simeone e Andrea, Paolo Cesaretti ed., Milano: Mondadori, 1990; Leonzio di Neapoli, Niceforo prete di Santa Sofia i santi folli di Bisanzio vite di Simeone e Andrea, Paolo Cesaretti ed., Roma: Dipartimento di scienze dell’antichità, 2014 (Testi e Studi Bizantino-​Neoellenici, XIX.

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This technique was, in essence, a radical form of kruptos doulos (secret saint). The very virtuous hidden life to which ascetics and monks aspired was thus detached from the favourable environmental conditions provided by living as a hermit or, at best, as a cenobite, and became a variable dependent on subjectivity10. The public self and the private self were completely separated. The salòs posed as madmen, mingling with the outcasts, wandering and consciously breaking all social conventions, judged to be hypocritical, as we shall soon see clearly by retracing the lives of some salòs. Irreverence is their most typical attitude, together with the refusal to belong to socially acceptable groups and to have a livelihood that is not precarious, because in precariousness is located the providential action of God. Their crazy laughter denounces the sovereign hypocrisy governing the human relations11. In truth, the mask of the fool hides a saint who has rejected the logic of the world in favour of the wisdom of God. This interpretation descends from the Letters of Paul, and in particular from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, where the human presumption of wisdom is stigmatised in order to claim the experience of Christ crucified, scandal for the Jews, folly for the pagans. Paul defines himself as foolish for the sake of Christ12. Moreover, Jesus had been accused of madness and diabolical possession by the conformist and religious people of his time13.

10 Gagliardi, Isabella, “I saloì, ovvero le “forme paradigmatiche della santa follia””, Rivista di Ascetica e Mistica, 4, 1994: 361–​411; Gagliardi Isabella, “Holy Fools in Medieval Wester Europe: from Practice to Theory (XIII-​XVI Century)”, Holy Fools and divine madmen. Sacred insanity throught ages and cultures Albrecht Berger –​ Sergej Ivanov ed., Neuried: Ars una, 2018: 85–​104. Gagliardi, Isabella, Novellus Pazzus; Rotman Youval, Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium, The Ambiguity of Religious Experience, Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2016: 43; Van Pelt, Julie, “The Hagiographer as Holy Fools? Fictionality in Saint’s Lives”, The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses on Sainthood, Christa Gray –​James Corke-​ Webster ed., Leiden: Brill, 2020: 63–​92. 1 1 Devoti, Domenico, “Il riso del “Folle per Cristo”, Riso e comicità nel cristianesimo antico. Atti del convegno di Torino, 14–​16 febbraio 2005 e altri studi, Clementina Mazzucco ed, Alessandria: Ed. dell’Orso, 2007: 403–​445. 1 2 1 Cor 4,10; cf. 1 Cor 1,18–​19.25; 3,18–​19; 2 Cor 6,8; Mt 5,11; Welborn, Laurence, “Paul’s appropriation of the role of the fool in 1 Corinthians 2–​4”, Biblical Interpretation, 10, 2002: 420–​435; Welborn, Laurence, Paul, the Fool of Christ. A Study of 1 Corinthians 1–​4 in the Comic-​Filosophic tradition, London-​New York: T&T Clarks, 2005. 1 3 (Mc 3,20–​30), Bianchi, Enzo, “La sapienza della croce nei folli in Cristo”, Parola, Spirito e Vita, 18, 1988: 235–​253.

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3. Fools for Christ between Syria and Egypt In the Liber Graduum (Ktava demasqatha), a Syriac collection of Sermons (4th century), we read a heartfelt exhortation to become mad for Christ: “So imitate them (the madmen), like a madman go among those who mock you and talk to them”14. Nevertheless, the oldest memory of an ascetic fool for the Christ’s sake is not Syriac, but Egyptian. It is a woman: the salé who lived near Tabennisi in one of the monasteries founded by Pachomius. Palladius († 431) –​a monk, bishop and traveller between Palestine, Alexandria, Nitria, Rome and Constantinople –​tells us about her in a rich collection of hagiographic tales: the Historia Lausiaca 15. The Historia was written around 420, following Palladius’ appointment as bishop of Aspuna in Galatia (in present-​ day Turkey), and was dedicated to the great chamberlain of Theodosius II. The latter’s name was Lausus and he may have been behind the composition of the work16. To compose it, Palladio used an earlier manuscript; a kind of account of his experiences during his hermitage in Egypt (388–​399) 17 to which he added the memory of holy men who had lived in the cities. About the brief history of the salé, it is necessary to premise that Palladio relates it as he narrates much less bizarre events: the nun’s false madness is no more astonishing than the virtues of the great saints 14

“Libri Graduum”, Patrologia Syriaca, René Graffin ed., Parisiis: Firmin-​Didot, 1926, “Sermo VII”: 174. 15 Palladii “Historia Lausiaca”, P-​G. 34: 995–​1260; I traslate from the version published by Mohrmann, Christine, Vite dei santi dal III al VI secolo, Milano: Mondadori, 1985: 83–​86. 16 Harmless William, Desert christians. An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism, Oxford-​NY: Oxford University Press, 2004; Studi sul cristianesimo primitivo (2007–​2014), Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà. Dipartimento di Filosofia e Teoria delle Scienze, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia 12 settembre 2014, Valerio Polidori ed., Tricase (LE): Youcanprint Self-​Publishing, 2014; Giorda, Maria Chiara –​ Randazzo, Monica, “Riflessioni di contenuto, appunti di metodo per una storia delle origini del monachesimo cristiano”, La vita religiosa nella storia del cristianesimo un itinerario dalle origini all’età contemporanea, Emmanuel Albano ed., Quaderni di O Odigos, 2016: 7–​29. 1 7 Secondo alcuni studiosi di questo scritto resterebbero alcuni frammenti copti: Bunge, Gabriel, “Palladiana I: Introdution aux fragmentes coptes de l’Histoire Lausiaque”, Studia Monastica, 32, 1990: 79–​129.

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described in the pages of the Historia, such as Nathanael, for example, or Macarius of Alexandria18. The woman’s path to spiritual perfection is presented as one of the possible ways for loving God. Salé fed herself exclusively on breadcrumbs and drank the rinsing from dirty dishes. She kept the silence even if the other nuns, convinced that she was possessed, beat her brutally. She had chosen the repugnant condition: the refuse with which she fed her body mirrored the humiliation in which the opinion of being possessed relegated her. Finally, thanks to a precise divine message, a venerated anchorite discovered her, revealed her to the sisters and thus returned her to the moral place she had always deserved. But she cannot stand notoriety, she fears to lose what she has acquired in spiritual terms and therefore flees19. Palladio presents us an especial type of holy madness: the gratuitous contempt’s research, the desire to stay in the abjection, where the moral solitude is absolute. The episode takes place inside the monastery, the woman’s only living space. The cloistered perimeter welcomes the monastic micro-​society of which the salé subverts the social canons, but it is the same action’s pattern of the salòs who lives outside the monastery, behaving like a psychotic and, therefore, the last of the last human being20. The story of the nun of the Historia Lausica is reworked by later hagiographic narrations from the Syriac, Egyptian and Palestinian areas, giving rise to other figures, first and foremost that of Onesima. Onesima was a daughter of a king. She decided to follow Christ into a monastery where she feigned foolishness until she was recognised as a saint by a holy abbot21. The narration of Onesima would in turn become part of the Latin hagiographic heritage, but changing the woman’s name, so that

1 8 Mohrmann, Christine, Vite dei santi dal III al VI secolo: 113–​114, 117–​121. 1 9 Ivi: 139; Gagliardi Isabella, “Innamorate pazze di Cristo: mistica follia e donne sante nel Medioevo”, “Come l’orco della fiaba”. Studi per Franco Cardini, Marina Montesano ed., Firenze: SISMEL, 2010: 417–​424. 2 0 Stroumsa, Guy G., “Madness and Divinization in Early Christian Monasticism”, Self and Self-​Transformation in the History of Religions, David Shulman –​Guy G. Stroumsa ed., Oxford-​NY: Oxford University Press, 2002: 73–​90. 2 1 Cfr. manoscritto dell’VIII secolo pubblicato da Smith Lewis, Agnes, Select narratives of Holy Women from the syro-​antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old syriac gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-​Mari-​Qanun in A. D. 778, London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1900: 60–​69.

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Onesima became Isidora22, and finally the latin version was incorporated into the Greek tradition23. In the Historia Lausiaca we also meet Serapion the Sidonite, who uses the mask of the salòs when he wants to approach and convert those who, if they recognised him as a churchman, would not even listen to him24. The agiographical account about Serapion is very interesting, but now I prefere to insist on saloi from Egypt or who lived in Egypt. Apart from the anonymous nun of Tabennisi, we know other women who were mad for Christ. One of them appears in the Life of Daniel of Sketis (the desert area between Alexandria and Cairo, † post 576) and is used by the hagiographer to demonstrate that Daniel possessed the charisma of discerning spirits. The same episode is reported in the Syriac version of the text, in the Coptic, Ethiopian and Arabic versions where, significantly, it is introduced by the titulus “she who simulated silence”25. She was also a nun and lived in a women’s community near Hermopolis (according to the Greek version), known today as Al-​Ashmūnayn. She was excluded and despised by the other nuns because they thought she was mad and drunk26. However, Daniel realised that she simulated drunkenness and madness for the sake of Christ and he rehabilitated her in front of the community; so all nuns could watch her secretly as she spent the night in fervent prayer when she was sure no one was present. As soon as she realised to be recognised, she fled the monastery, leaving a note hanging on the door asking the nuns to pray for her soul. Perhaps –​as Grosdidier de Matons suggested –​the story was modelled on the tabennisiota’s tale in the Historia Lausiaca; in any case there are interesting differences between the two figures, as Ivanov 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 5

26

Rotman, Youval, Insanity and Sanctity: 52; AA.SS. Maggio 1: 49–​50. Ivanov, Sergej, Holy Fools in Byzantium: 59. ICor, 9,22. Mohrmann, Christine, Vite dei santi dal III al VI secolo: 145–​146. Vie (et récits) de l’Abbé Daniel le Scétiote (Vie siècle) 1. Texte grec, publiè par L. Clugnet, II. Texte syriaque, publié par F. Nau, III. Texte copte, publié par I. Guidi, Paris: Picard et Fils, 1901: XXXI, p. XXXII. Ivi: 14. Dalmann, Britt, Saint Daniel of Sketis: A Group of Hagiographic Text Edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary. Studia Byzantina Upsaliensis 10, Uppsala, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: 2007; Wivian, Tim, Witness to Holiness: Abba Daniel of Scetis, Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2008; Wipsiszka, Ewa,“ L’ascétisme féminin dans l’Egypte tardive”, Le rôle et le statut de la femme en Ègypte hellénistique, romaine et byzantine. Actes du Colloque International, Bruxelles-​Leuven, 27–​29 novembre 1997, Henri Melaerts –​Leon Mooren ed., Paris-​Leuven-​Sterling: Peeters, 2002: 355–​401; 388–​390.

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has pointed out27. The salé who appears in the Life of Daniel disguises herself as a man. Before fleeing, she takes possession of Daniel’s cloak and staff, that is, the objects necessary to disguise herself because, wishing to go to isolated lands to lead a hermit’s life, she knows that she will have to protect herself by using a male identity28. Women, unlike men, generally experience holy madness within a monastery for reasons of safety; since women were not able to cope with the dangers of a life on the loose as men could. This implies that in the monastery the anachoretic dimension is re-​proposed through the condition of absolute existential solitude experienced by the salé. Moreover, in the Apopthegmata Patrum it is written: “If you want to escape men, you have only this alternative: either you go to a solitary place, or, not accepting the way of the world and men, you become foolish in the greatest number of your actions”29. Hermitism is equated with insanity for Christ because the latter is a kind of immaterial and alienating barrier placed between the

27 Grosdidier De Matons, José, “Les thèmes”: 287; Ivanov, Sergej Holy Fools in Byzantium: 59–​60. 2 8 The ancient hagiographic tradition –​eastern and western –​has handed down the stories of female saints disguised as men: Thecla, disciple of Paul, Theodora, Eugenia and Euphrosyne of Alexandria, Marina of Antioch, Pelagia of Jerusalem as far as the Greek-​speaking tradition is concerned, Papula of Tours, Ermelinda, Bililda, Doda and Christina of Markyate as far as the Latin tradition is concerned: Delcourt Marie, “Female Saints in Masculine Clothing”, Hermaphrodite: Myths and Rites of the Bisexual Figure in Classical Antiquity, London: Studio Book, 1961; Anson, John, “The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: The Origin and Development of a Motif ”, Viator, 5, 1974: 1–​32; Patlagean, Evelyne, “L’histoire de la femme déguisée en moine et l’évolution de la sainteté féminine à Byzance”, Studi Medievali, 17, 1976: 598–​ 623; Bitel Lisa M., “Women’s Monastic Enclosures in Early Ireland: A Study of Female Spirituality and Male Monastic Mentalities”, Journal of Medieval History, 12, 1986: 15–​36; Bullogh, Vern L., “Transvestitism in the Middle Ages”, Sexual Practices and the Medieval Church, Vern L. Bullogh –​James Brundage, Buffalo-​ N.Y: Prometheus, 1982: 43–​54; Ringrose, Kathryn, Living in the Shadows: Eunuches and Gender in Byzantium, in Third Sex, Third Gender. Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, Gilbert Herdt ed., New York: Zone, 1994: 85–​109; Davis, Stephen J., “Crossed Texts, Crossed Sex: Intertextuality and Gender in Early Christian Legends of Holy Women Disguised as a Men”, Journal of Early Christian Studies, 10, 2002: 1–​36 e, infine, Johnson, Dale A., Hilaria. A woman who became a man to imitate Christ, USA: Luu.com, 2016. 2 9 Vannucci, Giovanni, Le parole dei padri del deserto, Firenze: Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, 1991: 72.

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saint and his neighbour. It is significant that even monastic communities, in theory much holier than the others, allow a further space of holiness to be found within them, beyond the Rule if not, to a certain extent, above it. The only Salé non-​nun that we know is Mary of Antioch, but she did not live alone rather with a man named Theophilus. Theophilus and Mary are mentioned by the monophysite intellectual John of Ephesus († 586) in the LII chapter of the Lives of the Eastern Saints30. John relates that when he was in Amida (Diyarbakir in Turkey) he met two young men named Theophilus and Mary. Respectively dressed as a mime and a prostitute, they were noticed by John as they stood in a churchyard, where they endured the derision of the crowd until nightfall. Then some of the most important people of the city wanted to accompany them to the public brothel, while a noble lady wanted to host Mary in her home, but they preferred to go alone. By divine intuition, John followed them and, spying on them, he noticed that they were praying at night. Amazed, he approached them and, after swearing not to reveal their secret to anyone, obtained that they confide their story to him: they were engaged to be married when they met Procopius of Rome, a wandering mystic whom they saw shining during his prayer. Procopius agreed to become their spiritual guide and persuaded them to simulate an existence contrary to the true quest for perfection. Thus began their holy adventure, in which the dichotomy we have already seen in the stories of the salaì was present: by day, one behaves like a madman, by night the mask falls, and one can finally consecrate oneself to prayer. Theophilus and Maria had also opted for the simulation of two professions socially sanctioned. They had then chosen to stand before the temple of God and there, as if before His eyes, to be beaten and mocked by the crowd. Finally, John of Ephesus tells about an interesting dimension of holy folly: there is a technique that can be transmitted from master to disciple. There is, in short, a specific spiritual direction reserved for an elite group of charismatics who are recognised by special divine signs, but who are not,

30 Brooks Edmund Wright ed., “Jhon of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints (III)”, Patrologia Orientalis, XXIX.2, 1925: 164–​179; Land, Jan Pieter ed., Anecdota Syriaca, Tomus I, Lugduni Batavorum: Brill, 1862: 333–​342; Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis ediderunt socii Bollandiani, [Subsidia Hagiographica 10] Bruxellis: Apud Editores, 1910: 259 (the next time it eill be P.O.); A. Harvey, Susan Ashbrook, Acetism and Society in Crisis. John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints, Berkley: B. University Press, 1990; Krueger, David, Symeon the Holy Fools: 69–​70.

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nor should they be, recognised by the public. They instruct the disciples and they, in turn, can become masters of folly for God. The figures of Theophilus and Mary did not disappear after the Islamisation. Rather, according to Molé, they were reabsorbed into Sufi Islam and lemmatised as the ancestors of the Sufi mystic, the perfect saint who “in addition to leading a life that prevents others from guessing his status, must be insulted, pass for a fool (shate), consider himself the worst of men and act accordingly”31. Schematically, we could say that the cultural flow induced by the circulation of the texts of John of Ephesus leads towards Sufism32, then eastwards, and from there departs to reach the western most tip of Europe, that is, the Islamicised Iberian peninsula33.

4. From Syria and Egypt towards New and Ancient Rome The influence of the Apophthegmata Patrum and the Historia Lausiaca interested the new Rome (Constantinople) and, at the same time, the Mediterranean heart of the European continent. As we know, the Apopthegmata Patrum is an anecdotal collection of loghia attributed to the holy desert Fathers and it was composed in the 6th century and it had a consistent circulation in both the pars Orientis and the pars Occidentis. The Apophthegmata derive from a collection of various written syllogies, which in turn were born from a more ancient oral tradition of the sayings of the Fathers34. In this source, we read many 3 1 Molé, Maijan, I mistici musulmani, Milano: Adelphi, 1992: 23. 3 2 Binyamin, Abrahamov, Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism, The Theachings of Al-​ Ghāzàli and Al-​Dabbāgh, London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003; Scarabel, Angelo, Il sufismo. Storia e dottrina, Roma: Carocci, 2007; Bashir Shazad, Sufi Bodies. Religion and Society in Medieval Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. 3 3 Presedo Velo, Francisco José, La España bizantina, Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2003: 95–​165. 3 4 Guy, Jean Claude, Recherches sur la tradition grecque des Apophthegmata Patrum, Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 1962, (Subsidia Hagiographica 36): 231–​251. Guy, Jean Claude, Les Apophtegmes des Péres. Collection systématique, Voll. I-​III (Sources Chretiennes 387, 474, 498), Paris: Ed. Du Cerf, 1993, 2003, 2005; Guy, Jean Claude, “Remarques sur le texte des Apophthegmata Patrum”, Recherches des Sciences Religieuses, 63, 1955: 252–​258; Th. Hopfner, Theodor, Über die koptisch-​sa

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little tales about mads for Christ. For instance; we read that in Judea, at Eleuteropolis (Bet Guvrin, Eleutheropolis), lived a monk called Salós35. He burst into uncontrollable laughter whenever anyone approached him, so everyone thought he was mad. To avoid potentially embarrassing situations, the monks often locked him in his cell, especially when they received visits from some important people. On one such occasion, the abbot entered the cell and found him sitting between two baskets. Caught in the act, the salòs merely sneered as usual, but the superior, intrigued, began to press him with more and more precise questions. Out of obedience he was forced to answer them. He ended up revealing his secret: for every good thought he put a stone in one of the two baskets, for every evil idea he threw a stone in the other. If the basket of good thoughts was full at dawn the next day, he would treat himself to a meal; if not, he would punish himself by fasting. In this way his true spiritual dimension was manifested36. The vicissitudes of the monk of Eleuteropolis are similar to those of the Tabennisiote, both of them entrenching themselves behind a petty reputation in order to safeguard their humility. The adventures of the salós transmitted to us by these writings present us with a madness very close to the radical declination of asceticism, which becomes edifying not as an immediate exemplum (since only a few can understand it in synchronicity), but as a parable transmitted, repeated and

‘idischen Apophthegmata Patrum Aegyptiorum und verwandte griechische, lateinische, koptische-​bohairische und syrische Sammlungen, Wien: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Philosophisch-​historische Classe, 1918; Gallazzi, Claudio, “P. Cair. SR 3726: Frammento degli Apophthegmata Patrum”, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 84, 1990: 53–​56; Regnault, Lucien, “La première édition critique d’une collection d’Apophtegmes des Péres”, Humanitas, L, 1998: 251–​255; Wilmart, André, “Le recueil latin des Apophthegmata Patrum”, Revue Bénédictine, 34, 1922: 175–​184; Battle, Columba, Die Adhortationes sanctorum patrum (“Verba seniorum”) im lateinischen Mittelalter : Überlieferung, Fortleben und Wirkung, Münster: Aschendorff, 1972, Gould, Graham, “A Note on the Apophthegmata Patrum”, Journal of Theological Studies, n.s., 37, 1986: 133–​138. We can find the coptic text here: . Youssef, Youhanna Nessim, “Concordance des Apophthegmata Patrum”, Vigiliae Christianae, 53, n. 3, 1998: 319–​322. 35 Ponsampieri, Lamberto Gaetano, Il tesoro delle antichità sacre e profane tratto da’ Comenti del reverendo padre D. Agostino Calmet sopra la Sacra Scrittura, Venezia: Francesco Pitteri, 1746, II: 88. 3 6 P.O. 8: 178–​179.

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disseminated. Not even the members of the religious community where he lives are able to discern the divine action in him, unless a providential phenomenon of spiritual agnition intervenes. Secrecy and incomprehension constitute the immaterial frontier behind which the salòs hides his holiness. To the boundaries of the monastery within which the parable of the consecrated soul develops –​boundaries that delimit the sacred space but also the space of the sacred –​are added the self-​imposed boundaries of the salòs to individual experience. The salòs ultimately do not share the salvific message except with already chosen spirits. The tabennisiota, when she is no longer misunderstood, flees, the saint of Eleuteropolis remains in his cell to dominate his thoughts. There are no attempts at proselytism, the divine revelation only spreads indirectly and in an environment that is already spiritually tilled because it has already been converted. For understanding the dynamics between God’s fools and the society as a whole, we must leave the sapiential tales written by monks for monks and we must return to the Life of Daniel the Scetiote37. It is almost Easter and Daniel is in Alexandria to meet the Patriarch. Wandering around the city, he comes across a strange individual called “Mark”. He works in a public place, perhaps the hippodrome, perhaps a public toilet, where he sleeps and shares his existence with other saloi38. He makes up the meagre income from his services by stealing food at the market. The food he gathers in this way is shared with the bizarre community camping out with him. As soon as Daniel approached him, Mark feigned hysteria, causing embarrassment among the surrounding crowd, who immediately reacted by trying to excuse him in front of the holy man39. Simulating hysteria or senselessly violent reactions is the quickest and most effective way of gaining a madman reputation. The most famous salòs in the ancient world, Symeon salòs from Emesa, was a true master in simulating folly: he threw himself to the ground, kicking and flailing40. Mark simulates a fit of madness; other texts, wishing to typify the behaviour of the alienated, also resort to accounts of furious attitudes. Theodoret of Cyrus introduces his anti-​Jewish and anti-​pagan treatise, known as the Therapeutics of Hellenic Diseases, using the metaphor of heresy –​mental illness. Heretics, who

3 7 3 8 3 9 4 0

Grosdidier de Matons, José, Les Thèmes: 288. Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 102. Grosdidier de Matons, José, Les Thèmes: 289. Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 77–​78.

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reject the true faith, are like madmen who reject the cure. They are used to kicking and punching, rebelling violently until “they are put in chains and forcibly smear their heads with ointment, and devise all sorts of remedies to drive out the mental disorder”41. Daniel, instead of being deceived by appearances, carries out the ministry of discerning the spirits and, in accordance with the usual hagiographic style of the lamp to be placed above the candlestick rather than under the bushel, recognises in Mark a true saint42. Mark has adopted this way of life out of penance: he has to purify himself from many years of servitude to the demon of lust. We read, moreover, that he lives with other saloi 43. For knowing their way of life, we can read the Ecclesiasticae Historiae of Evagrius (536–​post 594). Evagrius states that he has seen groups of monks in Jerusalem practising extreme forms of asceticism: they are the boskoi and the saloì 44. The immortalisation of these anchorite is significant because Evagrius is aware about the saint’s tales public use45. The boskoi were anchorites who fed exclusively on herbs, lived like wild men and refused all contact with society, taking refuge in uninhabited and almost impassable spaces. Only a few of them returned to the society after conquering impassibility: they were the so-​called saloi. Evagrius does not use the term “salós”, but it is clear that they are salós because their way of life corresponds to that of Symeon salòs, the perfect salós about whom Evagrius speaks later. They had reached such a level of insensitivity to carnal stimulation that they were able to eat carelessly in taverns and mingle quietly with women in baths. “They do not risk sexual enjoyment”46, he 41 Theodoreti Cyrensis “Graecarum affectionum curatio”, P.G. IV: 783–​1152, 790. Canivet, Pierre, ed., Théodoret de Cyr. Thérapeutique des maladies helléniques. Texte critique, introduction, traduction, notes, Paris: Du Cerf, 1958: 43–​44. 4 2 Mc 4, 21–​22; Mt 18, 26–​27; Lc 8, 16–​17. 4 3 Evagrii Scholastici Epiphaniensis “Ecclesiasticae Historiae libri sex”, P.G. LXXXVI.2, liber I, caput XXI: 2475–​2484. 4 4 Giorda, Maria Chiara, “Monaci e monachesimi nella Storia Ecclesiastica di Evagrio Scolastico (VI sec.)”, Adamantius, 17, 2011: 118–​132, 120. 4 5 Today Ḥimṣ (Hhomss). 4 6 Traslation from the text published by Carcione, Filippo, Evagrio di Epifania Storia Ecclesiastica, Roma: Città Nuova, 1998: 67; Allen, Pauline, Evagrius Scholasticus the Church Historian, Leuven: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1981; The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus, translated by Michel Whitby, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000.

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writes, “neither by looking at them, nor by touching them, nor even by embracing them”47. They were now beyond the practice and constraints of decorum, decency and respectability. He explained: “They are men with men and women with women, because they want to belong to both sexes without belonging to one. To put it briefly, in this exceptional and God-​ inspired way of life, virtue instructs special laws with respect to those to which human nature is subject, so that they do not take part in any of the things necessary to the latter, being satisfied. The author presents them to us as true monks, obliged to a rule: “Their rule requires them to suffer hunger and thirst and to cover their bodies as much as necessity dictates”48. The achievement of absolute apatheia was functional to allow them to have relations with any people to help them spiritually49. Continuing to narrate the deeds of “men inspired by God”, Evagrius gives posterity a brief and intense portrait of Symeon of Emesa “who had laid aside the tunic of vainglory to the point of seeming to those who did not know him to be a person with a distraught mind, although, in reality, he was filled with all the wisdom and grace of God”50. His most important and disseminated hagiography was composed by the bishop Leontius of Neapolis in the 7th century, and it became a more notorious pattern of the madness for Christ’s sake. Already in the Prologue, the hagiographer makes his parenetic intent explicit: whether he is writing for a specific Cypriot monastic community, as Krueger claims51, or for a wider public, he declares that he is writing for inciting the readers to virtues and to practising the divine commandments. Symeon is a true model of the Christian perfection52. His adventure as a fool for Christ begins in Jerusalem

47 Carcione, Filippo, Evagrio di Epifania Storia Ecclesiastica: 68. Bellanger, Agnès, Folie et renoncement à soi. L’apparition du saint homme dans l’Orient chrétien, in Adam et l’astragale. Essais d’anthropologie et d’histoire sur les limits de l’humain, Gil Bartholemy –​Pierre-​Olivier Dittmar –​Thomas Golsenne ed., Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2009: 45–​85. 4 8 Carcione, Filippo, Evagrio di Epifania: 68. 4 9 Ivi: 68–​69. 5 0 Ivi: 243–​244. 5 1 Krueger, David, Symeon the Holy Fool: 29. 5 2 Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 65–​144, Cesaretti, Paolo –​Hamarneh, Basema, Testo agiografico e orizzonte visivo. Ricontestualizzare le Vite dei saloi Simeone e Andrea (BHG 1677, 115z), Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2016.

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where he is with his mother and his friend John to visit the holy places53. He is a young man of high social standing: he and the friend John had chosen to become monks, and so renounced everything encouraging each other54. Following divine visions and a strong inner call, Symeon decides to transform himself into boskòs and persuades John to do the same. There Symeon remained for twenty-​nine years, practising the most rigorous asceticism, until he decided to return to the society as mad for Christ’s sake55. The urban centres, in this period, begun to attract even the Stylites. Still in the 5th and more so in the 6th century, we have news of stylite monks heading for the cities and there fulfilling their vocation56. Symeon finally came to Emesa, where he devoted himself to God by simulating madness, that is, by doing all kinds of strange things, in order to frequent every social environment and thus bring sinners to God. It was only when he died that his holiness was revealed to all57. John Climacus († 670) 58 sets in the Scala Paradisi a crypto citation of Symeon’s actions to exemplify the very high spiritual level of someone who, out of extreme humility, takes upon himself faults that he does not have59. And, it is worth remembering, the Scala Paradisi was extraordinarily successful in both East and West. The appearance of this argument is very significant, because it confirms the influence of Syriac asceticism on Sinaitic monasticism, of which Climacus was an integral part. The connection between these places was guaranteed by an important road network linking Sinai with Syria and Palestine, an ecclesiastical region belonging to Sinai itself, and offering the 53 Krueger, David, “Between Monks: Tales of Monastic Companionship in Early Byzantium”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 20, 1, 2011: 28–​61, 31–​33, 37, 44–​ 45, 56–​58. 5 4 Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 74. 5 5 I Cor., 9, 22. Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 98, footnotes 229–​233. 5 6 “Sancti Alypii stylitae vita prior”, in Delehaye, Hippolyte ed., Les saints Stylites, Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, rep. anast. 1962 (Subsidia Hagiographica 14): 148–​ 187; “Vita Danielis stylitae vita antiquior”, ivi: XXXV–​LVIII; “Vita S. Lucae stylitae”, ivi: 195–​237. Sansterre, Jean Marie, “Les saints stylites du V au IX siècle. Permanence et évolution d’un type de sainteté”, Sainteté et martyre dans les religions du Livre, Jacques Marx ed., Bruxelles: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1989: 33–​45. 5 7 Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 141–​142. 5 8 Parrinello, Rosa Maria, Giovanni Climaco, La Scala del Paradiso, Milano: Ed. Paoline, 2007: 19–​22. 5 9 Ivi: 429.

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monks ample possibilities of movement. Moreover, John Mosco, author of the Spiritual Meadow, where we can find some fools for Christ tales, lived in the monastery of St Catherine on the Sinai and the Sinaitic monasticism at the end of the 6th century was more similar to Palestinian monasticism than to Egyptian monasticism. The aforementioned Daniel of Sketis or Scetiota also belonged to the same environment: even the proper name Sketis is at the origin of the common noun skiti, used in the Sinaitic area to indicate a religious settlement consisting of a group of huts in which a spiritual master and his disciples lived60. And in the Life of Daniel, the story of the nun Salah is told. In short, the simulation of madness is merely the social mask worn by one who has reached the highest degree of insensitivity to the stimuli of the flesh. The reputation of madness protects him from the danger of spiritual pride and allows him to act in the world as a missionary of God: poorer than the indigent and stray among the homeless, he bases his freedom of action on the renunciation of everything, even the reputation of normality. Extreme marginality allows him to reach the real last ones on the social scale and to help them spiritually: Jews, dishonest merchants, prostitutes, magicians and soothsayers, but also socially respected hypocrites, are the evangelical vineyard of the madman in Christ. The semantic ambiguity of the saloi deeds, often even jester-​like, is recorded in the sermons of Gregory the Studite, in the 9th century, when the term “salòs” means jester or actor61. At the same time, however, a number of corrections of the spread of the model of the perfect salòs outlined by Leontius of Neapolis began to emerge. In 692, the 60th canon of the Council of Quinisestus condemned those who simulated diabolical possession, because such proximity to the devil was dangerous. In the Life of Gregory the Decapolitan (middle of the 9th century), the protagonist meets the devil who, for deceiving him, takes on the appearance of a salós62. However, other saloi also appear in the hagiographic tales dedicated to certain male saints that were written between the 9th and 10th centuries. Still during the 9th century, Gabriel the Melodious versified the life of Symeon of Emesa, contributing to its circulation, and the memory of another

6 0 Ivi: 26–​31, 44. 6 1 Ivanov, Serhej, Holy fools: 41. 6 2 Palmer, José Simòn, “Los santos locos en la literatura bizantina”, ERYTHEIA, 20, 1999: 57–​75, 66.

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salós, Paul of Corinth, was transmitted, while Niceta of Amnia composed the Life of Philarete the Merciful, considered by scholars a sort secular version of the Lives of the Fools in Christ, and even Emperor Leo VI in the Hypotyposis went so far as to recommend the practice of folly for Christ to those who risked being blinded by the pride of culture63. Other Saloi appear in the life of St. Gregentius, Archbishop of Taphar in southern Arabia, recently edited and commented on by Albrecht Berger. The source was probably compiled in the middle of the 10th century in Constantinople and not, as had been assumed in the past, in Rome64. Perhaps this hagiography was a Constantinopolitan text, a reminder of the mighty effort made by the Empire to expand its hegemony throughout the Red Sea area65. Anyway, in this Life, Gregentius met Petros, the salòs, in Moryne, where the latter lived secretly in the most desolate parts of the city, having repudiated the glory of men and practising the strict poverty66. Petros recognised him as a saint and prophesied his holiness. He also came across John and Stephen, fools for Christ in Rome, the anonymous Salé living in Agrigento and, finally, Philothea of Carthage. All of them are endowed with the spirit of prophecy, except for Philothea, who rather devoted herself to madness for Christ out of penitence, following the model of Mark. In addition there are numerous sentences or brief examples, spread in many different texts, where the madness for Christ is exalted. For instance a

63 “Hypotyposis”, III, 56–​58, Varia Graeca Sacra: sbornik greceskich neizdannych bogoslovskich tekstov 4.-​ 15., Athanasios Papadopoulos-​ Kerameus ed., Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deuschen Demokratischen Republik, 1975 [Subsidia Byzantina Lucis Ope Iterata 6] (first edition S. Petersbourg, 1909); Fourmy, Marie Henriette, “La Vie de S. Philarète”, Byzantion, IX, 1934: 85–​170; Palmer, José Simòn, “Los santos locos en la literatura bizantina”, 66. 6 4 Bergher, Albrecht ed., Life and Works of Saint Gregentios, Archbishop of Taphar. Introduction, Critical Edition and Translation, with a contribution of Gianfranco Fiaccadori, Berlin-​New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2006: 44. 6 5 Messis, Charis, “La famille et ses enjeux dans l’organisation de la cité ideéale chrétienne. Le cas des Lois des ‘Homérites’ ”, Les réseaux familiaux: Antiquité tardive et Moyen Âge, Béatrice Caseau ed., Paris: Centre de recherche d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2012: 87–​120. 6 6 Bergher, Albrecht ed., Life and Works of Saint Gregentios: 2.52–​84; 2.340–​376; 5.380–​ 445; 6. 202–​237; 6–​53. Bergher, Albrecht, “Das Dossier des heiligen Grigentios, ein Werk der Makedonenzeit”, Byzantina, 22, 2001: 53–​65; Tardy, René, Najrân: Chrétiens d’Arabie avant l’islam, Beyrouth: Dar El.Mahreq Èditeurs, 1999 [«Recherches, Nouv. Série: B –​Orient Chrétien», 8]: first and second chapters.

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salòs appear in a very famous hagiography: the Life of John the Almsgiver written by Leontius of Neapolis, the hagiographer of Symeon salòs. This hagiography came in the Latin West directly from Egypt and was translated into Latin by Anastasius the Librarian. In the Life of John the salòs, as has been pointed out in a fine study by Vincent Déroche, is named Vitalius. He is an ascetic anchorite who abandons solitude for going to Alexandria to live “scandalously” as a madman in Christ. For our research there is another important source: the Spiritual Meadow written by the aftermore mentioned John Moschus. Moschus as Evagrious was also part of the circle of intellectuals linked to Gregory of Antioch . His text was conceived to illustrate the Apophthegmata. Here we can meet a man “insane owing to the love for Christ”: a very poor salòs, who lived in Egypt, in Alexandria, where he was with his friend Sofronio. The poor man, who was mute, revealed himself to be a holy ascetic at sunset, when he began to pray freely, because he believed not to be observed. Mosco’s book had an extraordinary success and was translated in Armenian, Arabic, Georgian, Ethiopian and Latin and circulated throughout the world of this Age. John Climacus, in his very famous Scala Paradisi, mentions other saloi: Antiochus, Paul of Corinth, Theodore, John, John of Emesa and George. Finally the hagiography of Andrea salòs should be mentioned, albeit briefly. It was composed in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century67. Andrew never existed and the hagiography is a very interesting sum of clichés revealing the significance attributed to madness for Christ around 950 in Byzantium68. The Life places the existence of Andrew and his writing in the 6th century –​mainly during the reign of Leo I69, but the author of the Life of Andrew wanted only to construct a shining example of a saint –​ or rather of a morpheme of holiness –​ancient, and therefore predictive, in order to hieratise the transmission of Christian wisdom: a catechetical and, nonetheless, a prophetic wisdom70. However, that Life, which did not reach 67

Cesaretti, Paolo, “The Life of St Andrews the Fool by Lennart Rydèn: vingt ans après”, Scandinavian Journal of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2, 2016: 31–​52. 68 Cesaretti, Paolo, Vite dei santi saloi: 49–​51. 69 Cesaretti, Paolo, “I metodi dell’evidenza. Le Vite dei saloi Simeone e Andrea tra allusioni e calchi”, Cesaretti, Paolo –​Hamarneh, Basema, Testo agiografico e orizzonte visivo: 33–​59, 52. 7 0 Rydèn, Lennart, “The Andrea salos Apocalypse: Greek Text, Translation and Commentary”, Dumbarton Oaks Paper, 32, 1974: 197–​216, 204.

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Europe until the 16th century, was already extraordinarily successful in the 10th and 11th centuries in Slavic and Russian territories.

5. Conclusions The practice of holy madness is a spiritual techné closely linked to the cloistered environment and mentality, which re-​proposes the highest and most extreme monastic ideals as well as the practice of spiritual paternity/​ discipleship, on the model of what happened in the Cenobi and in the Palestinian Laurea. The monk salòs protects his soul with the simulation of madness which, metaphorically, functions as the cloistered perimeter, but goes out to live in the world. And it is precisely such a metaphorical “cloister” erected around him thanks to faith that makes it possible for him to leave the monastery in favour of the active life, to gain souls for Christ, working in the vineyard of the Lord. When the appropriate hagiographic and liturgical evidence, born in Syria and in the Ancient Egypt, reached the beating heart of the Greek-​speaking empire, Constantinople, the link with the monastic world loosened and was replaced by another, established with the entire patriarchal church and with a peculiar monasticism that we could define as excellent. A monasticism lived by refined intellectuals (like Symeon the New Theologian) in search of a powerful antidote against spiritual pride, or by mystical exegesis of the word in search of continuous contact with the divine, like the Hesychasts71. In Constantinople, in the 10th century, a further cultural and missionary thrust arose, because it was linked to the evangelisation of the Rus’ and the Slavic peoples, which would bring the model of the Andreas salòs to Bulgaria and the Rus’, where it enjoyed an extraordinary success and a very peculiar development. The specifically Syriac sources, such as the Liber Graduum or the Lives of the Eastern Saints, on the other hand, conveyed the idea and practice

71 Rigo, Antonio, Monaci esicasti e monaci bogomili. Le accuse di Messalianismo e Bogomilismo rivolte agli esicasti e il problema dei rapporti tra esicasmo e bogomilismo, Firenze: Olschki, 1989; Rigo, Antonio, L’amore della quiete (ho tes hesychias eros): l’esicasmo bizantino tra il XIII e il XV secolo, Magnano: Qiqojon Comunità di Bose, 1993.

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of “madness for the love of God” to the Islamised areas, finding a fruitful reception in the Sufi milieu. Finally, the western and Latin-​speaking regions: here too, the concept and the practice of holy madness penetrated. In the West it was accorded to the cenobitic paradigm of Sinaitic-​Egyptian origin and not to the anachoretic one from Syriac origin72. From the 6th century onwards, the wooded Europe received the Vitas Patrum in the form of Rufinus’ Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Palladius’ Historia Lausiaca, Pascasius’ Liber Geronticon from the Iberian monastery of Dumio and Valerius de Bierzo’s Liber Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Orientalium73, the Apophthegmata Patrum and also, after, the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus. All this material flowed –​albeit in part –​into Book IV of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, which spread both in the West and in the East, as evidenced by translations into Greek (Pope Zacharias in the 8th century), Arabic, Saxon and Norman French. Already during the Ecumenical Council of 494 Pope Gelasius claimed to have the “Vitas Patrum, Pauli, Antonii, Hilarionis, et omnium eremitorum, quos tamen vir beatus scripsit Hieronymus”. The Greek texts were turned into Latin and circulated without ceasing; it is sufficient to recall chapter XLII of the Regula Benedicti where it says: “Monachi omni tempore, sive jejunii sive prandi fuerit, mox ut surrexerunt a coena, sedeant omnes in unum, et legat unus Collationes vel Vitas Patrum, aut certe aliquid quod aedificet audientes”74. So the model of the Saloi was developed in the area corresponding to ancient Syria and spread from there in three directions, two towards the East and the other towards the West, passing through Sinai and arriving in the Egyptian countries. Through the Syriac texts it went eastwards and was conveyed to the territories of the Sasanian empire, now Islamised, and it went also in Byzantium, instead through Sinaitic and Egyptian monasticism it reached North Africa. From there, the Greek texts of early monasticism migrated to the western part of the Empire, starting in the Justinian era and following the political axis of the Byzantine conquest (Iberian territories 7 2 Gagliardi, Isabella, Novellus Pazzus: 49–​195. 7 3 Battle, Columba M., “Contribuciò a l’estudi de Pascasi de Dumi i la seva versiò de Verba Seniorum”, Estudis Romànics, 2, 8, 1961: 57–​65. Sansterre, Jean Marie, “La “luce” dell’Oriente in Occidente”, Oriente cristiano e santità. Figure e storie di santi tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, Sebastiano Gentile ed., Milano: Centro Tibaldi, 1998: 77–​83. 7 4 Gagliardi, Isabella, Novellus Pazzus: 58.

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and Italian territories) and the political-​religious axis of the alliance between the patriarchate of Alexandria and the patriarchate of Rome. Reconstructing the textual flows and the consequent affirmations of the saint’s cults, the Sinaitic area centrality appears very clear. This area was, in the Late Ancient and Early Medieval Ages, a true bridge connecting Palestine, Syria, Egypt and the European continent –​in the conveyance of the idea and practice of the most ancient holy madness, the one synthesised by the sources of the 6th–​7th centuries and marked by a very strong cultural vein of Syriac ancestry. The propelling centre of the sources we are interested in can be identified in late ancient Egypt, where the memories of Palestinian Sinaitic monasticism were channelled and spread from. Egypt was therefore a formidable bridge between East and West.

Giuseppe Cacciaguerra

Byzantine and Islamic Amphorae in Syracuse. New Light on Trade Networks and Identities in Early Medieval Mediterranean (8th–​11th Century)

1. Introduction The recent new historical interpretation of sources and the development of archaeological research on socioeconomic issues of early medieval mediterranean have emphasized that Sicily was central in the interests of Constantinople between the 7th and 8th centuries1. This is witnessed by the long life of the mint, symbol of its economic vitality, and the role of the strategoi of the thema who had the seat in Syracuse and represented the hinge, the bridge of dialog and the basis of action for any further projection of Constantinople, toward Africa, Italy, and the Papacy and Carolingian Europe. At the same time, during the Islamic age we know clearly the fundamental role of Sicily, both as an area of specialized agricultural production and as a bridge for commercial expansion toward the northern Mediterranean, in particular Tyrrhenian area (Genoa, Pisa, Gaeta, and Salerno) and southern Italy. Despite the centrality of Sicily, Syracuse, one of the main urban centers of the early medieval mediterranean, remains in the shadows. The question of the “absence” of Syracuse from the historical and archaeological debate on the economy, the markets, and the trade in the early medieval mediterranean lies mainly in a wide lack of research and a tradition of studies that led to underestimating the role played by this city in the Byzantine age. In fact, according to a reading derived from 19th century historiography, 1

Nef, Annliese, Prigent Vivien. “Per una nuova storia dell’alto medioevo siciliano”, Storica, 35–​36 (2006): 9–​63.

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unfortunately still influential, this tendency has affected the whole of Sicily, judged as a marginal and peripheral region with respect to other “centers” of the Mediterranean basin. During the last two decades, archaeological research has dealt with the question of the role played by the city (Figure 1). On these themes, however, the archaeologists are still late. In fact, very important early medieval contexts have been investigated during more than a century of archaeological research in the urban area of ​Syracuse, but they have not been examined in depth and analyzed in their complexity in comparison to greek and roman urban contexts.

Figure 1.  Byzantine and Islamic Syracuse: Dots. Main archaeological contexts; Square. Coins and hoards; Blue lines. Streets; Red lines. Fortifications.

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Although the available data are still very fragmentary, we can outline some aspects of the early medieval urban features of Syracuse. In fact, the city continued to occupy a vast surface that exceeded the lower part adjacent to the isthmus that led to Ortygia. This underlines a remarkable demographic capacity compared to other early medieval urban centers. The urban contraction, in fact, was very contained until the first quarter of the 9th century and the city retreated to the district of Ortygia between the second quarter and the end of the 9th century. Archaeological data show that after the Islamic conquest in 878, the urban area of Syracuse shrank to the district of Ortygia, losing more than half of its urban area. In fact, architectural structures, ceramics, and coins have only been identified on the island and are completely absent in the other sectors of the city.

2. Transport Amphorae in Syracuse from the 8th to 11th Century 2.1. Early Medieval Contexts in the Urban Core of Syracuse From the mid-​19th century onwards, numerous assemblages of late roman and early medieval ceramics were identified in archaeological excavations in Syracuse. Despite this, they have never been published and analyzed in depth but only a general documentation of amphorae and lamps has been presented without a stratigraphic context. The recent excavations conducted in Piazza Minerva (Ortygia), Forum, and other urban and maritime contexts have allowed for the first time to document and interpret the stratigraphic sequences2 and to create a seriation of material culture between late Roman and Islamic period3. In particular, the amphorae, which were used 2

3

Guzzardi, Lorenzo, Rivoli, Annalisa, Raffiotta, Serena. “Siracusa: le aree di Piazza Minerva e del Foro Siracusano fra la Tarda Antichità e l’Alto Medioevo”, From Polis to Madina. La trasformazione delle città siciliane tra tardoantico e altomedioevo, Lucia Arcifa, Mariarita Sgarlata, Bari: Edipuglia, 2020: 41–​53. Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Città e mercati in transizione nel Mediterraneo altomedievale. Contenitori da trasporto, merci e scambi a Siracusa tra l’età bizantina e islamica”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 149–​173; Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. Siracusa nel contesto socio-​economico del Mediterraneo tardoantico e altomedievale: le ceramiche

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to transport different foodstuffs, have provided an interesting framework for the reconstruction of trade networks between Syracuse and the regions of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Let’s examine the sequence of amphorae according to century. 2.2. The 8th Century Amphorae The 8th century amphorae found in Syracuse belong to the globular type, the most common shape in the early medieval central and eastern Mediterranean. Although it is very difficult to attribute or associate these containers to specific productions, four main groups have been identified in Syracuse based upon the fabrics. The first group consists of types similar to the Saraçhane 36/​39 types, widely distributed in the eastern and central Mediterranean4. Two types of rims have been identified. The first has a flaring, everted profile, with a deep internal groove, a truncated cone neck and a handle set below the rim (Figure 2.1). The second type has a simple flat everted rim5 (Figure 2.3). The neck is usually truncated cone or, more rarely, cylindrical, globular body, oval section handles, and curved bottom (Figure 2.7–​9). Similar to the previous one, the second group includes amphorae with cylindrical neck and oblique shoulder (Figure 2.6, Figure 3). Although there are no further elements, the fabric of these amphorae is similar to that of some late roman transport containers produced in the Meander river area (Late Roman 3 Amphora) and western Anatolia could be a possible production area6.

4 5

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bizantine e islamiche dei contesti di Piazza Minerva e del Foro Siracusano, From Polis to Madina. La trasformazione delle città siciliane tra tardoantico e altomedioevo, Lucia Arcifa, Mariarita Sgarlata, Bari: Edipuglia, 2020: 55–​86. Hayes, John Walker. Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul, II. The pottery. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992: 71. Arthur, Paul, Patterson, Helen. “Ceramics and the early Medieval central and Southern Italy: a potted History”, La Storia dell’Altomedioevo italiano (VI-​X) alla luce dell’archeologia, Riccardo Francovich, Ghislaine Noyé, Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 1994: fig. 4.1; Hayes, John Walker. Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul, II. The pottery. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992: 71–​72, 112, fig. 57. Leo Imperiale, Marco. “Anfore globulari dal Salento. Produzione e circolazione nell’Adriatico meridionale durante l’Alto Medioevo”, VII Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, Paul Arthur, Marco Leo Imperiale, Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 2015: 430.

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The third group includes a single sherd of everted rim with internal edge and truncated cone-​shaped neck (Figure 2.2). This amphora belongs to the Saraçhane 33 type which characterizes the 8th century contexts of the Constantinopolitan area and other Mediterranean centers7. Other fragments have a thickened rim on a cylindrical or truncated cone neck (Figure 2.4–​5). A globular amphora can be attributed to this group, but the thin walls could indicate a domestic storage use (Figure 2.10–​11). Finally, the fourth group consists of the late 8th century regional amphorae. They have an ovoid or globular shape, a cylindrical or slightly truncated cone neck, and handle with a longitudinal groove (Figure 2.12–​ 14). This early variant of regional production is still little known and the workshops should be located in central-​eastern Sicily.

Figure 2.  Syracuse. The 8th century amphorae: 1–​11. Imported amphorae; 12–​14. Regional amphorae. 7

Hayes, John Walker. Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul, II. The pottery. Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992: 71, fig. 57. 288-​–​29.

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Figure 3.  Syracuse. The 8th century amphora with inscription from Piazza Minerva.

2.3. The 9th Century Amphorae The most interesting data come from the 9th century regional amphorae uncovered in the Forum of Syracuse. It has given five almost complete amphorae, but whose general morphological structure still escaped us, and which are now attested on a vast portion of the regional territory8 (Figure 4). They are characterized by generally vertical and triangular or oval rims, sometimes distinguished by an upward fold on the outer surface. The characteristic feature, however, is the handles with a deep longitudinal groove. Four typologies have been identified: (1) small globular type (Figure 4.1); (2) globular, thin walled type (Figure 4.2–​3); (3) globular, thick walled type (Figure 4.4–​5); and (4) ovoidal type (Figure 4.6–​9). The fabrics indicate that the production centers are to be located in the 8

Arcifa, Lucia. “Considerazioni preliminari su ceramiche della prima età islamica in Sicilia. I rinvenimenti di Rocchicella presso Mineo (CT)”, La ceramica altomedievale in Italia, Patitucci Uggeri Stella, Firenze: All’Insegna del Giglio, 2004: 395–​398; Arcifa, Lucia. “Nuove ipotesi a partire dalla rilettura dei dati archeologici: la Sicilia orientale”, La Sicile de Byzance à l’Islam, Nef, Annliese. Prigent, Vivien, Paris: De Boccard, 2010: 15–​49; Vaccaro, Emanuele. La Torre, Gioacchino Francesco. “La produzione di ceramica a Philosophiana (Sicilia centrale) nella media età bizantina: metodi di indagine ed implicazioni economiche”, Archeologia Medievale, 42 (2015): 53–​91.

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central-​eastern area of Sicily, one of which would be in Sophiana9. The dating of these containers (late-​8th–​9th century), already defined thanks to the excavations in Rocchicella and Catania, is further confirmed by the excavations in Syracuse. Other amphorae imported from the eastern Mediterranean have been found in different areas of the city and attest to the continuity of trade between Syracuse and the main centers of food production (wine, olive oil, etc.) in the eastern Byzantine world (Figure 5).

Figure 4.  Syracuse. The 9th century regional amphorae.

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Vaccaro, Emanuele. La Torre, Gioacchino Francesco. “La produzione di ceramica a Philosophiana (Sicilia centrale) nella media età bizantina: metodi di indagine ed implicazioni economiche”, Archeologia Medievale, 42 (2015): 53–​91.

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Figure 5.  Syracuse. The 9th century imported amphora with monogram.

2.4. The First Half 10th Century Amphorae A very interesting stratigraphic context was identified in Via Minerva. It is a large irregular pit densely filled with early Islamic ceramics dating back to the first half of the 10th century. The regional productions have been identified in a group (Group 1) that probably includes several shapes of transport amphorae. These regional amphorae have triangular rims and cylindrical neck10 (Figure 6.2–​3) (Agrigento: 10th century; Palermo: late 9th–​early 10th century; and Carthage: 10th century contexts) or a bulging rim on a wide truncated cone neck (Figure. 6.5). Other fragments have the lower part with a carinated pyriform profile (Figure. 6.6). This group also includes fragments marked by bands of lathe turned grooves. The second group (Group 2) consists of carrot-​shape amphorae of north-​western regional productions (Palermo)

10

Ardizzone Fabiola, Pezzini Elena, Sacco Viva. “Lo scavo della chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angeli alla Gancia: indicatori archeologici della prima età islamica a Palermo”, Le dynamiques de l’islamization en Méditerranée centrale et en Sicile: nouvelles propositions et découvertes récentes, (Palermo 8–​10 novembre 2012), Collection de l’École Française de Rome 487, Annliese Nef, Fabiola Ardizzone, dirs. Roma-​ Bari: Edipuglia, 2014: fig. 6.11; Rossiter, Jeremy. Reynolds, Paul. MacKinnon, Michael. “A Roman bath-​house and a group of Early Islamic middens at Bir Ftouha, Carthage”, Archeologia Medievale, 39 (2012): 263, fig. 91–​92.

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with an oblique shoulder and a convex base. The surfaces are marked by bands of lathe turned grooves11 (Sacco type (Figure 7.2–​7.3) (Figure 6.7–​8).

Figure 6.  Syracuse. The first half 10th century regional amphorae.

The other groups seem to be attributable to imported amphorae. The third group (Group 3) find more evident parallels with the Otranto 1 type amphorae12 (Figure 7.1). Some amphora fragments have yellow-​brown glaze drippings (so called vetrina pesante), indicating that Byzantine lead-​glazed

11 12

Sacco, Viva. “Produzione e circolazione delle anfore palermitane tra la fine del IX e il XII secolo”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 175–​191. Arthur, Paul. “Amphorae for Bulk Transport”, Excavations at Otranto, II: The Finds. Francesco D’Andria. David Whitehouse, dirs. Galatina: Congedo Editore, 1992: 206–​207.

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pottery was produced in the same workshop. The fourth group (Group 4) consists of a large set of amphorae also close to the Otranto 1 type. They have enlarged and slightly everted rims with a narrow and high neck. The body is marked by bands of lathe turned grooves (Figure 7.2–​5). A large number of amphorae have mixed fabrics. The largest group (Group 5), homogeneous in shape and clay, consists of amphorae with a horizontal everted rim, flat on the top, more or less squared to form a triangle. The neck is cylindrical or just truncated cone-​shaped and the shoulders relatively low (Figure 7.7–​9, 11). The bottom is convex, marked by an obvious hull (Figure 7.10). This group is similar to examples found in Calabria in the 10th century contexts13. Among the imported transport amphorae, the pit gave a Günsenin 1 amphora (Group 6) (Figure 7.12). The chronology of these transport vessels has been placed between the 10th and 11th centuries14. A large group of whitish-​fabric amphorae (Group 7) are not diagnostic for a thorough identification (Figure 7.13–​17). Finally, there are also at least five different groups of fabrics (Groups 8–​12) that we cannot assign to a specific period or typology.

13 14

Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Città e mercati in transizione nel Mediterraneo altomedievale. Contenitori da trasporto, merci e scambi a Siracusa tra l’età bizantina e islamica”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 158. Günsenin Nergis. “Recherches sur les amphores byzantines dans les musées turcs”, Recherches sur la céramique byzantine, Actes du Colloque (Athènes 8–​10 avril 1987), École Française d’Athènes, Vincent Déroche, Jean-​Michel Spieser, dirs. Paris: de Boccard, 1989: 269–​271, fig. 2–​4.

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Figure 7.  Syracuse. The first half 10th century imported amphorae.

2.5. The Second Half 10th–​First Half 11th Century Amphorae The amphorae identified in the second half 10th–​first half 11th century stratigraphies can be distinguished into two different groups of fabrics, both of regional origin: The first group has generic comparisons with transport containers produced in Palermo and in southern/​western Sicily, but from which they differ for fabric. The first type is a large amphora with band-​rim on cylindrical or truncated cone necks (Figure 8.1–​2), which is compared to amphorae of different regional origin, distributed over the

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chronological span between the late 10th and 11th centuries15. A second type consists of amphorae with a simple tapered rim on a slightly convex neck (Figure 8.3–​4). Some amphorae are characterized by band-​rims of varying heights, marked by one or two folds on wide cylindrical necks (Figure 8.5–​6). The bottoms, slightly carinated, are umbonate with a bulge at the center (Figure 8.8–​9). The second group is certainly a production of Palermo or north-​ western Sicily, and it is represented by a type with an everted rim and broad dark-​red brushstrokes on the surface. This typology is a transport container widespread in the Mediterranean and datable generically between the second half of the 10th and the first half of the 11th century16 (Figure 8.10). A second type is represented by a large wall fragment of a pot-​bellied amphora (Sacco type 6) with broad brown painted decoration (Figure 8.11).

15 Sacco, Viva. “Produzione e circolazione delle anfore palermitane tra la fine del IX e il XII secolo”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 175–​191, similar to type 11; Ardizzone, Fabiola. D’Angelo, Franco. Pezzini, Elena. Sacco, Viva. “Ceramiche di età islamica provenienti da Castello della Pietra (Trapani)”, Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale sulla Ceramica Medievale nel Mediterraneo, (Venezia 23–​27 novembre 2009), Firenze: Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, 2012: 168, fig. 3. 57015, 57019; Gragueb, Soundes. Tréglia, Jean-​Christophe. Capelli, Claudio. Waksman Sylvie Yona. “Jarres et amphores de Ṣabra al-​Mansûriyya (Kairouan, Tunisie)”, La céramique maghrébine du haut moyen âge (VIIIe-​Xe siècle). État des recherches, problèmes et perspectives, Collection de l’École Française de Rome 446. Patrice Cressier, Elizabeth Fentress, dirs. Rome: École Française de Rome, 2011: 207–​211, fig. 8. 20–​22. 1 6 Sacco, Viva. “Produzione e circolazione delle anfore palermitane tra la fine del IX e il XII secolo”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 175–​191.

Byzantine and Islamic Amphorae in Syracuse

Figure 8.  Syracuse. The second half 10th –​first half 11th century regional amphorae.

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3. Syracuse and the Early Medieval Mediterranean Economy and Identity The framework coming from the 8th to 11th century urban contexts set up an important reference point for defining the socioeconomic role of the city in the early Middle Ages and underlining the transformation phases in relation to the Mediterranean economy. The data concerning ceramics and other historical and archaeological evidence on production and trade allow us to obtain a clear picture of the city. In fact, comparing materials with those of numerous new regional and Mediterranean contexts, it is possible to place the evidence of Syracuse in the broader system of exchanges and relations that have involved the Mediterranean regions and cities during the early Middle Age. Ceramics allow us to have a relatively clear picture of some aspects related to the role of ceramic production, its consumption, and the impact of trade in Syracuse during a crucial period in the history of Sicily and Mediterranean. The archaeological evidence shows a general continuity and high volumes of products imported from Africa and eastern Mediterranean until the end of the 7th century. It is not a news that Syracuse was one of the most important markets of Late Roman Empire in the Mediterranean17. Archaeological data show that trade flows changed since the early 8th century. African amphorae and fine tableware are no longer attested and disappear in archaeological record. Nevertheless, the 8th century strata have given a large presence of globular transport amphorae that show comparisons with Constantinople and other Byzantine cities. The first key datum that emerges is the marked heterogeneity of the productions with apparently different fabrics and mineralogical compositions that shows a provenance from different areas, as evidenced from other contemporary sicilian and maltese contexts18 (Rocchicella 17 18

Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Dinamiche insediative, cultura materiale e scambi in Sicilia tra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo. Il caso del sito di Santa Caterina (Melilli, SR)”, Archeologia Medievale, 35 (2008): 444–​446. Bruno, Brunella, Cutajar, Nathaniel. “Imported Amphorae as Indicators of Economic Activity in Early Medieval Malta”, The Insular System of the Early Byzantine Mediterranean. Archaeology and history, BAR IS 2523. Demetrios Michaelidis, Philippe Pergola, Enrico Zanini, dirs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013: 15–​29; Vaccaro, Emanuele. “Sicily in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries AD: A Case of Persisting

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di Mineo, Sophiana, Malta). In the absence of archaeometric analysis, however, it is not possible to establish the regions of origin, although some shapes and fabric seem to indicate some areas of the eastern Mediterranean (Aegean, Crete, and Asia Minor). In the second half of the 8th century, some regional transport containers were developed. Their morphology, however, does not seem to originate from sicilian late roman amphorae (Crypta Balbi 2; Keay 52), although the wine regions of north-​eastern Sicily may have continued production and trade. Imported early medieval transport amphorae are frequently found in the urban area of the city and its territory like most important central and eastern mediterranean urban contexts. These materials underline that Syracuse was a constant destination of Mediterranean trade flows during the 8th century (Figure 9). The spread of early medieval transport containers in Sicily shows that this region played an important role in medium-​and long-​distance trade19 and the Islamic raids carried out along the coasts did not interrupt the flow of goods, but it seems evident that importation of these containers continued supplying the city and surrounding territory20.

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Economic Complexity?”, Al-​Masāq, 25 (2013): 34–​69; Arcifa, Lucia. “Contenitori da trasporto nella Sicilia bizantina (VIII-​X secolo): produzioni e circolazione”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 123–​148. Ardizzone, Fabiola. “Rapporti commerciali tra la Sicilia occidentale e il Tirreno centro-​ meridionale nell’altomedioevo alla luce del rinvenimento di alcuni contenitori da trasporto”, II Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia medievale, (Brescia 28 settembre-​ 1 ottobre 2000), Gian Pietro Brogiolo, dirs. Firenze: Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, 2000: 402–​407; Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “La ceramica a vetrina pesante altomedievale in Sicilia: nuovi dati e prospettive di ricerca”, Archeologia Medievale, 36 (2009): 285–​300; Arcifa, Lucia. “Nuove ipotesi a partire dalla rilettura dei dati archeologici: la Sicilia orientale”, La Sicile de Byzance à l’Islam, Annliese Nef, Vivien Prigent, Paris: De Boccard, 2010: 25–​27; Vaccaro, Emanuele. “Sicily in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries AD: A Case of Persisting Economic Complexity?”, Al-​Masāq, 25 (2013): 57–​58; Molinari, Alessandra. “Le anfore medievali come proxy per la storia degli scambi mediterranei tra VIII e XIII secolo?”, Archeologia Medievale, 2018, 45 (2018): 293–​306; Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Città e mercati in transizione nel Mediterraneo altomedievale. Contenitori da trasporto, merci e scambi a Siracusa tra l’età bizantina e islamica”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 149–​173; Arcifa, Lucia. “Contenitori da trasporto nella Sicilia bizantina (VIII-​X secolo): produzioni e circolazione”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 123–​148. Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Città e mercati in transizione nel Mediterraneo altomedievale. Contenitori da trasporto, merci e scambi a Siracusa tra l’età bizantina e islamica”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 149–​173.

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Figure 9.  Willibald’s Outbound Voyage (721–​724) and the main 8th century contexts with red-​micaceous amphorae.

We should wonder what value to attribute to this evidence. The presence of amphorae, in fact, must be related to the strong urban and regional demand given by a “hypertrophic” demographic structure and by the presence of a widespread military apparatus in the territory. Furthermore we have to consider that the “local” élites were deeply integrated in the state administration and were able of large economic resources21. Therefore, Syracuse represented a “privileged” city, a center of political and administrative power of Byzantine Sicily with a large and demographically important urban structure. This picture, however, is one side of the coin. We have to remember, in fact, that the role of Sicily in the 8th century was a region with a high agrarian potential that allowed on the one hand a tax levy (in kind or in money) not comparable to that of many Byzantine regions and on the other hand a high supply capacity of wheat and other foodstuffs. This role was gradually gained by Sicily following the loss of Egypt in 641 and the change of supply lines toward the West (Africa and Sicily). After the conquest of Carthage in 698, Sicily remained the most important region for the 21 Nef, Annliese, Prigent Vivien. “Per una nuova storia dell’alto medioevo siciliano”, Storica, 35–​36 (2006): 9–​63.

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food supply of the Byzantine cities, territories, and army22. If this were not true, it would not explain the importance for the Byzantine Empire for gaining ever greater control over the region’s agricultural resources with the establishment of a strategos at an early age23. Syracuse was the main port for export of sicilian wheat toward the East and the Adriatic. Between the 7th and 8th centuries, the sources attested “exports” of wheat and other foodstuffs from Sicily to the East and the Adriatic24 (Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Ravenna, etc.) through naukleroi in Syracuse. If we wanted, however, to identify the archaeological evidence of the flow of these foodstuffs from Sicily to the eastern or adriatic regions, we would find very few elements because the grain trade, as is known, does not leave material traces in the archaeological record. There is, however, the numismatic evidence of the Syracuse mint (588/​628–​867), which allows us to understand the exchange networks that involved the Island. It underlines how the Adriatic was one of the regions of greatest impact in the 7th–​9th

22 Haldon, John F. “Production, distribution and demand in the Byzantine world, c. 660–​840”, The Long Eighth Century, Hansen, Inge Lyse. Wickham, Chris, Leiden-​ Boston-​Köln: Brill, 2000: 246–​247; Wickham, Chris. Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–​800. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005: 125–​126, 716, 737, 789; Prigent, Vivien. “Le rôle des provinces d’Occident dans l’approvisionnement de Constantinople (618–​717). Témoignages numismatique et sigillographique”, Mélange de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 118 (2006): 298–​299. 2 3 Haldon, John F. “Production, distribution and demand in the Byzantine world, c. 660–​ 840”, The Long Eighth Century, Lyse Inge Hansen, Chris Wickham, Leiden-​Boston-​ Köln: Brill, 2000: 246–​247; Nef, Annliese, Prigent Vivien. “Per una nuova storia dell’alto medioevo siciliano”, Storica, 35–​36 (2006): 25. 2 4 Teall, John L. “The Grain Supply of the Byzantine Empire, 330–​1025”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 13 (1959): 137; Durliat, Jean. “L’approvisionnement de Constantinople”, Constantinople and its hinterland. Cyril Mango, Gilbert Dagron, Aldershot: Brookfield, 1995: 19–​ 33; Haldon, John. F. “Production, distribution and demand in the Byzantine world, c. 660–​ 840”, The Long Eighth Century, Inge Lyse Hansen, Chris Wickham, Leiden-​Boston-​Köln: Brill, 2000: 245–​247; Cosentino, Salvatore. “L’approvvigionamento annonario di Ravenna dal V all’VIII secolo: l’organizzazione e i riflessi socio-​economici”, Ravenna. Da capitale imperiale a capitale esarcale. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 2005: 405–​434; Prigent, Vivien. “Le rôle des provinces d’Occident dans l’approvisionnement de Costantinople (618–​ 717). Témoignages numismatique et sigillographique”, Mélange de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 118 (2006): 269–​299.

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century sicilian economy with projections toward continental Europe and Balkans. Instead, the presence in the eastern Mediterranean is more limited to centers involved in the route toward Constantinople25 (Monemvasia, Corinth, Athens, Chios, Cherson, and Jerusalem). The evidence of imported amphorae, therefore, identifies two interesting issues. The first indicates that the regional demand coming from Byzantine élites, Army and population was the main drive for imports and distribution of wine, olive oil, other foodstuff, or luxury products from eastern mediterranean. The second shows that the means were the flows of ships of grain that came back from eastern and Adriatic destinations to Syracuse. Although, in fact, the pattern of early medieval mediterranean trade was fragmented on a regional scale and was conducted with small fleets or individual vessels operating on short circuits, there were exceptions such as the public grain supply flows26. In fact, they can have transported products for regional demand along the route back to the port of origin. The trade flows between mediterranean urban markets, therefore, must be read in the context of this economic complementarity. This last stage of trade flows we can see mainly in the archaeological data of Syracuse. The heterogenous fabrics of the 8th century amphorae, not only in Syracuse, must therefore not be read as an index of a short-​or medium-​range trade, but also as a fragmented production of amphorae within medium-​ small non-​specialized workshops27. During the Late Antiquity, the Aegean area, one of the largest amphora production regions in the Mediterranean,

25

Morrisson, Cecile, “La Sicile byzantine: une lueur dans les siècles obscurs”, Quaderni ticinesi di numismatica e antichità classiche, 27 (1998): 307–​334; Morrisson, Cecile. Prigent, Vivien. “La monetazione in Sicilia nell’età bizantina”, Le zecche italiane fino all’Unità. Travaini, Lucia, Roma: Libreria dello Stato, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 2011: 427–​434; Prigent, Vivien. “Monnaie et circulation monétaire en Sicile du début du VIIIe siècle à l’avènement de la domination musulmane”, L’Héritage byzantin en Italie (VIIIe –​XIIe siècle), II: Les cadres juridiques et sociaux et les institutions publiques, Martin Jean-​Marie, Peters-​Custot, Annick. Prigent Vivien. Rome: École Française de Rome, 2012: 455–​482. 26 McCormick, Michael. Origins of the European Economy. Communications and Commerce, AD 300–​900. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001: 545. 2 7 Arthur, Paul. “Form, function and technology in pottery production from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages”, Technology in Transition, A.D. 300–​650. Luke Lavan, Enrico Zanini, Alexander Constantine Sarantis, Leiden-​Boston: Brill, 2007: 174–​175.

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in fact, shows already an evident fragmentation of workshops and a heterogeneous production of amphorae28. The picture seems to undergo a transformation as early as the last quarter or end of the 8th century when the diffusion of some regional amphorae appears. The appearance of their production and diffusion, however, underlines a change that must be read not toward an expansion of the sicilian economy, but rather a progressive loss of centrality. On the one hand, in fact, it coincides with the relocation of the Byzantine political and economic center of gravity toward the Balkans and the Adriatic, and the availability of new supply areas (Balkan area and Anatolia) for Constantinople and other Aegean centers. On the other hand, Venice appears as a new commercial actor in Mediterranean and Carolingian Empire increase its influence on Italy29. Furthermore, Sicily began to suffer a new phase of increased Islamic military pressure and conquest from 827. So, the Byzantine Empire lost a part of western and southern agrarian area of Sicily and the regional export economy diminished strongly. The maritime routes through the Ionian Seas became dangerous due to the Islamic pressure, and the interruption of the passage by the Strait of Messina produced the change of the west-​east routes through Peninsular Italy, the Adriatic, and the Strait of Otranto30.

28

Reynolds, Paul. “Trade Networks of the East, 3rd to 7th Centuries: the View from Beirut (Lebanon) and Butrint (Albania) (Fine Wares, Amphorae and Kitchen Wares)”, LRCW 3, Simonetta Menchelli, Sara Santoro, Marinella Pasquinucci, Gabriella Guiducci, Oxford: Archaeopress, BAR IS 2185, 2010: 97–​98, fig. 5–​6; Poulou-​Papadimitriou, Natalia. Didioumi, S. “Nouvelles données sur la production de l’atelier céramique protobyzantin à Kardamaina (Cos -​Grèce)”, LRCW 3, Simonetta Menchelli, Sara Santoro, Marinella Pasquinucci, Gabriella Guiducci, Oxford: Archaeopress, BAR IS 2185, 2010: 741–​749; Poulou-​Papadimitriou, Natalia. Nodarou, Eleni. 2014, “Transport vessels and maritime trade routes in the Aegean from the 5th to the 9th C. AD. Preliminary results of the founded “Pythagoras II” Project: the cretan case study”, LRCW 4, BAR IS 2185, Natalia Poulou-​Papadimitriou, Eleni Nodarou, V Kilikoglou, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014: 873–​883. 29 Nef, Annliese, Prigent Vivien. “Per una nuova storia dell’alto medioevo siciliano”, Storica, 35–​36 (2006): 9–​63; Prigent, Vivien. “Notes sur l’évolution de l’administration byzantine en Adriatique (VIIIe-​IXe siècle)”, Mélange de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 120 (2008): 393–​417. 3 0 McCormick, Michael. Origins of the European Economy. Communications and Commerce, AD 300–​900. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001: 129–​150, 795.

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The combination of these factors caused a progressive decline in the economic growth and the beginning of a further regionalization of Sicilian trade. In fact, the distribution area of the 9th century sicilian amphorae is currently rather limited31 (Malta, Calabria, maybe Otranto, and Torcello) (Figure 10). The lower demand of eastern products seems to be confirmed by the general demographic decline, caused by the Islamic-​Byzantine warfare, and by the transfer of investments toward the adriatic and eastern regions32. Nevertheless, the eastern ovoid amphorae do not disappear from Syracuse, which maintains a certain degree of dynamism, thanks probably to military investments aimed at contrasting Islamic expansion and maintaining its strategic position in the southern sector of the central Mediterranean.

Figure 10.  The 9th century regional amphorae and their distribution in central Mediterranean.

31

Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “Città e mercati in transizione nel Mediterraneo altomedievale. Contenitori da trasporto, merci e scambi a Siracusa tra l’età bizantina e islamica”, Archeologia Medievale, 45 (2018): 149–​173. 32 Nef, Annliese, Prigent Vivien. “Per una nuova storia dell’alto medioevo siciliano”, Storica, 35–​36 (2006): 40–​42.

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A clear transformation took place in the city after the Arab conquest of the city in 878. The amphorae describe a particularly complex and difficult-​ to-​read archaeological assemblage. The first half of the 10th century shows a variety of amphorae types. Local and regional productions are limited to two fabric groups of heterogeneous shapes: one coming from Palermo, and the other probably produced in southern and/​or south-​eastern Sicily. The other groups (Groups 3–​11) are certainly imports from southern Italy and Byzantine regions. The most known types are the Otranto 1 (Southern Apulia) and Günsenin 1 (Marmara Sea) type amphorae. These productions underline that we are faced with a picture of a strong dynamism of trade with the Byzantine areas. They, together with other clearly non-​ regional types, indicate that Syracuse represented an important market and a transit area for the marketing of these products in the West. Rather, the discovery of Otranto 1 and Günsenin I type amphorae in Syracuse now finds parallels in the contexts of Palermo, Taormina, the Sicily Channel, Corsica, Liguria, and southern France. These Byzantine transport containers thus reached the north-​western Mediterranean through the Straits of Messina or areas under Islamic control, perhaps through the mediation of Italian merchants. The presence of these Byzantine amphorae in early Islamic contexts is not an innovation in our knowledge and perception of Islamic Sicily. In fact, archaeology has already demonstrated the existence of relations between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds in the first half of 10th century, as pointed out in the case of the heavy campanian lead-​glazed ware (so-​ called vetrina pesante) found in Sicily and Islamic tableware and amphorae found in Campania and Apulia33. The picture seems to change again after the middle of the 10th century toward a complete Islamization of the material culture and the disappearance of all Byzantine transport containers, according to the findings in regional contexts (Palermo, Agrigento, Mazara, etc.). Imported 33

Arthur, Paul. “Islam and the Terra d’Otranto: some archaeological evidence”, Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting, II (Ravenna 1997), Mark Pearce, Maurizio Tosi, dirs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1998: 167–​172; Peduto, Paolo. “La ceramica invetriata dalla villa Rufolo di Ravello”, La ceramica altomedievale in Italia, Atti del V Congresso di Archeologia Medievale (Roma 26–​27 novembre 2001), Stella Patitucci Uggeri, dirs. Firenze: Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, 2000: 79–​90; Cacciaguerra, Giuseppe. “La ceramica a vetrina pesante altomedievale in Sicilia: nuovi dati e prospettive di ricerca”, Archeologia Medievale, 36 (2009): 295–​296.

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transport amphorae are not present in the urban stratigraphies, and it seems that their circulation was completely replaced by regional or local transport containers in conjunction with the peak of the Sicilian agrarian economy34. On the other hand, as has already been mentioned, the sources are particularly stingy with data. The shift of the political and economic center of gravity toward western Sicily, and the integration into a “southern” economic area with Ifriquia and Egypt as the main poles, had a strong impact on the city, which was deprived of those elements of “privilege” that had been its driving force in the Byzantine period. From the second half of the 10th century, therefore, Syracuse is downgraded to a city of regional importance even though it was still capable of playing a role along the Mediterranean trade routes.

34 Molinari, Alessandra. “Paesaggi rurali e formazioni sociali nella Sicilia islamica, normanna e sveva (secoli X-​XIII)”, Archeologia Medievale, 37 (2010): 229–​245; Molinari, Alessandra. “La ceramica siciliana di X e XI secolo tra circolazione internazionale e mercato interno”, Pensare/​ classificare. Studi e ricerche sulla ceramica medievale per Graziella Berti, Sauro Gelichi, Monica Baldassarri, dirs. Firenze: Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, 2010: 159–​171; Ardizzone, Fabiola. Pezzini, Elena. Sacco, Viva. “The Role of Palermo in the Central Mediterranean: The Evolution of the Harbour and the Circulation of Ceramics (10th-​11th centuries)”, Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 2.2 (2015): 236–​241.

Marco Demichelis

The “Islamic Narrative Path” for Political, Religious, and Bellicose Legitimacy: The Role Played by Christian Historical Figures in Late Antiquity

1. Introduction. The Negus and Muhammad: A Peaceful Legitimacy This chapter analyzes the relationship between the Prophet Muḥammad’s “search” for political-​religious legitimacy during his life and shortly after his death. According to it, if Islamic historical narratives have since the middle of the 8th century tried to depict this religion as in existence since the Prophetic phase, more contemporary works1 have highlighted as until the end of the 7th beginning of the 8th, it is hard to frame Islām as a new religion2. 1

2

Hoyland, Robert. In God’s Path.The Arab Conquests and the creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015: 8–​30; Donner, Fred. Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam. Trans. Maometto e le origini dell’Islam. Torino: Einaudi, 2011; Sizgorich, Th. Violence and Beliefs in Late Antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009; Khalek, Nancy. Damascus after the Muslim Conquest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011; Kaegi, Walter E. Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992; Hoyland, Robert. “New Documentary Texts and the Early Islamic State”, BSOAS 69/​3 (2006): 395–​416; Johns, Jeremy. “Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: the first seventy years”, Jesho 46/​4 (2003): 411–​436. Hoyland, Robert. “Reflections on the identity of the Arabian Conquerors”, Al-​’Uṣūr al-​ Wusṭā 25 (2017): 113–​140; Awad, George N. Umayyad Christianity. John of Damascus as a contextual example of identity formation in Early Islam. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2018; Donner, Fred. “From Believers to Muslims: confessional Self-​Identity in the early Islamic Community”, Al-​Abhath, American University of Beirut, Vol. 50–​51 (2002–​2003): 9–​53.

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The previous persecution of the early believers by the Quraysh, as reported in the Sīra an-​Nabawiyya (the Prophet’s biography)3, allowed a small Hijra by part of the community under the protection of the Christian Emperor of Axum. The Meccans were probably terrified that those believers had been sent there to find protection, but also to try to convince the Emperor to invade Ḥijāz, as the Negus Ella Asbeha (d. 540) had already done in Yemen, at the beginning of the 6th century. This purpose that does not clearly emerge from the biography of the Prophet emphasized the geographical connection between Ḥijāz and the inclusive milieu of the late antique world as R. Hoyland, Th. Sizgorich, and F. Donner4 highlighted, which from the southern part of the Peninsula, via Adulis, the most important Red Sea harbor of the Abyssinians, reached Egypt on one side and the Palestinia Tertia, to Gaza, Caesarea Maritime, and the most important cities of the north of Syria and Jazīra, on the other side. The above option seems to be confirmed by the fact that the Quraysh were sent to the Negus ‘Abdullah ibn Abū Rabī’a, but above all ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ, the future “Believer” commander and conqueror of Palestine and Egypt, son of one of the main Meccan opponents to the Prophet, in trying to convince him to send the “emigrants” back to Mecca. Another akhbār (information), not directly included in the Sīra, but reported by early Islamic historians such as Ibn ‘Abd al-​Ḥakam (d. 871), argues that when ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ told the Negus that the “emigrants” considered Jesus, the son of Mary, as reported in the Qur’ān (4:171): “We say about him that which our Prophet brought, saying he is the servant of God and His apostle and His spirit and His word which he cast into Mary 3

4

Guillame, Alfred. The Life of the Prophet Muhammad. A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955: 143 ff.; Al-​ Tabari. The History of al-​Tabari. New York: Suny Press, Vol. 6, 1988: 98 ff.; Watt, Montgomery. Muhammad: Prophet and Statsman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961: 66; Watt, Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953: 110–​111; Rubin, Uri. “Muhammad’s message at Mecca: warnings, signs and miracles”, The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad, Jonathan E. Brockopp Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010: 39–​60; Cole, Juan. Muhammad. Prophet of peace amid the clash of empires. New York: Nation Books, 2018: 33 ff. Hoyland, Robert. In God’s Path: 8–​30; Donner, Fred. Muhammad and the Believers: 4–​ 40; Sizgorich, Thomas. “Narrative and Community in the Islamic Late Antiquity”, Past & Present, 185 (2004): 9–​42; Sizgorich, Thomas. “Sanctified violence: monotheist militancy as the tie that bound Christian Rome and Islam”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 77/​4 (2009): 895–​921.

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the blessed virgin”, the Abyssinian Emperor replied: “By God, Jesus, Son of Mary, does not exceed what you have said by the length of this stick”, provoking a fracture in the Christian African community and an uprising against him, but “the Negus won his battle with God’s help and Zubayr came back with the good tidings”5. ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ in this case assumed a clearly malevolent attitude, as in the Classical Sīra, in trying to convince the Negus to adopt an anti-​Islamic attitude; however, to admit that in 614, the Islamic narrative on Jesus, son of Mary, was already clear and well known is part of the narrative itself, even because, the referring verses of 4:171, that ‘Amr seems to have reported to the Negus are medinese ones, while the first little Hijra to Abyssinia was performed in the Meccan phase (ca. 614), in relation to the same Islamic sources. It is therefore evident that ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ, who became a “believer” only shortly before the conquest of Mecca (in 630), was a refined politician sent to Axum to test the real political-​military intention of the Negus. Another akhbār, reported by Ibn ‘Abd al-​Ḥakam6, argues: “After the battle of the Ditch, ‘Amr proposed to some Qurayshites that they should go to the Negus, because Muḥammad continued to grow in strength, and life would be better under the Negus than under him. […] It occurred to ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ that it would be advantageous for the Quraysh to have him killed. So, he asked the Negus to do this, after having offered him his presents. But the Negus became angry and said, “You demand the extradition of the messenger of a man who is visited by the Great Namus who used to come to Moses? […] You would do better to obey him and to follow him, for he and his followers will no doubt get the better of their adversaries, just as Moses overcame Pharaoh and his army”. The following “story”, written by an Egyptian historian, was also reported by al-​Ṭabarī afterward; moreover, this narrative is particularly interesting as it focuses on different interpretative readings that are helpful in trying to clarify the complexity and plurality of a proto-​Islamic

5 6

Ibn Ishaq. Sira an-​Nabawiyya, Hamidullah M. Ed. Rabat: Maktaba al-​ ‘Ulum ad-​Diniyya, 1976, fol. N. 282–​284; Guillame, Alfred. The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: 150–​155. Ibn ‘Abd al-​Hakam. Futuh Misr. C.C. Torrey Ed. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 1922: 252–​253; Al-​Tabari. The History of al-​Tabari, Vol. 8: 143–​145.

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geography that even if the following “Islamic narratives” described as rapidly Islamicized, the same sources present in a different way: 1. The complexity of the early “community” between those who followed the Prophet from the beginning, those who emigrated to get an external protection, from those who opposed him, “converting” afterward, emerged in all its intricacy . There will be a historical narrative that tried to make these early emigrants to Ethiopia determined to return to Arabia, converting to the new religion7; another one emphasizes those opponents and unbelievers as more “believers” than reality, as Ibn ‘Abd al-​Ḥakam’s story on ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ (and the main source for al-​Ṭabarī), which highlights the difficulties in shaping a coherent history of early Islām capable of being convincing for the following generations8. ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ became a Muslim for reasons of advantage shortly before Muḥammad’s conquest of Mecca. His clan the Banū Sahm had opposed the Prophet vehemently, and he took sides with Mu‘āwiya against ‘Alī during the first Fitna (656–​660). 2. The increasing importance of the former unbelievers in the conquering campaigns after the Prophet’s death (632), and in leading and ruling them, became one of the most important aspects of attrition in the early community. Khālid ibn al-​Walīd, who opposed the Prophet probably until 628–​629, became the most important general of the early conquests (then being nicknamed sayf Allah al-​Maslūl), but he was dismissed by ‘Umār ibn al-​Khaṭṭāb for envy and strategic reasons9. The second rightly guided caliph was unable to repeat the above attempt with ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ who, in practice, conquered Egypt without his permission, intelligently and strategically arguing that the conquest of Palestine and Syria could have not been maintained against Byzantium, if the Arabs

7 Ibid. 8 Donner, Fred. Narratives of Islamic Origins. The Beginning of Islamic Historical Writing. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1998: 112–​ 122; Brockopp, Jonathan. Muhammad’s Heirs: 18–​23; Humphreys, Stephen R. Islamic History: a framework for inquiry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991: 187–​207; Khalidi, Tarif. Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994: 28 ff. 9 Athamina, Khalid. “The Appointment and Dismissal of Khalid ibn al-​Walid from the Supreme Command. A study of the Political Strategy of the Early Muslim Caliphs in Syria”, Arabica, 41 (1994): 253–​272.

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had not been successful in conquering Egypt as well. The historical relationships and alliances between ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ and the Banū Umayya started before the Prophet’s death and continued during the following phase10. The Negus of Abyssinia is the first ruler of a closed land, which is brought in the “story” as a clear proto-​Islamic supporter by early Islamic sources: different akhbār stressed the Negus’ wish to join Muḥammad to serve him, which sounds vaguely biblical11. The Abyssinians accused the Negus of apostasy and revolted against him. Ja’far and his companions were advised to be prepared for a hasty departure. The Negus took paper and wrote, ‘He testifies that there is no god but God and that Muḥammad is His servant and apostle; and he testifies that Jesus, son of Mary, is His servant (‘abdubu) and His apostle, His spirit and His word which he cast into Mary’. He put it inside his gown near the right shoulder and set out for a confrontation with the rebels. A discussion followed; the rebels recognized his claim to the throne and were satisfied with his conduct, but could not bear his assertion that Jesus was a human being (‘abd). They themselves considered him the son of God. News of this reached the Prophet, and when the Negus died, he performed the salat for him and prayed that his sins might be forgiven12.

If it is evident indeed that Muḥammad is searching a legitimacy, it is also clear that this legitimacy needs to come from the Christian world, not the Persian, not the Jewish one, even if, considering the latter, the Prophet had tried in being well considered by the local Jewish clans of Medina too, after the hijra13. 10 Donner, Fred. “Umar ibn al-​Khattab, ‘Amr ibn al-​‘As and the Muslim Invasion of Egypt”, Community, State, History and Changes: Festschrift for Prof. Ridwan al-​ Sayyid, A. R. Salimi, Brannon Wheeler, et al. Eds. Beirut: Arab Network for Research Publishing, 2011: 67–​84. 1 1 Raven, Wim. “Some Early Islamic Text on the Negus of Abyssinia”, JSS 33/​ 2 (1988): 203; El-​Cheick, Nadia Maria. “Muhammad and Heraclius: A Study in Legitimacy”, Studia Islamica 89 (1999): 6–​8. 1 2 Guillame, Alfred. The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: 484, 657–​658; Raven, Wim. “Some Early Islamic Text on the Negus of Abyssinia”: 202–​203. 1 3 Newby, Gordon D. “The Jews of Arabia at the Birth of Islam”, A History of Jew-​Muslim relations, Gordon D. Newby, Ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014: 39–​ 56; Lecker, Michael. “Glimpses of Muhammad’s Medinan decade”, The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad, Brockopp J., Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010: 61–​79; Lecker, Michael. “Muhammad at Medina: a Geographical Approach”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 6 (1985): 29–​62.

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Nevertheless, the Islamic narratives on the relations between early believers and the Negus are not performed through a bellicose attitude; contrarily, the war is avoided, even if the Abyssinians clearly did not fully support what their Negus argued about Jesus. In other words, it is important to underline that the “Believers” military antagonism is univocally attributed toward the Meccan polytheists, between whom anyway, there will emerge future “Believers”.

2. The Battle of Mu’tah (ca 629): Creation or Reality? The first military confrontation, following Islamic sources, between the northern Christian Arabs and an expedition of Medinan “believers” probably occurred in September 629, close to the village of Mu’tah, twelve kilometers south of al-​Karak (today in Jordan). This battle seems historically and geographically decontextualized from the common narrative related to the previous and following events, until now the “Believers” expedition had never reached such a distant location from the Ḥijāz. The reasons for this expedition remain uncertain in the sources; L. Caetani had tried to make hypothesis in relation to the killing of al-​Ḥārith ibn ‘Umayr al-​Azdi, a quite unknown figure, a diplomat sent by the prophet Muḥammad to the prince of Buṣtrā (in the region historically controlled by the Ghassānides), but contrariwise arrested, incarcerated, and beheaded. The main historical source seems to be al-​Waqīdi (d. 823), but as explained by the Italian Orientalist, it is hard to believe this source on this aspect: it is hard to find the name of a Ghassānid referring figure in this historical phase at the end of the last Roman-​Persian war (628 CE)14. At the same time, the murdering of a diplomatic figure, even in this historical phase, was a so ignominious crime usually reported by sources, contrariwise, even

14

Al-​Waqīdī, Muhammed in Medina: das ist Vakidi’s Kitab al-​Maghazi, in verkurster Deutscher Wiedergabe, Ed. J. Wellhausen, Berlin: G. Reimer, 1882: 309; Caetani, Leone, Annaels, Milano: Hoepli, Ed. Vol. 2 t.1, 1907: 81; Nӧldeke, Theodhore. Die Ghassanishen. Fursten aus dem Hause Gafna’s. Berlin: Abhandlungen der kӧniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1887: 33, 45.

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Ibn Ishāq, the Prophet’s biographer does not report any kind of information about the reasons behind Mu’tah’s expedition. An ulterior tentative to explain a possible reason, suggested again by L. Caetani, refers to the possibility that the Prophet before the attack to Mecca wanted to buy a certain number of swords, mashrafiyyah, historically fabricated in the region of Quḍā‘ah (close to Mu’tah), but even in this case, it is hard to demonstrate: 3000 men to carry on swords for, at least, a peaceful entrance in the prophet’s hometown? Moreover, the information about the three front-​ runners that Muḥammad decided to send to the north can help us try to better decipher the possible purpose: Zayd ibn Ḥāritha, Ja‘far ibn Abī Ṭālib, and the poet ‘Abd Allāh ibn Rawāḥā15 were the leading figures of the mission and all of them were killed during the battle; however, there was also Khalīd ibn al-​Walīd, who was not made the main military authority, probably for a couple of reasons: his very recent acceptance of Muḥammad’s preaching and probably the fact that this was not a real military operation. Another incongruity of the defeat of Mu’tah as suggested by F. Donner is the noninvolvement of ‘Amr ibn al-​‘Āṣ, whose mother was a Bālī, a Christian clan of the Mu’tah’s region: even in this case, ‘Amr’s recent conversion could suggests his not direct participation, but again, if al-​Waqīdī’s theory of retaliation would be correct, the knowledge of the geography in which the expedition should have been planned, needed a more prudent strategy16. Zayd ibn Ḥāritha, the first-​in-​command, was a member of the ‘Udhra branch of the Banū Kalb, a historically Christianized clan from northern Arabia and the Najd area. However, before being a “General” in the fight against Mecca, Zayd is historically recognized as an eminent strategist, close to Muḥammad and completely trustworthy17. At the same time,

15 Buhl, F. “Mu’tah”. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden: Brill, 1993, VII, pp. 756–​7; Al-​ Ṭabarī. The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 8: 152–​60; Muḥammad b. ‘Abdullah al-​Azdī al-​Basrī. Ta’rīkh futūḥ al-​Shām, Ed. ‘Abd al-​Mun’im ‘Abdullāh ‘Amīr, Cairo: Mu’assasat Sijill al-​‘Arab, 1970: 29; Ibn Sa’d. Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-​kabīr, Ed. Sachau, Vols. 8. Leiden: Brill, 1904–​1921, Vol. 3/​1, p. 32; Guillaume, A. The Life of Muhammad: 531–​40; The Life of Muhammad. Al-​Wāqidī’s Kitāb al-​Maghāzī, Ed. Rizvi Faizer, London: Routledge, 2013: 372–​8; Caetani, L. Annales, Vol. 2, t.1, 80–​9; Donner, F., The Early Islamic Conquests: 101–​10; Kaegi, W. Byzantium and the Early Islamic conquests: 67 ff. 1 6 Donner, F. The Early Islamic conquests: 104. 1 7 Al-​ Ṭabarī. The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 39, pp. 6–​9.

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and unlike Ja‘far ibn Abī Ṭālib, Zayd was not a Banū Hāshim, the clan of the Prophet. This aspect highlights how Muḥammad wanted to put a member of his clan, a cousin and older brother of ‘Alī ibn Abū Ṭālib, as second-​in-​command. Ja’far was also an emigrant to Abyssinia where he lived with his wife for twelve years. Finally, the poet ‘Abd Allāh ibn Rawāḥā ibn Tha‘alabah was an eminent member of the Banū Khazraj about whom we have little information; however, it is quite evident that all three figures emerged as having particularly connections with northern Arab clans and confederations: Zayd ibn Ḥāritha as a Kalbite, Ja’far ibn Abī Ṭālib, who lived under Christian Axumite protection for a long period of time, was probably one of the best experts on the Christian milieu on the other side of the Red Sea, but also of northern Arab confederations. Finally, as reported by M. Lecker18, the Banū Tha‘alabah, even though were majorly Jewish, it was a clan part of the Ghassānid confederation. Therefore, unlike the usual Islamic narrative, the expedition’s possible goal was not a military but a diplomatic one, starting to enlarge the coalition of clans in support of Muḥammad’s cause, still against the Meccans whose city had not yet been re-​conquered. The status and the expertise of the three commanders-​in-​chief, in particular on clan affiliation and their skills and knowledge, suggest that the Prophet’s real intention was logically linked with finding an agreement that could bring huge political and religious support before moving against his hometown. However, the size of the expedition, and, on the contrary, the need to defend themselves in case of attack in a geographical area 360 kilometres north of Tabūk and 550 kilometres north-​west of Dūmāt ibn Jandal stressed the possibility that a mission with peaceful intentions could have reached a different outcome. This possibility is clearly difficult to establish. Nevertheless, on the Byzantine side, the first historian that reports on this battle is Theophanes the Confessor (d. 817), which placed it in the first year of Abū Bakr’s leadership, after Muḥammad’s death: Mouamed, who had died earlier, had appointed four emirs to fight those members of the Arab nation who were Christian, and they came in front of a village called Mouchea, in which was stationed the vicarius Theodore, intending to fall upon the Arabs on the 18 Lecker, M. “Were the Ghassānids and the Byzantines behind Muḥammad’s Hijra”, in Les Jafnides. Des Rois Arabes au service de Byzance, Genequand D., Christian J. Robin, Paris: Ed. de e Boccard, 2015: 277–​294.

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day when they sacrificed to their idols. The vicarius, on learning this from a certain Koraishite called Koutabas, who was in his pay, gathered all the soldiers of the desert guard and, after ascertaining from the Saracen the day and hour when they were intending to attack, himself attacked them at a village called Mothous, and killed three emirs and the bulk of their army. One emir, called Chaled, whom they call God’s Sword, escaped. Now some of the neighboring Arabs were receiving small payments from the emperors for guarding the approaches to the desert. At that time a certain eunuch arrived to distribute the wages of the soldiers, and when the Arabs came to receive their wages according to custom, the eunuch drove them away, saying, “The emperor can barely pay his soldiers their wages, much less these dogs!”. Distressed by this, the Arabs went over to their fellow-​tribesmen, and it was they that led them to the rich country of Gaza, which is the gateway to the desert in the direction of Mount Sinai19.

This quotation is interesting, on one side highlights the osmotic passage of information between the Arab-​Byzantine world and the Ḥijāz, even if it is hard to identify the Qurayshite called Koutabas, and on the other side, it is easy to interpret the evidence, reported also by Islamic sources, that the only chief of the “Believers” army able to escape from the defeat was Khalīd ibn al-​Walīd. In parallel, it is also confirmed that the Vicarius’ army was majorly constituted by other Saracens, while it is majorly interesting to interpret that: “[…] intending to fall upon the Arabs on the day when they sacrificed to their idols”, to whom it referred to? To the Arabs who supported the Byzantines or to the “Believers” who were not at least all believers yet? The translation of Mango and Scott seems to suggest the latter while H. Turtledove’s one the former20. The difference is quite relevant because considering the first case, it would suggest that among Muḥammad’s followers there were still Arab polytheists; contrariwise, it suggests the same among the Arab-​Christians, supporter of Byzantium. However, it is also important to underline as Mango and Scott translation is usually considered the most meticulous in comparison. Finally, Theophanes the Confessor confirms a common adagio, already reported by Procopian and post-​Procopian byzantine sources, concerning the sense of superiority that local roman authorities had in relation to their Arab foederati and which

19

Theophanes, the Confessor. The Chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor. C. Mango, R. Scott Trans. and Ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997: 466. 20 Theophanes, the Confessor. The Chronicle of Theophanes. H. Turtledlove Trans., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982: 36.

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needs to be considered one of the main reasons in relation to the following military defeats that impact on Constantinople in the next decade21. Another important aspect that emerged is that without the military support of major confederation of the Northern Arab Peninsula, Najd and Ḥijāz, the possibility of the “Believers” in conquering the Middle East was quite limited. It is finally clear that without the battle of Mu’tah, independently from the fact that was real or invented, there had never been the bellicose “legitimacy” from the “Believers” to start the incursion in the North of the Arabian Peninsula. Theophanes the Confessor and Nikephoros I, patriarch of Constantinople (d. 828)22, are the early Byzantine source that reports this event, and we are not aware if the same has been collected from another previous Byzantine historian or from an already Muslim one.

3. The Importance of Ṭabūk, Dūmat al-​Jandal, and the Ridda in the Framing of a Bellicose Legitimacy The expedition to Ṭabūk assumed a different perspective after Ḥunayn (630), even though, as highlighted by the Qur’ān itself (9: 41–​42, 92), the Prophet’s co-​religionaries were not unanimous in obeying Muḥammad’s orders23. In this case again, the Islamic sources are not very clear about the concrete “believers” intentions, and the attribution to the Emperor Heraclius the aim of organizing a campaign against Medina it resembles more a rumor than something tangible24.

21 Evagrius. The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius. J. M. Bidez, L. Parmentier Ed. London: Methuen & Co, 1898: 5.20; John of Ephesus. Iohannis Ephesini Historiae Ecclesiasticae pars tertia, E. W. Brooks, Ed. and Trans. 2. Vols. Louvain: Peeters, 1935–​1936: 3.6. 16–​17; 3.3. 41–​43, 54–​56; John Malalas. Chronographia. E. Jeffreys, R. Jeffreys and R. Scott. Melbourbe: Australian Association of Byzantine Studies, 1986: 466; John Wood. The Chronicle of Seert. Critical Historical Imagintion in Late Antiquity Iraq, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: 134, 178, 200. 2 2 Nikephoros. Breviarium. C. Mango, Ed. and Trans. Washington, DC, 1990: 65–​67. 2 3 Ouardi, Hela. Les dernieres jours the Muhammad. Paris: Albin Michel, 2017: 23 ff. 2 4 In Holyland R. Seeing Islam as Others Saw it, there is no trace of a Chronicle which reports any Byzantine intention to conquer Medina or to organize a military expedition to the south.

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In relation to Ṭabūk and Dūmat al-​Jandal, the sources are majorly Islamic with few referring notes in the Byzantines ones. Accordingly, it is hard to find a confirmation within a different milieu that from the Qur’an and the Sīra an-​Nabawiyya. The great difference between Mu’tah and Ṭabūk was the outcome: Muḥammad reached an agreement with the Arab clans of the region, probably the Banū Qudhā‘a, ‘Udhra, Sa‘d Hudhaym sending Khālid ibn al-​Walīd to Dūmat al-​Jandal to seek an agreement with Ukaydir ibn ‘Abd al-​Malik al-​Kindī, the presumable leading Arab authority of this oasis25. The Islamic narratives emphasize as after the defeat of Mu’tah, Muḥammad would like to military confront with the Byzantines assuming the “defensive” position that Heraclius would have attacked them directly in the Ḥijāz: another way in building the bellicose “legitimacy” for the conquering incursions few years later. However, the rumor (probably reported by merchants) of the presence of the Byzantine Emperor in Ḥims (today Ḥoms, in Syria), 800 kms far away from Ṭabūk and even more from Medina, is again reported by al-​Waqīdī26, as the lack of opposition in the community to this Prophet’s idea. Contrariwise, Ibn Ishāq in the biography underlines that the resistance was stronger than usual, and the Qur’an itself in different passages seemed to refer to Ṭabūk in 9: 49, 81–​8227. L. Caetani reports the list of the defection among the weepers (Bakkā‘ūn), Anṣār and Muhājirūn, that did not follow the prophet’s expedition, including that of the companion ‘Umayr ibn Wahb

25 Al-​ Ṭabarī. The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 9: 47–​81; however, Ṭabarī, unlike other sources, did not spend many words about the expedition to Dūmat al-​Jandal: 58–​9, contrary to: Al-​Balādhuri. Kitāb Futūḥ al-​Buldān. New York: Columbia University Press, 1916: 95–​7; Al-​Waqīdī. The Life of Muḥammad. Al-​Wāqidī’s Kitāb al-​ Maghāzī: 502–​27; Guillaume A. The Life of Muhammad: 607–​9; Ibn Sa’d. Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-​kabīr, Ed. Sachau. Leiden: Brill, 1904–​1921, Vol. 1:396–​7, 412; Ibn ‘Asākir. Ta’rīkh madīnat Dismashq, Ed. M. ‘Amrāwī, 80 Vols. Beirut: Dār al-​Fikr, 1995, 2: 4–​5, 31, 41. 2 6 Al-​Waqīdī. Muhammed in Medina: 391. 2 7 Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: 602 ff.; Al-​Ṭabarī. The History of al-​ Ṭabarī, Vol. 9: 47 ff.; Al-​Balādhurī. Ansāb al-​Ashrāf. M. Ḥamīdullah, Ed. Cairo: Dār al-​Mā‘ārif, 1959: I, 368.

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al-​Jumāḥi, who regretting the early decision, established to follow the group few days after their departure28. In the trip to Ṭabūk, Muḥammad passed through some locations as al-​ Ḥijr, the place where the Banū Thamūd, who did not recognize the prophet Ṣalīḥ refused to embrace the faith: a clear pre-​Islamic narrative, reported also in the Qur’an (7: 71–​77, 11: 64–​71; 26: 141–​158). It is narrated that the Prophet during the nightly passage in al-​Ḥijr had tried to fortify the “Believers” faith in the wrath of God arousing God’s fear in his soldiers29. After having reached Ṭabūk, the Prophet realized the complete absence of the Byzantines and after twenty days of permanence decided to return back home. However, al-​Waqīdī argues that Yuḥannah ibn Ru’bah (a Christian local Arab chief), the main authority of Aylah encountered Muḥammad and made a treaty with him, sending afterward Khalīd ibn al-​Walīd to Dūmat al-​Jandal, more than 400 km east, to make another agreement with the Arab Christians Kalbites of this oasis30. Baladhūrī (d. 892) in the Futūh described the submission of Dūmat al-​Jandal through the capture of prisoners, the killing of Ukaydir ibn ‘Abd al-​Malik’s brother, Ḥassān, the same information are reported in the Sīra an-​Nabawiyya and in al-​Ṭabarī31; however, L. Caetani in his specific analysis on Dūmat al-​Jandal argues the difficulties in considering all the different akhbār that emerged in the Islamic sources about this event, even because the sources argued about 3 expeditions made or ordered by the Prophet toward the northern oasis during the Medinan phase: The first (around the 627) evidently had a negative outcome; the Muslims, it is easy to see from the text of the traditions, did not even arrive in the vicinity of Dūmat, and it is probable that the great distance, and the much greater number of hostile tribes, living between Dūmat and Madina […]. In the second expedition (around the 628) Muhammad obtained a precarious subjugation of the Kalbite tribes; but of some ambiguous expressions of al-​Waqidi (Waqidi, Muhammed in Medina: 237 lines 5) we understand that the Muslim expedition was not about to take the city, but stopped outside it, contenting itself with a declaration of Asbagh al-​Kalbī, a prince of the nomads, that he accepted Islam. A good part of the population, however, remained

2 8 2 9 3 0

31

Caetani, Leone. Annales, Vol. 2 t. 1: 243–​244. Ibid. 249–​250. Al-​Waqīdī, Kitāb al-​Maghāzī, I, 403; Al-​Ṭabarī, The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 9: 58–​ 59; Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: 607–​608. Al-​Balādhuri, Kitāb Futūḥ al-​Buldān: 95–​ 96; Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: 607–​608; Al-​Ṭabarī, The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 9: 58–​59.

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not only Christian and pagan, but also independent of Mohammed, so that he had to undertake the third expedition in the 9. A. H. to obtain the true submission of all the inhabitants. In this circumstance, it seems that the Muslims entered the city of Dūmat itself, and came into contact with the foreign inhabitants, not aboriginal Arabs, but immigrants from Ḥīrah, that is with the ‘Ibād, the luxury and riches with which they filled with wonder by the rude warriors of Medina. It is now probable that on this occasion the Muslim general brought with him to Medina one of these Arabized Arameans of Dūmat who, with lavish richness in dress, astonished the Muslims, and gave birth to the rumor that he was the prince of Dūmat, while perhaps he was only a rich merchant. It was then easy for the traditionalists to coined a name for this man, Ukaydir, taking inspiration from the ancient verses, of which we have mentioned and modifying it in the likeness of the indigenous name of Uqaysir. This supposition seems to me to be confirmed also in another fact: the traditionalists say that Ukaydir was a Kindite; now among the tribes of the south of Arabia, and precisely among the Kindahs (to whom Ukaydir is said to belong), the custom of dressing in great luxury reigned, and it could be that the idea of placing a Kindite as lord of Dūmat such a coincidence. In fact, it is known that the ambassadors of the Kindah, presenting themselves to Muḥammad, wore brocade robes, with gold straws, and sported such an exaggerated luxury in dress that they incurred the outspoken disapproval of the Prophet32.

This long quotation clarifies the complexity of the early Islamic sources about historical evidence. In a place politically and religiously dominated by the Kalb, the presence of a Kindite (traditionally converted to Judaism in the 5th century33) whose name Ukaydir-​Uqaysir is similar to that of previous eponymous, looks like as loaned from a different story. As suggested by Caetani, Dūmat al-​Jandal’s real rulers were the Kalbite, who after Khalīd ibn al-​Walīd’s expedition, started to get involved with the Medinese. Caetani argues about a visit of different Kalbite to the Prophet in Medina to confirm the pact of alliance: many names are considered, and none of them anyway has concretely remained in the Chronicles, if not that of Ḥārithah ibn Qatan al-​Kalbī who seems, he will fight on the side of Mū‘āwiyah Abū Sufyān at Ṣiffīn, during the first Fitna34. The alliance between the Umayyad and the Kalbite, on the contrary, is historically confirmed by sources35. If al-​Ṭabarī argues that part of the Kalbite of Dūmat al-​Jandal remained in alliance with the Medinese after the Prophet’s death (632), Wadī‘ah

3 2 3 3 3 4 3 5

Caetani, Leone. Annales, Vol. 2 t. 1: 46–​47. Mullerus, Karl W. L. Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum. Paris: Ambrose Firmin Didot, 1851, Vol. 4: 178–​180. Caetani Leone. Annales, Vol. 2 t. 1: 48. Khalek Nancy. Damascus after the Muslim Conquest: 39 ff.

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al-​Kalbī “apostatized” while Imru’ al-​Qays remained in coalition with them36, even in this case it is hard to find a confirmation. Ridda, differently from the common religious adagio, which already identified it as a form of apostasy against Islām, it should be reconsidered in preferring the more secular semantic interpretation of “abandonment, withdrawal from a previous agreement”. The Islamic narrative on it emphasized the existence of the rise of new Prophetic figures, male and female, that would like to assume an equal stance to Muḥammad, being recognized like to him as to gain his same legitimacy. Contrariwise, Ridda was probably an expression of the recognized independence that every Arab clan would like to preserve, far from a centralized attempt of control made by Medina and Mecca after the Prophet’s political victory. Shoufani’s work generally identified the Ridda wars as already part of the “Islamic’s conquering campaigns”, denying, moreover, that all of them had already recognized the Prophet and Islām as a new form of religiosity37. The Islamic sources stressed the recognition of the Ridda religious wars as rooted in the analysis emerging from the Kitāb al-​Ridda of al-​Wāqidī (d. 823) which, as Ella Landau-​Tasseron tries to determine, was probably one of the first written sources on the topic38. However, even this theoretical approach moves from the assumption that after the Prophet’s death (632), Islām was a clear doctrine, which could easily be distinguished from others; this remained doubtful and the Ridda wars and victory emerged as a new tentative of bellicose and religious form of legitimacy. The respect of agreements signed with the Prophet was imposed, under the leading figure of Abū Bakr and the military skills of Khālid ibn al-​Walīd, to Banū Aslam, Ghifār, Sulaym, Ka’b ibn ‘Amr, Juhayna, part of the Ṭayyi’, Tamīm, Asad, Ghaṭafān, all from Najd. Inversely, the great majority of the northern Ḥijāzī and Syrian tribes: the Banū Kalb, Bali, ‘Udhra, Quḍā’a, all of them mostly Christian, did not intervene39. As F. Donner suggests: “But the conquests also developed from the events of the Ridda in a more integral way. For it was the firm subjugation of the 3 6 Al-​ Ṭabarī. The History of al-​Ṭabarī, Vol. 10: 43. 3 7 Shoufani, Elias S. Al-​Riddah and the Muslim Conquests of Arabia. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1973: 85 ff. 3 8 Landau-​Tasseron, Ella. “On the reconstruction of Lost Sources”, Al-​Qantara 25/​1 (2004): 45–​91. 3 9 Shoufani, Elias S.. Al-​Riddah and the Muslim Conquests of Arabia: 144; Donner, Fred. The Early Islamic Conquests: 88.

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nomadic warrior tribesmen of Arabia by the Islamic state that put into the hands of the new ruling élite the means to undertake an expansionist movement of unparalleled proportions”40. In other words, the submission to a Ḥijāzī élite had to be counterbalanced by the promise of something attractive and, anthropologically, only one thing had been able to emphasize this unitarian purpose: a promise of enrichment, which the Arab conquering campaigns in the Mediterranean-​ Mesopotamian basin would like to guaranteed.

4. The Framing of a Narrative to Establish Muḥammad’s Legitimacy The Byzantine sources start to give information about the Arab incursions in the north when Muḥammad is already death and when the Khulafā’ al Rāshidūn are in power. John Moschus (d. 619 or 634), the bishop of Jerusalem Sophronious (d. ca. 639), Anastasius Sinaita (d. ca 700), the Thropies of Damascus (d. ca 681) etc. started to depict the incoming of the Arab conquerors starting to identify the “Believers” as supporter of a similar-​dissimilar Christian faith only at the end of the 7th century. In some of his letters and canonical legislation, Jacob of Edessa argues about the increasing reciprocal understanding between Christians and “believers” on religious matters41; in addition, the same author, writing to John the Stylite (of Litarab, d. c. 737–​738), reports: The Muslims too, although they do not know nor wish to say that this true Messiah, who came and is acknowledged by the Christians, is God and the son of God, they nevertheless confess firmly that he is the true Messiah who was to come and who was foretold by the prophets; on this they have no dispute with us […] They say to all at all times that Jesus son of Mary is in truth the Messiah and they call him the word of God, as do the holy scriptures. They also add, in their ignorance, that he is the spirit of God, for they are not able to distinguish between word and spirit, just as they do not assent to call the Messiah, God or son of God42.

4 0 4 1 4 2

Donner, Fred. The Early Islamic Conquests: 89–​90. Hoyland Robert. Seeing Islam as Others Saw it: 162–​163. Ibid.: 166.

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Another Syriac source that gives interesting information about the Arab conquests and the subsequent historical events is that attributed to Sabeos, the Bishop of Bragatunis, whose chronicle went up to the 660s during the first Fitna43. Concerning the Islamic side, the academic debate on the attribution of the Futūḥ ash-​Shām to Abū Ismā‘īl al-​Azdī (d. 751) is still unable to clarify many aspects about it. Suleiman A. Mourad argues that probably the Chronicle was written in the second half of the 8th century, basing it on the text Futūḥ ash-​Shām of Abū Mikhnaf (d. 774 but also possibly 806); the compilers of his age deeply adopted his narrative, and Azdī remains one of the oldest historical sources about the conquest of Syria44. What emerged in the elaboration of the historical excursus related to the “Believers” conquests and belonging is a constitutive process rooted on specific needs that emphasize the importance of political and religious legitimacy as being military winning against their enemies. In relation to the first postulate, the legitimacy has always been a major aspect to be considered: the biography of the Prophet is an eminent example in the clear tentative to over-​stress the importance of Muḥammad and of proto-​Islām in the historical debate. Ibn Ishāq (d. ca 767) and Ibn Hishām (d. 833) narratives highlight first of all the historical geography of the proto-​Believers, describing the religious milieu were the prophet’s clan affirmed his primacy. Dhū Nawās, the Christians’ martyrs of Najrān, the role played by the Negus of Abyssinia and the Persians after Abraha’s invasion (historical events that still need a concrete confirmation), the role of Mecca and his historical pilgrimage, the importance of the prophet’s family, his eponymous and ancestors, the peculiarity of Muḥammad as an orphan, the meeting with the monk Baḥīrā etc. are all constitutive aspects of the framing of an historical, political and religious legitimacy. This preliminary level of legitimacy is rooted on the prophet’s peculiarity, on the importance on proto-​Islamic monotheism entourage around Ḥijāz, and so on. A second level of legitimacy, appears when, afterwards, the prophet is trying to affirm

43 Thompson, Robert W. “Muhammad and the Origin of Islam in Armenian Literary Tradition”, in Studies of Armenian Literature and Christianity, Thompson R. W., Ed. Aldershot: Variourum Collected Studies series 451, 1994: 829–​885. 4 4 Mourad, Suleiman. “On Early Islamic Historiography. Abū Ismā‘īl al-​Azdī and his Futūḥ ash-​Shām”, JAOS 120/​4 (2000): 577–​593.

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his visio in supporting his candidature to be backed by pre-​Islamic stories and legends: Ḥijr, the banū Thamūd, the pre-​Islamic prophet Ṣāliḥ, and also more historical figures and civilizations: the Negus and the Abyssinian. The importance of being recognized as supporter of an interesting message by an external authority, historically identified as an eminent one, King Armah (d. 631) or Ella Tsaham, it is a relevant step in the tentative to affirm his personal point of view. Until these levels, the interaction between narrative and historical evidence remains vague; the Negus is an historical figure, but the Monk Baḥīrā, the prophet Ṣāliḥ, the legends concerning the Thamūd, remain at the margin of a mythological approach in which the epigraph evidence is limited45. A third level of legitimacy is uni-vocally reported by Islamic sources and it referred to the letters sent by Muhammad, already main authority of the Ḥijāz, to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. The letter is very similar to the one sent to the Persian king Chosroes; nevertheless, if the Islamic narrative reports that the Persian emperor, infuriated, wrote to his governor in Yaman ordering to march against Medina annihilating the Prophet, the reply of the Roman emperor is completely different, very similar to that of the Negus of Abyssinia: Heraclius wrote: To Aḥmad, the messanger of God, announced by Jesus, from Caesar, king of the Rūm. I have received your letter with your Ambassador and I testify that you are the Messenger of God found in our New Testament. Jesus, son of Mary, announced you. I did ask the Rūm to believe you but they refused. Had they obeyed, it would have been better for them. I wish were with you and wash your feet46.

The narrative is the same that appear in the Prophet’s biography about the Negus, but in this case, it is even more clear and associated with Heraclius’ submission. The emperor confirm what has been interpreted in the Qur’an (61: 6) about the coming of a last Prophet after Jesus, named Aḥmad, as well as his complete will to submit himself to Muḥammad. If it is evident, as already confirmed in the Qur’an (30: 1–​5), that the “Believers” sided the Byzantine to the Persians in the last conflict among the two empires, ended around the 62847, it is also clear that Heraclius’ importance in Late

45

Hoyland, Robert. Arabia and the Arabs. From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. London: Routledge, 2001: 68–​69, 223–​224. 46 El-​Cheick, Nadia M. “Muḥammad and Heraclius. A study of Legitimacy”: 12. 47 Tesei, Tommaso. “The Romans will win! Q. 30:2–​7 in the Light of the 7th political Eschatology”, Der Islam 95/​1 (2018): 1–​29.

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Antiquity is such that this “individual transfer” of authority is empowered in a double parallelism: Heraclius-​Muḥammad, Byzantine-​‘Abbāsids, in a sort of religious and political continuity. As the Muslims conquered a huge part of the Byzantine empire, the same survived differently from the Persian one that had been completely annihilated. The Islamicization of the Roman empire emphasized by different akhbār on the topic is confirmed in the Prophet’s biography too48; this process of legitimization is reported significantly through the main Islamic religious sources: the Sīra, the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-​Bukhārī, and in the Chronicle of al-​Ṭabarī49; at the end, Muḥammad has the quality of the prophet-​hood and this is attested by Heraclius himself. The above analysis moreover, it would have been useless of the “Believers” armies would have been military defeated. Without the impressive victories against Persians and Byzantines, the Prophet’s legitimacy would emerge as unnecessary because the prophet’s followers would have probably been fragmented and disunited. Without the winning military process against the Persians and the Byzantine, there would have been no possibility of building a well-​founded political and religious imperial legitimacy rooted on the ‘Abbāsid’s capability in framing it, after the preliminary efforts made by the Umayyads. The warlike legitimacy was rooted on the ethical superiority of the “Believers” fighters against their enemies, even if they were Christians. However, this bellicose legitimacy is only alluded in the Qur’an, coming out in the Sīra, in the Islamic Tradition, in the proto-​Mystic literature and in the Maghāzī one, at the end of the 8th century, establishing a primary legitimacy of the Muslim fighter. Even in this case, the framing of this narrative will be elaborated in the following centuries, during the ‘Abbāsid age. However, since the beginning of the narrative’s elaboration in the Prophet’s biography is the Christian humus more then other ones that is valued as relevant to establish a political and religious legitimacy.

4 8 Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: 654–​657. 4 9 Pouzet, Louis. “Le Ḥadīth d’Heraclius: une caution Byzantine à la prophetié de Muḥammad”, in La Syrie de Byzance à l’Islam VII-​VIII siecles, Canivet P. Rey Coquais Jean-​Paul, Ed. Damascus: IFPO, 1992: 59–​65.

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5. Conclusions Early Islamic sources had clearly encountered a problem of legitimacy that was rooted on the nonrecognition of Muḥammad as a prophetic figure. This aspect was reacted since the elaboration of the Prophet’s biography in the production of a literature which was able to establish a primacy of Muḥammad in comparison with the most eminent historical protagonists of his age. However, the same narrative passed from being peacefully oriented in the polite relationship between the prophet with the Negus of Abyssinia, who will be even honored after his death by the “Believers”, in being more legitimated by the fact that Muhammad and his armies were victorious on their enemies, a more bellicose attitude that emerged in the ‘Abbāsid age. However, the cliché that depicts Islām and its Prophet’s life as inextricably rooted in a form of religious violence is an ideological posture that has nothing to do with scientific investigation. Although some Qur’anic verses are violent, their contextualization recalibrates their intensity. Simultaneously, the Prophetic phase (622–​632) even considering some “battles”, from Badr to Ḥunayn, passing through Mu’tah, fades if compared with the Roman-​Persian wars, and their religious narratives in the same century. Muḥammad’s main enemies were the Arab Meccan polytheists, but unlike the sack of Troy by Achea, or that of Jerusalem by the Christian crusaders in 1099, the Prophet peacefully entered his hometown without bloodshed: a main aspect that has been usually unconsidered by Orientalists and historians. The early texts of Islamic literature that juridically and religiously framed the bellicose attitude to assume during war started to appear one century and half after the prophet’s death, when the Arab conquests are already ended. It is therefore evident at the same time that it will be in the same historical phase, at the beginning of the ‘Abbāsid age that a legitimizing literature of Muḥammad as an Abrahamic prophet and of Islām as a monotheistic faith will start to emerge.

Luciano Gallinari

The Role of Muslims and Martyrs in the Identity Process of Medieval Sardinia. Historiography versus History

1. Premise This chapter focuses on one important theme of the history of medieval Sardinia: the role that Muslims and the Passiones of local martyrs may have played in the elaboration of identitarian reconstructions of the island’s past. From a chronological point of view this paper covers the period from the 6th century (the reincorporation of Sardinia into the Roman Empire) to the 11th century (the appearance in the western sources of the four Giudicati, the institutional heirs of the ancient Provincia Sardiniae), after the expulsion from the island of Mujāhid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-​ʿĀmirī, Lord of Denia by the Communes of Genoa and Pisa in 1015/​1016. This latter date is one of the most important moments of disruption of Sardinia’s medieval history. However, although some of the Passiones of Sardinian saints were composed when the island was at the centre of numerous Muslim attacks first from North Africa and later from the Iberian Peninsula1, the mentions of Saracens/​Arabs are nearly absent in these hagiographical sources. This is an important fact to underline as it would seem to demonstrate that the Arab element did not have a particular relevance in Sardinia in the early and central Middle Ages. This consideration can be combined with

1

A historiographically up-​to-​date reading of the first Arab raids against Sardinia is proposed by Metcalfe, Alex. “Early Muslim raids on Byzantine Sardinia”, The Making of Medieval Sardinia. Alex Metcalfe, Hervin Fernández-​Aceves, Marco Muresu, eds. Leiden-​Boston: Brill, 2021: 126–​159.

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the lack, so far, of convincing evidence that Sardinia had been subjected to Muslim rule except, perhaps, some small parts of the island and for limited chronological periods, as well as linguistics, popular traditions and archaeological finds so far found on the island seem to confirm. The scarce presence of Saracens in Sardinian history and cultural tradition is another of the characteristic elements of the island’s identity profile, together with the almost total absence of the Germanic element, except for a few decades between the 5th and the 6th centuries of Vandal dominion, which, however, seems to have had a little relevance in Sardinian history2. Finally, the second important theme of this chapter is the entire 11th century as one of the key moments of the medieval history of the island. Then, in 1073 in one of Gregory VII’s letters four Sardinian Iudices are simultaneously attested for the first time, instead of the former archon/ iudex of Sardinia3, and in 1073–​74 the pope started the split of the ecclesiastical province of Sardinia, with a considerable reduction in the power of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Carales, through the creation of the archbishopric of Torres. A reduction that continued further in 1088–​ 1099 or in 1118, when the new archdiocese of Arborea was created4.

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3 4

On Vandals and Sardinia see the recent work by Muresu, Marco. “I Vandali: isolazionismo integralista o logica imprenditoriale? Riflessioni sul Mediterraneo occidentale di V-​VI secolo”, Cartagine. Studi e Ricerche, 2 (2017): 1–​43, . Gregory the Great. Registrum epistularum. Libri. I-​IV. D. L. Norberg, ed. Turnhout: Brepols, 1982: 46–​47. So far we know that the Privilegium protectionis by Urban II (1088–​1099), mentions a cathedra of Arborea without specifying whether episcopal or archiepiscopal. On the contrary, it is certain that between July and September 1118, the letter of Archbishop William of Caralis to Pope Gelasius, among other very interesting information on Giudicati Sardinia at that time, mentions an archbishop of Arborea. Zedda, Corrado. Pinna, Raimondo. “La nascita dei giudicati. Proposta per lo scioglimento di un enigma storiografico”. Archivio storico e giuridico sardo di Sassari, NS 12, 2007: 93 note 198;. Zedda, Corrado. Pinna, Raimondo. “La diocesi di Santa Giusta nel Medioevo”, La Cattedrale di Santa Giusta: architettura e arredi dall´XI al XIX secolo. Roberto Coroneo, a cura di. Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2010: 5–​6 and note 18 and Zedda, Corrado. “'Amani judicis' o 'a manu judicis'? Il ricordo di una regola procedurale non rispettata in una lettera dell’arcivescovo Guglielmo di Cagliari (1118)", RiMe. Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 9, December 2012: 26 and 33.

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Last but not least, the questions arising from these topics are numerous and concern the structure itself of the Giudicati societies throughout the central and late Middle Ages.

2. The Role of Muslims in Sardinia during the Early and Central Middle Ages We have been arguing for a long time that Muslims had a more indirect than direct role in the history of Sardinia in the early and central Middle Ages and, above all, that they have been “used” by some scholars even in recent times to provide a historical reconstruction more similar to that of other regions of the Western Mediterranean. The indirect influences exerted by Muslims on the rites and cults of saints that arrived in Sardinia in the 8th century following the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula are important5. A Sardinian scholar spoke of a sort of migration from Carthage and Tarragona after they fell under Muslim control (since 698 and 711 CE). The fugitives from the Iberian Peninsula would have headed for the Balearics and Sardinia, even though the latter was also under Saracen attack6. Was this choice due to the fugitives’ lack of information about the Arab raids on Sardinia? Or, in any case, the dangers were less on the island than on the Iberian Peninsula? Perhaps this could

5

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Gallinari, Luciano. “The firsts Muslim incursions in Sardinia and their consequences on the island (6th -​11th century). Some reflections”, Relations between East and West. Various Studies: Medieval and Contemporary Ages. Proceedings of the International Conference Peace Building between East and West (XI-​XVI c.). Ali Ahmed El-​Sayed, Luciano Gallinari, Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar, eds. Cairo: Dar Al-​Kitab Al-​Gamee Publishing House, 2017: 7–​25. These were the raids: 710/​711 CE, 721/​722 CE; 724/​ 725 CE; 727/​728 CE, and 732/​733 CE. Metcalfe, Alex. “Early Muslim raids on Byzantine Sardinia”: 126–​159. Mele, Giampaolo. “Codici agiografici, culto e pellegrini nella Sardegna medioevale. Note storiche e appunti di ricerca sulla tradizione monastica”. Gli Anni santi nella storia. Luisa D’Arienzo, a cura di. Cagliari: Edizioni AV. 2000: 547–​548. The scholar recalls that a manuscript such as the Visigoth prayer book is attested at Caralis between 711 and 732 CE in a time span during which the sources mention five Arab raids against Sardinia.

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be a possible indirect confirmation of the lack of Arab conquest of Sardinia in the first decades of the 8th century we have mentioned above, in spite of some opposing historiographic theories formulated in Sardinia7. Among other things, the Byzantine seals found in the Balearics concerning the 8th century seem to confirm a kind of relation between the Archipelago authorities and the archon of Sardinia, which is defined as “the Patrikios of Sardinia who rules all the islands of the sea” by Abu Al-​Qasim Ibn Khurradādhbih –​a Persian geographer of the mid-​9th century, which enumerates the fourteen strategoi of the Byzantine Empire contained in a list that probably dates back to the end of the 7th century8. On the other hand, Saracens perhaps played a concrete role in Sardinia at the beginning of the 11th century when Arab and Western sources agree in recalling that the island was partially conquered for a short time by Mujāhid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-​ʿĀmirī lord of Denia9. We said perhaps because sources of different nature speak of an archon or iudex of Sardinia between the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century. On the contrary, starting from just after the middle of that same century, direct and indirect written sources show two kings ruling over as many regna (Calari, ante 1058 and Torres, in 1063). Moreover, since 1073 onwards two other polities are attested in Western 7

8

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Spanu, Pier Giorgio Ignazio. Fois, Piero. Zanella, Renato. Zucca, Raimondo. “L’arcontato d’Arborea tra Islam ed eredità bizantina”, Tharros Felix 5. Attilio Mastino, Pier Giorgio Spanu, Raimondo Zucca, a cura di. Roma: Carocci editore, 2013: 515–​536. Salvi, Donatella. Fois, Piero. “San Saturnino: uno specchio di una società multiculturale fra IX e X secolo”, Settecento-​Millecento. Storia, archeologia e arte nei “secoli bui” del Mediterraneo. Dalle fonti scritte, archeologiche ed artistiche alla ricostruzione della vicenda storica. La Sardegna laboratorio di esperienze culturali. Rossana. Martorelli, ed. Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2013: II, 853–​881. Nicolàs Mascarò, Joan C. de. Moll Mercadal, Bernat. “Sellos bizantinos de Menorca. Un arconte mallorquín para las Baleares en el siglo VIII”, Tharros Felix 5.: 537–​582. Oikonomides, Nikolas. “Une liste arabe des strateges byzantins du VIIe siècle et les origines du thème de Sicile”, Documents et études sur les institutions de Byzance (VIIe –​ XVe s.). London: Variorum Reprints, 1976: 122. According to Miquel, André. La géographie humaine du monde musulman jusqu’au milieu du XIe siècle. Paris-​La Haye: Éd. de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales –​Mouton, 1980: 444, Khurradādhbih, speaking of the six patricians who did not reside in Byzantium, gave them as seats the Themes ruled by the Strategoi. On Mujāhid and his role in the history of 11th-​century Sardinia, see the more recent status quaestionis in Metcalfe, Alex. “Muslim contacts with Sardinia. From Fatimid Ifriqiya to Mujāhid of Dénia”, The Making of Medieval Sardinia: 250–​260.

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documents: the Giudicati of Arborea and Gallura. In the light of this, we can assume that the temporary conquest by Mujāhid may have had important political consequences by undermining the Archontate of Sardinia and favouring the emergence of these new polities10.

3. Some Introductory Historiographic Considerations on Sardinian Martyrs and Saints Some scholars have hypothesized that the Passiones of Sardinian martyrs contain some not explicit references to the presence of Saracens/​Arabs in the island –​the Passiones of St. Saturninus and St. Anthiocus both of Carales, for instance –​while they are explicitly mentioned in the Passio of St. Ephysius, who was allegedly martyred in the early 4th century in Nora, a village about 30 km southwest of Caralis, the capital of the imperial province. A very important role in this re-​narration of the lives of Sardinian saints was perhaps played by the Benedictine Order of the St. Victor of Marseille in the 11th–​12th centuries, since it received the sanctuaries of these martyrs located in Southern Sardinia (Giudicato of Calari): those of Ephysius, Antiochus –​in the village of Sulci –​and Saturninus in the eastern suburb of Caralis. One source with indirect references to Saracens is the Legenda of St. Saturninus, perhaps composed at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries in the scriptorium of the homonymous sanctuary, which was the priory of the Victorins in Sardinia. Its author begs to the martyr to repel all enemies armies far away (“omnes hostes inimicos procul repelle”)11. This is a very generic text and, if the author was referring to his own time, these 10

Gallinari, Luciano. “The Iudex Sardiniae and the Archon Sardanias between the sixth and the eleventeenth century”, The Making of Medieval Sardinia: 215–​235 and the references contained therein. 11 Piras, Antonio. “Legenda S. Saturni (BHL7490)”, Passiones Martyrum Sardiniae. Ad fidem codicum qui adhuc exstant nec non adhibitis editionibus veteribus. Antonio Piras, Moderante. Hildesheim –​Zurich –​New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2017: 71. It should be noted that this passage is absent from the Passio. Martorelli, Rossana. “Riferimenti topografici nelle Passiones dei martiri sardi”, L’agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Cagliari, 4–​5 dicembre

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enemies should theoretically not be the Saracens, who no longer appear as a threat in the sources after Mujāhid’s brief conquest of part of the island. On the other hand, if the Legenda’s author refers to the historical period between the Saint’s presumed martyrdom (3rd–4th century) and his own time, we know that among the external threats to Sardinia there were also the Vandals and the Lombards, while an internal threat was that of the Barbaricini, that is, the Sardinians from the island’s mountain regions, if we are to believe the Passio of Ephysius, probably composed in the 10th–​11th centuries, but whose manuscripts are at least a century later (§ 4.1). Based on the possible role of the Victorins of Caralis behind the Legenda of Saturninus and the Passio of Ephysius, the generic reference to all enemies (“omnes”) would suggest that they were aware of a plurality of threats to Sardinia. If we now focus on the Codex Vaticanus Latinus of the Passio of St. Ephysius (12th century), we can see that it contains a prayer addressed by the martyr to God on his deathbed: “I ask you again O Lord that you protect this city (…) from the attack of the enemies”12. Once again the expression is extremely general: it could also refer to Saracen enemies, but not only that, because the martyr in Sardinia had fought against a barbarica gens, and not against the Saracens. Last but not least, the Passio of St. Antiochus, who lived on the island of Sulci (today St. Antiochus, after him), is no less historiographically interesting13. Some important “evil men who at that time ruled all over Sardinia (they also lived in Caralis at that time)” denounced him to the civil and religious authorities because he called for the renunciation of traditional Roman culture and religion, and for the recognition of the true God14. These men have been considered Saracens by a scholar who discards 2015). Antonio Piras, Daniela Artizzu, a cura di. Cagliari: PFTS University Press, 2016: 190–​191. 12 Fois, Graziano. “Passio Ephysii (BHL 2567)”, Passiones Martyrum Sardiniae…: 350: “Peto etiam, Domine, ut hanc Caralitani populi ab hostium incursu custodias civitatem”. 1 3 His Passio presents him as a Mauritanian doctor active in the regions of Galatia and Cappadocia where he proclaimed the Christian faith, for which reason he was exiled to the Sardinian island of Sulci. See the most recent edition of his Passio: Melis, Cecilia. “Passio Anthiochi (BHL 655d) una cum Officio”, Passiones Martyrum Sardiniae…: 197–​277. 1 4 Melis, Cecilia. “Passio Anthiochi…”: 268–​270: “maleuolis hominibus principibus qui eo tempore praeerant omni Sardiniae (tunc etiam habitabant in ciuitate calaritana)”.

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the possibility that the Maleuoli homines might have been Roman civil and religious authorities. However, the Passio speaks of these persons as polytheists: Anthiocus was defined by them as the “enemy of their gods” (suorum inimicus deorum). It would be much more suitable that such accusations against Antiochus were made by prominent people of the romanised society of Caralis. Nevertheless, these Maleuoli homines were considered members of Saracen communities settled in this city on the basis of a hypothesis –​much more interesting for the exegetical methodology than for the few results achieved –​on the presence of Muslims settlements near Caralis15. Such a hypothesis was formulated some years ago by two scholars, who first supposed that the Basilica of St. Saturninus had become for a certain period a temple in condominium between the Christians and Muslim communities16. The basis for such a theory were two elements found in the building itself: (1) an inscription in Arabic dated at the beginning of the 9th century and (2) an Arabic graffito with few lines of text in a poor state of preservation, which may be of the same period of the epigraph17. Later, on the basis of these few data and stressing that the cases of condominium of temples between Christians and Muslims were very rare even in North Africa, which remained permanently in Muslim hands after the conquest, the scholars concluded that no one was authorized 15 Martorelli, Rossana. “Riferimenti topografici nelle Passiones dei martiri sardi”, L’agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Cagliari, 4–​5 dicembre 2015). Antonio Piras, Daniela Artizzu, a cura di. Cagliari: PFTS University Press, 2016: 182. 1 6 Salvi, Donatella. Fois, Piero. “San Saturnino: uno specchio …”: II, 855 and 866:. See my many doubts about this hypotesis in Gallinari, Luciano. “Some criticalities on exegetical and methodological issues of researching The Sardinian identity profile”, Sardinia From The Middle Ages to Contemporaneity. A case study of a Mediterranean island identity profile. Luciano Gallinari, ed. Berna: Peter Lang, 2018: 1–​15. 1 7 The legend of the epigraph says: “[Q.]l.rih (…) sanat ar-​/​ba‘ wa-​tis‘ in wa-​m[i’a]” (“[Qa]larih in the year fo-​/​ur and ninety and one hundred”). A text that would indicate its production in Caralis in the year 109 H/​809–​810 CE when, as in 807 and 812 CE, there were Muslim attacks against Sardinia from the Iberian Peninsula. The inscription would have been an indicator of the presence of an Arab-​Muslim funerary area where some elements of the insular society were buried. The more recent transcription and translation into English of this inscription has been made by Metcalfe, Alex. “Early Muslim raids…”: 130–​131 and 152–​153. On the graffito, Piero Fois claimed that the name Muḥammad, perhaps the Prophet, was visible in it. See Salvi, Donatella. Fois, Piero. “San Saturnino: uno specchio…”: 864, According to Metcalfe, Alex. “Early Muslim raids…”: 153 “Only a couple of letters (…) are legible”.

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to think of Sardinia and Caralis as places of peaceful coexistence between different cultural groups…18. Some years ago, certain Sardinian scholars proposed for the Sinis Peninsula, at the centre of Sardinia’s west coast, from the 8th century onwards the role of home and operational base of some Arab-​Muslim communities that were devoted to navigation and commerce about to leave for the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula19. In one of our previous work we highlighted our perplexities about this historiographic hypothesis in light of different elements20: (a) the difficulties for such settlements on the island of Arwād around the same time, at only 3 km off the Asiatic coast21; (b) the few documentary and archaeological evidence to support such a Muslim presence in Sardinia for about a year; (c) the lack of reference in the known sources of a possible Muslim fleet coming from Sardinia that was involved in the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and (d) a 9th-​century source –​the Futūḥ Miṣr by ‘Abd al-​Ḥakam, an Egyptian historian died in 870 CE –​ that was recalled from two Arab chroniclers, the Pseudo-​Ibn Qutayba, (d. 889) and Ibn al-​Athīr (12th–​13th centuries), and that explicitly stated that the Arab army was sent against Sardinia when Mūsā conquered al-​Andalus and not before, as supposed by Sardinian scholars.

1 8 Salvi, Donatella. Fois, Piero. “San Saturnino: uno specchio…”: 867. 1 9 Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Fois, Piero. Zanella, Renato. Zucca, Raimondo. “L’Arcontato d’Arborea tra Islam ed eredità bizantina”: 518–​520. 2 0 Gallinari, Luciano. “The firsts Muslim incursions in Sardinia…”: 8–​14. 2 1 Fois, Piero. “Peut-​on dégager une stratégie militaire propre aux Îles”: 17 and 20 emphasises that Arwad’s conquest was postponed from year to year because of the risk of quartering of the troops and their commanders in areas which, even though close to the continent, could be reached only by sea. If there were these concerns for a distance of only 3 km off the Syrian coast, it can be assumed that they were even greater for the winter settlement of troops and ships in the Sinis Peninsula, set much further away from the African coast. See also Picard, Christophe. “Le calife ‘Umar interdit la Méditerranée aux Arabes: peur de la mer our raison d’État?”, in Un Moyen Âge pour aujourd’hui. Mélanges offerts à Claude Guavard, Julie Claustre, Olivier Matteoni et al., eds. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2010): 247–​257.

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4. Muslims and Martyrs: Useful Tools for Forging Identities Before analysing the topic of Sardinian martyrs and saints, we would like to make some reflections about the rare –​and sometimes even uncertain –​ mentions of the Saracens in their Passiones and Legendae. In the first instance, we are a little surprised by this scarcity and uncertainty of them if we consider the number of attacks against Sardinia brought by Saracens from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula in parallel with the raids against Sicily, from the beginning of the 8th century until, more or less, the mid-​9th century. In this period, Western and Arab sources show that the island is visibly at the centre of the aims of various Muslim polities, and inform about the very bloody clashes with even great losses on both sides. Nevertheless, all these events seem to have left no particular mark on the historical memory of the island. There is not the slightest explicit mention of all the Saracen attacks against the island in the hagiographic sources we are examining, as if they had no great importance or, rather, that they were not a threat/​problem. Even the Passio of Ephysius, which also in its first part explicitly mentions the Saracens engaged in a real great battle with Christians, describes an event that actually happened in Campania. In return, in the second part, which is set in Sardinia in that same period, the danger for the island was the barbarica gens, from inland mountainous regions, whose clash with the martyr is described with some details. Although we believe that this absence is a topic on which to dwell even more in depth, it seems to go in parallel with the few and inaccurate geographical, political and cultural data on Sardinia we can find in the Arab sources between 8th and 14th centuries. All this seems to confirm our opinion that Sardinia has not been a land with long-​term Muslim settlements. For reasons of space, we will focus our observations mainly on the Passio of St. Ephysius, with some references also to the lives of St. Antiochus and St. Saturninus, as it is an interesting case study for the stimuli it offers also on the topic Muslims/​Sardinia.

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4.1 St. Ephysius and His Enemies The manuscript tradition of the Passio of St. Ephysius –​which is based on St. Procopius’ second legend (ante 787 CE) –​raise numerous questions not yet fully resolved by scholars. The 12th-​century Codex Vaticanus Latinus 6453, the oldest one of the Passio, in its first part explicitly mentions the Saracens -​called also hostes, Romani imperii -​that invaded some imperial provinces seizing people and goods, and engaged in a real great battle with Christians that actually happened in Campania22. According to some Sardinian scholars, it could be an echo of the great battle on the Garigliano river (915 CE)23. The manuscript speaks also of a second clash that is set in Sardinia shortly after, which however, was faced by an imperial army led by the Στρατηλάτης (i.e. magister militum in Latin) Ephysius that took place in Sardinia shortly afterwards against a generic cruel and impious gens barbarica from inland mountainous regions, who controlled and devastated whole Sardinia24. So, the author of this Codex makes a clear distinction between the enemies of the future martyr: in Sardinia they are “barbarians”, that is, a non-​Romanised people. For the aims of this chapter, some of the most important data of this source are certain terms we found in its various manuscripts: the first is “Arvorea”, the name of the territory where there was a river that Ephysius explored until he found a suitable place where to camp his army, and where he was attacked by the Barbarians. The second term is “Tirus” –​(“ad locum qui Tirus dicebatur”), that is, the city of Tharros, in the western coast of Sardinia –​the place where Ephysius and his soldiers headed after having overcome the first clash with the Barbarians, preparing for a new battle against them. Regardless of the victory over the Sardinian enemies, the presence of these coronyms will be emphasized in § 6. 22

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24

According to some scholars, the above-​mentioned codex was probably drafted in Pisa or by the Victorine monks in Caralis. Both suppositions are stimulating if we consider the links that united the Tuscan city, the Victorines, Ephysius and the other Sardinian martyrs in the 11th century, as we shall see in § 6.4 and 6.5. Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Martyria Sardiniae. I santuari dei martiri sardi. Oristano: S’Alvure, 2000: 69. Opposing this hypothesis is Fois, Graziano. "La Passio Sancti Ephysii tra Grecìa e Romània", in L’agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Cagliari, 4-​5 dicembre 2015), edited by Antonio Piras and Danila Artizzu, Cagliari: PFTS University Press, 2016: 143. Fois, Graziano. “Passio Ephysii”: 335 and 337.

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Before dwelling on this source, we want to insert below the data coming from the Codex Caralitanus –​a 16th-​century manuscript, some centuries later than the Vatican one –​which, according to various scholars, would be based on a manuscript several centuries older25. Some of them claim that this codex contains a narration of the alleged Ephysius’ expedition to the island with an even more “nationalist” Sardinian identity-​making connotation. In fact, in it the enemies against which he fought in Campania were some generic imperii hostes, while, as regards Sardinia, the source states that Ephysius’ enemies were the Ilienses et Jolenses populi montani Sardiniae insulam, two peoples of the ancient Civitates Barbariae26. This part of the codex seems to be the interpolation of an earlier antigraph made by a 16th–​17th century anonymous hagiographer, aimed at identifying the enemies of the Empire with the two-​mentioned peoples among the fiercest opponents of Roman rule already in the Augustan age. This learned, identitarian and nationalist interpretation appears to be very present in the Sardinian historiography of those centuries, as demonstrated by the works of Juan Francisco Fara and Juan Arca, who laid the foundations for a historiographic interpretation of the relationship between Sardinians and the external conquerors of the island that continues today and has also fuelled several political movements27. In addition to this, we are more interested in the terms “Arborea” and “Tharros” (ad portum tarrensem) that also appear in this codex than in the

2 5 Archivio Storico diocesano di Cagliari, Diversorum A, Liber I/​I (I serie), ff.190r–​194r. 2 6 Zedda and Pinna, “La nascita dei Giudicati”: 49–​52 and Serra, Paolo Benito. “I Barbaricini di Gregorio Magno”, in Per longa maris intervalla. Gregorio Magno e l’Occidente mediterraneo fra tardoantico e altomedioevo. Lucio Casula, Giampaolo Mele, Antonio Piras, a cura di. Cagliari: Pontificia Facoltà della Sardegna, 2006: 289–​361. 2 7 Farae, Ioannis Francisci. Opera. De rebus sardois, Liber I. Anna Maria Pintus, ed. Sassari: Gallizzi, 1992: pp. 151–​184. Arcae, Iohannis, De Sanctis sardiniae libri tres, Calari: Typis haeredum Ioannis Mariae Galcerin, 1598. We dealt with the theme of the manipulation of these medieval sources, and their recent political use that has been made about a supposed resistance to the conquest and acculturation attempted by external enemies of those inland regions, that are considered as the repositories of “true” Sardinian culture and history. See Gallinari, Luciano. “From the medieval ‘Nació Sardesca’ to the modern ‘Sardigna Natzione’: uses and especially abuses of the concepts of identity in Sardinia from the Middle Ages to the present day: an intriguing case study”, La nació a l’Edat Mitjana. Flocel Sabaté i Curull, coord. Lleida: 2020: pp. 249–​269.

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differences in the course of the victorious battle of the future martyr. And now we try to explain why. 4.2 The Role of Arborea in the Vatican and Caralitan Codexes So far, scholars peacefully accepted that Ephysius’ military actions in Sardinia were set in a territory called “Arvorea” which appears to correspond geographically to the region of the later homonymous Giudicato (since 1073), and in Tharros, its capital until, theoretically, 1070, when the city would be abandoned by the judge and the bishop of Arborea to move to Oristano28. The author of the Codex Vaticanus Latinus claims that the enemies with which with Ephysius clashed in Sardinia were the members of a barbarica gens who did not reside in the coasts. After learning that he and his army were coming, the Barbari “moved to the sea against them” (usque ad mare se contulerunt obviam illis). After a first clash in an unspecified location, the action moved to to a river in a place called Aruorea29. Therefore, considering that in the second legend of Procopius there was no action set in Sardinia, there are two possible explanations for this military campaign in Arborea: (1) the hagiographer invented it, and we should try to hypothesize why; or (2) he found some previous source that recalled the action of a Byzantine high officer against a barbarica gens that seemed to control the island (quae Sardiniam tenebat) in an unspecified historical moment which cannot be the 4th century CE, that is the time of Diocletian in which the Passio of Procopius/​Ephysius is theoretically set. If we discard the hypothesis that the “Arborea chapter” is an hagiographer’s invention, the few sources available on early medieval Sardinia recall that the Byzantine dux Zabardas defeat a gens barbara or Barbaricini between spring and summer of 594 CE30.

2 8 Farae, Ioannis Francisci. Opera. De rebus sardois, …, Vol. 2, liber II: 322 2 9 Fois, Graziano. “Passio Ephysii”: 337–​340. 3 0 Serra, Paolo Benito. “I Barbaricini di Gregorio Magno”: 289–​361. Sancti Gregorii Magni, Registrum epistularum, Epistulae, in Corpus Christianorum series latina, Dag Norberg ed., Vol. IV, Turnhout: Brepols, 1982: n. 24, May 594.

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In the light of this, we can consider two hypotheses: (1) the “Arborea chapter” narrates some events related to the Barbaricini, of which we are not aware from other documents and that we cannot precisely date. Important events that may have pushed the basileus to send one of his duces or rather a magister militum to Sardinia to curb Barbaricini’s attacks and recover the territories that had fallen under their control or (2) the “Arborea Chapter” was an adaptation/​reuse of some texts/​documents on Zabardas’ military campaign that was adapted to the reality of the 10th–​11th century –​which could be the hagiographer’s time31. We believe that some data could confirm that the events narrated in the Passio could refer to the story of Zabardas at the end of the 6th century: (1) In 1736 Giovanni Battista Madeddu in one of his Gosos32, dedicated to the Caralitan martyr and based on the Codex Vaticanus latinus, after mentioning the implicit conversion of Ephysius in Campania just before his military campaign in Sardinia, inserted a reference to two other saints, Entius and Edictius, converted to the new faith by St. Ephysius, along with many others; (2) In 1850 the historian Goffredo Casalis collected a popular tradition about a church located near Sorradile –​a village situated a little north of Forum Traiani, the likely seat of the Byzantine dux at the time of the war against the Barbaricini –​that was dedicated to these two saints, companions of Ephysius33. They are said to have taken part in the above-​mentioned military campaign, which was described, however, according to the version of the Codex Caralitanus, and therefore specifically directed against the “Ilienses”. The scholar later recalled the inventio of the body of St. Edictius in the so-​called “prison of Ephysius” in Caralis in 1616, together with an inscription that said +​S. Edictius M. qui vixit annis 31 Turtas, Raimondo. Storia della chiesa in Sardegna dalle origini al Duemila. Roma: Città Nuova, 1999: 44 speaks of an echo of Zabardas’ deeds. 3 2 The gosos or gòccius, in the two most common variants of the Sardinian term, are devotional chants dedicated in Sardinia to saints or the Holy Virgin. See also Muresu, Marco, La moneta “indicatore” dell’assetto insediativo della Sardegna bizantina (secoli VI-​XI). Perugia: Morlacchi Editore U.P., 2018: 336–​339 and the large historiographic debate contained therein. 3 3 Caria, Roberto. “I gosos dei martiri sardi fra tradizione agiografica e religiosità popolare”, in L'agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Atti del Convegno di Studi (Cagliari, 4-​5 dicembre 2015). Piras, Antonio and Artizzu, Daniela (a cura di), Cagliari: PFS University Press, 2016: 65-​69 and Casalis, Goffredo. Dizionario geografico storico statistico commerciale degli Stati di S. M. il Re di Sardegna. Vol. XX. Torino: Gaetano Maspero libraio e G. Marzorati tipografo, 1850: 306.

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XXIX34. He also added that the relics of the latter had certainly been placed under the high altar of the church of St Ephysius in Caralis, very close to the aforementioned “prison”, except for a knee bone which was venerated in the parish of Sorradile, where he was celebrated with great devotion on 29 August. We find most interesting the location where this tradition is preserved. In fact, combining all the elements we have mentioned so far, we could hypothesize that the stratelates Zabardas/​Ephysius, after defeating the Barbaricini on the coasts of Arborea, would have regained the most important military headquarters in the area (Forum Traiani) and then continued to penetrate with his army into the areas of the pagan barbarians, reaching Sorradile as well. And this was in order to secure the lowland regions of the island. This possible military entry could be the origin of the popular tradition.

5. The Role of Caralis and Nora in the Passio Sancti Ephysii 5.1 Caralis The Passio proposes Caralis as the physical location for the last phase of the future martyr’s life until his death sentence. This has motivated some archaeologists to reconstruct the appearance of the city in the early Middle Ages. According to the Vatican Codex, Caralis was a great city rich in inhabitants and goods in which barbarian customs were not followed. Ephysius had gone there to eradicate the discord from the hearts of its citizens, and to convert them to his new faith. In return, in the Caralitan Codex the compiler on the one hand highlighted that a part of the citizens worshipped idols, while on the other hand Ephysius’ proselytising activities in favour of his new faith are almost overlooked. The manuscript explicitly states that Ephysius and all his Christian soldiers and followers had gathered in Caralis. However, no particular event is described except for the trial for apostasy and the related torture of the martyr that took place in the city. 34

“Saint Edictius Martyr who lived 29 years”.

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The relationship between Ephysius and Caralis and how it has been interpreted by historiography is a topic closely linked to the role of Nora in the Passio and veneration of this martyr up to the present day. 5.2 Nora The role of Nora within the Passio of Saint Ephysius has been at the centre of some recent considerations made by a Sardinian historian who, echoing some previous statements, claims that the only possible explanation for the role of Nora is that the praeses, the governor of the imperial province and natural judge of Ephysius, had travelled within his jurisdiction to administer justice, and had examined Ephysius’ case when he was there. However, this supposition seems to disregard the text of the Passio and does not really explain why Ephysius was martyred there. In fact, only after the trial and the death sentence passed in Caralis, the future martyr was brought by some soldiers to Nora to be beheaded there. Codex Vaticanus “(…) ministri vero eum accipientes, adduxerunt eum in locum qui dicitur Nuras, in quo qui capite plectebantur constitutum fuerat decollari (…)”35

Codex Caralitanus “(…). Subito Satellites, ministri iniquitatis arripiunt illum in eum locum qui dicitur Nuras prope eandem hanc Calaritanam civitatem, statutum puniendis, quibuscumque malefactoribus erat locus iste. (…)”36.

In reality, the scholar himself is not entirely convinced of this interpretation since, usually, the martyrs were executed in the places where they had carried out their proselytism, that is Caralis for Ephysius37. And in fact he makes another interpretative proposal assuming that the hagiographer divided Ephysius’ story between the

3 5 Fois, Graziano. “Passio Ephysii”: 350. 3 6 Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Martyria Sardiniae: 172. 3 7 According to the Codex Caralitanus, Ephysius could also have proselytised in Campania and Sardinia before going to Caralis, since based on this source, the future martyr was baptised in Gaeta. See Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Martyria Sardiniae: 170.

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two cities in order to explain the existence of the cult of the saint in the Sardinian metropolis38. However, on the basis of the previous data on the relationship between the martyr and Caralis, also this statement leaves us a little puzzled. The existence of the cult of Ephysius in Caralis is explained by the source itself. In return, Nora in the Passio is only the place of the martyr’s execution. According to a Sardinian archaeologist, the hagiographer mentioned Nora since there was an old, worshipped monument that perhaps had housed the relics of an unknown, local martyr (an Ephesius?) whose memory was lost. Therefore it was necessary to endow him with a new Passio, so that his cult regain vigour and consistency39. However, the two Codices examined are very poor in detail and do not explicitly mention any previous monument; they merely inform that the locus was used for the execution of criminals. The Codex Vaticanus Latinus added that some Christians went to the place of martyrdom and, after ransoming Ephysius’ body, placed it in a famous place (“in loco celebri”: the supposed old monument?) facing the East40. The Caralitan Codex is even more sparing in its details adding only that the Christians who arrived at the place of martyrdom at that very night buried the martyr there41. It may not be accidental that the reference to the locus celebris where Ephysius was buried appears only in the Codex Vaticanus Latinus, perhaps drawn up in the 12th century by the Victorines of Caralis, as we said before42. They were the most interested in enhancing the sanctuary of Nora, which was donated to them in 1089 by the judge Constantine-​Salusius II of Calari,

3 8 3 9 4 0

41 42

Fois, Graziano. “La Passio Sancti Ephysii”: 158. Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Martyria Sardiniae: 81. Fois, Graziano. “Passio Ephysii”: 351 “venerunt itaque christiani et datis muneribus acceperunt beatissimi martyris corpus, et posuerunt cum psalmis et hymnis in loco celebri, sepelientes illud ex parte orientis (…)”. Spanu, Pier Giorgio. Martyria Sardiniae: 169: “Venerunt christiani nocte et sepeliverunt eum in eodem loco, in quo fuit martyrizatus”. Confirming the strong interest that the Marseilles Order might have had in Ephysius’ Passio, on 1 April 1119 the archbishop of Caralis confirmed to the abbot of St. Victor the possession of several churches, including that of St. Ephysius in the village of Quarto (today Quartu Sant'Elena, in the metropolitan city of Cagliari). Tola, Pasquale. Codice diplomatico della Sardegna. Vol. I/​1, Sassari: Delfino editore, 1984: doc. XXIV: 196.

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and in linking it to the new Passio of the martyr43. The Codex Caralitanus, on the other hand, being based on an earlier manuscript, contains no reference to the celebrity of Ephysius' locus depositionis, although it is a text written in Caralis So, the Passio of Ephysius would be an operation of rewriting of the biography of an almost forgotten martyr, and resemantisation of what even then was already a potential “lieux de Mémoire” that had to be updated and used for different purposes depending on who the promoters of this “operation” were44.

6. The Possible “Authors” of the Passio of St. Ephysius Who could be the author of such an operation? Why did the hagiographer choose/​use the gens barbara as the most important enemy? At the time of his writing, were the Saracens no longer so dangerous for Sardinia? Or, was this gens more useful for the “discourse” he wanted to make? Regardless of whether the “Arborea Chapter” was a reprise of a real event or a literary invention, what did it mean in this Passio? Was it a fact without a specific importance for this text, or was the link that connected the martyr with a region or an institutional body called Arborea? In this case, cui prodest? We could find some potential authors/​beneficiaries of this operation, according to the presumed writing period of the Passio and its codexes.

43

44

Boscolo, Alberto. L'abbazia di San Vittore, Pisa e la Sardegna. Padova: CEDAM, 1958: 31-​32, Coroneo, Roberto. Scultura mediobizantina in Sardegna. Nuoro: Poliedro, 2000: 104-​105 and the more recent Lauwers, Michel. “Réforme, romanisation, colonisation ? Les moines de Saint-Victor de Marseille en Sardaigne (2e moitié 11e 1ère moitié 12e siècle)”, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 48, 2013, pp. 229-282. Fontana, Laura Maria. “Memoria, trasmissione e verità storica”, Rivista di Estetica, 45 (2010): 91–​ 112. Gillis, John R. “Memory and identity: The history of a relationship”, Commemorations. The Politics of National Identity. John R. Gillis, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994; L’invenzione della tradizione. Hobsbawm, Eric J. Ranger, Terence, a cura di. Torino: Einaudi 1987; Tonkin, Elizabeth. Raccontare il nostro passato. La costruzione sociale della storia orale. Roma: Armando, 2000.

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6.1 The Metropolitan Archbishop of Caralis With this “narrative” he would have claimed his primacy over the diocese of Tharros/​Arborea that would be liberated from the barbarica gens thanks to a “Caralitan” martyr45. The hagiographic and “political” operation regarding Ephysius could have taken place in two moments: (1) before the subdivision of the ecclesiastical Provincia Sardiniae into the two archbishoprics of Caralis and Torres carried out by Gregory VII between 1073 and 1074. In this case, Ephysius would have been another of the martyrs of the metropolitan church of Caralis who, however, saved the Arborea region from the pagan and idolatrous gens barbarica, and later converted some inhabitants of Caralis; (2) after the subdivision; in this case, the former metropolitan archbishop of Caralis would have confirmed his authority over that territory until perhaps 1118, when an archbishop of Arborea is explicitly mentioned in a letter by the archbishop of Caralis (see § 1, note 4). 6.2 The Archon or Iudex of Sardinia There are two possible chronological options: (A) ante 1015/​1016 (Mujāhid’s partial conquest of Sardinia): the memory of an imperial army at the head of a Στρατηλάτης which resolved a serious crisis in Sardinia, may have survived46. If so, we could also hypothesize that the archon could have considered the Στρατηλάτης as a sort of prestigious “ancestor” to whom he ideally connects to consolidate his power, which was perhaps already

45

46

It should be remembered that the region of the future Giudicato of Arborea did not have its own “national” martyr, as even St. Luxorius -​according to his own Passio -​ was a martyr from Caralis, whose story in some ways recalls that of Ephysius, because he also converted, proselytised and was sentenced to death in the capital. Only after that, he was led outside the city walls for his execution that place near Forum Traiani (See § 6.4) We should stress that this title appears in the Codex Latinus Vaticanus and only when Ephysius is in Sardinia. Before that he is only mentioned by name, without any military title, but one understands that he is a person in charge of soldiers.

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in crisis due to endogenous and exogenous factors47. A very illustrious “ancestor” because of his victory and the divine help he received against his enemies. If so, the term Στρατηλάτης referring to the protagonist of the Passio could have a double meaning: that of supreme military commander of an imperial army sent or based in Sardinia (as Zabardas, dux Sardiniae), but also that of martyr protector of the army (that of the archon, as the ‘heir’ / representative of the imperial authority). (B) If the source is to be placed chronologically after 1015/​1016 the same considerations made in (A) apply. We can also add that the archon of Sardinia –​if he survived the conquest by Mujāhid –​may have encouraged or even promoted the writing of this Passio in order to have further arguments in favour of his authority (also) over the territory of Arborea, which, perhaps, had either already politically emancipated itself from him or was about to do so48. 6.3 The Archon or Iudex of Calari, the Direct Institutional Heir of the Former Archon of the Island The same considerations made in § 6.2.B for the Archon of Sardinia might apply in this case too. The political “authorship” of the Passio by the Iudex of Caralis -​active before 1058, according to indirect sources49 -​could be reinforced by the hypothesis of a political programme of “exposed writings” elaborated by the local Iudices for the restoration of the churches of St.

47

According to Zerubavel, Eviatar. Mappe del tempo. Memoria collettiva e costruzione sociale del passato. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2005: 102–​108, the intergenerational transitivity allows diverse elements, “generationally adjacent (fathers-​sons[…])” and arranged in a line of succession, to become a source of status and legitimacy. 48 According to Barone, Giulia. "La riforma gregoriana" in Storia dell'Italia religiosa. 1. L'antichità e il medioevo (a cura di Gabriele De Rosa, Tullio Gregory, André. Vauchez). Roma-​Bari: Laterza, 1993: 243–​270, the Reform popes promoted the inventio or enhancement of local relics, as a sign of the local political power's support for the ideals of Church's Reform, and allowed bishops to spread devotional cults with a redistribution of relics. 49 Marianus-​Salusius I, was mentioned by his grandson Judge Constantine-​Salusio II in a document from 1081–​89 as “avu meu iudiki Mariani” (“my grandfather Judge Marianus”): Tola, Pasquale. Codice diplomatico della Sardegna. Vol. I/​1, doc. 16: 160–​66.

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Ephysius and St. Antiochus50, and another possible “discourse” thanks to the alleged miracle performed by St George of Suelli in favour of the supposed progenitor of the dynasty of the Caralitan judges51. We could even suppose a sort of common claim between secular and ecclesiastical rulers –​for instance the judge and the Metropolitan archbishop of Caralis –​the two island authorities that may have been most damaged by the Reform policy of the Apostolic See, which recognised the existence of the four Giudicati, and splitted the ecclesiastical metropolitan province in the 1170s. A possibility that is not so remote if we consider that apostolic sources seem to show that Sardinian judges appointed bishops probably among the members of their own families in order to extend their dynastic power in their own territories52. 6.4 The Commune and the Church of Pisa The fourth possible beneficiary could be the Commune of Pisa that had played an important role in Sardinia starting from the expulsion of Mujāhid 50 Coroneo, Roberto. Scultura mediobizantina in Sardegna. Nuoro: Poliedro, 2000; Coroneo, Roberto, “La cultura artistica”, Ai confini dell’impero. Storia, arte e archeologia della Sardegna bizantina. Paola Corrias, Salvatore Cosentino, a cura di. Cagliari: M&T Sardegna, 2002: 99–​107. Coroneo, Roberto “Nuovo frammento epigrafico medioellenico a Sant’Antioco”, Theologica & Historica. Annali della pontificia facoltà teologica della Sardegna, XII (2003): 315–​325. 5 1 It is too long to examine the problematic Vita of this saint and its bibliography here. See among others: Motzo, Bacchisio Raimondo. “La vita e l’ufficio di S. Giorgio vescovo di Barbagia”, in Motzo, Bacchisio Raimondo. Studi sui Bizantini in Sardegna. Cagliari: Deputazione di storia patria per la Sardegna, 1987: 129-​154; Zedda, Corrado. "I giudici cagliaritani, la diffusione del culto di san Giorgio e la nascita della diocesi di Barbaria /​Suelli". Studi Ogliastrini, 13, 2012: 193-​220 and Gallinari, Luciano. “The Sardinian giudici between historical memory and identity. A matter of longue durée?”, in Luciano Gallinari (Ed.), Sardinia from the Middle Ages to Contemporaneity. A case study of a Mediterranean island identity profile. Berna: Peter Lang Publisher, 2018: 29-​44. 5 2 In a letter of 1065, Pope Alexander II warns Judge Orzoccus Torchitorius I of Caralis that he will not recognize as judges or bishops any child born of a marriage with a ruler’s consanguine. Italia Pontificia, X, Calabria –​ Insulae, in Regesta Pontificum Romanorum. Congessit P. F. Kehr. D. Gierghenson, edidit. Zurich: apud Weidmannos, 1975: V, 392.

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in 1015/​1016, and began to contend with the Commune of Genoa, for the political and economic control of the island. The Tuscan city may have played a role in this “cultural” and political operation together with the Church of Pisa, whose prelate was elevated to the rank of metropolitan archbishop in 1092. A date very close to the years 1087/​1088, when the relics of St. Ephysius would be moved from Nora to Pisa together with those of the Saints Potitus, Cesellus and Camerinus fellow martyrs of St. Luxorius53. The latter’s relics were kept in 1084 in the church and monastery of San Rusurio in the Selva del Tombolo funded by the Pisan Archbishop Gherardo54. Regarding this “traffic” of relics of Sardinian martyrs to Pisa, two scholars have claimed that Sardinia was so “overabundant” with relics that it became a “donor”55. I do not agree with this statement, since donating relics meant diminishing the prestige and importance of the diocese and/​or the sanctuary that kept them. This discourse was valid for the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Caralis, which for more than a decade had been subject to the policy of demansion wanted by the Apostolic See, as we have already said (§ 6.1). On the contrary, this sort of “pouring” of relics could serve to reinforce the prestige of the new metropolitan Tuscan archdiocese that replaced the Caralitan one in the metropolia of the ecclesiastical province of Sardinia. Hoever to the policy of demansion was also valid for the Sardinian Priory of the Victorines, which received the church of St Ephisius of Nora without the Saint’s relics that were moved to the Tuscan city one or two years before, precisely in a period when the monks began to worry about the growing competition of the Church of Pisa as recipient of Sardinian judges’ donations. As we said in § 6.1 the Passio of Luxorius shows interesting parallels with that of Ephysius: both martyrs were sent out of Caralis to be executed. The Passio of the first martyr claims that the Praeses decided this in order to prevent Luxorius’ followers from recovering his remains and 53 Roncioni, Raffaello. Delle Istorie Pisane Libri XVI, parte 1, Firenze, 1844, p. 114. and Tronci, Paolo. Memorie istoriche della città di Pisa. Livorno, 1682, p. 30–​31. 5 4 Mele, Giampaolo. “San Lussorio nella storia: culto e canti. Origini, Medioevo, Età Spagnola”. Santu Lussurgiu.Dalle origini alla “Grande Guerra”. II società e cultura. Giampaolo Mele, a cura di. Bolotana (NU): grafiche editoriali Solinas, 2005: 20–​21. 5 5 Zedda and Pinna, “La nascita dei Giudicati”: 97. On the subject of the translation of Sardinian martyrs’ relics, we also refer to Giovanni Serreli's chapter in this book.

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turning him into a reference figure for the whole Christian community. But if the praeses’ goal was that it was not necessary for the soldiers and the martyr of Caralis crossing half of Sardinia until Forum Traiani (over 100 km north of the capital of the imperial province) to carry out the execution. There were undoubtedly many other places to execute the martyr and dispose of his body along the way. The motivation given by the Passio seems very weak. So, once again is this another case of rewriting of the life of a martyr of whom there was a monument but whose biography was lost? As in the case of Ephisius? To answer this question, not here for reasons of space, we agree with the statements of a colleague and friend who has extensively dealt with the topic of Sardinian martyrs and saints, and their texts. He highlighted a very important concept, according to which it is always necessary to keep the elaboration of the antigraph of the Passio “X” clearly distinct from the later apographs. They could have had (very) different purposes56. 6.5 A Benedictine Monk Recently, a scholar has re-​proposed the hypothesis that the hagiographer of the Passio of St Ephysius was one of the many Benedictine monks who arrived in Sardinia in the second half of the 11th century. Perhaps he wrote his text even before the translation to Pisa of St. Ephysius’ relics (1087–​1088), at the behest of the Apostolic See, in order to promote the Latinisation of the Sardinian church that still had a Byzantine imprint. His text would have been aimed at consolidating the cult of the martyr57. 56

57

Mele, Giampaolo. “Codici agiografici, culto e pellegrini”: 564 hypothesised that the Passiones of Ephysius and Luxorius contained in the Latin Vatican Codex 6453 may also have been written in Sardinia, in the Victorin milieu, since this Order owned churches named after the two saints in the Giudicato of Calari: those of St Ephysius in Nora and Quarto (today Quartu Sant’Elena, in the metropolitan city of Cagliari) and that of St Luxorius in the present-​day village of Maracalagonis, about 20 km from Cagliari. Piredda, Anna Maria. “Sant’Efisio stratilates”, Bilinguismo e scritture agiografiche. Raccolta di studi, Vincenza Milazzo, Francesco Scorza Barcellona, a cura di. Roma: Viella, 2018: 152–​154. Over twenty years ago Mele, Giampaolo. “Codici agiografici, culto e pellegrini”: 538. the scholar pointed out that the cult of the saints represented an extraordinary instrument of “propaganda” and prestige, underlining at the same time that other deeper purposes should not be forgotten.

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Personally, we are not opposed to this interpretative hypothesis tout court, especially if we think of the Victorins of Marseilles, who were present in Sardinia at that time and received the donation of some churches. However, this recent hypothesis leaves us perplexed by some of the arguments used by the scholar who elaborated it; for instance, the claim that the Passio had the merit of exalting the Sardinian Church for its evangelisation of the Sardinian barbarica gens. In reality, there is no part of the text where it is stated that after the military defeat the Sardinian church converted that gens to Christianity; it simply disappears from the Passio58. We are equally perplexed by the assertion that the learned hagiographer included in the Latin Passio the toponyms “which anchor the event to the territory” and left the Greek term stratilates used by the faithful to address Ephysius. A few lines earlier, however, these people are described as “uncultured masses”, who spoke Sardinian and no longer understood Latin or Greek59. How familiar would these people be with coronyms such as “Aruorea/​ Arborea” and “Tirus/​Tharros”, whether they lived in Caralis, Nora or, even more, in other parts of the island than the Arborea region? According to this reasoning, the uncultured masses should have understood only a few words of Ephysius’ story….

7. Conclusions Before concluding these reflections and questions made aloud to which we have so far found no convincing answers, or even no answers at all, we want to stress that in the few cases we have examined, there are few reliable data on any friendly or hostile relations of the Saracens with Sardinia.

58 Piredda, Anna Maria. “Sant’Efisio stratilates”: 156. The scholar’s assertion derives from the following history as the Codex Vaticanus Latinus explicitly states only that Ephysius subjected all barbarian enemies to his (institutional) authority. Spanu, Pier Giorgio, “Martyria Sardiniae”: 165. 5 9 Piredda, Anna Maria. “Sant’Efisio stratilates”: 157–​158.

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Some opposing historiographic interpretations observed closely appear to be much less certain, due to the vagueness of their sources which referred to the presence on the island of generic enemy armies. Moreover, for some scholars it seems almost necessary to confirm the Saracen presence in Sardinia also through the Passiones, which, however, seem almost completely devoid of references to the Arab world in relation to Sardinia. For instance, there is no echo of the partial and temporary conquest of Sardinia by Mujāhid in hagiographic texts, some of which were composed at a short chronological distance from the events that, according to the sources, caused much suffering to the Sardinians, and, at least indirectly, caused major political and institutional changes on the island. This almost total absence of data would mirror what we have been saying for years about the scarcity and vagueness of Arab sources on the geography, political structure and society of the island in the early and central Middle Ages. Elements of a different nature that so far do not allow to affirm the presence of long-​term Muslim settlements in Sardinia. Finally, we would like to underline that the Passiones of Sardinian saints are extremely interesting sources because they show the will to re-​ narrate the history and forge new dynastic and institutional identities in the Giudicati Middle Ages, but also between the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, when once again the story of Ephysius, but not only –​appropriately interpreted with partisanship by some Sardinian historians of the period, laid the foundations for the construction of the concept of a “Sardinianness” based on the presumed values of the already mentioned gens barbarica, converted to Christianity after the defeat it suffered by the Caralitan martyr. A concept that, mutatis mutandis, is still active in today’s island society60.

60

See note 27.

Giovanni Serreli

The Epigraph of San Saturnino in Solanas (Cagliari, Sardinia)1

1. Introduction Over fifty years ago, in Solanas (Sinnai, Sardinia) (Figure 1) two fragments of an epigraph were accidentally found, which are now preserved and exhibited at the MuA, Sinnai Civic Museum and Archive2. The two fragments bear the following inscription “[…] +​SA [NCTI] SATURNINI […]” (Figure 2)3. 1

2 3

I would like to thank my colleague Luciano Gallinari for proposing me to participate in this webinar, all the components of the “Intercultural Influence between East and West: 11th-​21st centuries” bilateral project jointly carried out by the research units of the National Research Council –​Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe (CNR-​ISEM) in conjunction with the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technologies (ASRT). In drafting this contribution, I treasured the useful and stimulating exchanges of opinion with friends and colleagues Aldo Cappai, Mauro Dadea, Teobaldo Ghironi and Luca Sarriu, whom I thank here. MuA –​ Museo Civico di Sinnai. 20 September 2021 . Perra, Cesare. Storia di Sinnai dalle origini al 1960, Sinnai: “Su Fermentu” Cultural Association, 2005: 107; this book is the posthumous edition of a typewritten document from the 1980s through which the erudite handwritten notes of canon Msgr. Cesare Perra (+​1979) from Sinnai (Cagliari) were found. See Artizzu, Danila. “Nuove acquisizioni epigrafiche da Solanas (Comune di Sinnai)”, L’Africa Romana. Lo spazio marittimo del mediterraneo occidentale. Geografia storica ed economica. 14th International Study Conference Proceedings (Sassari, 7–​10 dicembre 2000), Mustapha Khanoussi, Paola Ruggeri, Cinzia Vismara, dirs. Rome: Carocci, 2002: 1797, no. 4, vol. III: 1795–​1805. On the name Saturnino, instead of Saturn, see Maninchedda, Paolo. “L’eredità di un filologo sardo. Con una precisazione su Saturninus”, Balaus annus et bonus. Studies in honor of Maurizio Virdis, Patrizia Serra and Giulia Murgia dirs. Florence: Franco Cesati Editore, 2019: 231–​250, together with the rich bibliography referred to therein.

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Figure 1.  Solanas (Cagliari, Sardinia).

Figure 2.  The two fragments of the epigraph of San Saturnino from Solanas, MuA - Civic Museum and Archive of Sinnai (Manunza, Maria Rosaria (ed.). Indagini archeologiche a Sinnai. Ortacesus: Nuove Grafiche Puddu, 2006: 211).

San Saturnino is the current patron saint of Cagliari, and its cult has been documented since the Middle Ages. There were and are churches dedicated to the martyr from Cagliari, and in this era the sovereigns of the Judicial Kingdom of Càlari used to evoke the Saint in the documents given out from their Chancery4 which were often issued precisely during 4

See, for example, the donation document of Orzocco-​Torchitorio of Càlari, dated around 1066–​1074, also issued “in gratia de Sanctu Saturnu nostru”; the document was published by Blasco Ferrer, Eduardo (ed.). Crestomazia sarda dei primi

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the feast of the saint so that the leading personalities could act as authentic witnesses of the document. Here I propose again, with more elements available, the possibility that this epigraph is pertinent to the relics of San Saturnino, and that these relics were either brought to the port settlement of Solanas, east of the ancient city of Carales, or that they transited through this port, staying there for a short period, to be protected and saved, perhaps from some Arab danger coming from the sea. This hypothesis, already proposed in the past, has today been backed up by recent studies dedicated to the dating and interpretation of the epigraph and its context, and also by the very recent publication of two other important epigraphic finds in Arabic from the Basilica of San Saturnino (SS. Cosma and Damiano) in Cagliari; these epigraphic finds are contextualized here, with references to the tradition of the martyr’s passio, to the historical events taking place in the 7th–​10th centuries and to the landscape reconstruction of the south-​eastern coast of Sardinia during those centuries.

2. The Cult and the Basilica of San Saturnino in Cagliari The historicity of San Saturnino (and not Saturn, Sadurru in Sardinian) –​a young Christian martyred in Carales in 304 AD, during the persecutions of Diocletian –​is now deemed certain, as is his local origin; the memory has come down to us through the tradition of the Passio and a series of testimonies on the place or places dedicated to his worship; obviously here I do not want to cover the details of these topics, which have also recently been dealt with in a complete and exhaustive manner by Giorgio Mameli, Rossana Martorelli and Antonio Piras5.

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secoli. Nuoro: Ilisso edizioni, 2003 (Officina Linguistica, year IV, n. 4, December 2003), 43–​50. Lastly: Mameli, Giorgio. “Memoria Martyrum. San Saturnino di Cagliari”, San Saturnino patrono della Città di Cagliari nel 17° centenario del martirio. Conference held in the council chamber of the Municipality of Cagliari (28 ottobre 2004). s.l.: s.d.: 85–​192; Martorelli, Rossana. Martiri e devozioni nella Sardegna altomedievale e medievale. Archeologia, storia, tradizione. Cagliari: PTFS University Press, 2012: 69–​102; Martorelli, Rossana. “Riferimenti topografici nelle Passiones dei martiri sardi”, L’agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Study Conference

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Probably since the martyrdom and, in any case, since the Edict of Constantine of 313, the martyr’s burial place had been an object of worship and here later a single-​apse basilica was built6, attested with certainty in the first decades of the 6th century (between 517 and 523) in the biography of Fulgenzio di Ruspe, an African bishop exiled by the Vandals, in which we read that the prelate himself had permission from the local bishop Brumasio to found a monastery “iuxta basilicam sancti martyris Saturnini, longe a strepitu civitatis”7 (Figure 3). However, the monumental martyrial building of Cagliari was built in the middle of the 6th century, at the same time as the great basilica buildings in the Byzantine Province of Sardinia just returned with Justinian, in 534, in the classical orbit of the Eastern Roman Empire8; the forms attributable to the 6th century have been recognizable until today (Figure 4), despite the heavy reconstruction work carried out by the monks of San Vittore of Marseille in the 11th century, according to the canons of the Romanesque style, and despite the interventions in the modern age and the dramatic damage caused by the bombings of the Second World War, in the last century (1943).

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Proceedings (Cagliari, 4–​5 dicembre 2015), Antonio Piras and Danila Artizzu, dirs. Cagliari: PTF University Press, 2016: 161–​198. 164–​180; Piras, Antonio (ed.). “Passio Satvrnini (BHL 749I) accedentibus Legenda (BHL 7490) et Hymno (BHL 7491 b)”. Passiones Martyrum Sardiniae, Piras, Antonio, dir. Hildesheim –​Zürich –​ New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2017: 11–​50. Martorelli, Rossana. “Riferimenti topografici”: 179. Martorelli, Rossana. Martiri e devozioni …: 22 e 71; on the activity of the monastery and the scriptorium, see Mele, Giampaolo. “Il monastero e lo scriptorium di Fulgenzio di Ruspe a Cagliari nel VI secolo tra culto, cultura e il Mediterraneo”, Il papato di San Simmaco (498–​514). International Study Conference Proceedings (Oristano, 16–​19 novembre 1998), Giampaolo Mele and Natalino Spaccapelo, dirs. Cagliari: Pontificia Facoltà Teologica della Sardegna, 2000: 199–​229. Coroneo, Roberto. “La basilica di San Saturnino a Cagliari nel quadro dell’architettura mediterranea del VI secolo”, San Saturnino patrono della Città di Cagliari nel diciassettesimo centenario del martirio. Conference held in the council chamber of the Municipality of Cagliari (28 ottobre 2004). s.l.: s.d.: 79.

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Figure 3.  Apse present in the northern area of ​​the Basilica (Martorelli, Rossana and Mureddu, Donatella (eds.). Archeologia urbana a Cagliari. Scavi in Vico III Lanusei (1996–1997). Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2006: 24).

Figure 4.  The Basilica of San Saturnino in Cagliari (Sardegna Cultura, Autonomous Region of Sardinia: https://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/258?s=18065&v=2&c=2488&t=1).

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3. The Arabic Inscriptions from the Basilica of San Saturnino in Cagliari Going back to the subject of this contribution, archaeologist and friend Danila Artizzu had already hypothesized that the discovery of the epigraph of San Saturnino in Solanas was not only the testimony of the widespread diffusion of the cult but also in the extra-​urban rural area of Carales9; in fact, by classifying this important artifact as a reliquary lid datable between the 7th and 8th centuries, the author herself hypothesized that the find may have contained for a certain period the relics of the martyr quoted in the epigraph10. In support of this already valid hypothesis, today we have further elements, not yet known when Danila Artizzu had published her works. I refer first, and above all, to the two inscriptions in Arabic recently found in the excavation area of the Basilica of San Saturnino in Cagliari. These are two inscriptions sharing the use of the Arabic language11.

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Martorelli, Rossana. “La diffusione del culto dei martiri e dei santi in Sardegna in età tardoantica e medievale”, Culti, santuari, pellegrinaggi in Sardegna e nella Penisola Iberica tra Medioevo ed Età Contemporanea, Maria Giuseppina Meloni, Olivetta Schena, dirs. Genoa: Brigati editore, 2006: 275–​337. Artizzu, Danila. “Nuove acquisizioni epigrafiche …”: vol. III, 1803; Artizzu, Danila. “L’attestazione di un san Saturnino in un’epigrafe altomedievale da Solanas”, Insulae Christi. Il cristianesimo primitivo in Sardegna, Corsica e Baleari, Pier Giorgio Spanu dir. Oristano: S’Alvure, 2002: 201–​208; Artizzu, Danila. “L’occupazione del territorio in età storica”, Indagini archeologiche a Sinnai, Maria Rosaria Manunza dir. Ortacesus: Nuove Grafiche Puddu, 2006: 203; Artizzu, Danila and Corda, Antonio M. “Viabilità, risorse e luoghi di culto nella Sardegna rurale bizantina”, Orientis radiata fulgore. La Sardegna nel contesto storico e culturale bizantino, Lucio Casula, Antonio M. Corda, Antonio Piras, dirs. Ortacesus: Nuove Grafiche Puddu Editore, 2008: 75–​94. Salvi, Donatella. “Parole per caso. Vecchie e nuove iscrizioni funerarie senza contesto a Cagliari e dintorni”, L’epigrafe di Marcus Arrecinus Helius. Esegesi di un reperto: i plurali di una singolare iscrizione. Study Day Proceedings (Senorbì, 23 aprile 2010), A. Forci dir. Senorbì: Sandhi editore, 2011: 109–​110, 114, 123; Fois, Piero-​Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino: specchio di una società multiculturale tra IX e X secolo”, Settecento Millecento. Storia, archeologia e arte nei “secoli bui” del Mediterraneo, Rossana Martorelli dir. Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2013: 853–​879.

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The former, a graffiti in a block built in the Romanesque building (11th/​12th century) of the basilica, is difficult to read; for its dating its first publishers have proposed a wide chronological span going from the first half of the 9th to the second half of the 10th century (Figure 5)12.

Figure 5.  Arabic graffiti inscription from San Saturnino Basilica, first half of the 9th-half of the 10th century (Fois, Piero-Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino: specchio di una società multiculturale tra IX e X secolo”, Settecento Millecento. Storia, archeologia e arte nei “secoli bui” del Mediterraneo, Rossana Martorelli directed by Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2013: 879).

The latter, on the other hand, is an erratic block in hard limestone, which appears to be of local extraction, bearing an epigraph of non-​ excellent workmanship in two lines; the publishers –​Donatella Salvi and Piero Fois –​have considered it to be an incomplete funerary epigraph, dated to the beginning of the 10th century (294 H =​906/​907 A.D.), even if the arguments do not seem so stringent; based on the context of the Arab incursions and on the relationship of the Sardiniae Province with the motherland Byzantium, it could be dated even earlier than a century (Figure 6)13. 1 2 1 3

Fois, Piero-​Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino…”: 863–​865. Salvi, Donatella. “Parole per caso…”: 109–​110, 114, 123; Fois, Piero-​Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino…”: 861–​863. See, for a more correct dating, also Metcalfe, Alex. “Early Muslim Raids on Byzantine Sardinia”, The Making of Medieval Sardinia, Alex Metcalfe, Hervin Fernández-​Aceves and Marco Muresu (eds.). Leiden-​Boston: Brill, 2021: 152–​153.

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Figure 6.  Arabic epigraph from San Saturnino Basilica, probably attributable to the 9th or early 10th century (Fois, Piero-Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino…”: 878).

To contextualize these epigraphic finds in the events of the Mediterranean and the Sardinian Province in the last centuries of the first millennium, we can focus on two periods during which Sardinia appeared more exposed to Muslim pressure and less protected by the Byzantine Empire; during these moments, unspecified representatives from Sardinia tried to weave diplomatic relations with various Mediterranean interlocutors to obtain protection, peace or, at least, periods of truce. The first of these two moments of great hardship in the Sardiniae Province can be circumscribed to the first three decades of the 9th century. In fact, alongside a loss of imperial control over the Byzantine Province of Sardinia from the beginning of the 9th century14, contemporary Latin sources hand down some raids from al-​Andalus through Corsica, between

14 Serreli, Giovanni. “Il passaggio all’età giudicale: il caso di Càlari”, Settecento-​ Millecento Storia, Archeologia e Arte nei “secoli bui” del Mediterraneo Dalle fonti scritte, archeologiche ed artistiche alla ricostruzione della vicenda storica la Sardegna laboratorio di esperienze culturali. Study Conference Proceedings (Cagliari, 17–19 ottobre 2012), Rossana Martorelli dir., Cagliari: Scuola Sarda Editrice, 2015: 67–​68, with the bibliographical references referred to therein.

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806/​7 and 809/​1015, perhaps to mean that the relative pax following the payment of the jizya –​starting from 135 of the Hegira =​753 A.D. –​had ceased16. The worsening of incursions and dangers coming from the sea –​also due to the breaking of the three-​year peace stipulated in 812 with Abulaz the Evil (Emir Al-​Hakam ibn Hisham, 796–​822)17 –​led unspecified “Legates sardorum de Carali civitate dona ferentes” to make an embassy in Traiectum (Frankfurt) to the Court of Emperor Louis the Pious18; consequence of this situation and, perhaps, of the embassy itself, was the commitment of the Frankish fleet commanded by Count Bonifacio II of Tuscia to patrol the Corsican and Sardinian coasts around the year 82819. The second, less probable, historical moment that could somehow have caused the production of the two inscriptions in Arabic –​if they were linked together –​in connection with a possible movement of the relics of the holy martyr Saturninus, could be identified in the fourth decade of the 10th century. In fact, in 934/​935 (323 of the Hegira) an incursion against

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Annales regni Francorum, inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829: qui dicuntur Annales laurissenses maiores et Einhardi, ed. Georg Heinrich Pertzii. Hannoverae: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1895: 120–​133. Internet Archive. 20 September 2021 . 16 Gallinari, Luciano. “The first Muslim incursions in Sardinia and their consequences on the island (6th-​11th century). Some reflections”, Relations between East and West. Various Studies: Medieval and Contemporary Ages, Ali Ahmed El-​Sayed, Luciano Gallinari, Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar dirs. Cairo: Dar al-​Kitab al-​Gamey, 2017: 38–​41. 17 Annales regni Francorum, inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829…: 136–​137. 18 Annales regni Francorum, inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829…: 143 and Einhardi. Omnia quae extant opera. Tomus I, ed. Alexandre Teulet. Paris: Crapelet, 1840: 314–​315. The purpose and meaning of the embassy and the gifts brought by the ambassadors, in our case Sardinians, had already been highlighted in Casula, Francesco Cesare. La Storia di Sardegna. Sassari: Carlo Delfino editore, 1994: 351, drawing on the classic Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne et l’empire carolingien. Paris: Éditions Albin Michel, 1949: 159. The topic was taken up and deepened by Renzi Rizzo, Catia. “Annotazioni sulla circolazione dei doni nel Mediterraneo altomedievale (secoli VIII–​X): la testimonianza delle fonti arabe”, Uomini, merci e commerci nel Mediterraneo da Giustiniano all’Islam (VI-​X sec.). Conference Proceedings (Bordighera, 3–​4 dicembre 2004). C.s. September 20, 2021. . 19 Gallinari, Luciano. “The first Muslim incursions…”: 40–​ 41, which resumes Astronomus. Vita Hludovici Imperatoris, ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz. Hannoverae, 1829: 613. See also Annales regni Francorum, inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829…: 176.

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Genoa by a Muslim fleet from North Africa is attested which, upon return, also touched a Sardinian city, probably the ancient Carales, which suffered serious damage20. In the awareness of the extreme complexity of the Mediterranean events of this century and of the few sources at our disposal, it is precisely in these decades, following 934–​935, that we can also circumscribe the transition to the so-​called Giudicale Age, in conjunction with what happens in the rest of the Mediterranean due to the fragmentation of powers in the Western Muslim sphere and, in particular, to the increasing autonomy of local potentates on the outskirts of the Caliphate of Córdoba21; on the opposite side, among the Christian potentates, there is a strong reorganization to ensure the defense of the coasts and its economy, also considering the crisis that, in the 10th century, both the papacy and the empire went through22. 20 Kedar, Benjamin Zeev. “Una nuova fonte per l’incursione musulmana del 934–​935”. Oriente e Occidente tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Studies in honor of Geo Pistarino, Laura Balletto dir. Genoa: Glauco Brigati, 1997, vol. II, 605–​616. If so, even though the Muslims were rejected, perhaps this episode caused the ancient city of Carales to be abandoned in favor of a more protected area such as the one on the edge of the Santa Gilla Pond, west of the current city of Cagliari (Casula, Francesco Cesare. La Storia …: vol. II, 475–​476, 889). The “urgency and necessity reasons”, recalled by Rossana Martorelli (Martorelli, Rossana. “Krly-​Villa Sanctae Igiae (Cagliari). Alcune considerazioni sulla rioccupazione dell’area urbana di età fenicio-​punica in età giudicale”. Epi Oinopa Ponton. Studi sul Mediterraneo antico in ricordo di Giovanni Tore, Carla Del Vais dir. Oristano: S’Alvure, 2012: 707), which caused the abandonment of the late ancient city in favor of the new center, can be traced back to a traumatic event such as a devastating Muslim raid. This episode –​if referred to Carales –​was therefore so traumatic that it marked the end of the ancient late Roman and Byzantine city and led to the birth of a new center –​the medieval city of Santa Igia –​which, wherever it was located, was other than the old capital as the name itself indicates. 2 1 Scales, Peter C. The Fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba: Berbers and Andalusis in Conflict. Leiden New York; Koln: Brill, 1994; Clément, François. Pouvoir et légitimité en Espagne musulmane à l’époque des taifas (V-​XI siècle). L’Imam fictif. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997. 2 2 A picture of the Mediterranean situation between the 8th and 10th centuries can be found in Picard, Christophe. “Retour sur la piraterie sarrasine d’Al-​Andalus contre le monde latin (Italie et Provence) au IXe et Xe siecle”, Quel mar che la terra inghirlanda. In ricordo di Marco Tangheroni, Franco Cardini and Maria Luisa Ceccarelli Lemut dirs. Rome: National Research Council, 2007, vol. II, 577–​596 and in Renzi Rizzo, Catia. “Le relazioni fra cristiani e musulmani nella prima meta del X secolo: una prospettiva italica”. Quel mar che la terra inghirlanda. In ricordo di Marco Tangheroni, Franco Cardini and Maria Luisa Ceccarelli Lemut dirs. Rome: National

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Also in this circumstance, to the resurgence of danger corresponds the search for peace negotiations through the diplomatic channels then practicable: in August 942 (330 of the Hijra) an ambassador was sent by the Lord of Sardinia to the Caliph of Cordoba ‘Abd ar-​Rahmân III (929–​961) to ask for peace and covenant; the ambassador was accompanied by Amalfi merchants carrying precious merchandise23. This could mean that the raid of 934–​935 had destroyed the fleet and that now reference was made to the town of Amalfi, which returned to the Eastern Empire24. On such premises, we can ask ourselves some questions: the two inscriptions in Arabic from San Saturnino in Cagliari, briefly described above, are perhaps to be related to one of the incursions of the first decade of the 9th century or to the one that perhaps touched Sardinia in 935? And were the two epigraphs in Arabic, located in a place now strongly

Research Council, 2007, vol. II, 651–​663, where the previous bibliography is duly referenced. 23 The source, the bibliography, and the historical context in which this episode is inserted are in Renzi Rizzo, Catia. “I rapporti diplomatici fra il re Ugo di Provenza e il califfo ‘Abd ar-​Raman III: fonti cristiane e fonti arabe a confronto”. Il mare, la terra, il ferro. Ricerche su Pisa medievale (secoli VII–​XIII), Graziella Berti, Catia Renzi Rizzo, Marco Tangheroni dirs. Pisa: Pacini editore, 2004: 247–​278. See also Metcalfe, Alex. “Muslim conctat with Sardinia”. The Making of Medieval Sardinia, ... : 248–​250, who assumes comparisons of extension between the new vast palace of the caliph and the center of Santa Igia, still not securely located and uncertain by extension as well as by period of formation. These diplomatic contacts, these embassies, these agreements between the Christian and the Muslim worlds were by no means the exception in the 10th century, also due to the above-​mentioned fragmentation leading each institutional entity to identify strategic and diplomatic paths that would allow their survival. We are in a frontier world; the Mediterranean is, even in this historical juncture, a frontier between the peripheries of two opposing worlds, where piracy and privateering coexist with commercial exchanges and diplomatic relations. On piracy and its use as a strategic and diplomatic tool by the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Taifas derived from it, see the contributions by Bruce, Travis. “The politics of violence and trade: Denia and Pisa in the eleventh century”. Journal of Medieval History, 32 (2006): 127–​142 and Bruce, Travis. “Piracy as Statecraft: The Mediterranean Policies of Fifth/​Eleventh-​Century Taifa of Denia”, Al-​Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, 22, 3 (2010): 235–​248. 2 4 Zedda, Corrado-​ Pinna, Raimondo. “La nascita dei giudicati. Proposta per lo scioglimento di un enigma storiografico”, Archivio storico e giuridico sardo di Sassari, 12 n.s. (2007): 34–​36.

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identifying the capital city of the Byzantine Province and seat of civil (and military) power, the sign “of a multicultural society between the 9th and 10th centuries”25 or do they testify to a real Muslim occupation, albeit partial and temporary? At present we do not have any solid elements to support either of these antithetical hypotheses or conceive others 26. In any case –​whether it was a military occupation or a peaceful coexistence –​there would be all the elements to think that the monks of the Calaritan Basilica of San Saturnino thought of protecting the relics of the main saint of the city from feared, immediate dangers; consequently, the relics of San Saturnino would have been moved –​even if only momentarily –​ to a place considered safer, which I will tackle below. In fact, in the eyes of the contemporary custodians of the Basilica and of the sacred relics kept in it, there was an evident situation of danger; there was probably an Arab presence in loco, attested by the inscriptions, and the incursions –​no longer from North Africa but from al-​Andalus –​seemed to the contemporaries to have regained greater vigor; especially since the Basilica was even closer to the coast line than it is today, therefore easily reachable from the sea, rising almost at the top of the inlet that is now occupied by the Cimitero and Bonaria streets, between the homonymous hill and the neighborhood of Villanova27.

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Fois, Piero-​Salvi, Donatella. “San Saturnino…”: 853. The subsequent short and partial conquest of Mujāhid in 1015/​1016 could make us lean towards temporary occupation, since the prince of Dénia probably wanted to return to places already conquered in previous centuries and believed to belong to the Arabs according to the sources of the time; see Serreli, Giovanni. “Tra storia e archeologia: la località di Piscina Nuxedda alle origini del Regno giudicale di Càlari”, Ricordando Alberto Boscolo: Bilanci e prospettive storiografiche, Maria Giuseppina Meloni, Anna Maria Oliva, Olivetta Schena. Rome: Viella, 2016: 125–​140. 27 Martorelli, Rossana. “L’assetto del ‘quartiere portuale’ nella Cagliari bizantina”, Conoscere il mare per vivere il mare. Conference Proceedings (Cagliari, 7–​9 March 2019), Rossana Martorelli dir. Perugia: Morlacchi Editore, 2019: 84 e 94; Soro, Laura, “L’approdo portuale di Cagliari in età tardoantica e bizantina: traffici commerciali e relazioni di scambio”, Conoscere il mare per vivere il mare. Conference Proceedings (Cagliari, 7–​9 marzo 2019), Rossana Martorelli dir. Perugia: Morlacchi Editore, 2019: 290.

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4. Circulation of Cults and Relics in the Early Medieval Mediterranean Placed in the Calaritan context of the Arabic inscriptions, the Solanas epigraph then acquires an even more important role; the considerable value of this artifact increases even more within the context of the circulation of relics and related cults in the Mediterranean during the 8th and 9th centuries. At the beginning of the 6th century Sardinia had already been the destination of relics from North Africa, brought by Bishop Fulgenzio and his followers, exiled to the island by the Vandals; just think of the relics of Saint Augustine or the Scillitan martyrs. With the Muslim expansion in the Mediterranean and due to the beginning of the incursions also in the Byzantine Province of Sardinia from the first decade of the 8th century, to preserve the imported relics as well as those of local martyrs and saints from any desecration, these were the object of greater attention and some of them were taken to safer places, off the island. This is the case of the relics of St. Augustine moved (at a price) to Pavia in 721/​722 by the Lombards of Liutprando28; or, again, the relics of Saints Lussorio, Efisio and Potito ended up in Pisa in unknown ways and times, in any case before the 11th century29. 28

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Beda il Venerabile, Chronica maiora, ed. Theodor Mommsen, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores antiquissimi. Berolini: Weidmannos, 1897: XIII, III, 321; the autor of the Chronicon S. Amandi di Elnon (Fiandre) writes: «DCCXXII: corpus S. Augustini a Sardinia Ticiniis transfertur, agente Leutprando rege Langobardorum» (Thesaurus novus anedoctorum, ed. Edmond Martène-​Durand Ursini, Tomo III, Paris: Florentin Delaulne, 1717, col. 1392); the Annales Novesienses (Noyon), referring to the year 721, in fact report: «DCCXXI -​Ossa S. Augustini hipponensis episcopi, olim translata ad Sardiniam, vastata modo a Sarracenis Sardinia, Liuthprandus rex Longobardorum, dato magno pretio transfert Papiam» (Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum, ed. Martène Edmond. Paris: François Montalant, 1724, vol. IV, col. 532). Ceccarelli Lemut, Maria Luisa –​Garzella Gabriella. “Sulle rotte dei santi. Circolazione di culti e di reliquie a Pisa (VI-​XII secolo)”, Reliques et sainteté dans l’espace médiéval, Jean-​Luc Deuffic dir. Pecia. Ressources en médiévistique, 8/​11 (2005): 227–​ 244; Ceccarelli Lemut, Maria Luisa, “Il Mediterraneo dei Santi. Culti e reliquie a Pisa, secoli VI-​XII”/​“The Mediterranean of Saints. Cults and relics in Pisa, 6th -​12th Centuries”, Rime 1/​II n.s. (December 2017): 11–​15. See also Martorelli, Rossana; Mura, Lucia; Muresu, Marco; Soro, Laura. “Il ruolo delle isole maggiori e minori nella diffusione del culto dei santi. Dinamiche e modalità di circolazione della devozione”,

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The same fate may have had the relics of the Calaritan martyr, or at least part of them; of this attempt there is residual testimony of the epigraph of Solanas with the inscription “San Saturnino”, read with all the news and information on the context of discovery.

5. The Epigraph of San Saturnino in Solanas The epigraph was found in Solanas, in Campu Longu or San Pietro, in a private house, where the ashlar was used in a fireplace (Figure 7); it is a parallelepiped in smooth hard limestone which at the time of discovery was 1.32 m long and 0.62 m wide. Currently, the epigraph consists of two fragments whose dimensions are smaller than in the past (Figure 2)30.

Figure 7.  The discovery place: Solanas, Campu Longu / San Pietro (Google maps).

30

L’agiografia sarda antica e medievale: testi e contesti. Study Conference Proceedings (Cagliari, 4–​5 dicembre 2015), Rossana Martorelli, Antonio Piras, Pier Giorgio Spanu, dirs. Cagliari: PTF University Press, 2016: 161–​198. Perra, Cesare. Storia di Sinnai …: 107; Artizzu, Danila. “Nuove acquisizioni …”: vol. III, 1797, n. 4.

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The information gathered by Danila Artizzu, however, confirms that it was part of a reliquary altar in place with another block, also in limestone, of which the inhabitants and locals remembered the existence. Traces of this block have been lost; recently, thanks to a friend, I was able to recover some images of the base of the altar from a private collection of photographs (Figure 8).

Figure 8.  Probable second element of the reliquary altar (photograph from a private collection).

The archaeologist pointed out that these finds were made of pietra forte, that is, limestone probably from Cagliari; on site, instead, only granite is available. Hence, the epigraph was nothing more than the lid of a reliquary altar made with a locally unavailable material but most likely coming from the quarries of ancient Carales. This could suggest that the relics were transported together with the reliquary altar containing them; in-​depth investigations would obviously be required on the material of the epigraph and of the other currently untraceable block. The pattern of the epigraph and the letters of the inscription suggest a dating between the 7th and 8th centuries31, however compatible with the chronological context defined so far. The monumentality of the characters of the inscription, the dimensions of the finds and the material used would 31

Artizzu, Danila. “Nuove acquisizioni …”: vol. III, 1800.

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not suggest a small rural building of worship, connected to its diffusion which, radiating from the city, reaches rural and peripheral areas; they would rather suggest a structure of considerable size and importance. Moreover, erratic finds of considerable workmanship, in limestone, were still visible until recently in the area called Campu Longu or San Pietro (Figure 9). Archaeological investigations would be necessary throughout the area, but the site is somewhat compromised by tourist urbanization.

Figure 9.  Other building elements, in “pietra forte” or local granite, emerging in the place where the epigraph was found (photograph from a private collection).

6. The Territory of Solanas and the Eastern Area of Carales The hypothesis that the relics of the Saint, the current patron saint of Cagliari, were brought or passed through to Solanas may be plausible if we consider, in addition to what we have summarized above, the lively settlement situation of the vast territory of south-​eastern Sardinia from late antiquity to the Middle Ages. Meanwhile, the archaeological investigations conducted throughout the territory of Solanas, belonging to the Municipality of Sinnai in the metropolitan area of Cagliari, have shown a continuity of settlement in

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all historical periods32. Drawing our attention to the historical era and to Christian places of worship, various churches were built in this area: –​ The church of San Pietro (Saint Peter), near the coast, no longer existing today, was linked to a port town until the late Middle Ages; the toponym Su Portu (The Port), which still exists, seems to confirm this. Among other things, the hagiotoponym cannot fail to recall the church of San Pietro dei Pescatori (Saint Peter of the fishermen) in Cagliari; –​ The church of Sant’Elena (Saint Helena), of which very few traces remain today; –​ Between the two churches mentioned above, the church of Santa Barbara, whose ruins still exist further inland, in the rich valley of Solanas. As for the churches of “San Pietro di Sinnie” and “Santa Barbara”, Manno affirmed the existence of two monasteries prior to the 13th century33. In the latter, two Greek epigraphs were found and studied which would therefore attest that this church was officiated by monks of the Greek rite in the Byzantine era34. The territory of Solanas, especially the valley crossed by the river of the same name, was very rich and populated, as evidenced by the late medieval censuses that attested to the existence of the villages inheriting the settlements of the early Middle Ages35. There were various church buildings, two of which are very important; one of these was certainly of Greek rite, whereas the other probably of Latin rite36. They were therefore 32 Manunza, Maria Rosaria (ed.). Indagini archeologiche a Sinnai. Ortacesus: Nuove Grafiche Puddu, 2006. 3 3 Manno, Giuseppe. Storia di Sardegna, Capolago: Tipografia Elvetica, 1840: VIII, 90. 3 4 Artizzu, Danila. “Nuove acquisizioni …”: vol. III, 1801; Artizzu, Danila and Corda, Antonio M. “Viabilità, risorse …”: 75–​94. 3 5 Aveni Cirino, Aldo-​Serreli, Giovanni. “Un inedito Componiment o censo individual del 1353 relativo al feudo di Gherardo Donoratico, nel Regno di ‘Sardegna e Corsica’. Prima notizia”, RiMe. Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterrane, 11/​1 (December 2013): 169–​190. 3 6 Martorelli, Rossana. “Comunità monastiche italo-​greche in Sardegna. Una questione ancora aperta”, Monasteri italo-​greci (sec. VII-​XI). Una lettura archeologica, Federico Marazzi -​Chiara Raimondo dirs. Cerro al Volturno (IS): Volturnia edizioni, 2018: 115–​ 128; Martorelli, Rossana. “Basiliani e monachesimo orientale in Sardegna”. Per Sardiniae insulam constituti. Gli ordini religiosi nel Medioevo sardo (Vita Regularis. Ordnungen und Deutungen religiosen Lebens in Mittelalter, 62), Pierantonio Piatti, Massimiliano Vidili dirs. Münster: Lit Verlag, 2014: 37–​72.

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inhabited and conducted by monastic communities able to welcome, honor and protect any relics. In addition to this, turning our gaze to the whole south-​eastern coast, we notice its intense vivacity in late ancient and early medieval ages; the echo of this remains in the 14th-​century censuses mentioned above before the demographic and settlement collapse due to the historical vicissitudes of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also involving the south-​east coast37. Here we remember some hagiotoponyms of clear Byzantine origin, or the toponym Capitana38; the sites of Geremeas are also noteworthy and indicative39 with the more internal ones of Santa Forada, San Basilio, San Gregorio, San Pietro and Santa Maria di Paradiso40, up to the east coast, with the sites of Sarcapos, San Vito, San Priamo and San Giovanni41. As for the south-​east coast, the ruins of the church of Santu Miali, at Is Mortorius, on the coast of the littoral area of Quartu Sant’Elena42, 37

Serreli, Giovanni. “Continuity and catastrophes in the evolution of settlement in Late Antique and Medieval Sardinia”, RiMe. Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 3 n.s. (December 2018): 5–​38; Serreli, Giovanni. “Alcuni casi di pianificazione dell’insediamento in epoca giudicale”, Sardegna e Mediterraneo tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Studi in onore di Francesco Cesare Casula, Maria Giuseppina Meloni, Olivetta Schena dirs. Genoa: Brigati editore, 2009: 345–​361; Serreli, Giovanni. “Sinnai e il suo territorio nella storia”, Sinnai. Storia Arte Documenti, Silvia Ledda dir., Quartu Sant’Elena: IGES, 2009: 1–​15; Serreli, Giovanni. “Vita e morte dei villaggi rurali in Sardegna tra Stati giudicali e Regno di Sardegna e Corsica”, RiMe. Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea, 2 (June 2009): 109–​115. 38 Serreli, Giovanni. “Tra storia e archeologia…”: 125–​140. 39 Spano, Giovanni. Memoria sopra l’antico oppido o villa di Geremeas. Cagliari: Tip. Edit. Dell’Avvenire di Sardegna, 1873. 40 Serreli, Giovanni. “Tra storia e archeologia…”: 125–​140; on the name “Paradise”, of Byzantine origin, see the interesting reflections by Mele, Maria Grazia. Oristano capitale giudicale (secoli XI-​XIII). Cagliari: Edizioni dell’Istituto sui rapporti italo iberici, 1999: 41–​43, along with their bibliographical references. 4 1 Serreli, Giovanni. “L’insediamento nel territorio di Muravera e nelle curadorìas di Colostrai, Sarrabus e Quirra fra il Medioevo e la prima Età Moderna”, Torri, Territorio e Mare, Maria Grazia Mele, Giovanni Serreli dirs. Cagliari: CNR-​ISEM, 2008: 47–​71; Pili, Tiziana. Il Medioevo nella Sardegna sud-​orientale. Storia delle ville o biddas delle curatorìe di Sarrabus, Colostrai e Quirra. Dolianova: Grafica del Parteolla, 2010. 42 Serra, Renata. “Ruderi di una chiesetta tardo-​bizantina a Is Mortorius”, Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia e Magistero, XXXV (1973): 215–​221; Sanna, Fabrizio-​Sarriu, Luca. “Un edificio ecclesiastico d’età altomedievale nella Sardegna meridionale: la chiesa di Santu Miali a Is Mortorius (Quartu Sant’Elena)”, ABside. Rivista di Storia dell’Arte, 3 (2021): 43–​68.

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also recently studied, deserve particular attention, which, together with the churches of Santa Maria di Paradiso, Sant’Elena di Geremeas, of Sant’Elena, Santa Barbara and San Pietro in Solanas, and Santa Maria di Carbonara provide us with the picture of an intense Christianization process in a lively man-​made territory that drew its resources from agriculture and breeding practiced in the hinterland as well as from maritime trade through the ports and inlets of the coast. Not surprisingly, following the deconstruction of the ancient Carales43, the archontal court first and then “giudicale”, leaving the ancient city, first moved towards the east coast, leaving the memory of its stay in Pluminos still in the 12th century, when the Judicatus was called “de Pluminos”; notable is also the toponym Sa domu de su Jugi (the house of the Judge) which insists on it44; only from the end of the 12th century does Santa Gilla appear as the capital of the Kingdom. 43 Martorelli, Rossana e Mureddu, Donatella (eds.). Archeologia urbana a Cagliari. Scavi nella chiesa di Sant’Eulalia alla Marina. Il quartiere dalle origini ai giorni nostri: status quaestionis all’inizio della ricerca. Perugia: Morlacchi Editore, 2020. 4 4 The “villa” of Pluminos (Flumenale) was located a few kilometers inland from the current hamlet of Flumini, in the countryside of Quartu Sant’Elena; around its pertinence there were vast judicial possessions, attested by the toponyms Sa dom’ ‘e Su Jugi as well as S’ortu de Su Giuggi. In 1859, fragments of a mosaic floor were also found near the archaeological remains called Sa dom ‘and Su Jugi (De La Marmora, Alberto. Itinerario dell’isola di Sardegna, translated and summarized by can. Spano. Cagliari, 1868, vol. I, 73); unfortunately, only the memory and these bibliographical references remain of these testimonies. It is evident that this villa was chosen as one of the seats of the itinerant Calaritan judicial court, between the moment of the definitive abandonment of the ancient Carales, around 934, and that of the choice of Santa Igia as the capital of the Kingdom. In fact, the Kingdom or “giudicato” in some documents is referred to as “de Pluminos”, not because it was rich in rivers, but because the sovereign resided in that villa: in file 298 of the Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki, datable to the first half of the 13th century, there is dialog of a slave who “fuggì … a Pluminos” (“fled to Pluminos” Il Condaghe di San Pietro di Silki, Alessandro Soddu and Giovanni Strinna eds. Nuoro: Illisso, 2013); in an act dated 30 September 1215 with which Queen Benedetta (1214–​32) and her husband Barisone-​Torchitorio IV de Lacon-​Serra, kings of Arborea and Calari (died 1217) confirmed a donation made by the “jugi Pedru de Pluminis” (Pietro-​Torchitorio III of the Lacon-​Gunale di Torres, 1168–​74) made “sendu in Pluminis”; again, in a document by Costantino-​Salusio III (1130–​63) and in another one by William I –​Salusio IV of Lacon-​Massa (1190–​1214). Il condaghe di Santa Maria di Bonarcado, Maurizio Virdis ed. Cagliari: Centro di Studi Filologici Sardi/​CUEC, 2002, schede 99 e 145. The same can be said for the Calaritan archbishops who, for a certain period, called themselves de Pluminus (Solmi,

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Considering this liveliness of settlement in the south-​east territory of Sardinia during the early Middle Ages and considering all the elements briefly summarized above, it seems conceivable that relics of the martyr Saturnino of Carales, probably with the monumental reliquary containing them, were brought to a less exposed area, such as Solanas, perhaps either to be permanently guarded here or to be embarked on to some unknown distant destination.

Arrigo. Le carte volgari dell’Archivio Arcivescovile di Cagliari. Firenze: Tipografia Galileiana, 1905: nn. XI–​XIV). See also Putzulu, Evandro. “Il problema delle origini del Castellum Castri de Kallari”. Archivio Storico Sardo, 30 (1976): 91–​146.

Richard Knorr

Genoese-​Mamluk Diplomacy during the Bahri Dynasty: An Overview1

1. Introduction In this chapter, I aim to give an overview on Genoese-​Mamluk diplomatic relations during the Bahri dynasty (1250/​60-​1382). In this regard, the focus also lies on identities and attitudes between Latin-​Christian and Arabic-​ Islamic groups. How did they change over time? How did non-​ruling members of Genoa and Egypt affect the relations with one another? The medieval city of Genoa, with its trading posts was in equivalence to Venice, one of the biggest commercial and naval hubs throughout the Mediterranean from the twelfth and thirteenth century onwards.2 The Genoese started their commercial activities in Egypt as early as the first crusades in the late eleventh century and early twelfth century.3 During this time, the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria constitutes the major Islamic centre in economic growth and military power, and 1

2

3

This study was presented in the webinar “Art, Culture and Trade as Evidence of Bonds Between East and West” in May 2021 and is part of an ongoing dissertational project dealing with Genoese-​Mamluk relations of the Bahri Dynasty (1260–​1380s) including diplomatic, commercial relations as well as perceptions of the Other. Cf. Miner, Jeffrey, und Stefan Stantchev. “The Genoese Economy”. In A companion to medieval Genoa, Carrie E. Beneš, 397–​426. Leiden: Brill, 2018: 397. Cf. e.g. Lopez, Roberto S., “The Trade of Medieval Europe: the South”. In The Cambridge Economic History II, Edward Miller, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987: 355; Hughes, Diane Owen. “Urban Growth And Family Structure In Medieval Genoa”. Past and Present 66, Nr. 1 (1975): 5, 8, 28. Kedar, Benjamin. “Mercanti genovesi in Alessandria d’Egitto negli anni Sessanta del secolo XI”. In The Franks in the Levant, 11th to 14th centuries, Benjamin Kedar, Aldershot: Variorum, 1993: 19–​30.

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therefore, one of the strongest and wealthiest dominions in the Islamic world.4 In the middle of the thirteenth century, the first Mamluk rulers were not only able to drive off completely the Crusader strongholds in the Levant, but also successfully defended themselves against the ever-​expanding and seemingly unstoppable Mongol Empire, all while maintaining their rule over Egypt for more than 250 years. Egypt was interesting for Genoa due to its connection via the Red Sea and central Asia to trading commodities further east (such as spice, dyes, sugar and cloths).5 On the other hand, due to its natural scarcity in these resources, Egypt was interested in metals (for weaponry) and timber (for shipbuilding),6 and additionally in importing military slaves. This was in contrast with the ideological/​religious differences (by the Pope).7 Nevertheless, the Papacy affected Genoa’s attitude towards Egypt with its repeated trading restrictions (devetum).8 4 5 6 7

8

Cf. Saunders, John. “Aspects of the Crusades”, Christchurch, N.Z.: University of Canterbury, 1962: 35 f, 38. Balard, Michel, “Le Commerce Génois à Alexandrie (XIe-​XIVe Siècle)”, in Alexandrie Médiévale 4, ed. by Christian Décobert, Christophe Picard, and Jean-​Yves Empereur. Alexandria: Centre d’Études Alexandrines, 2011: 125–​34. Jacoby, David “The Supply of War Materials to Egypt in the Crusader Period”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 25 (2001): 102–​32. For more on this topic, see Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. “Strategic Implications of the Slave Trade between Genoa and Mamluk Egypt in the Second Half of the Thirteenth Century”. The Islamic Middle East, 700–​1900: Studies in Economic and Social History, Abraham L. Udovitch. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1981: 335–​45; Amitai, Reuven. “Diplomacy and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. A Re-​Examination of the Mamluk-​Byzantine-​Genoese Triangle in the Late Thirteenth Century in Light of the Existing Early Correspondence”. Oriente Moderno 88 (2008): 349–​68. On the papal restrictions, cf. Petti Balbi, Giovanna. “II devetum Alexandrie e i genovesi tra scomuniche e licenze (sec. XII-​inizio XV)”. In Male ablata. La restitution des biens mal acquis (XIIe-​XVe siècle), Jean-​Louis Gaulin, Giacomo Todeschini. Rom: École française de Rome, 2019: 51–​86. On the partial circumvention of such restrictions, cf. Osipian, Alexandr. “Practices of Integration and Segregation: Armenian Trading Diasporas in Their Interaction with the Genoese and Venetian Colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea (1289–​1484)”. In Union in separation: diasporic groups and identitites in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100–​1800), Georg Christ. Rom: Viella, 2015: 356, 359. On the weakened effects of the Papacy’s restriction, cf. Menache, Sophia. “Pursuit of peace in the service of war: Papal policy, 1198–​1334”. In Religion and Peace. London: Routledge, 2017: 123. The papal restrictions for the trade with Egypt were somewhat loosened in 1345. This might have been related to the closing of the silk

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From the first Crusade in 1098 until the fall of Acre in 1291, Christians and Muslims concluded around 120 treaties alone.9 Recent studies also have supported the idea that “the Zangids, the Ayyubids, and the Mamluks did not see jihad against the Franks as a total war, preferring ceasefires and truces with the Latin Kingdom to conquest by force”10. This pragmatism/​ realpolitik seems to be in stark contrast with the rhetoric of the crusades11 and shows the tension between different stances on commerce or war with Arabic-​Islamic realm.

2. Embassies in the 1260s12 Within the first three decades after the Mamluks rise to power, we find several mentions of diplomatic exchanges between Genoa and Mamluk Egypt.13 The first account of a Genoese embassy to Egypt for the second route by the Mongols in 1343. Cf. Valérian, Dominique. Ports et réseaux d’échanges dans le Maghreb médiéval. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2019: 238; cf. also Ashtor, Eliyahu. “Observations on Venetian Trade in the Levant in the XIVth Century”. The Journal of European Economic History 5 (1976): 538 f. 9 Cf. Friedman, Yvonne. “Learning the Religious Concepts of the Other: Muslim-​ Christian Treaties in the Latin East”. In Religion and Peace: Historical Aspects, Yvonne Friedman. London ; New York: Routledge, 2018: 72 f; cf. also Binysh, Betty. “Making peace with “God’s enemies”: The Muslim dilemma of treaty-​making with Christians in the medieval Levant”. In Religion and Peace, Yvonne Friedman. London: Routledge, 2017: 98. 10 Cf. Frenkel, Yehoshua. “Islam as a peacemaking religion: Self-​image, medieval theory, and practice”. In Religion and Peace, Yvonne Friedman. London: Routledge, 2017: 84. 11 For crusading rhetoric, see e.g. Rachel Dressler, “Deus Hoc Vult: Ideology, Identity and Sculptural Rhetoric At the Time of the Crusades”, Medieval Encounters 1, Nr. 2 (1995): 195, 197 f. For primary sources, see e.g. Marino Sanudo, The Book of Secrets (tr. by Lock), 22; Guillelmus Adae. Tractatus Quomodo Sarraceni Sunt Expugnandi. Giles Constable. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Humanities. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, 2012: 24, 26. 12 For prior treaties and relations between Genoa and Egypt from the eleventh century onwards, cf. Balard, Michel. “Le Commerce Génois à Alexandrie (XIe-​XIVe Siècle)”. In Michel Balard. Gênes et La Mer –​Genova e Il Mare. 2 vols. Quaderni Della Società Ligure Di Storia Patria 3. Genua: Società Ligure Storia Patria, 2017: 269–​82. 13 Cf. Amitai, Reuven. “Between the Slave Trade and Diplomacy: Some Aspects of Early Mamluk Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea”. In Slavery

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half of the thirteenth century can be found for the year 1262/​3, when a muqaddam (perhaps “consul”14) of the Genoese accompanies Byzantine envoys along with ambassadors of Berke Khan in Egypt, as mentioned by Arabic sources.15 The somewhat later historiographer Ibn al-​Furāt (1334–​1405) writes for the year 1263 that sultan Baybars was expecting support by Genoa and Tyre for his attack on Acre.16 Such an agreement is reiterated by Ibn ’Abd aẓ-​ Ẓāhir for the year 1267,17 which seems to coincide with a Genoese blockade of Acre’s port in the same year, only a few weeks before the Mamluk sultan

14 15

16 17

and the Slave Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean (c. 1000–​1500 CE), Reuven Amitai, Christoph Cluse. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2017: 405. Cf. Thorau, Peter. Sultan Baibars I. von Ägypten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Vorderen Orients im 13. Jahrhundert. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1987: 153 f; cf. also Amitai, Reuven. “Diplomacy and the slave trade…”: 356. Cf. Amitai, Reuven. “Diplomacy and the slave trade…”: 356, not. 36: Ibn ’Abd aẓ-​ Ẓāhir, Rawḍ al-​zāhir, ed. ʿAbd-​al-​ʿAzīz al-​Ḫuwaiṭir: 170 f. Al-​Maqrīzī, on the other hand, only mentions a byzantine envoy for this year, cf. Caro, Georg. Genua und die Mächte am Mittelmeer 1257–​1311. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des 13. Jahrhunderts. Vol 1. Halle: Max Niemayer, 1895: 158, not. 1; cf. al-​Maqrīzī. Histoire des sultans mamlouks de l’Égypte, trad. en français et accompagnée de notes philologiques, historiques, géographiques. Vol 1. Étienne Marc Quatremère. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1837: 211; cf. for Arabic Taqī ad-​Dīn Aḥmad b. ‘Alī b. Abd al-​Qādir b. Muḥammad al-​Maqrīzī, ed. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Ziyāda. Kitāb as-​sulūk li-​ma‘rifat al-​duwal wa-​al-​mulūk. Vol. 1. 2 Bde. Kairo: Dār al-​Kutub al-​Miṣriyya, 1939: 495. Caro (ibd., p. 158) assumes that the Byzantines might have traveled on a Genoese ship along with the Genoese consul. Cf. Papacostea, Serban. “La première crise des rapports Byzantino-​Génois après Nymphaion. Le complot de Guglielmo Guercio (1264)”. Revue roumaine d’histoire 27 (1988): 345 f, esp. not. 19; cf. Riley-​Smith, Jonathan. Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders: Selections from the Tarikh al-​Duwal wa’l-​Muluk of Ibn al-​Furat. Cambridge: Heffer, 1971: 231. This embassy is only mentioned from the Arabic-​Islamic sources and not in Genoese or Latin-​Christian sources. In general, only one Genoese embassy to Egypt is mentioned by the Genoese annals for the year 1290, when a treaty was concluded. Cf. Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’ suoi continuatori. Dal MXCIX al MCCXCIII. Vol. 14. Rom: Fratelli Pagano, 1890: 96. Cf. Thorau, Peter. Sultan Baibars: 179, not. 47; Riley-​Smith, Jonathan. Ayyubids, Mamlukes and Crusaders: Vol. 1, p. 114 (Arabic), Vol. 2, p. 90 (English). Cf. Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. “Strategic Implications…”: 342. Cf. Ibn ’Abd aẓ-​Ẓāhir, Rawḍ: 255. He even mentions an agreement between Baybars and Genoa for a joint attack on Acre in the year 1266.

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camped in the surroundings of Acre.18 Such a joint attack, however, never materialized.19 It has been argued that this agreement between Genoa and sultan Baybars was not real, because Baybars apparently did not transport any siege equipment to effectively lay siege on Acre, but rather that he was only skirmishing and plundering the surroundings.20 This does not necessarily mean that the biographers of the sultan made up the agreement themselves. It could rather be that he was testing the reliability of his allies from Genoa and Tyre while exploring Acre’s defenses. At the same time, this might have helped him, showing his strong and threatening position, in his diplomatic pursuits with the kingdom of Jerusalem, residing in Acre. Four years after the supposedly prepared attack on Acre, a small group of Genoese is said to have actually launched an attack on the city of Acre.21 On the other hand, for the 1260s there are no indications that Genoa tried to support the defense of a Mamluk attack on the crusader states.22 18

Cf. Sanutus, Marinus. The book of the secrets of the faithful of the cross. Transl. by Peter Lock. Farnham: Routledge, 2011: 352 f. Cf. Northrup, Linda S. From slave to sultan the career of Al-​Manṣūr Qalāwūn and the consolidation of Mamluk rule in Egypt and Syria (678–​689 A.H./​1279–​1290 A.D.). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998: 65. 19 Only in 1287, we hear again of Genoese war vessels camping in front of Acre, but the connection with Egypt seems unclear. Cf. Caro, Georg, “Genua und die Mächte…” II: 83–​85, esp. p. 83, not. 3; cf. Raynaud, Gaston –​Gérard de Montréal. Les gestes des Chiprois. Recueil de chroniques françaises écrites en Orient au 13e & 14e siècles. Publications de la Société de l’Orient latin. Série historique 5. Genève Impr. J.G. Fick, 1887: 225 f. 20 Cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 179. Although such a collaboration of a joint attack on Acre seems hard to believe at first, if we consider Genoa’s readiness of supporting the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus of Nicaea in his reconquest of Constantinople against the Venetians and the Latin empire of Constantinople, where it gained serious advantages over Venice in the form of commercial privileges, then an attack on Acre in collaboration with a Mamluk sultan does not seem so unlikely. 21 Cf. Caro, Georg, “Genua und die Mächte…” I: 200–​204. This was probably a desperate attempt to revive the diplomatic ties with Byzantium still in the same year and to move back their commercial quarter into Constantinople or Galata/​Pera on the other side; cf. also Musarra, Antonio “In Partibus…”: 475. 22 Only in 1289 we notice an act of aggression by Benedetto Zaccaria against an Egyptian merchant ship, which might be seen as a reaction to the Mamluk siege on Tripoli in the same year. Also in the 1280s a group of Genoese approached the Ilkhan Arghun for commercial expansion, although he was a long term enemy of Egypt. Cf. Balard, Michel. La mer noire et la Romanie génoise. Variorum Reprints: London, 1989: 139, esp. not. 70; cf. Richard, Jean. “European Voyages in the Indian Ocean and

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The contemporaries of this incident Ibn ʿAbd aẓ-​Ẓāhir (1223–​1292) and his nephew23 Šāfiʿ b. ʿAli (1252–​1330) write about such an agreement between Genoa and Egypt as well.24 This might have to be seen in the context of the previously mentioned embassy of the same year (1262). This diplomatic contact seems to continue throughout the next years, as we have notice of another Genoese embassy in 1265 returning with gifts from Egypt.25 The next embassy after, is found four years later in February 1269. Interestingly, this seems to be the only Mamluk envoy reported to have come to Genoa. King Charles of Anjou apparently was himself expecting an envoy from the Mamluk sultan, as expressed in a letter to Genoa.26 As Michael Lower pointed out the reason for this envoy coming first to Genoa instead of directly to King Charles of Anjou: Baybars was aware of a looming crusade. He therefore might have sent his envoy Badr ad-Dīn to reconnoiter the advancement of such crusading preparations and Genoa’s involvement in them.27 He might have also restricted trade of Latin-​ Christian merchants further inland of his realm.28 At the time of his visit,

Caspian Sea (12th-​15th Centuries)”. Iran 6 (1968): 49, not. 29, 30: Guillelmus Adae, “Tractatus…”: 104. 23 Cf. Northrup, Linda “From Slave…”: 28. 24 Cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 179, not. 48. 25 Cf. Amitai, Reuven “Diplomacy and the slave trade…”: 356, not. 38; cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 196; cf. Šāfi‘ ibn ‘Alī ibn ‘Asākir, Kitāb Ḥusn al-​Manāqib, 2nd ed., p. 207. Here they mention Genoa’s envoy along with ones of Marseille, Georgia, Yemen and Nubia. See the following note. Ibn al-​Furāt and al-​Maqrīzī only mention the Georgian envoy, as Thorau ibd. remarks. It is worth mentioning that this embassy has not been mentioned by the previous authors, but only by Šāfi‘ ibn ‘Alī ibn ‘Asākir (1252–​1330). Cf. Šāfi‘ ibn ‘Alī ibn ‘Asākir, Kitāb Ḥusn al-​Manāqib, 2nd ed., p. 207. 26 Cf. Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…” IV, p. 115, esp. not. 2., cf. Del Giudice, Giuseppe. Codice diplomatico del regno di Carlo I e II d’Angiò dal 1265 al 1309. Napoli: D’Auria, 1863: Vol. II, 2, p. 23 f. Charles’ request seemed to be successful, since he is preparing for their arrival in May 1269, cf. Forges Davanzati, Domenico. Dissertazione sulla seconda moglie del re Manfredi e su’ loro figliuoli. Napoli: Raimondi, 1791: XXVIII; similarly although a few days earlier on May 22, cf. Filangieri, Riccardo. I registri della Cancelleria Angioina.; Naples: Accad. Pontaniana, 1950: II, p. 69, doc. 247. 2 7 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 79 f. Baybars sent him once again in late 1270 to Charles in order to renegotiate in the aftermath of the peace of Tunis, cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 177. 28 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 110.

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Genoa was also receiving envoys from Byzantium and the Ilkhanate. The latter were longstanding rivals of the Mamluks and fought them several times in Syria in their attempt for conquering Syria and Egypt. For Genoa to receive these envoys might have meant that they were interested in an anti-​Mamluk alliance.29 Genoa’s crusade preparations in 1270 must have affected the Genoese-​ Mamluk relations, since for a long time it was unclear that this crusade would lead to Tunis and not Egypt or the Levant.30 The quest for Tunis was much to the Genoeses’ surprise, who were prepared to sail to the Levant31 and hoping to regain a quarter in Acre.32 The maritime republic had commercial activities with Tunis as well as with Egypt, although the latter might have been of greater importance.33 While Pisa and Venice did not participate, Genoa seemed to play a double game between Louis and Baybars, confident about its stronger north-​south trading position compared to Venice.34 In the end, the Genoese played an active role in military action against Tunis.35

2 9 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 80. 3 0 Cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 246; Ibn ‘Abd az-​Zahir, A critical edition II, ed. al-​Khowayter, p. 737. Even the Genoese commune was ignorant of the destination of the crusade only until very shortly before the expedition, cf. Musarra, Antonio “In Partibus…”: 484; cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 78 f. After the death of Louis IX, the English prince Edward I continued the military campaign by sending his troops to Acre. 3 1 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 98. 3 2 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 103; cf. also Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…” IV, p. 131 f. 3 3 Cf. Balard, Romanie II, p. 625, 678; Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 47 f. 3 4 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 77 f. 3 5 Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 112 f; cf. also Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…”: 132 f.

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3. Embassies during the 1270s and the 1280s After their last meeting in 1269, the next embassy appears in Egypt by 1275,36 which might have resulted in a treaty.37 Four years after the Genoese visit at the Mamluk court, in 1278, we find a strange report on Genoese collaboration with Egypt. While Genoa was in active conflict with king Charles I of Anjou,38 with his extensive expansion plans throughout the Mediterranean, a high official of Charles, count Roger

36

No further details are known about the negotiations. Cf. Amitai, Reuven “Diplomacy and the slave trade…”: 356 f., not. 39; cf. id. Mongols and Mamluks, p. 103. Jacoby (Jacoby, David. “The Supply of War Materials to Egypt in the Crusader Period”. Jerusalem studies in Arabic and Islam 25 (2001): 118) and Ashtor (Ashtor, Eliyahu. Levant trade in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983, p. 10 f.) go as far as to assume that this meeting resulted in a treaty with Genoa, whereas al-​Maqrīzī only mentions an envoy and an audience, cf. al-​Maqrīzī, “Histoire des sultans…” II: 127 (for Arabic al-​Maqrīzī, Kitāb as-​Sulūk I, 2, ed. Ziyada, p. 621). In addition, Ibn al-​Furāt mentions a Genoese and a Byzantine envoy to Egypt, cf. id., Ta’rīḫ duwal al-​mulūk, ed. Zurayk, vol. 7: 44. 37 Ashtor argues that this envoy might have resulted in a treaty, cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu “Levant trade…”: 11. He based his claim on a report of al-​Maqrīzī, who referred to a sulḥ “truce” or “peace” between the two powers. Cf. al-​Maqrīzī, Kitāb as-​Sulūk I, p. 621. For the treaty of 1290, the term hudna “truce” or “armistice” was used by Arabic-​Islamic historiographers such as Ibn ’Abd aẓ-​Ẓāhir. Cf. Ibn ’Abd aẓ-​Ẓāhir, Tašrīf al-​Ayām: 175 f. On the first page, the editor of the text seems to have chosen the term sulḥ headline, but the text only uses hudna. This could indicate a different kind of treaty or truce than the previous agreements. Cf. Frenkel, Islam as a peacemaking religion, p. 84: “hudna (the instrument of truce), and maṣlaḥa (the common good). It is crucial to stress, however, that these accords with non-​Muslims did not aim to negotiate eternal peace. Rather, they were intended to conclude an armistice that would make it possible for the Muslims to come to terms with reality without relinquishing the notion of Islamic superiority”. On hudna, see also Frenkel, Islam as a peacemaking religion, p. 88 f. Other diplomatic terms for treaties (besides hudna) were ittifāq (agreement), sulḥ (ceasefire accord or reconciliation, also translated as “peace” by Binysh, Betty “Making Peace…”: 99), muwada’a (truce treaty). Cf. Frenkel, Yehoshua “Islam as a peacemaking religion…”: 90 f. 3 8 Cf. Geanakoplos, Deno John. Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West 1258 –​ 1282: a study in Byzantine-​Latin relations. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1959: 292.

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of San Severino,39 wrote to the king that a Genoese ship carrying Mamluk assassins in disguise. The ship was said to be on its way to the king Charles and his nephew the king of France, in order to kill both of them.40 Charles seems to take the report seriously; ordering that any Genoese vessel should closely be examined.41 It remains uncertain if such a collaboration seems to be credible.42 The sultan of Egypt was negotiating with the assassins.43 It is reported that he also had used assassins against Philip of Montfort and Prince Edward of England in 1270 and 1272.44 Therefore, Baybars was acquainted with the assassins and likewise at war with Charles who had a claim on the Kingdom of Jerusalem.45 Whether or not these plans were real, they were taken seriously, which displays the distrustful perception *by its Latin-Christian neighbours about Genoa at the time. After the envoy from 1275, the next report about diplomatic exchanges is only ten years later, in 1285. Genoese envoys are bringing gifts to Egypt.46 In the end of the 1280s, Genoa approached the Mamluk’s long-​term enemy, the Ilkhanate of Persia. Several hundred Genoese travelled here in

39 Roger had the role of bailiff of the kingdom of Jerusalem and overseeing Charles’s garrison in Acre. Cf. Caro, Georg, “Genua und die Mächte…” II: 42, 120; Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 36; Binysh, Betty “Making Peace…”: 108. 4 0 Cf. Filangieri, Riccardo “I registri della Cancelleria” XXI: 19 f, doc. 88; Minieri-​ Riccio, Camillo. “Il Regno Di Carlo I.° D’angiò dal 2 Gennaio 1273 al 31 Dicembre 1283 (Contin.)”. Archivio Storico Italiano 1, Nr. 105 (1878): 437. Minieri-​Riccio refers to the Angevin register of the state archive of Naples (Reg. Ang. 1278, B. n. 30, fol. 4.), which was heavily damaged during the World War II. Also Georg Caro mentions this case, cf. id., Genua II, p. 42. He summarizes the report as a result of constantly overly cautious mistrust between Charles of Anjou and Genoa. Ferretto likewise mentions it. Here the term Tolemaide (Ptolemais) is used for Acre, cf. id., Ferretto, Arturo. Codice diplomatico delle relazioni fra la Liguria, la Toscana e la Lunigiana ai tempi di Dante (1265–​1321). Parte seconda: dal 1275 al 1281. Genoa, 1903: 255 f. 4 1 Cf. Ferretto, Arturo “Codice…” ibd.; cf. also Minieri-​Riccio, ibd. 4 2 Other historians such as Giuseppe Del Giudice took this Genoese-​Mamluk conspiracy seriously. Cf. Del Giudice, Giuseppe “Codice Diplomatico…”: Vol. II, 2, p. 23, not. 1. 4 3 Cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 198 f. 4 4 Cf. Thorau, Peter “Sultan Baibars…”: 247, 262 f; Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 182. 4 5 Although there seemed to be an exchange of envoys with Charles’s interest in peace with Egypt in 1271 in order to hold Acre after sultan Baybars suffered a defeat in a naval encounter. Cf. Lower, Michael “The Tunis Crusade…”: 181. 4 6 Cf. Amitai, Reuven “Diplomacy and the slave trade…”: 357, not. 40. Ibn al-​Furāt, Tʾarīḫ, vol. 8, p. 22. Cf. al-​Maqrīzī, Histoire II (Quatremère), p. 81, 94.

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order to support them against the Mamluks in 1289/​90.47 Ciocîltan sees in this mission a two-​faced reaction on the diplomatic dilemma caused by Benedetto Zaccaria: on the one hand, an embassy with Alberto Spinola was trying to reestablish relations with Mamluk Egypt, whereas on the other hand, a considerable amount of Genoese sailors was on its way to support the Ilkhanate, the Mamluks’ archenemy.48 It is very likely that the Mamluk sultan was informed about this action.49 This might have led to further complications in the relation between Genoa and Egypt. Genoese-​Ilkhanate relations might have peaked at this time, as we read of another visit from the Ilkhanate in 1287/​88 with a longer stay. The Ilkhan might have wanted to include Genoa in his anti-​Mamluk campaign, which he had already suggested to the Pope, the King of France and Charles Anjou.50 At the same time, we notice a rapprochement of Venice with the Mamluks.51 Therefore, Northrup argues that the new Mamluk conquests (Marqab, Latakia, Tripoli and Acre) did not so much happen due to political or military contemplation, but rather of commercial ones.52 Maybe the sultan wanted to be more independent of Genoese support53 or put pressure on the commune in order to ensure a safer trading route from pirates. Did Genoa conclude a treaty with Mamluk Egypt prior to 1290? A striking pattern in the timing of several embassies can be observed: 1265, 1275 and 1285. These ten year (or even ten years, ten month and ten days) intervals between the envoys is matching the general Islamic practice of treaty durations54 and can actually be observed in 47 Cf. Di Cosmo, Nicola. “Mongols and Merchants on the Black Sea Frontier in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: Convergences and Conflicts”. In Mongols, Turks, and others. Eurasian nomads and the sedentary world, ed. Reuven Amitai, Leiden: Brill, 2005: 400, 403. Cf. Richard, Jean “European Voyages…”: 49, not. 29, 30: Guillelmus Adae, “Tractatus…”: 104. 4 8 Cf. Ciocîltan, Virgil-​ Ionel. “Genoa’s challenge to Egypt (1287–​ 1290)”. Revue roumaine d’histoire 32 (1993): 298 f. 4 9 Cf. Ciocîltan, Virgil-​Ionel. “Genoa’s challenge…”: 301 f. 5 0 Cf. Ciocîltan, Virgil-​Ionel. “Genoa’s challenge…”: 283, esp. not. 3. 5 1 Cf. Northrup, Linda “From Slave…”: 127. 5 2 Cf. Northrup, Linda “From Slave…”: 129 f, esp. not. 472. 5 3 Cf. Northrup, Linda “From Slave…”: 156. 5 4 Cf. Holt, Peter Malcolm. Early Mamluk diplomacy (1260–​1290). Treaties of Baybars and Qalawun with christian rulers. Leiden: Brill, 1995: 4, 9; Allmendinger, Karl-​Heinz. Die Beziehungen zwischen der Kommune Pisa und Ägypten im hohen Mittelalter. Eine

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several Mamluk treaties with Christian powers.55 These treaties might have then been interrupted by the diplomatic crisis caused by the attack of the Genoese Benedetto Zaccaria on an Egyptian ship in 1290, which would explain the timing of the treaty in 1290 instead of 1295. Even the Genoese Annals state that during the diplomatic crisis caused by Benedetto quoniam homines Ianue habebant pacem cum dicto soldano, et etiam multi Ianuenses et naues erant tunc temporis in terra Egipti.56 This might be another argument for a previous treaty.57 On the other hand, the treaty of 1290 does not include such a ten-​year clause and was therefore even called “unique” in this regard compared to other treaties of the early Mamluk era with Christian powers.58 However, if we look upon earlier treaties of the Ayyubid era (with Pisa and Venice), there is no such ten-​year clause either.59 Also the fact that the Zaccaria brothers were willing to invest such a high sum as 11.000 Genoese pounds to Egypt in 1285 might support the idea that the treaty was just renewed in the same year and commercial

rechts-​und wirtschaftshistorische Untersuchung. Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial-​und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Beihefte 54. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1967: 35 f. 55 Cf. Holt, Peter Malcolm “Early Mamluk Diplomacy…”: 15, 17, 20, 33 f, 41, 48 f, 56, 62, 66, 70, 72, 74, 89, 91, 96 f, 108 f; cf. also Ibn ‘Abd az-​Zahir, A critical edition II, ed. al-​Khowayter: 773. 56 Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso “Annali Genovesi…” V: 95. Of course, habere pacem could also indicate that Genoa simply was not at war with Egypt. 57 Another indication for at least one previous treaty before 1290 can be found in several of the paragraphs of the treaty from 1290 mentioning “sicut consuetum est” (Schilling, Alexander Markus. “Der Friedens-​Und Handelsvertrag von 1290 Zwischen Der Kommune Genua Und Dem Sultan Qalawun von Ägypten”. Quellen Und Forschungen Aus Italienischen Archiven Und Bibliotheken 95 (2015): 95, § 4), “ut consuetum est” (ibd., p. 96, § 5), “seu ponderari consuete sunt ad stateriam” (p. 98, § 8), “nomine sancta maria quod consuetum est” (ibd., p. 102, § 22), “per portas consuetas et non faciant eis aliquam nouam consuetudinem” (ibd., p. 103, § 25). 58 Cf. Holt, Peter Malcolm “Early Mamluk Diplomacy”: 146. 59 For Pisa, cf. Amari, Michele. I diplomi arabi del r. Archivio fiorentino: testo originale. Firenze: Le Monnier, 1863: 280–​289. For Venice, cf. Tafel, Gottlieb Lukas Friedrich, und Georg Martin Thomas. Urkunden Handelsgeschichte Venedig. vol. 2. Wien: Kaiserlich-​Königliche Staatsdruckerei, 1856: 185–​193, 416–​418. This regular renewal also seems to match loosely the previously mentioned Venetian commercial practice with Egypt who had four treaties from 1208 until 1254. Although this pattern does not allow for the ten year gap. Such gaps might be related to interruptions due to crusading expeditions in 1218/​19 and 1249/​50.

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stability was expected.60 This is quite a large individual sum, but if we compare it with annual investments towards Constantinople/​Byzantium of up to 108.000 within 1281 and 1290 it seems relatively normal.61 Therefore, the single investment of 11.000 pounds to Egypt is still quite significant as a single incident, but in the long run it is dwarfed by investments to Byzantium.

4. Diplomatic Crisis in 1289 and the Treaty of 129062 In this subchapter, we will look on the diplomatic developments during Egypt’s conquest of the last crusader cities and its effect on Mamluk-​ Genoese relations. The event that lead to a diplomatic crisis between Genoa and Egypt in 1290 and their following exchanges of envoys started with the conquest of Tripoli in April 1289 by the Mamluks. The Genoese were particularly interested in Tripoli’s remainder in the crusading realm, since only that year they finally were to receive a third of the city, promised to them since Tripoli’s conquest by the crusaders. Direct control over Tripoli might have helped Genoa to regain a better position in the Levant trade against Venice.63 Moreover, the wealthy Genoese merchant Benedetto Zaccaria seemed to have his own plans and agreements with the head of Tripoli, Countess Lucia.64

60

Cf. Balard, Michel “Le Commerce Génois…”: 275; Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. “Familiari, procuratori e dipendenti di Benedetto Zaccaria”. In Su e giù per la storia di Genova. Genoa: Università di Genova, Instituto di Paleografia e Storia Medievale, 1975: 357 f. 61 Cf. Balard, Michel “La Romanie Génoise…” II: 607. 62 Cf. Coulon, Damien. “Une phase décisive d’intenses tractations diplomatiques entre sultanat mamlûk et puissances occidentales (couronne d’Aragon, républiques de Genes et de Venise) 687/​1288-​692/​1293”. In Studies David Jacoby (2019), ed. Michel Balard, 113–​26. London: Routledge, 2019: 113–​26. 63 Cf. Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. Benedetto Zaccaria. Ammiraglio e mercante nella Genova del duecento. Storia e storie. Firenze: Camunia, 1996, p. 130, 133; Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…” V, p. 89 (esp. not. 3). 6 4 Cf. Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. “Benedetto Zaccaria…”: 141 f.

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Following the evacuation of Tripoli, a diplomatic crisis between Genoa and Egypt unraveled: Benedetto Zaccaria attacked and looted an Egyptian vessel coming from Alexandria.65 Once the sultan was informed of this aggression, he responded by imprisoning all Genoese and their goods in Egypt, that had not managed to previously escape.66 The Genoese rulers responded by distancing themselves from the responsible and returning captives and goods to their owners.67 Benedetto was said to have acted by himself68 and from conviction against Muslims. He left Genoa after this incident and pursued his naval career with the kingdom of Castile.69 His actions could have been the attempt to push Genoa into a more aggressive stance against Egypt following the conquest of Tripoli.70 Yet, Genoa sent an envoy under Alberto Spinola71 with a certain amount of silver for compensation.72 The envoy managed to free the imprisoned Genoese and to set peace negotiations in motion.73 They concluded peace the same year.74 Some Genoese might have been looking for alternative commercial opportunities after the loss of Tripoli or the tensions with Egypt. On the other hand, this support of the Ilkhanate against the Mamluks might have also served Genoa as a bargaining chip against Egypt in order to reach better negotiation terms.

65

Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…” V, p. 95). See also the extensive study on Benedetto Zaccaria by Roberto Lopez: id., “Benedetto Zaccaria”: 51. 66 Cf. Schilling, Alexander Markus. “Der Friedens-​und Handelsvertrag…”: 70. 67 Even the King of Jerusalem and the Emperor of Byzantium are said to have distanced themselves from Benedetto and offered him no shelter. Cf. Schilling, Alexander Markus. “Der Friedens-​und Handelsvertrag…”: 70; Ibn ʿAbd a ẓ-​Ẓāhir, Tašrīf al-​ ayyām, p. 165. They had responded in a similar fashion as in a previous diplomatic conflict in 1264 with Byzantium. For more details to this incident, cf. Papacostea, Serban “La première crise…”: 339–​350. 68 Cf. Musarra, Benedetto Zaccaria, p. 225. 69 Cf. Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. “Benedetto Zaccaria…”: 160 f. 70 This perspective is also shared by Ciocîltan, cf. Ciocîltan, Virgil-​Ionel. “Genoa’s challenge…”: 296 f. 7 1 Cf. ASGE, Notai Antichi n. 78, f. 176r. 72 Cf. Schilling, Alexander Markus “Der Friedens-​und Handelsvertrag…”: 70. 73 For a detailed study on the peacy treaty of 1290, cf. Schilling, Alexander Markus “Der Friedens-​und Handelsvertrag…”: 63–​109. 74 Cf. Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West, 1221–​1410. The Medieval World. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2005, p. 169 f.

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The motivation for a treaty with Genoa from the Egyptian side might have also lied in simply averting the danger of a Mongol-​Genoese alliance, which appeared increasingly possible in the 1280s.75 As we can see, the conquest of Tripoli seemed to have a stronger immediate effect on Genoese-​Mamluk relations than previous conquests of crusader regions. This was largely because of Genoa’s direct involvement in the city. Yet, this brief crisis caused by a non-​ruling individual of Genoa was overcome due to greater economic interests in trading between Egypt and Genoa. These interests can be observed in the swift reaction of reestablishing previous ties with Egypt as well as the sultan’s openness to a treaty. Still, was the treaty of 1290 between Genoa and Egypt a clear commitment of one another? This does not seem to be the case. In the treaty of 1291 between the crown of Aragon and Egypt, Genoa appears as a possible enemy.76 Thus, Egypt still kept Genoa at arm’s length. Also individual Genoese, such as Manuele and Tedisio Doria, exhibit their willingness for a reconquest of Acre in a notarial act from 1292 together with the Zaccaria brothers and members of the Knights Hospitaller. In this document they also criticize other Christiani (among them presumably Genoese) that continue to stay in contact with Egypt.77 In the aftermath of the conquest of Acre,78 some Genoese, among them Manuele Zaccaria (Benedetto’s brother) and Teodisio d’Oria were preparing for a naval blockade of Egypt in 1292 with approval by the pope.79 The defeat of the Mamluks by Mongol troops at Wādi al-​Khaznadār in 1299 might have turned the tables for diplomatic interest more to the Mongols shortly.80 Some Genoese, among them the aforementioned 75 See above. Cf. Jaspert, Nikolas. “The Crown of Aragon and the Mamluk Sultanate: Entanglements of Mediterranean Politics and Piety”. In The Mamluk sultanate from the perspective of regional and world history, Reuven Amitai –​Stephan Conermann. Göttingen: V&R unipress, Bonn University Press, 2019: 313. 7 6 Cf. Musarra, Acri, p. 159 f. 7 7 Cf. Musarra, Antonio. “In Partibus…”: 600–​04. 7 8 The claims for territory in the Levant continued throughout the fourteenth century, e.g. by means of titular sees or titles, and even in the fifteenth century we can find some. Cf. Fuess, Albrecht. Verbranntes Ufer. Auswirkungen mamlukischer Seepolitik auf Beirut und die syro-​palästinensische Küste (1250–​1517). Leiden: Brill, 2001: 143. 7 9 Cf. Kedar, Benjamin Zeev. Mercanti in crisi a Genova e Venezia nel ’300. Rom: Jouvence, 1981: 25; Belgrano, Luigi Tommaso. “Annali genovesi…” V: 143 f. 8 0 Cf. Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. “Benedetto Zaccaria…”: 207 f.; Amitai, Mongols, p. 1. See also Ciocîltan, Virgil-​Ionel. “Genoa’s challenge…”: 304.

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Benedetto Zaccaria, were preparing themselves to launch a new Crusade in 1301. However, this led to disagreements with Pope Boniface, who wanted to prevent a mission resulting in a reconquered Tripoli under Benedetto’s dominion.81 Nevertheless, the final victory of the Mamluks in 1303 at Marj al-​Suffar probably reversed considerations of such plans.82 Therefore, we can see how certain changes in the diplomatic power shift affected the politics/​relations between Genoa and Egypt.

5. Genoese-​Mamluk Relations in the Early Fourteenth Century and a Genoese-​Venetian Incident in the Slave Trade with Egypt Between the lacking documentation of further exchange of embassies in the years following the treaty of 1290, we can also profit from Venetian sources for more information on Mamluk-​Genoese relations. In 1304, we read of a conflict between the Genoese Ottobono della Volta and the Venetian duke of Crete, involving some 35 slaves.83 Afterwards, Ottobono and Symeon went to the emir of Alexandria proclaiming that they were bringing them Mamluks and the duke of Crete forcefully took the slaves from them. He justified his action saying that this was against the bonum catholice fidei84, referring to the papal prohibitions on commerce with the Islamic world. This incident caused an exchange of letters of the various parties involved: the emir of Alexandria, the duke of Crete and the Genoese Ottobono della Volta. The emir complains about the loss of the 35 Mamluks that his agent (mercator Soldani) Salomon Maomet had transported from Constantinople to Crete and was expropriated of them by the Duke

8 1 8 2

83 84

Cf. Lopez, Roberto Sabatino. “Benedetto Zaccaria…”: 209. Cf. Amitai, Reuven. “The Resolution of the Mongol-​Mamluk War”. In Mongols, Turks, and others. Eurasian nomads and the sedentary world, Reuven Amitai –​Michael Biran. Leiden: Brill, 2005: 361. Cf. Thomas, Georg Martin –​Predelli, Riccardo. Diplomatarium veneto-​Levantinum sive acta et diplomata res Venetas Graecas atque Levantis illustrantia. Vol 1. New York, NY: R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, 1880: 23–​29, 31 f. Cf. Thomas, Georg Martin –​Predelli, Riccardo. “Diplomatarium…” I: 24.

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of Crete.85 The emir asks the Duke of Crete to immediately send back the Mamluks to Alexandria.86 It is interesting that the Genoese are not mentioned at all in this document. Of the Genoese Ottobono della Volta, we do have a petition for his financial losses, briefly explaining the situation. In September 8 of 1304, Ottobono brought this case before the Genoese consul of Crete Rolandino Tavano.87 The duke of Crete considered his action of confiscating the slaves lawful, since he had warned him about the ban/​prohibition of, considering it unlawful to take or buy slaves at the port of Candida and exporting them elsewhere.88 The emir of Alexandria responded to this lack of collaboration from the Venetian side (i.e. not sending him the confiscated slaves from Crete) by imprisoning Francesco da Canale, grandchild of Guido de Canale, duke of Crete in June 1304.89 Afterwards, a group of Venetian merchants promised Ottobono to restitute his losses in October 1304.90 The situation caused Venetian relations with Egypt to suffer, as the emir of Alexandria was now not only confiscating Venetian merchandise around the value of the lost slaves but also demanding an apology from the duke of Crete for his confiscation of the slaves in the first place.91 This incident demonstrates at least partially the positive diplomatic position Genoese were having with Egypt, whereas some Venetians (just like the Genoese Zaccaria family for instance) seemed to take a more serious stance concerning papal prohibitions. Another important Genoese actor of the early fourteenth century in the Genoese-​Mamluk and even Aragonese-​Mamluk relations was Segurano

8 5 8 6 8 7 8 8 8 9

90 91

Cf. Thomas, Georg Martin –​Predelli, Riccardo. “Diplomatarium…” I: 25. Cf. ibd. The latter phrase seems to indicate that slave trade was already established as well between Venice and Egypt. Cf. Thomas, Georg Martin –​Predelli, Riccardo. “Diplomatarium…” I: 26 f. Cf. Thomas, Georg Martin –​Predelli, Riccardo. “Diplomatarium…” I: 28 f. This case is also summarized in the Libri commemoriali, cf. Predelli, Riccardo. I libri commemoriali della republica di Venezia regesti. Vol. I. Venezia: Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, 1878: 40. Cf. Predelli, Riccardo. “I libri commemoriali…”: 42. Apparently, there was another merchant affected by the duke’s confiscation, Iacopo of Palermo. Cf. Predelli, Riccardo. “I libri commemoriali…”: 48.

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Salvago (even mediating in a conflict between the Genoese of Chios and Egypt).92

6. Embassy of 1319 After 1290, the documentary evidence of diplomatic exchanges and treaties between Genoa and Egypt is quite scarce. We do have some notarial acts that give us evidence of an embassy that was sent from Genoa to Egypt.93 An embassy was sent around 1319 in order to liberate the Genoese merchants that were imprisoned in Alexandria in 131194 and 1319.95 We still read of a Genoese consul and funduq in 131096 and 1322 during Simone Simeonis’ travel to Egypt, which indicates still good relations between Genoa and Egypt.97 The head of chancery, Ibn Faḍlallāh al-​ʿUmarī (d. 1349/​H 749), states in his account on Genoa from the 1340s that Genoa was at peace with Egypt at that time.98 Considering usual durations of treaties lasting for ten years or until a change of rulers, it would be quite unusual that Genoa’s treaty had lasted 30 or 40 years in this case. The last embassy we hear of was back in 1319. Given the long rule of an-Nāsir Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn (r. 1293–1294, 1299–1309, 1310–1341), it would be possible that the embassy of 1319 also renegotiated or renewed treaty conditions.

92

9 3 9 4 9 5 9 6

97 98

For a more detailed study, cf. Kedar, Benjamin Zeev. “Segurano-​Sakran Salvaygo: Un Mercante Genovese al Servizio Dei Sultani Mamalucchi, c. 1303–​1322”. In The Franks in the Levant, 11th to 14th Centuries, 75–​91. Aldershot: Variorum, 1993. In addition, the aforementioned ongoing dissertation will be dealing with some new source material on Segurano. Cf. Balard, Michel “Le Commerce Génois…”: 276. ASGE, Notai Ignoti Busta VIII, fr. 93, f.235r-​237r: f. 235v. ASGE, Notai Ignoti Busta III, fr. 55, f. 26v. Cf. Balard, Escales génoises sur les route de l’Orient méditerranéen au XIVe siècle, in Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin, Bd. XXXII (1974), p. 247, nr. 11. Cf. Balard, Michel “Le Commerce Génois…”: 276; cf. also Heyd, Wilhelm. Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen-​age II. Leipzig: Hakkert, 1886: 37. Cf. Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Faḍl Allāh al-​ʻUmarī. Masālik al-​abṣār fī mamālik al-​amṣār vol. II, Beirut, 1971: 154–​55.

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In 1330, Genoa and King Hugh IV of Cyprus concluded a peace treaty. It includes a list of at least 2899 individuals from Genoa who have been trading with Egypt100 and had to pay a fine according to the value or quantity of goods they traded.101 This shows a continuous Genoese-​Mamluk trade despite the papal prohibitions.

7. The Crusade of Alexandria in 1365 and the Embassies 1368/​69102 In the 1320s, Egypt’s relations with the Ilkhanate of Persia ameliorated.103 This might have led to a lower necessity in Mamluk slaves transported via sea to Egypt. Hardly any notarial acts attest trade between Genoa and Egypt from the late 1320s until 1342. Only some confessions in the 1340s indicate previous commercial activities104 and from the 1340s onwards papal licenses for trade.105 An important event affecting Genoese-​Mamluk relations was the crusade of Alexandria in 1365, reported from Latin-​Christian as well as

99 1 00 1 01 1 02 1 03 1 04

105

For Benedictus Bolletus we also read about his socii that are not specified in name or number. Cf. Richard, Jean. “Le ‚compromis‘…”: 29. Cf. Richard, Jean. “Le ‚compromis‘…”: 31. Cf. Balard, Michel “Le Commerce Génois…”: 276. Cf. Amitai, Reuven. “The Resolution…”: 359, 362. We find such a confession of illegal trade with Alexandria in 1345 by Andriolo de Odino in: I cartolari del notaio Nicolò di Santa Giulia di Chiavari (1337, 1345–​1348), ed. by Mambrini, Nr. 64: 89–​91. For licenses, cf. Carr, Mike. “Policing the Sea: Enforcing the Papal Embargo on Trade with Infidels”. In Merchants, Pirates, and Smugglers. Criminalization, Economics, and the Transformation of the Maritime World (1200–​1600), ed. Gregor Rohmann. Frankfurt a. M.: Campus Verlag, 2019: 329–​42 and Petti Balbi, Giovanna. “II Devetum Alexandrie e i Genovesi Tra Scomuniche e Licenze (Sec. XII-​Inizio XV)”. In Male Ablata. La Restitution Des Biens Mal Acquis (XIIe-​XVe Siècle), Jean-​Louis Gaulin and Giacomo Todeschini. Collection de l’École Française de Rome 547. Rome, 2019: 51–​86.

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Arabic-​Islamic authors.106 Mainly instigated by King Peter I of Cyprus, several Venetian and some Genoese ships were involved in the attack.107 The Frankish merchants that had not already escaped were held captive in Egypt. The sultan did not accept any Latin-​Christian ships in his ports.108 Genoa tried returning to business as usual, when their embassy arrived in July 1366 to Alexandria. The Genoese doge sent back prisoners, apologized for not knowing about the attack and presented gifts to the sultan as well as the emir Yalbugha.109 In the following year, the Genoese return, asking if they can send back their merchants to the region of Alexandria.110 This might imply that between the previous envoy in 1366 and this envoy in February 1367, merchants might have already been able to approach other areas of the Mamluk realm such as Damietta or Beirut. By January 1367, things seemed to return back to normal for the Genoese merchants in Egypt.111 Despite the amelioration in Genoese and Venetian relations with Egypt, some of them reappear in the troops under Peter king of Cyprus at the attack on Tripoli and Jaffa in 1367, possibly as mercenaries.112

106 Cf. Hardy, Sophie. “Edition critique de la Prise d’Alexandrie de Guillaume de Machaut”. Université d’Orléans, 2011; an-​Nuwayrī al-​Iskandarāni, Kitāb al-​Ilmām, ed. Combe –​Atiya. Also the much later Ibn Iyās tells us about this incident. Genoese are only mentioned specifically as providing two of the ships along with Venetians, Cypriots and Rhodians that were attacking and looting Alexandria. Cf. Ibn Iyās Badāʾiʿ al-​zuhūr fī waḳāʾiʿ al-​duhūr I, 2: 23. 1 07 Cf. Fuess, Albrecht. “Why Venice, not Genoa: How Venice Emerged as the Mamluks’ Favourite European Trading Partner after 1365”. In Union in separation: diasporic groups and identitites in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100–​1800), ed. Georg Christ –​ Franz-​Julius Morche. Rom: Viella, 2015: 256 f. 1 08 Cf. Krebs, Werner. “Innen-​und Aussenpolitik Ägyptens 741 -​784, 1341 –​1382”. Universität Hamburg, Diss., 1979, 1980: 288. 1 09 Cf. Krebs, Werner. “Innen-​und Außenpolitik…”: 291, not. 3. 1 10 Cf. Ibn Iyās, Badāʾiʿ al-​zuhūr fī waḳāʾiʿ al-​duhūr I, 2: 59. 1 11 Cf. Krebs, Werner. “Innen-​und Außenpolitik…”: 291, not. 3. 1 12 Cf. Krebs, Werner. “Innen-​und Außenpolitik…”: 304 f.

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8. Embassy 1382113 In 1369, the Venetians and Genoese suspended their commercial activities with Egypt and Syria once more.114 However, Venice focused more on negotiations,115 whereas Genoa followed a more aggressive approach with attacks trying to intimidate Egypt.116 In 1381/​1382, reports came up of mistreatment and beating of Latin-​ Christian merchants. The Genoese went in March 1382 with an envoy to Egypt.117 The ship seems to have taken a strange course going back and forth between Egypt and Cyprus in May and again in August/​September the same year, passing several times to Beirut, Famagusta, and Tripoli during May. They seem to have been in contact with the capitaneus of Famagusta, the highest Genoese official in the eastern Mediterranean.118 Ashtor and Kedar argue that the three visits to Beirut were related to scheming a plot of the Genoese with emir Baidamur, the governor of Syria against emir Barquq, who was pulling the strings of the young sultan in Egypt. This plan did not seem to materialize, as in late 1382 emir Barquq usurped the throne of the young sultan.119 In April 1383, Leonardo Montaldo assumed the office of new doge of Genoa. He had held several offices in the Eastern Mediterranean and proved to change Genoa’s attitude towards Egypt towards a more firm stance. An embassy to Damascus in late May of the same year does not contain further details on the demands. Due to the request of a quick answer to his demands, the negotiations appear to have an ultimatum for the sultan, in order to secure fairer treatment of the Genoese merchants.120 Two versions of the events leading to the conflict between Genoa and Egypt exist from the Arabic side: one of al-​Maqrizi and one of Ibn Iyās. 113 Cf. Balard, Michel. “Escales génoises sur les routes de l’Orient méditerranéen au XIVe siècle” In Gênes et la Mer –​Genova e il Mare I, Michel Balard. Genoa: Società Ligure Storia Patria, 2017: 176. 1 14 Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 4. 1 15 Cf. Fuess, Albrecht. “Why Venice…”: 258. 1 16 Cf. Fuess, Albrecht. “Why Venice…”: 259. 1 17 Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 6 f. 1 18 Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 7 f. 1 19 Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 8 f. 1 20 Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 9 f.

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Al-​Maqrizi localizes the spark in Cairo, where some Franks had to escape and a group of Muslims pursued them. This led to a naval encounter with victims on the Muslim side. The governor of Alexandria responded by arresting all Latin-​Christian merchants in his city. However, the latter’s account presents some inconsistencies in his report, which makes him less trustworthy.121 According to al-​Maqrizi, the Franks reacted by attacking the port city in the Nile delta at-​Tinā, taking prisoners and killing one of them. Even though al-​Maqrizi only speaks of “Franks” and not specifically of “Genoese”, it seems clear that he must refer to the Genoese, since the other credible culprit, the Venetians, remained in Alexandria. As Ashtor and Kedar argue that the rulers of Genoa did not plan this event, but the Genoese capitaneus of Famagusta. This becomes clear by the fact that a prohibition on trading with Alexandria is only enacted by Genoa on the 20 of June 1383, thus more than one month after the attack on at-​Tinā on the 18 May of the same year. The attack on this city resulted in the outbreak of a war between Genoa and Egypt.122 On July 6, the Genoese ambassador Pietro Piccono approached Beirut in order to sue for peace with the viceroy of Damascus.123 However, these negotiations were somewhat stalling and the sultan wanted more security against piracy before agreeing a peace treaty. The embassy caused a local conflict on the Levantine coast, ostensibly due to lack of provisions. Ashtor and Kedar argue that some members of the embassy or the capitaneus of Famagusta himself might have been more interested in confrontation instead of peace.124 Matteo Maruffo, fighter for Genoa during the Chioggia war against Venice, was interested in an attack on the Mamluk realm. Therefore, he managed to extract a permission from James I for sending a fleet for several days to the Mamluk coastline. On August 9, they attacked Sidon, pillaging some items and setting fire to the city’s market, as the historiographer Ibn Ḥaǧar al-‘Asqalani notes.125 The group under Maruffo planned a similar attack on Beirut, but encountered too much resistance in order to retrieve

1 21 1 22 1 23 1 24 1 25

Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 11. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 12 f. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 13 f. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 15–​17. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 19.

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any loot, so they returned to Famagusta.126 After their return to Famagusta, they planned to attack even Damietta and Alexandria, but due to their losses in a storm, they decided to content themselves with another attack on the Syrian coastline in late September/​October 1383.127 Even the sultan knew about the looming danger of a Genoese attack on the Egyptian coast, as Ibn Ḥaǧar al-‘Asqalani points out.128 One might wonder why this Genoese group was so interested in looting Beirut. One of the main reason seems to be its commercial and economic rise to power after the destruction of Acre in the course of the fourteenth century.129 Despite Beirut’s slow acquisition of wealth, it still lacked the proper defenses for naval attacks.130 This combination of factors made it an attractive destination for pillaging expeditions. Ashtor and Kedar indicate another reason: Genoa’s competition of Famagusta with coastal cities like Beirut, Tripoli and Latakia. It seems that Genoa had hoped to acquire a certain trade preponderance in the Eastern Mediterranean after the conquest of Famagusta.131 These hopes did not prove to be true, thus some weakening attacks on the competition might provide Genoa the upper hand. In 1384, Genoese ships attacked the harbor of Rosetta. Again, in 1385 the crew of a Frankish ship, presumably Genoese, around Damietta attacked and killed locals.132 However, Mamluk ships caught presumably the same group around Damietta and presented them to the sultan.133

9. Peace in 1385/​1386 The Genoese consul had remained in Alexandria during the conflict. The final reasons for and details of the peace negotiations are unclear, but the 1 26 1 27 1 28 1 29 1 30 1 31 1 32 1 33

Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 20, 23. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 24 f. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 24. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 26; cf. Fuess, Albrecht. “Beirut in Mamluk Times (1291–​1516)”. ARAM Periodical, Nr. 9–​10 (1998 1997): 87, 101. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 26. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 27. Cf. Ibn Iyās, Badāʾiʿ al-​zuhūr fī waḳāʾiʿ al-​duhūr I, 2, p. 360. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 29.

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new Doge of Genoa, Antoniotto Adorno in 1384, might have had a role in it.134 We still read of warship preparations from the Mamluk side in 1385/​ 86, but also of a Frankish (presumably Genoese) embassy in 28 July 1386. This might be confirmed by the documentation of a Genoese embassy under Simone Leccavello in 1386.135 Besides this Genoese-​Mamluk conflict, another reason for the loss of importance of Genoa for Egypt might have relied in the increasing multitude of slave sources by the mid-​fourteenth century compared. Previously the focus of slave imports had lied in the Black Sea area, where Genoa was an important supply partner.136

10. Conclusion As this chapter aimed to show, attitudes of Genoa and Egypt to one another did change over time. Particularly the years between 1260 and 1320 appear to be particularly close with more or less frequent exchanges of embassies and the proximity of individual merchants (Segurano Salvago, Octobonus della Volta, and Domenichino Doria) to the Mamluk realm. It also seems highly likely that a treaty between Genoa and Egypt existed before 1290 as the various exchanges of embassies indicate. Even the papal prohibitions that made evidence on commerce for the 1320s to 1340s more scarce did not seem to affect the trade between Genoa and Egypt as much as previously argued when looking on notarial acts.137 However, during the second half of the fourteenth century, Genoa’s participation on the sack of Alexandria in 1365 and the conflict in the 1380s shows a more conflictive side of their relationship. This is where Venice steps in and becomes the more reliable trading partner for Egypt.138

1 34 1 35 1 36 1 37 1 38

Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 30. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu –​Kedar, Benjamin. “Una guerra…”: 30–​32. Cf. Ashtor, Eliyahu. “The Levant Trade…”: 83. Cf. Balard, Michel. “Le Commerce Génois…”: 278. For the relationship of Venice with Egypt after 1365, cf. Fuess, Albrecht. “Why Venice…”: 251–​266.

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Generally, we can observe a rather marbled picture of Genoese-​ Mamluk relations with a more frequent exchange of embassies in the second half of the thirteenth century, which seems to become more irregular and marked by crises, particularly in the fourteenth century (1289, 1311, 1319, 1365, 1382–​86). Nevertheless, we do have testimonies of groups or individuals that were active mainly as merchants despite these crises and papal prohibitions. It is, however, still a picture that requires more research and clearly shows gaps of treaties and details on embassies.

Rania Mohammad Ibrahim

Trade between Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and Alexandria 1250–​1517 AD

1. Introduction In his studies on the history of commerce, Gerolamo Boccardo argues that: “the history of commerce is the history of civilization, and the peoples who possessed economic prosperity were also wonderful in science, arts, literature, weapons and all aspects of life”.1 The people of Dubrovnik clearly perceived the importance of trade to them in a letter to the King of Hungary and Croatia Lajos I in April 1371, in which they stressed that trade is the only source of Dubrovnik because their land was deserted and barren: “We [Ragusans] cannot live, except by trading”.2 In that way, trade helped the people of Dubrovnik in particular to achieve their economic and political independence. Likewise in the case of Alexandria, trade did not only help in spreading its products in Eastern and Western Europe, but also played a vital role in spreading culture and identity formation.

1

2

Gerolamo Boccardo (1829–​1904) is the Italian economist, geeographer, teacher and politician. He published his Trattato and Ferrara as editor of the series Biblioteca dell’ Ecconomista. See: Tusset, Gianfranco. From Galileo to Modern Economics: the Italian Origins of Econophysics. Macmillan: Palgrave, 2018: 56–​58. Cirkovic, Sima. The Serbs. Translated by: Tosic, Vuk. Australia: Blackwell Puplishing, 2004: 93.

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1.1 Geography of Dubrovnik and Alexandria; the Historical and Commercial Importance of the Two Cities Dubrovnik (in Latin “Ragusium”, and in Italian “Ragusa”) is a Croatian coastal city located on the western coast of the region of Dalmatia.3 It is likely that the city of Dubrovnik was founded in the seventh century AD by refugees from ancient Epidaruros, which was destroyed by the Slavs and Avars after the destruction of Salona 614/​615 AD.4 Constantine VII mentioned that the city of Ragusa was not known under this name among the Romans or the Byzantines, but it was called Cliff-​Lau because its building was made on a cliff, and its place was called Lausaioi (meaning the inhabitants of the cliff). Due to the use of the word by the common people, it was distorted to become Rausaioi. When the Slavs seized the territory of Dalmatia and killed some of its inhabitants and captured others, a number of Ragusa residents fled and settled in the rugged areas that became Ragusa since the seventh century. The new residents worked to expand it and increased in their numbers.5 When the Croats inhabited , this forested area they began to call it “Dubrava”, which later became Dubrovnik. This is a historical evidence that Ragusa was not the same as Dubrovnik, but was separated by a canal dividing the Roman city of Ragusa from the Croatian headquarters “Dubrovnik”. With the continuous increase in migrations and population, the canal was bridged and they became one city.6 Alexander the Great (332–​323 BC) built the city of Alexandria in 331 BC, naming it after his name to be a center of the Hellenistic civilization in the ancient East, as well as a naval base that would prepare him for controlling the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.7 Alexandria has a great importance since its ancient times; as it was the ancient capital of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, and it was a center for many travelers throughout

3 4 5 6 7

Dombarton Oaks Papers, Cambridge, Mass. Vol. I.1941 ff: 665. Constantine VII, De Adminitrando Imperio. Beirut: Dar Al-​Nahdah Al-​Arabia, 29. 1980: 114. Mandic, Dominic. Croats and Serbs Two Old and Different Nations. Chicago: Candlemas, 1970: 63–​64. Constantine VII, De Adminitrando: 113–​114. Constantine VII, De Adminitrando: 122. Mandic, Dominic. Croats and Serbs: 63–​66. Shillington, Kevin. Encyclopedia of African History. Vol. I. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn Taylor & Francis Group, 2005: 74.

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the ages, and as it is the western entrance to Egypt as well.8 Alexandria continued to enjoy the lead among the Islamic cities of Egypt, despite the shift of the central administration to “Fustat” in the early Islamic period and then Cairo under the Fatimids and beyond. Alexandria was Egypt’s first port and its second major and important city.9 In its early political history, Dubrovnik (Ragusa) passed through various stages, subjecting to the Byzantines and the Muslim Arabs, but it got its independence due to its strong fleet and distinguished commercial activity as a result of its geographical location.10 After the Fourth Crusade (1202–​1204) was derailed due to a lack of organization and volunteers, the Duke of Venice Enrico Dandolo (1192–​1205) took advantage of the opportunity and promised to supply the campaign and refine its fleet in exchange for the men of the campaign attacking the Croatian city of Zadar in favor of Venice.11 Dubrovnik then signed an agreement with Venice to become subject to the Venetians in the period (1205–​1358). 12 The Ayyubids ruled Egypt in the period (1172–​1250), and their presence coincided with the Crusades against the Islamic East. Despite the interest of Salah al-​Din al-​Ayyubi in Alexandria, his successors did not pay much attention to the navy, until the Mamluk rule of Egypt (1250–​ 1517); there has been a movement to revive the Islamic navy since the reign 8

Bagnall, Roger and Rathbone Dominic. Egypt from Alexander to the Early Christians. Los Angeles: The Paul Getty Museum, 2004: 11–​18. See also: Christopher, Paul. Greatest Cities in the World. Chicago: Encouragement Press, 2007: 9–​10. 9 Davutoglu, Ahmet. Pivot Cities in the Rise and Fall of Civilization. New York: Routledge, 2022: 130. Amr Ibn Al-​Aas conquered the city of Alexandria in 641 AD, and the Romans left it in 642 AD. Amr sent to Caliph Omar Ibn Al-​Khattab asking him to take Alexandria as the capital of Egypt, so the caliph ordered him to take a city where the roads meet from Najd, the Levant and Iran, so he built “Fustat”. See: Alsuyuti, Jalal-​Aldiyn. Husn Almuhadarat fi Tarikh Misr Walqahirati. Investigated by: Ibrahim, Muhammad. Cairo: Dar “Iihya” Al-​Kutub Al-​Arabia (Eisaa Alhalabi), 1967: 52–​57. 10 Ibrahim, Rania. Croatia in Middle Ages from the Seventh Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Syria: Nour Houran, 2020: 74, 75, 87, 88. Mandic, Dominik. Croats and Serbs: 64–​65. 1 1 Thomas, Archdeacon of Split. Historia Salonitanorum Atque Spalatinorum Pontificum. Budapest & New York: Central European University, 2006: 145, 147. See also: Clary, Robert. Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders. Cairo, 1964: 42–​49. 12 Hunyadi, Zsolt and Laszlovszky, Jozsef. The Crusades and the Military Orders Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Lating Christianity. Budapest: Central European University (Medevalia), 2021: 175.

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of Sultan al-​Zahir Baybars.13 Sultan al-​Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun followed al-​Zahir Baybars’s policy, so he took care of Alexandria, and trade flourished during his reign.14

2. Foreign Communities in Alexandria The Mamluk State had commercial relations with many economic powers of their time, and in Alexandria there was a good number of foreign communities of different nationalities.15 According Benjamin al-​Teili, since the second century, Alexandria had been an important market for international trade, where most of the products of the East flocked to it. Trade flourished and the number of European merchants increased as well, and each community had a hotel. In his report it is mentioned that: “This country is commercial, visited by people from all Christian peoples and nations, from the countries of the West to Venice, Sicily… and Croatia”.16 The Venetians in particular had a large community in Alexandria, managed by a consul. In the Venetian quarter there were two hotels, a bath, a bakery and a church.17 Since Dubrovnik had been subject to Venice since the early thirteenth century, it is natural that its merchants travelled and traded on Venetian ships at that time; and probably stayed with them in the same hotel, because they did not have their own hotel until the beginning of the sixteenth century. Venice controlled Dubrovnik’s trade until it unleashed the Venetian ships alone in controlling the Mediterranean trade, limiting Dubrovnik’s maritime trade to the Adriatic Sea, and stimulating Dubrovnik’s land trade 13 14 15 16 17

Al-​Maqrizi, Taqi Al-​Din. Al-​Mawaiz Wal-​Iaetibar Bidhikr Al-​Khitat Wal-​Athar. Vol. 3. Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli, 1997: 113. Al-​Maqrizi, Taqi Al-​Din. Al-​Suluk fi Maerifat Dual Al-​Muluk. Beirut: Dar Al-​Kutub Al-​Elmeia, 1997: 284. Al-​Balawi, Khalid bin Issa. Taj Al-​Mufariq fi Tahliat Oulama’ Al-​Mashriq. www.al-​ mosafa.com (Accessed on: May 6, 2022). Benjamin, Altutaili, The Rabbi. The Journey of Benjamin. Abu Dhabi: Almogama Althaqafi, 2002: 55. Diehl, Charles. Venice: an Aristocratic Republic, Cairo, 1948. Al-​Maqrizi, Taqi Al-​Din. Al-​Suluk. Vol. 2: 59.

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with the remote Balkan lands. Despite this pressure, Dubrovnik continued its trade in the Mediterranean, at that time when it had established the foundations of its extensive trading network in the Balkans.18 Archaeological discovery on the site of the Benedictine monastery of St. Marija od Kastela indicates the existence of direct commercial relations between Dubrovnik and Alexandria, where a Mamluk coin was found with a diameter of 18.6 mm and a weight of 2.18 g, minted in Egypt during the reign of Sultan al-​Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun who ruled in (1293–​1294), (1299–​1309) and (1310–​1341), so this coin dated back to the late thirteenth century until the first half of the fourteenth century.19 (See: Figure 1).

Figure 1.  Mamluk Coin in Dubrovnik (Ragusa)

Despite the importance of this archaeological discovery as well as its rarity, it raises several questions about how the ships of Dubrovnik sailed at that time., despite the restrictions imposed on them by Venice, in addition to the papal decisions banning trade with Muslims…

18

Kuncevic, Lovro. “The Network in Time: Ragusan Maritime Trade from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth century”, in: Blockmans, Wim and Others, The Routledge Handbook of Maritime Trade around Europe 1300–​1600. London and New York: Routledge, 2017: 144. 19 Ilkic, Mato and Topic, Nikolina. “Dubrovacki Nalazi Seldzuckog Ilkhanidskog I Mameluckoc Novca”. Anali Dubrovnik, 51/​1. 2013: 12. Figure (1) is in the same article. P. 13.

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3. Dubrovnik and Alexandria as Commercial Brokers between the Adriatic, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea Dubrovnik’s merchants played the role of commercial intermediary since their early history of trade. It started with trading with the remote areas of the Balkans, and they later developed their trade with the Islamic world, especially Egypt and Syria.20 3.1 Metals In the thirteenth century there was a boom in the mineral trade in Dubrovnik, as mines were opened and expanded in the interior of the Balkans.21 Dubrovnik acted as a commercial intermediary in the copper trade, which Venetian merchants obtained from them. Dubrovnik also exported Balkan copper to the Levant, sometimes on Venetian ships.22 Foreigners, especially Italians, played a major role in financing Dubrovnik’s expeditions to the remote areas of the Balkans through the credits they provided to Dubrovnik’s merchants, and by this the minerals were transported to the Adriatic.23 Since the second half of the fourteenth century, Dubrovnik acquired great importance as a mediator between the Balkans and Western Europe. Balkan goods reached the region via land routes, and then were carried 20 Foretic, Vinko. “Povijest Dubrovnika do 1808”, Matica Hrvatska, I, Zagreb, 1980: 117–​118. 2 1 Havrylyshyn, Oleh and Srzentic, Nora. “Economy of Ragusa, 1300–​1800: the Tiger of Medieval Mediterranean”, Comparative Economic Studies. 18th Dubrovnik Economic Conference Symposium, New Brunswick. Vol. 55, Iss. 2, May, Zagreb, 2014: 12. 2 2 Ashtor, Eliyahu. Levant Trade in the Middle Ages. USA: Princeton University Press, 1983: 158. 2 3 Krekic, Barisa. Dubrovnik in the 14th and 15th Centuries: a City between East and West. USA: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972: 31. In 1456 citizens of Constantinople sold copper and tin to members of the Dubrovnik Governing Council in order to get rid of a small cannon, and by the middle of the fifteenth century Constantinople copper was being regularly delivered to Dubrovnik, and it began to be exported from it to Alexandria and the ports of the Maghreb. See: Blanchard, Ian. Mining, Metallurgy and Mining in the Middle Ages. Vol. 3, Continuing Afro-​European Supermacy, 1250–​1450. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005: 1517.

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on ships and transported to western Europe, usually to Italian ports such as Ancona, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily. It also reached Dalmatia and the entire eastern Mediterranean and to a lesser extent the western Mediterranean.24 Dubrovnik also played an important role in transporting lead shipments from mineral-​rich regions, such as Bosnia and Serbia. In 1403 AD, a caravan of 300 horses carrying lead from the Balkans reached Dubrovnik, and then to Venice, after which Venetian ships carried it to the Levant and Alexandria.25 There are some records in the Dubrovnik archives that prove the export of silver from Dubrovnik to Alexandria,26 which quickly became a major channel to meet the high demand for silver in Europe. It is worth noting that in 1400 AD, silver production in the Balkans represented a third of Europe’s production as a whole; and a third of all silver was exported to Europe (about 16 % of the European total) via Dubrovnik.27 3.2 Slaves The slave trade spread in the Balkans, and Dubrovnik was a transit point for this trade, whether to Italy or the Islamic East since the thirteenth century to be used as domestic servants. Slaves, especially blacks, were imported from Africa to Alexandria then to Dubrovnik.28 The slave trade in the Balkans increased since the beginning of the fifteenth century due to poverty and underdevelopment in the areas from which they came. The Balkans became a source of domestic servants due to the shortage of manpower as a result of the black death “plague” that hindered population growth in Western Europe throughout this century. In addition, there were political reasons associated with immigration as a result of the invasion of the Turks to those areas.29

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Kuncevic, Lovro. Ragusan Maritime Trade: 145. Ashtor, Eliyahu. Levant Trade: 159–​160. БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата (1280–​1460), Издавачка Установа Сан, 1956: 12. Havrylyshyn, Oleh and Srzentic, Nora. Economy of Ragusa: 12–​13. Havrylyshyn, Oleh and Srzentic, Nora. Economy of Ragusa: 110. Pinelli, Paola. “From Dubrovnik (Ragusa) to Florence: Observations on the Recruiting of Domestic Servants in the Fifteenth Century”. Dubrovnik Annals, 12 (2008): 62.

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Some Dubrovnik nobles complained about this trade, which was not so important to Dubrovnik as it was to Western Europe. They also considered it outrageous, hateful, and against humanity. Slave trade was prohibited in Dubrovnik by Consilium Rogatorum in 1416 and it was confirmed again in 1418, and no foreigner was allowed to practice this trade in Dubrovnik. It was the first European city to take this decision –​regardless of the feasibility of implementing it.30 3.3 Textiles and Food There is no doubt that the raw materials needed for the textile and clothing industry occupied a large part of the trade between Dubrovnik and Alexandria. Alexandria imported fine wool from Thessaloniki to become the most important center and exporter of fine wool even to Dubrovnik, in addition to cotton.31 Neckties and fine clothes were exchanged from 30

31

The council issued a decision to punish any person who violates the decision to prevent the sale of slaves in the same way and to sell them like them. See: Krekic, Barisa. Dubrovnik: 37–​38. The small council “Consilium Minus” in 1413 forbade slave trade, then the ban was in the years 1416 and 1418. See: Basic, Divo. “Shipping in Durovnik between the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”. Pomorski Zbornik, 53 (2017): 94. Consilium Rogatorum in Dubrovnik consisted of 45 members appointed for life, assisted by another 300-​member sub-​council of the landowning nobility, and the main council elected a small council of 11 members which functioned like a supreme court and enjoyed executive power. The main Senate edited treaties, envoys, and consulates, passed administrative, commercial, and political bills, and included a great number of aristocrats, merchants, and commoners. See; Zarinebaf, Fariba. “On the Edge of Empires: Dubrovnik and Anavarin between Istanbul and Venice”, in: Living in the Ottoman Ecuminical Community. Festschrift for Suraiya Faroqhi, edited by: Constantini, Vera and Koller, Markus, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2008: 246–​247. The slave trade did not stop after the issuance of the resolution of 1416, although violators were punished with six months’ imprisonment and a financial fine. Therefore, the prohibition of this trade was confirmed again in 1418, as no one could be forced to do domestic service elsewhere without his will or permission from his parents or one of them, and by the middle of the fifteenth century a number of Greeks, Tatars, Russians, Muslims and blacks arrived in Dubrovnik; They were sold to foreign merchants, especially Italians and Turks, after the Ottomans conquered Serbia and Bosnia in 1459 and 1463, and Dubrovnik was overcrowded with refugees to speed up their deportation to Italy. See; Pinelli, Paola. Dubrovnik: 63. БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата: 110.

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Dubrovnik to Bosnia for lead.32 Dubrovnik’s ships sold slaves to Italian merchants in exchange for woolen clothes and foodstuffs especially wheat.33 Olive oil and honey occupied a distinguished space in the trade between the Islamic East and Western Europe. Egypt and the Levant imported these food products from Dubrovnik, which it obtained from Bosnia, where they were high-​quality products purchased by the upper classes of eastern societies, while the lower classes had to be satisfied with local products, cheapest and lowest quality.34 3.4 Spices, Salt and Other Merchandises Spices were the most popular in the trade between the Islamic East and Europe in general, and between Dubrovnik and Alexandria in particular, especially those coming from India. Europeans bought these spices from Alexandria, which was the largest market for pepper and vinegar.35 The merchants of Dubrovnik bought salt from Cyprus on their way back from Alexandria, and made use of it as ballast for their ships.36 Dubrovnik merchants also exported olive oil, walnuts, wheat from Apulia, coral, wood, iron, tin, leather, cattle, lapis lazuli, cheese and wax from the Balkans to the Levant and Egypt.37 Although most of this trade passed through Dubrovnik, there was a number of ships that traded between other ports or chartered their services as cargo carriers.38 This proves the existence of other services besides trade, which is very likely to have played by Dubrovnik itself before in the process of promoting its land and sea trade. But what is Venice’s reaction to Dubrovnik’s trade during the period of its control (1205–​1358), and afterwards?

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БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата: 110–​111. Pinelli, Paola. Dubrovnik: 57, 62. БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата: 112. Ashtor, Eliyahu. Levant Trade: 164–​165. Blockmans, Wim and Others, Maritime Trade: 145–​146. Coureas, Nicholas. “Cyprus and Ragusa (Dubrovnik) 1280–​1450”, Mediterranean Historical Review. London: Routledge, 2008: 10. The ballast is the weight that is placed in the belly of a ship to prevent it from tilting on one of its sides. Kuncevic, Lovro. Ragusan Maritime Trade: 146.

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In addition to its remarkable commercial prosperity and enormous economic activity, Venice occupied the first commercial centres in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. However, it sought to obliterate any presence of any other port on the Adriatic. After its ambitions in Zadar, Dubrovnik signed an agreement with it (1205–​1358). As a result, Venice restricted the commercial activity of Dubrovnik, as evidenced by the presence of a number of contracts and regulations in force at the time, which determined the relationship between Dubrovnik and Venice in the years 1226, 1232, 1236 and 1252. In these years, they restricted Dubrovnik’s ships in the Adriatic, and restricted their trade to the internal areas in the Balkans.39 Venice feared the increase in the growth of Dubrovnik’s maritime trade. Dubrovnik undoubtedly enjoys a geographical location that allows it to control the maritime trade in the Adriatic, and to expand its commercial activity in the Mediterranean. Venice is located at the highest point in the north of the Adriatic, while Dubrovnik is located in the southeast. Therefore, Dubrovnik is more closer than Venice to the Mediterranean, so it can trade with the Greek islands, the Levant and Egypt in the east, and with the Italian ports, Morocco, Spain and others in the west. However, there was another reason that may have prompted Venice to encourage Dubrovnik’s land trade more than its maritime trade. It was easier to reach the remote Balkans for Dubrovnik, in addition to the importance of the various products there for foreign trade. Consequently, Venice was able to make its gains in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. On the other hand, it took advantage of Dubrovnik to provide products that were difficult to reach, and then sold them to the rest of Europe and the Muslims at the highest prices.

39 Coralic, Lovorka. “The Ragusans in Venice from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Cetury”, Dubrovnik Annals. Vol. 3, B-​40. 1999: 25–​26. For more details on the trade relationship between Dubrovnik and Venice, see the rest of the article. The Venice Senate in 1269 discussed the relations between Dubrovnik and Alexandria, and the foreign trade of its ships was also mentioned in Dubrovnik’s 1272 Statute, as evidence of Venice’s restriction of Dubrovnik’s trade with Alexandria. See; Ilkic, Matko and Topic, Nikolina. Dubrovacki: 4.

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4. Jews’ Role in Trade between Dubrovnik and Alexandria Many foreigners existed in Dubrovnik alongside the Italians since the fourteenth century, such as the Greeks, the Levantines, the Albanians, even the French and the Catalans.40 The Jews of Eastern Europe actively contributed to the maritime trade in the Mediterranean in contrast to the Jews of Western Europe, who some of them lived on moneylending in the Middle Ages. Trading cities’ Jews –​especially eastern Sicily –​conducted active trade with all the countries in the eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic coasts, and there is a decree issued in Ragusa in 1382 indicating the quantity of cotton that the Jew of Malta received in order to transport it to Tripoli in Libya and give it to another Jew, who didn’t obtain olive oil and sturgeon fish –​from which caviar was extracted –​in exchanging them for that cotton.41 Because of the expulsion of the Jews from France and southern Italy since the beginning of the fifteenth century, and also from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1498, they moved to Dubrovnik, and many of them fled to the east and the Ottoman Balkans, which in turn opened new horizons for their maritime trade. And there was a quarter in Dubrovnik for Jews in which they settled permanently, yet their numbers there were few, and there is no evidence of any of them having settled permanently in the city.42 A new class of Jews belonging to various regions in southern Europe appeared in Egypt and Syria during the fifteenth century, where they worked extensively in maritime trade. Since the beginning of the Mamluk era, Jewish merchants belonged to the middle class, although their trade was limited to the Jewish communities in those countries.43 Although there were no clear indications of the role of the Jews in the trade between Dubrovnik and Alexandria, we cannot ignore their role in trade in general, in particular the maritime trade.

4 0 Krekic, Barisa. Dubrovnik: 29–​30. 4 1 Ashtor, Eliyahu. The Jews in the Mediterranean Trade in the Fifteenth Century. London: Variorum Reprints, 1983: 159, 169, 172. 4 2 Krekic, Barisa. Dubrovnik: 30. 4 3 Ashtor, Eliyahu. The Jews: 176.

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5. Papal Attempts to Ban Trade with Muslims, and Dubrovnik’s Reaction The papacy lost its last stronghold in the Islamic East by Muslims’ liberating Acre in 1291 and expelling the Crusaders from it permanently. For this reason, the papacy issued several strict decrees to prohibit trade with Muslims, and it was punished by deprivation of individuals and cities who violated its decisions that dealt with the Mamluks, especially in the sale of strategic goods such as iron, wood and wheat. Pope Nicholas IV (1288–​1293) also issued a decree in 1289 to prohibit trade with Muslims.44 Despite all the previous decisions imposed by the papacy to besiege Muslims economically and then militarily, European cities did not abide by those decisions most of the time, and the matter differed slightly after the Muslims had recovered Acre, an event that angered the papacy and the political forces in Europe.45 Some commercial cities adhered to the papal decrees for some time, for fear of excommunication and punishments for disobedience; the goods coming from the east piled up in the port of Alexandria.46 44 Diehl, Charles. Venice: 71–​ 72. See also; Menache, Sophia. “Papal Attempts at a Commercial Boycott of the Muslims in the Crusader Period”, in The Eastern Mediterranean Frontier of Latin Christendom, edited by; Jace, Stuckey. USA: Routledge, 2016: 430. Pope Nicholas IV’s decision was preceded by several papal decisions, the most famous of which are Resolution No. 24 of the Third Lateran Council in 1179, Pope Alexander III’s decision (1159–​1181 AD), and Pope Clement III’s decision (1187–​ 1191 AD). For the decision of the Lateran Council see; Mansi, Johannes Dominicus. Sacrorum ConciliarumConciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio. Vol. XXII. Parisiis, 1767: col. 230, 231. Jaffé, Philip. Regesta PontificiumPontificum Romanorum: ab Condita Ecclesia, ab Annum Post Christum Natum MCXCVIII, Berolini, 1871: 780–​ 781. See also; Summerlin, Danica. The Canons of the Third Lateran Council of 1179: Their Origins and Reception. Cambridge University Press, 2019: 6, 7, 197. And for Pop Clement III’s decision, see; Catlos, Brian. Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom: 1050–​1614. UK: Cambridge University, 2013: 414. See also: Swanson, Max. Religion Unplugged: Spirituality or Fanaticism? USA: Xlibrism, 2011: 101–​ 102. See also: Stantchev, Stefan. Spiritual Rationality: Papal Embargo as Cultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014: 77–​79. 4 5 Diehl, Charles. Venice: 71–​72. 4 6 Menache, Sophia. Papal Attempts: 430. After the fall of the Crusader fortresses in Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, Venice was prohibited from exporting timber and iron to those areas, except for Tyre, which

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But the economic interests of the European commercial cities made the economic boycott of Muslims temporary, so they violated the papal decision.47 In 1373, the kings of Hungary and Croatia obtained official permits from Pope Gregory XI (1370–​1378) to allow them to sail to the most expensive Muslim ports in Egypt and Syria.48 It is worth noting that some Italian city merchants did not sail to Alexandria and Syria during the papal ban, which benefited the Dubrovnik merchants, since goods from Alexandria were smuggled and sold by some individuals belonging to the Islamic East, and the people of Dubrovnik imported many goods at cheap prices and sold them to Venice and others at very high prices.49 The export of foodstuffs to Syria was completely prohibited during this temporary ban, but they were legally exported from Dubrovnik to Alexandria, taking into account the increase in prices from the beginning of the fifteenth century until its end from 300 ducats to 450 ducats per ton. At least two to three voyages each year sailed from Dubrovnik to Alexandria with goods back and forth.50 Why did Dubrovnik violate the decisions of the papacy? Perhaps because it was the easiest to violate due to the volume of its trade with Alexandria and the Islamic East, which was not the same as the trade of Venice and the rest of the Italian cities. Adriatic down to the average.

6. Dubrovnik under the Hungarian Protection There is no doubt that Dubrovnik suffered under the rule of Venice due to its interference in its economic affairs and the imposition of commercial trusteeship, but we cannot deny that Dubrovnik also benefited from that

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was still resisting the Mamluks at the time. Salt (Oriental Salt) was imported from Alexandria in 1284 on board the ships of Dubrovnik and Zadar, and Dubrovnik’s citizens paid customs duties for imported goods from North Africa, and this is evidence of the continuation of trade with the Islamic world in addition to the Mamluk money mentioned in Figure 1. See: Ilkic, Mato and Topic, Nikolina. Dubrovacki: 4. Menache, Sophia. Papal Attempts: 430. Ilkic, Mato and Topic, Nikolina. Dubrovacki: 4. БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата: 109. БрекиЉ, вариша. Дубровник и Левата: 112, 113.

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dependence before it certainly gained the experience and confidence of a city that was known for its pioneering commercial economy throughout the Middle Ages. Dubrovnik’s merchants sailed on or under the Venetian ships and gained fame in the world of international trade, with their ships even taking on the same shape and design as those of the Venetians. Hungary had suffered from internal and external crises since the thirteenth century due to the emigration of some of the different population elements and then the outbreak of internal conflicts in addition to the Mongol invasion in 1241.51 King of Croatia and Charles I of Hungary (1308–​1342) –​ the first king of the Anjou dynasty –​succeeded in subduing the feuding Croat families that took over internal power with Hungary’s encouragement at the beginning of the thirteenth century.52 He also expanded the circle of Hungarian control over the territory of Croatia, as Venice took advantage of the internal war between families. The Croatian nobility, which coincided with the decline of the royal power of Hungary, the Venetians controlled most of the Dalmatian coast.53 Charles I defeated the Venetians in a two-​year war, forcing them to seek the Peace of Zadar, on the 18th of February 1358; Venice gave back all of the Croatian islands and cities, which freed Dubrovnik from Venice’s commercial control. They also enjoyed greater autonomy which was openly granted by the Hungarian kings who had little interest in the Mediterranean trade; there was no Hungarian representative in Dubrovnik. By the end of the 14th century, Dubrovnik had become the main port on the eastern coast of the Adriatic and the third most important trading city in the Mediterranean.54

51 Simon of Keza. The Deeds of the Hungarians. Trans. by: Veszpremy, Laszlo and Schaer, Frank, with a study by: Szues, Jeno. Budapest, 1999: 147. See also: Ibrahim, Rania. Croatia: 140–​142. 5 2 Mandic, Dominic. Croats and Serbs: 50–​51. 5 3 Dvornik, Francis. The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Vol. 2. Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1956: 135. Fine, John. The Late Medieval Balkans: a Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. USA: University of Michigan, 1994: 313–​314. 5 4 Havrylyshyn, Oleh and Srzentic, Nora. Economy of Ragusa: 9. See also: Mandic, Dominic. Croats and Serbs: 51.

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7. The Cape of Good Hope Road, and Its Influence on Trade The traffic of Dubrovnik merchants in the lands of the Mamluks was limited to the Mediterranean ports, and Alexandria was at the forefront. They were waiting for the goods brought by Muslim merchants from the East, which were transported from Suez and developed on the Red Sea, most expensive Cairo and Alexandria, where ships loaded with spices from East India awaited them.55 In 1510, Dubrovnik merchants began to expand their movement outside Alexandria and Syria, where the Mamluk Sultan al-​Nasir Qansuh al-​Ghouri allowed them to do. The trade activities were linked to a project presented by Dubrovnik to the Mamluk Sultan to dig a canal linking the two seas; the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In that regard, Venice presented the same idea before the year of 1504. He realized that Venetian and Dubrovnik merchants started to value the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, and both Dubrovnik and Venice traders attempted to face the possible consequences of this early on.56 It’s obvious that the movement of buying and selling in Egypt was affected by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, where the Lisbon markets became providing the products of the East at prices lower than their prices in Egypt and the Italian markets. At this time, the Portuguese attacked Indian ships loaded with various goods since they established their feet on the ports of India.57 For example, the price of pepper rose until a quintal in Alexandria and Damietta reached 80 ducats, while its price in Lisbon was only about 20–​40 ducats; This negatively affected the markets of Alexandria. In 1502 the price increased

55 Mirkovich, Nicholas. “Ragusa and the Portuguese Spice Trade”. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 21, No.56. March, 1943: 179. The Mamluk authorities imposed strict instructions that prevented foreign merchants from roaming freely within the Egyptian countries and cities, so their presence was limited to the frontiers such as Damietta and Alexandria, and stipulated that they move to Cairo in the case of absolute necessity to present a complaint before the Sultan or seek justice, so Cairo was for them a transit station for the goods of the East and the West, while Alexandria is the market for commercial exchanges. See; Heyd, Wilhelm. History of Commerce in the Near East in the Middle Ages. Vol. 3. Cairo: Alhayyat Almisriat Aleamat Lilkitab, 1991: 307–​309. 5 6 Heyd, Wilhelm. History of Commerce: 179. 5 7 Diehl, Charles. Venice: 146.

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until it reached from 75 to 100 ducats, which made some ships return without buying.58 Perhaps it is useful here to emphasize that the two Mamluk states Bahari and Circassian (1382–​1517) differed on the issue of monopoly on commercial goods. The first Mamluk state (The Bahari Mamluk Period) (1250–​1382) was keen to maintain Egypt’s prestigious position in commercial activity between East and West, but their second state tended to engage in trade and followed the policy of commercial monopoly to obtain money from the easiest ways.59 The sultans of the second Mamluk state monopolized some important commodities, such as spices and incense, which led to an exorbitant increase in their prices. Sultan al-​Ashraf Saif al-​Din Barsbay (1422–​1438) issued a decree in 1428 to prohibit the purchase of spices from outside the Sultan’s stores.60 He also ordered the abolition of dealing in Venetian and Florentine coins and the minting of “the Ashrafieh dinar” –​related to his name –​to be a basis for dealing with European merchants.61 Foreign merchants resented this policy, in addition to unsatisfaction with the Cape of Good Hope road and the change in the balance of economic power in the Mediterranean basin, which negatively affected Alexandria as a leading commercial market and everyone who deals with it.

58

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Heyd, Wilhelm. History of Commerce. Vol. 4: 10, 11, 14. See also: Diehl, Charles. Venice: 151. Ibn Iyas mentioned, describing the devastation of Alexandria: “When Al-​Ghouri visited the city of Alexandria in 1514, it was in ruins due to the oppression of the representative and the unjustness of the keepers. Some of the shops were open and the rest were not”. See; Ibn Iyas, Muhammad bin Ahmed. Badayie Al-​Zuhur Fi Waqayie Al-​Duhur. Vol. 4. Cairo: Al-​Hayyat Al-​Misria Al-​Aamat Lil-​kitab, 1982: 424. Ashour, Saeed. The Mamluk Era in Egypt and the Levant. Cairo: Dar Al-​Nahda Al-​ Misria, 1976: 307. For more on the reasons why the Mamluk sultans resorted to the policy of commercial monopoly; see: Al-​Qalqashandi, A. Ibn-​Ali. Subh Al-​Aeshaa fi Sinaeat Al-​Iinsha. Vol. 4. Cairo, 1918: 458. Tarkhan, Ibrahim. Egypt in the Era of the Circassian Mamluk State. Cairo: Dar Al-​ Nahdat Al-​Misria, 1962: 289. Ibn Hajar Al-​Asqalani. ‘Iinba’Al-​Ghumr Bi-​Aanba’Al-​Umr. Vol. 8. Beirut, 1986: 175.

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8. Messages to the Ruler of Dubrovnik Many Croats lived in Egypt during the Mamluk era. They were citizens of Dalmatia, Istria and Slovenia, as part of the relations that linked Egypt and Croatia.62 There is a number of letters exchanged between the ruling authorities in Dubrovnik and Alexandria, some of which are preserved in the Dubrovnik’s Archive. In the oldest document concerning Egypt, there is a letter from the Viceroy of Alexandria, King of the Princes Khadabardi in 1510 to the governor of Dubrovnik (Ragusa), informing him that he received his letter (Resalat) as indicated by Sultan al-​Ashraf, which includes approval of the settlement of a group of Dubrovnik merchants at the guarded outpost of Alexandria. And he tells him that they and everyone coming to the frontiers of Alexandria under his safety will not be harmed or disturbed. Also they could freely sell and buy, and that they could also stay in a hotel suitable for them.63 The document is an original one, written on the obverse on thick vegetable paper, and its dimensions are 850 × 137 cm. We conclude from this letter that the merchants of Dubrovnik asked their ruler to address the Mamluk Sultan to allow them to engage in maritime trade. This message may be related to what happened in 1510 regarding the expansion of their trade, and the Mamluk Sultan was keen to respond quickly to preserve the continuity of trade relations between Egypt and Dubrovnik in particular. After diverting trade routes away from Egypt. The second letter from Sultan al-​Ashraf Qansuh al-​Ghouri to the governor of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) on 8 November 1515, informing him that the latter’s letter had been received. Al-​Ghouri ordered the Dubrovnik merchants in Alexandria to be expelled from their subordination to the consul of the Florentines and the Catalans, and agreed to establish their own consulate in Alexandria, and he recommended writing their terms on

62 Norris, Harry. Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World. Hong Kong: University of South Carolina Press, 1993: 25. 6 3 Qarqut, Naseem. Al-​wathayiq Al-​earabiati. Cairo: Al-​majlis Al-​aelaa Lilthaqafa, 2008: 129. For the text of the letter (Figure 2), see pages: 129–​133.

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Figure 2.  The message from Khadabardy to Dubrovnik’s ruler in 1510. Figures (2.1–​2.4)

the lines of the Venetian merchants before. The document is an original one and was written on the obverse in a Diwani script on somewhat thick vegetable paper, folded into a file, and its length is 441 × 15 cm.64 We conclude from this letter that the merchants of Dubrovnik did not have their own consulate at that time, but were subordinate to the consuls of Florence and Spain. It is obvious that they were subordinate to the Venetians during the period of the Venetian control over them, and the Sultan’s approval to allocate a consulate for them indicates the

64 Qarqut, Naseem. Al-​Wathayiq Al-​Aarabia:134. For the text (Figure 3); see pages: 135–​140.

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Figure 3.  The message from sultan al-​Ghouri to Dubrovnik’s ruler in 1515. Figure (3.1–​3.7)

volume of trade between them and Alexandria and the stability of relations between them.

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Figure 4.  The decree of sultan al-​Ghouri in 1515. Figures (4.1–​4.8)

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As for the third document, it was on November 25 of the same year, and it was a decree from Sultan al-​Ashraf Qansuh al-​Ghouri in which he recommended that both deputies and governors in Alexandria had to adopt and implement his decree. The document is an original document, written in Diwani script on some kind of thick vegetable paper, folded into a file, and its length is 350 × 14 cm.65 This document proves the rapid response of the Mamluk Sultan to the demands of the ruler of Dubrovnik and his interest in their matter, which indicates the importance of their relations.

9. The Ottoman Conquest to Egypt 1517 AD The economic decline of the Mamluk state, which has long achieved fame and economic benefits from trade, as well as the discovery by the Portuguese of the Cape of Good Hope, weakened their state politically and economically. This paved the way for the Ottomans to conquer them. Indeed, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I was able to occupy Egypt in 1517, and ended the Mamluk rule over it, so Egypt began a new period in its history, which made Dubrovnik merchants work to consolidate their relationship with the new ruler, so their consul wrote a letter to the Ottoman governor in 1519 in order to indicate on the continuation of trade between Alexandria and Dubrovnik.66

10. Conclusion Dubrovnik (Ragusa) enjoyed an excellent geographical position. Thus it gradually imposed itself in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, which made it coveted throughout its history for many political and economic forces. It 65 66

Qarqut, Naseem. Al-​Wathayiq Al-​Aarabia: 142. For the text of the document (message -​figure-​, 3), see pages: 143–​154. Norris, Harry. Islam in Balkans: 25–​26.

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was one of the important stations for the products of the East, as it imported them from Alexandria, which enjoyed wide fame in politics, economy and culture throughout its history. Dubrovnik proved to be able to compete between the various trading powers in the Mediterranean, and it exported and imported the most important products of the Islamic East, and was the connecting channel between Eastern and Western Europe. At the same time, the Mamluk sultans were keen on improving their navy and on taking care of the borders, especially Alexandria. Therefore, they provided support and attention to the various European consulates and communities. Dubrovnik’s and Alexandria’s rulers exchanged letters in order to strengthen relations, and the Mamluk sultan was keen to implement the demands of Dubrovnik merchants, like other commercial powers. Despite the papal decisions to ban trade with Muslims, the efforts of Venice to limit the activity of Dubrovnik in the Mediterranean, and the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and then the Ottoman occupation of Egypt; the two cities faced all these challenges and continued their commercial activities and achieved common interests. The merchants were ambassadors for their countries and their various products. They contributed to the dissemination of their cultures and announced their identities in different societies and markets where they met with various nationalities and religions. They gained many benefits from trade on all levels. So, trade was linked to culture and identity.

Ali El-Sayed

A European Jewish Awakening in Mamluk Land

1. Introduction The present study attempts an investigation of the scientific, social, and economic awakening of the Jews of the Holy Lands –​in Palestine highlighting their identity in the late Middle Ages. This is to be attained through historical sources and travel books that illustrate clear differences in their conditions compared to the previous periods. Also, the extent to which the political aspects affected the crystallization of the Jewish personality in the Holy Land is so noticeable coinciding with the era of the Great European Renaissance. Events that took place in the Mediterranean Basin resulted in a movement of the Jews with their migration from the heart of Europe and from Spain during the Reconquista, to the Islamic Near East. Since this study is concerned with highlighting an aspect of the history of the Jews, it should be noted that the Jewish approach to reading and studying history in general maintains that they are chosen people. They put history in a framework that can be interpreted to serve the Jewish religious goals, which is the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the Promised Land. Hence, their history was based on a teleological philosophy aiming at reassuring the Jews of the sacred promise of the land1. It is clear that this thought was also reflected in the writings of the Jews who visited or settled in the Holy Land in the late Middle Ages.

1

Qasim, Qasim. Al-​Qira’a Al-​Diniyah Lil-​tareehk [The Religious Reading of History]. Cairo: Ain for Human and Social Studies, 1998: 22.

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2. The Jewish Ideological Connection to the Holy Land It is well-​established that revealed religions had played their clear role in shaping the history, and perhaps the identity, of their adherents, linking them morally to the Holy Land throughout history. The Jewish religious thought affirms the status of Jerusalem since David, peace be upon him, seized it from the Jebusites and moved the Ark of the Covenant to it2. Then, Solomon, peace be upon him, built the Temple in it. It also includes Mount Zion;David’s tomb, and the so-​called Wailing Wall3. This is why the Jews turned to it in their prayers. On the Passover, they used to chant, “We shall meet next year in Jerusalem” It is the city they visited in pilgrimage three times a year. There is something in their legislations that confirms that it is the heart of the world, and no other city is comparable to it in its beauty. It is one of the four holy cities of Palestine in which prayer should not be interrupted, in addition to Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias4. With regard to the town of Hebron, it occupies a great place in the Jewish heritage. Jews believed that it is better for the Jew to be buried in the soil of Hebron than to be buried in Jerusalem5. In addition to the Machpelah Cave –​which includes the relics of the prophets Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives –​there is a large cemetery in which the dead were buried

2

3

4

5

It is believed to be a chest made by Moses by the command of God. It was made of acacia wood. He was entrusted with guarding it. It was carried by the tribe of Levi, and when David, resided in Jerusalem, the ark was moved to it, then placed in the Temple. See: Abdel-​Malik, Boutros and others. “Tabuut Al-​‘Had”, Qamuus al-​Kitab al-​Muqadas [“The Ark of the Covenant”, Dictionary of the Bible], Cairo: House of Culture, 1999. It is said that Herod, the Roman governor in Palestine (37–​4 BC), built it to encircle the Temple. The Jews named it the Wailing Wall because the prayers around it take the form of weeping and wailing. See: Al-​Imam, Rashad. Madinat al-​Quds Fi al-​Ousour al-​Wusta [The City of Jerusalem in the Middle Ages]. Tunisia: Tunisian Publishing House, 1976: 187. Harvey, Lutsk. Adat wa Taqalid al-​Yahuud [Customs and Traditions of the Jews]. translate in Arabic by. Mustafa al-​Raz. Cairo: Dar Salma, 1994: 71, 124–​125; El-​ Mesiri, Abdel Wahab. Mawsouat al-​Yahuud wa al-​Yahudiya Wa al-​Sihiounia =​ =​[Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism]. 8 Vols. Cairo: Dar Al-​Shorouk, 1999: IV, 124–​125. Obadiah Jara Da Bertinoro. “Itinerary of Obadiah (1487 -​1490)”, Jewish Travelers, ed. Adler N. London: 1930: 202–​251, 249.

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from all places in honor of these prophets. That is why strangers were keen to buy plots of land there to bury them6. In Jewish religious folklore, the dead body outside Palestine crawls underground after burial until it reaches the Holy Land7. As for Safed, it was the main center and the ancient capital of northern Israel8, because of its expertise in establishing their laws, its shrines, holy sites, and memories9. The fourth holy city, Tiberias, was the new capital of the Jews after their expulsion from Jerusalem in the first quarter of the 2nd century AD. A distinguished religious school arose in it and produced a huge group of explanations of the Old Testament and interpretations of Biblical stories. It codified the oral teachings of Jewish law and gave commentaries on them giving the city sanctity10.

3. Early Signs of European Jewish Immigration to the Holy Land The Crusades in 1095 AD were not a good sign for the Jews of the Levant. After the invasion, the Crusaders eliminated every religious activity of the Jews, so their numbers decreased. Hence, it can be said that their presence was almost nonexistent in Palestine, as confirmed by the same Jewish 6

Nasiri Khusraw (d. 453 AH./​1061 AD.) Abu Mu’in al-​Din al-​Alawi. Safar Namah (second edition), translated in Arabic by. Yahya al-​Khashab. Cairo: 1993: 34–​35. 7 Al-​Saadi, Ghazi. Al-​Ayad Walmunasabat wa al-​Tuqus Lada al-​Yahuud Holidays [Occasions and Rituals for the Jews] (first edition). Amman: Dar al-​Jalil for Palestinian Publishing Studies and Research, 1994: 48. 8 Youssef, Susan. Al-​Mu’taqadat al-​Shabia Hawal al-​Adraha al-​Yahudia, Derasa An Moulid Yaqoub Abu Hasira Bi Mohafazat Al-​Behirah [Popular Beliefs about Jewish Shrines, Study on the Birth of Yaqoub Abi Hasira in Beheira Governorate]. Cairo: Ain Publishing House, 1997: 105. 9 “A student’s letter”. The travel letters of Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertinoro (1488–​1490) Pathway to Jerusalem, ed. Marmorstein Rabbi Avrohom. trans. by Shulman, Y.D. Jerusalem, 1992: 78–​94, 82–​84. 10 Firestone, Robin. Zuriat Ibrahim, Muqadema 'an al-​ Yahoudiah Lil-​ Muslimeen [Abraham’s Descendants, An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims]. Translated and publishing by Abdul Ghani bin Ibrahim: Harriet and Robert Institute for International Interfaith Understanding, 2005: 60.

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sources that expressed regret over the collapse of their glories in those lands. No indication of the existence of Jewish gatherings in the era of the Crusades (1095–​1291 AD)11 was found as one researcher determined their number to be one thousand two hundred families, while another estimated them to be approximately one thousand nine hundred people12. Nevertheless, the Holy Land remained an aspiration and hope that they sought for the purpose of visiting. The first trips of the Jews in that era were the Journey of Judah Halevi (1085–​1140 AD), a Russian philosopher and poet who traveled to Granada, Andalusia, and spent a large part of his life there. He preferred to have his conclusion in the land of Palestine, and was actually killed near Jerusalem by the Crusaders, leaving poetic works full of passion for the Holy Land, especially the city of Jerusalem, which for him represented the land of Zion13. Thus, the Jews in the Holy Land in Palestine were almost evacuated during the Crusader invasion of it. Then, they began to infiltrate it after about half a century under the weight of the economic need of the Crusaders’ kings of Jerusalem for their labors. They appeared again in small groups,14 in a better climate that provided civil freedom for the Jews in Palestine15. One of the reasons for this emigration was the ruling (fatwa) issued by the famous Jewish scholar Musa ibn Maimonides (d. 1204 AD) to the Jews of Yemen in the 12th century 16 under pressure from the Zaydis, that in the event 11

Goitein, S. D. Geniza Sources for the Crusader period –​A Survey, in Outremer, Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem, ed. Kedar, Z. B., Mayer, H. E., and Smail, R. C., Jerusalem. 1982: 308–​312; Qasim, Qasim. Al-​Idtehadat al-​ Salibiah Lyahuud Oroba Min Khilal Hawliah Yahoudiah, al-​Zahirah wa Maghzaha [The Crusader Persecutions of the Jews of Europe through a Jewish Yearbook, the phenomenon and its significance], Symposium on Islamic History and the Medieval. 1982: I, 137–​166. 12 Conder, C. R. The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 1099–​1291. London: 1897: 243; Rey, E.G. Les Colonies Franques de Syrie aux XIIe et XIIIe Siècles. Paris, 1883: 102–​103. 13 Judah Halevi. His Pilgrimage to Zion 1085—​1140, ed. Adler, N. London: 1930: 14. 14 Prawer, J. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. London, 1970: 236; al-​Sayyid, Ali. Al-​Quds fi al-​Asr al-​Mamluki [Jerusalem in the Mamluk Era] (first edition). Cairo, 1986: 100; Shalaby, A. Al-​Yahuud Wa-​Yahudiah [Jews and Judaism]. Cairo: Akhbar al-​Youm House, 1997: 113. 15 Al-​Qussi, Attia. “Salahu Al-​Din wa al-​Yahuud [Saladin and the Jews]”. Cairo: The Egyptian Historical Journal (XXIV, 1977): 39–​54. 1 6 Bahr, Muhammad. “Al-​Yahuud fi al-​Andalus [The Jews in Andalusia]”. Cairo: The Egyptian General Authority for Writing and Publishing, Dar al-​Kitab al-​Arabi (CCXXXVII, 1990): 88–​90.

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of a choice between entering in Islam or emigrating from their country leaving their homes and possessions in Yemen, they must emigrate fleeing their religion, reminding them that Palestine is the jewel of the earth17. The personality of Maimonides should be discussed due to his importance in the Jewish heritage and his move to the Holy Land, causing a boom in the Jews after their subjugation at the hands of the Crusaders. In Andalusia, he belonged to a family of scholars and men of letters. His father was an astronomer and he emerged as a philosopher and a physician. His thought was based on the fact that religion and philosophy did not differ, through religious texts found in the Torah or Talmud18. Maimonides immigrated to Palestine at the end of the 12th century, and was the most famous and powerful figure for his knowledge of Jewish laws during the Middle Ages, as well as for his ability to give interpretations of Halacha, a Hebrew word meaning legislation or Sharia. His paramount book was The Mishnah of Torah, written in ten continuous years19. He arranged all the legislations and laws contained in the Old Testament in a logical system and clear brevity, in addition to the laws of the Mishnah and the Gemara, explanations and interpretations that make up the Talmud, thus including all aspects of Jewish legislation. His “Guide to the Lost” (Moreh Hanbochim), was completed in 1190 AD in Arabic and then translated into Hebrew20. He explained the idea of ​the oneness of God, and the impact of Islamic thinking was so evident in the book21. Maimonides translated many of Arabic works to Latin that undoubtedly benefited the Europeans in their modern renaissance, as evidenced by their keenness to print them continuously since their first knowledge of printing22. Due to his residence in the Holy Land, he was keen to distinguish its borders, including Damascus within

17

Heschel, J., Abraham, Maimonides. The Life & Times of the Great Medieval Jewish Thinker. New York: 1935: 46, 51, 54, 106. 18 Khalifa M., Jabr A., Al-​Giniza wa al-​Ma’abid al-​Yahudia fi Misr. [The Geniza and Synagogues in Egypt, Religious and Historical Studies Series]. Cairo: Oriental Studies Center, 1999: IX, 91–​92. 1 9 Eisenstadt, S. N., Jewish Civilization, the Jewish Historical Experience in a Comparative Perspective. New York, 1992: 75, 82. 20 Roth, Cecil. The Jewish Contribution to Civilization. London, 1938: 195. 21 Khalifa M., Jabr A., “The Geniza…”: 93–​94. 22 On the books that Maimonides translated into Latin and reprinted, see: Roth, Cecil: “The Jewish…”: 195–​196.

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these borders23. When he died, his successors made sure to transfer his ashes to Tiberias for burial24. In the wake of this temporary awakening linked to Maimonides in Palestine, the journey of the French Jew Samuel bin Samson was in 1210 AD. Two things are noteworthy: Ayyubids approving his entry, along with his comrades Saadiah and Tobiah the rabbis, to Jerusalem through its western gate, while obliging them to wear certain clothes to show their identity. The travelers explained that when they wanted to enter to visit the shrine, the guards asked them for a permit personally stamped with the Caliph’s seal, so they gave it to them and they allowed them to visit25. No customs were levied like the ones Crusaders used to impose on the Jewish visitors before Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem. When they finished their visit to Jerusalem, he took his two companions, who worked in dyeing, to Hebron, where they resided26. Second, the letter Maimonides had from John de Brienne (1210–​1225 AD) included a recommendation from the king to allow the Jews to immigrate to Palestine. This resulted in the emigration of three hundred English and French Jewish rabbis in the following year (1211 AD)27. Both facts confirm that the dominant Ayyubids of Jerusalem, at the time, took a tolerant approach to the Jews forcing the Crusaders’ rulers on the coast to change their policy with them by agreeing to the passage of immigrants via the port of Acre to the Holy Land. After full Mamluk sovereignty over the Holy Land, the Jewish community intensified again. This is evidenced by the delegations of individuals among them, who came from Spain, led by Nachmanids28. He is Moses Ben Nahman (1194–​1270 AD), who is considered one of the chief rabbis of the Jews in Spain, where he stayed for three years between Castile and France. The Jews gathered around him, and he was able to establish Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. After staying there for a short period, he moved to Acre, where students from all over the East came to him for his knowledge. 2 3 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 235. 2 4 Khalifa M., Jabr A., Al-​Gunizah…: 91–​92. 2 5 Samuel Ben Samson. “Itinerary of Rabbi Samuel Ben Samson 1210 A.D”, Jewish Travellers, ed. Adler N. London, 1930: 105–​108. 2 6 Petachia of Retisbon. “Itinerary of Rabbi Petachia 1174–​1187 A.D”, Jewish Travellers, ed. Adler N. London, 1930: 89–​90. 2 7 Petachia of Retisbon. “Itinerary…”: 90–​91. 2 8 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 224.

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This appears in his commentary on the Old Testament, in which he relied on reason, while not excluding Sufism. He had esoteric poetry that was translated into French and German. He succeeded in controlling the trends of Jewish religious thought29 because his writings amounted to fifty works related to the explanations of the Talmud, the rules of the Halakhah and the philosophical fundamentalist thought through the Kabbalah30. Ibn Nahman stated that he revived the sect of Jews in Jerusalem after the blow that the Mongols dealt to them during the invasion of 1260 AD, where he was keen to return the manuscripts that they had smuggled to Nablus. He also restored one of the buildings, made it a temple for the Jews, and performed rituals in the presence of ten men so that Jews would receive pilgrims. He also completed his interpretation of the travels of Moses, peace be upon him. When he died in 1270 AD, he was buried in Haifa31. Despite this long tradition of Ibn Nachman in terms of science, he did not leave any indication that he had risen as a leader of the Jewish community in the Holy Land, and their awakening was not complete. Thus, the Holy Land in Palestine witnessed two distinct scientific breakthroughs during one century through two scholars: Ibn Maimon and Ibn Nahman, despite the spatial distance from their original home in Andalusia, which was witnessing its golden age in literature. Starting from Palestine, they linked Jews on the East with their renaissance located in Andalusia under Islamic auspices in both directions terminating one of the most flourishing periods of Hebrew literature32. European Jews continued to arrive in Palestine for the rest of the Mamluk era, individually and collectively, due to the deterioration of their conditions under the Catholic religious and secular institutions in the west of the continent. The reign of Philip IV the Beautiful (1285–​1314 AD) was a difficult period for the Jews of France, who were famous for their possession of capital and their practicing of usury. He confiscated their money because of his constant need for money to continue his wars, so they fled in 1291 AD33. In the same year, in England, horrific massacres of Jews forced them

29 Margolis, M. L., Marx, A. A History of the Jewish People (Fifth Edition). New York: 1964: I, 168. 3 0 Johnson, Poul. A History of the Jews. London: 1988: 198. 3 1 Margolies, M. L., Marx, A. A History of the Jewish People: 168. 3 2 Bahr, Muhammad. al-​Yahuud fi al-​Andalus [The Jews in Andalusia]: 95. 3 3 Lodge, R. The Close of the Middle Ages 1272–​1494. UK: 1920: 173–​184.

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to flee. In the early 15th century, the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire, from Germany and Italy, were subject to murder, burning, and displacement, because their society was characterized by difference and heterogeneity due to the division of Europe in the Middle Ages into multiple and possibly discordant feudal units, besides the Catholic Christian heritage of hostility to the Jews34. The German Kaiser Frederick III (1440–​1493 AD) eased a lot of the economic burdens placed on the shoulders of the people; Christians and Jews. However, they were soon exposed to more persecution; for allegedly committing crimes against Christians, which resulted in their imprisonment or exile where their ancestors lived hundreds of years ago35. The situation of European Jews in Spain was worse. This resulted in the displacement of more than one hundred and fifty thousand Jews, while fifty thousand of them converted to Christianity. The immigrant Jews of Spain went to Portugal, Italy, and France, where they encountered worse than they expected, and some even chose to return to Spain and convert to Christianity36. Another part of the Jews coming from Europe chose to go to the eastern Mediterranean and its Mamluk coasts after the political and social conditions were created to be in better reception, including the establishment of an honorary administrative representative for the Mamluk Sultanate, concerned with the sanctities and the spiritual role of land37. It is noted that these incoming Jews belonged to two classes, the Ashkenazim and the Sephardic. The word Ashkenaz originally meant a name for one of Noah’s grandchildren. It was used in the past to refer to the people and the country located on the borders of Armenia in the upper Euphrates, but in the Middle Ages it referred to the Jews of European lands inhabited by the Germanic race, and then came to refer to the Jews of Germany and Italy. Some of them settled in northern and eastern France, Austria, and Russia, and some of them migrated to the east Europe in the late Middle Ages. Most Ashkenazi Jews did not speak Hebrew, but Yiddish, the language of medieval Germany mixed with

3 4 3 5 3 6 3 7

Eisenstadt, S. N. Jewish Civilization…: 65, 68. Margolies, M. L., Marx, A. A History of the Jewish People: 134–​135. Pirrenne, H. and others. La Fin du Moyen Age. Paris: 1931: II, 88–​91. Abu Al-​Yaman Al-​Alimi (d.928 AH./​1522 AD.) Abdul Rahman bin Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman Mujir Al-​Din Al-​Hanbali: Al-​Uns al-​Galil fi Tareekh al-​Quds wa al-​ Khalil [Imposing Camaraderie on the History of Jerusalem and Hebron]. II Vols. (first edition). Iraq: 1966: II, 274–​275.

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Slavic, and written in Hebrew letters38. As for the Sephardi, their name refers to a place in northern Palestine to which the Jews were exiled after the Babylonian captivity. They spoke a distorted Spanish dialect known as the Ladino dialect39. Although geographically they came from European lands, their culture was Eastern Judaism. In addition to this ethnic classification, the Jews had another classification based on religious sectarianism, to be presented in its place.

4. The Awakening of the Jews of the Holy Land in the Fifteenth Century AD The source material for the subject of the present study is not abundant. Still, there are three sources that provide enough to form a basic picture of the awakening of the Mamluk Jews of Palestine at the time, the Journey of Meshullam ben Manahem of Volterra, in which he visited Palestine in 1481 AD. He was one of the wealthy Italian rabbis from Florence40. Rabbis used to issue rulings and answer questions directed to them due to their knowledge. Their role in the Jewish community was similar to the role of the mufti in Islamic countries, and they also had influence in the judiciary despite its departure from the scope of the regular judicial system41. The second source is three letters sent by Rabbi Obadiah Jare da Bertinoro –​ who was affiliated with the Italian town of Bertinoro –​to his relatives from Jerusalem. He arrived in 1488 AD, and settled there as a settler until he

38

39 40 41

El-​Mesiri, Abdel Wahab. Al-​Aqliat al-​Yahudia bayn al-​Tigarah wal Id’aa al-​Qawmi [Jewish Minorities between Trade and the National Claim]. Damanhour, Cairo: Dar Nafi’: 92; Ali, Arafa: Malaf al-​Yahood fi Misr al-​Hadithah [The File of the Jews in Modern Egypt]. Cairo: Madbouly Library, 1991: 221. Hamdan, Jamal: Al-​Yahuud Anthrobologian [Jews anthropologically]. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, 1998: separate pages; El-​Mesiri, Abdel Wahab. “The Jewish Minorities…”: 93. Meshullam Ben Manahem of Voltera. “Itinerary of Rabbi Meshullam ben Menahem 1481”, Jewish Travelers, ed. Adler N. London, 1930: 271. Ali, Arafa. “The Jews File…”: 229.

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died in 1500 AD, or in 1510 AD. Perhaps his life extended until 1530 AD42. He was a student of Joseph b. Solomon Colon who taught him religious sciences that enabled him to become a rabbi in Bertinoro43. His subject-​material is pivotal, as he was truly the pioneer of the Jewish awakening. The third source is a letter by an unknown Italian Jewish student that he wrote during his stay in Jerusalem in 1495 AD44. It included an integrated experience of a European Jew who came to the East for the purpose of learning. It is noted that the authors of these Jewish writings had all left Italy. In addition to these sources, there are a number of contemporary European and Islamic documents and sources that complement the study. In fact, the society of the Jews of Palestine was not different from the rest of the Mamluk Sultanate, in terms of sectarian composition, as it was similar to their society in Cairo, the capital of the state. Accordingly, their groups were classified in two different forms. The first is based mainly on belief, from three sects, while the second is based on the ethnographic classification between Ashkenazi and Sephardi. With regard to the first classification, their society consists of three sects, and each sect of them disbelieved in the other two, each sect had claimed that the sect they embraced was the best and most approaching the origins of the Jewish religion. The sect of the Rabbis45 or the Talmudians46 was the most famous

42 Ginzberg, Louise. “Bertinoro Obadiah”, in Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Friedenbeirg, A. M., Richard Golthid and others. New York, 1901: II, 108; Wigoder, Geoffrey. “Obadiah of Bertinoro”, The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, Oxford: 1992: III, 100. 4 3 Marmorstein, Rabbi Avrohom, The Travel Letters of Rabbi Ovadiah of Bertenoro (1488–​1490) Pathway to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 1992: 9–​12. 4 4 A Student’s Letter: 81. 4 5 Also called (Rabbayun), the name being derived from the word (Rabba) or (Rabbani), which is taken from the Hebrew word (Rabbanim), which means Imam, rabbi, jurisprudent. See: Qasim, Qasim. [The Jews in Egypt from the Islamic Conquest to the Ottoman Conquest]. Cairo: Ain for Human and Social Studies: 44. 4 6 Derived from the Talmud, a word derived from “Lumd”, from the Hebrew “talmid” (meaning a student). The Talmud lies in two parts “Mishnah” and “Gemara”. There are two types of Talmud: Jerusalem in relation to the Jews of Palestine, which is the oldest, and Babylonian in relation to the Jews of Iraq. There are some differences between them. See: Zaza, Hassan. Al-​Fikr al-​Dini al-​Israili [The Israeli Religious Thought]. Cairo: 1971: 78–​105.

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and constituted the majority among the Jews, followed by the sect of the Karaites who were richer than the Rabbis47. Despite the differences between the rabbis and the Karaites, they agreed to extract six hundred and thirteen rites from the Torah, and they also agreed on the prophecy of Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Isaac, Jacob, and his twelve sons (the Tribes). But the Karaites did not recognize the prophecy of anyone but these, and there were differences between the two sects about some jurisprudential matters such as retribution, the sanctity of the Sabbath, the prohibition of alcohol, the annual calendar, some jurisprudential matters that affect rituals, and the method of burial of the dead48. As for the third sect, they were the Samaritans: despite their Palestinian origins, there was no mention of them in Jerusalem during the study period49. In light of this, the conditions of the Jews of Jerusalem in the middle of the 15th century were not stable, as they retreated. A large part of them were exposed to tragedies and their numbers decreased, so they were estimated at seventy families only, in light of the number of family members consisting of four or five members. They were among the poorest classes that lived in Jerusalem, so that nothing remains of them in the city except the miserable and women. Among the Jewish people in Jerusalem there were a large number of elderly and widows who did not find people to support them, and they were from Germany, Spain, Portugal, and other countries to the extent that the number of women for men was seven to one50. This was under the weight of the inflated taxes and the exacerbation of the burdens on their shoulders due to their Jewish chiefs as state employees. This forced the head of their group in the city to leave it51. 47

4 8 4 9

5 0 5 1

Derived from the infinitive qara’a for “read”, since they did not believe in anything other than (the reciter or the recited), which is the Torah and its commentary. Ali Bin Ahmed Abdullah. Subh al-​Asha fi Sina’at al-​Insha, Cairo: Al-​Amiriya Press, 1913: XIII, 258. Qasim, Qasim. “The Jews in Egypt…”: 51. They are the followers of the Samaritan of Samaria (Nablus, Palestine); maker of the calf which the Children of Israel worshiped when Moses, peace be upon him, went to fulfill his appointment with the Lord. Perhaps its origin dates back to the days of the Babylonian captivity 586 BC. See: Rashid, Sayed. Al-​Smaryoun wa al-​Yahuud [The Samaritans and the Jews]. Riyad: Dar Al-​Marikh, 1987: 15–​17, 21–​25. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 234–​235. The title of chief or head had religious origins among the Jews. The number of their twelve tribes increased, so, each tribe was divided into clans, each headed by a chief. It is noted that the word in Greek means elders or rabbis of the Children of Israel. In

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There were those who supported this bleak picture of the situation of the Jerusalemite Jews, and it is mentioned that they were subjected to the oppression and abuse of Duqmaq, the deputy of the Sultanate, like the rest of the people of the city, for the purpose of collecting the necessary taxes to support the state’s army52. This resulted in the emigration of all scholars and educators from the city quickly53, and this testimony prompts the researcher to take the opinion of one of the researchers about them; the group of Jews within the Mamluk society was viewed with suspicion by the Mamluk Sultan as complicit with their opponents the Ottoman Turks54 and therefore they were not immune to the abuse and injustice of the Mamluk representative in Jerusalem. Soon, the situation in Jerusalem changed relatively in favor of the Jews with the arrival of Obadiah in March 1488 AD. It improved despite the fact that Deputy Duqmaq was not dismissed until 1491 AD55. The famine reached its climax, as “God granted His servants prosperity, facilitation of sustenance, declining prices, and kindness to the servants”. As conditions improved, a number of Jewish families who emigrated returned and Obadiah estimated it at about three hundred families56. The unknown student estimated it in 1495 AD with two hundred families57. Perhaps this improvement in the conditions of the Jews and their increasing number heralded a comprehensive change in their society. The management of the community of Jerusalem’s Jews under the Mamluk rule was under the supervision of the nagid (leader) of Egypt, Nathan Ha-​Cohen (1483–​1502 AD), who gained a good reputation among the Jews of the world, especially those who were expelled from Iberia. They

the era of the Mamluks, this title was not limited to Muslims, but it was also to the people of the Book and the money changers, both Jews and Christians. See: Shenouda, Zaki. Al-​Mugtama’ al-​Yahuudi [The Jewish Society]. Cairo: Al-​Khanji Library: 417; Ali, Fouad: Al-​Mugtama’ al-​Israili [The Israeli Society]: I, 117; Al-​Waqqad, Mahasen. Al-​Yahuud fi Misr al-​Mamlukiah [The Jews in Mamluk Egypt]. Cairo: The General Egyptian Book Authority, 1999: 421, 424. 52 Al-​Alimi. Al-​Unas Al-​JalilII, 332. 53 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 229. 54 Fargeon, Maurice. Les juifs en Egypte depuis les origines jusqu’ à ce jour. le Caire: 1938: 135. 5 5 Al-​Alimi. Al-​Unas al-​Jalil: II, 356. 56 Al-​Alimi. Al-​Unas al-​Jalil: II, 358. 57 A Student’s Letter: 88.

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decided to emigrate to Egypt and Palestine, where they were well received58, according to the testimony of traveler Meshulam ibn Menahem59. The importance of the function of the nagid in managing the Jewish community lies in the fact that it came at the head of their groups in the entire Mamluk state, and even in all the Islamic states that were independent from the Abbasid Caliphate at the beginning of the 10th century Andalusia, Africa, Yemen, as well as Egypt were included because the Islamic state was keen to appoint heads of all non-​Muslim groups to manage the internal affairs of the sect60. The authority of the Jews in Cairo was extended to include the Jews of Jerusalem as well, because (The current ruler of the Jews had resided in Jerusalem for a long period in the past, but he had to leave it) to return to Cairo61. This and the sources reveal that that the post of Nagid became hereditary in Egypt among the children of Maimonides, as they occupied it for nearly two centuries62. There were executive competencies for Nagid, like his right to impose penalties such as flogging and imprisonment, his supervision of the adoption of religious teachings according to law of sharia and fatwa rulings. The setting of the levels and wealth of members of the sect determined the value of taxes. Nagid was also responsible for maintaining security in general. The Mamluk state had already resorted to the censure of the Jews in the 15th century several times to help it collect money from the Jews, and obligated him to pay a specific amount for it63. Despite the fact that Nagid was divine, he exercised supervision over the religious activity of the various Jewish sects by appointing two agents to help him, one as the head of the Karaites and the other for the

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Fargeon, Mourice. Les juifs en Egypte: 135. Meshullam of Voltera. “Itinerary…”: 172. Sasson, H. H. A History of Jewish People: 377. Jewish documents referred to the position of the nagid in the eleventh century, and how its existence was not established until the thirteenth century AD, see: Qasim, Qasim.…Al-​Yahuud Fi Misr [The Jews in Egypt]: 60–​64. 61 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 229. 62 Maqrizi, (d. 845 AH./​1442 AD.). Al-​Suluk Limarifat Dewal al-​Muluk (Ways to knowledge of realms of kings). 4 Vols. Cairo: Muhammad Mustafa Ziada, 1936: III, 728. 6 3 Ibn Iyas, (d. 930 AH/​1524 AD) Abu al-​Barakat Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-​Hanafi. Badai’ al-​Zuhur fi Waqa’i al-​Duhur [Tidings of Chronological Eras]. Cairo: Muhammad Mustafa Ziada, 1960: III, 250.

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Samaritans via him personally, as the most numerous sect of Jews in the Islamic community64. In 1490 AD, two years after Obadiah arrived in Jerusalem, he became the head of the Jewish community, so that the rabbi Nathan (who had the title of prince) appointed him in that position, and made him live in his own house in Jerusalem as his son65. This procedure was significant, as it meant the emergence of another position that was not known before, namely the Vice-​Nagid in Jerusalem66. It meant that Jerusalem had regained part of its religious and Jewish religious dominance that Egypt had taken over from Jerusalem since the 13th century in what is known as the Yeshiabah, which had great religious and scientific specialties and privileges67. Assigning Obadiah to the position of Deputy General Nagid in Cairo, or Nagid al-​Quds with the approval of the Mamluk authority represented the beginning of a more developed stage for the Jewish community in Palestine. “Among all the people there is not a wise man who has a special sense, and who has the savvy to deal with his men who follow him politely, as the previous leaders of this society were ignorant and mistrustful of those around them, and all they cared about was material gain only”68. Nagid al-​Quds (Obadia) was doing his work with a team of senior officials consisting of five men whom he headed69. These were responsible

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El-​Masiri, Abd al-​Wahhab. Mawsou’at al-​Yahuud… [Encyclopedia of the Jews…]: IV, 66; Qasim, Qasim. Al-​Yahuud fi Misr… [The Jews in Egypt…]: 65, 67. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 229, 239. Gotheil, G., Richard, Deutsch Gotthard and others. Jerusalem, in Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, 1901: 12. Under Islamic sovereignty, the spiritual leadership and management of the affairs of the Jewish community took place either in Iraq or Palestine, where Talmud schools (Hesheva) or pre-​Islamic academies collected, discussed and enacted Talmud laws, providing the Jewish community with judges who ruled within the Jewish groups in the country. The Abbasid Caliph recognized the president of the Jews of Iraq as the head of all the Jews of the caliphate, including Egypt. Under the Fatimids, Egyptian Jews achieved a great deal of progress, so that Egypt became an element of attraction for Jewish immigrants, and the rate of dependence of Talmudic Jewish schools (Hesheva) in Iraq and Palestine on financial support from the Jews of Egypt rose. Therefore, since the thirteenth century AD, the Hesheva moved from Palestine to Egypt. See: Qasim, Qasim. Al-​Yahuud Fi Misr… [The Jews in Egypt…]: 59–​60; Al-​Saadi, Ghazi: “Al-​ Ayad… [Holidays…]”: 74–​76. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 235. Gotheil, G., Richard, Deutsch Gotthard and others. “Jerusalem…”: 12.

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for supervising the alms of the poor, relief for the needy and passers-​by, paying tribute to the disabled, educating the poor and orphans, burying the dead, paying the salaries of employees, and maintaining temples and the redemption of prisoners, through the only revenue represented by donations70. Then Obadiah was able, through this prestigious administrative position, to direct the helm of the Palestine Jews through those elders who changed their behavior and dealt with him with kindness and welcome71. Contemporary Jews, on the other hand, praised the circumstances surrounding them and the Mamluk authority, stating: “The Jews are not oppressed by the Arabs in these areas. Taken together, this does not bother them at all, and it is easy for any intelligent Jewish man who is well-​versed in political science to rise to become head, whether for Jews or for Arabs alike”72. Another Jew mentions: “The Muslims in Beirut are better than the Muslims in any place. They treat the Jews well”. He also praised the Muslim guide who accompanied him on the way to Damascus, to the exclusion of the other Christian and Jewish guides73. Contemporary Jews, Obadiah and his disciple, also agreed: “The Turkish authority [the Mamluks] deals equally with Jews, Christians and Muslims”. When the Jews suffered some harm or pay excessive fines, this was a general policy followed by the authorities against all the people74. On the other hand, job opportunities were available to the Jews, and there were no restrictions or discrimination in this regard. It was easy for the Jew to get richer, and freedom of movement, purchase, and worship were guaranteed to him as he wanted. The evidence for this is that the men and women of the Jews were busy with their work to the extent that they had to buy ready-​made food without cooking75. Obadiah spoke about the role of charitable work in upgrading the Jews of Jerusalem through his living with them. He acknowledges that the Ashkenazi element was superior to their sect, as they were better off than the Sephardi, noting that: The temple square in Jerusalem is very large, as it included many houses that were donated by the Ashkenazim for charitable work to be inhabited by widows of this

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Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 224. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 235. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 235. A student’s letter: 78, 80, 90. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 223–​228; A student’s letter: 78, 80, 90. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 223–​228.

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On the other hand, the Jews of Jerusalem benefited from Islamic tolerance in the endowments offered to them, whether they were from Jews or Muslims77. It is understood from Obadiah’s words that the Ashkenazim who wanted to do charitable work adhered to the Islamic endowment system, which they know as “Haqdish” 78. The Jewish endowments corresponded with the general social situation in terms of realizing the function of endowments and their importance in financing charitable, religious, and educational services79. As for the economic aspect, it is historically proven that the Jews emerged as an intermediary functional group that carried out the profession of trade and usury. They excelled in the arts of trade by virtue of their character and the ability to bargain and deceive. He also mentions to them their skill in the field of investing money, banking, and engaging in the operations of mortgages and loans with exorbitant usury. The Jewish law forbade the Jews from taking usury from the people of their religion, while it permitted them to do so with strangers80. In fact, the Jews of the Mamluk state practiced their activities after they penetrated the administrative and financial apparatus of the state81. In this context, the interest of the Jews of Levant to work in capital investment appears. It benefited from the contemporary financial system in this field, Jews depended on usury prevailing over the operation of capital at that time. They penetrated the banking system in the country. In the following century, with the forerunners of identifying modern methods in banking transactions, the role of the Jews diminished. They had to either integrate into the good commercial economy

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Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 221–​222, 235–​236. Atta, Zubaydah: Yahuud al-​Alam al-​Arabi [The Jews of the Arab World] (first edition). Cairo: Ain for Human and Social Studies and Research, 2004: 45. Ali, Arafa. Malaf al-​Yahuud… [The Jews’ File…]: 241. Qasim, Qasim. Al-​Yahuud fi Misr… [The Jews in Egypt…]: 80–​81; El-​Mesiri, Abdel Wahab. Man Huwah al-​Yahudy? [Who is the Jew?] (First Edition). Cairo: Dar Al-​ Shorouk, 1997: 20–​21. Shenouda, Zaki. Al-​Mugtama’ al-​Yahudy [The Jewish Society]: 502–​503. Ashour, Said. Al-​Mugtama’ al-​Misri fi ‘Had Salateen al-​Mamaleek [The Egyptian Society during the Era of the Mamluk Sultans]. Cairo, 1962: 42.

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or emigrate82. This explains the migration of Jewish capital to the Levant, which Obadiah and the Jewish student talked about in speeches more than once83. Jews who dealt with usury with a Jew were subject to dislocation and expulsion, but if he lent with the intention of investing and expanding in trade and projects that gradually generate profit, then it becomes legitimate. But they had the right to lend to others with usury84, despite the fact that the owners of Jewish capital used to lend their money to invest it with interest85. However, the settler was keen to borrow an amount of one hundred Venetian ducats with an interest estimated at only ten percent from his friend Emmanuel of Camerino, a wealthy man of Naples. Emmanuel added twenty-​five ducats. Part of it is spent on the lamps of the Jewish temple, and another part is given to the poor86. These funds brought into the Jerusalem Jewish investment from shoe trade by Jews carried out between Jerusalem and Venice in the last decade of the 15th century 87. There is no doubt that Obadiah’s efforts had positively affected the members of his sect, which gave him more influence on his Jewish community88. This is a natural matter; on the one hand, he helped employ the Jewish labor force in Jerusalem, and on the other hand, he became a record holder for providing subsidies to them. This highlights the mixed social and economic role that Obadiah played among the Jewish community in the Holy City, which foretells of a general awakening among them. The scientific life of the Jews of Jerusalem was struck to the core after Maimonides and Ibn Nahman until Obadiah came in March 1488 as an emigrant. Because of its bad economic conditions and famine, its scholars

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El-​Mesiri, Abdel-​Wahhab. Al-​Aqliat al-​Yahudiah… [Jewish Minorities…], 27–​28. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 248–​249; A Student’s letter: 81. Israel, Shahak. Al-​Tarekh al-​Uahudy, al-​Dianah al-​Yahudia. Wata’at Thalathat Alaaf Sanah [Jewish History, Judaism. The Impact of Three Thousand Years], Translated in Arabic by Salih Ali. Beirut, 1995: 137–​138; Atta, Zubaydah. Yahuud Al-​Alam Al-​Arabi [The Jews of the Arab World]: 30. A Student’s letter: 81. Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 248. Ashtor, E. “History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the Rule of the Mamluks”. Geniza Documents. 2 Vols. Jerusalem: (in Hebrew) Fragments from the Cairo Geniza, 1970: II, 151. Genzberg, Louis. Jewish Encyclopedia…: 109.

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and educators could escape the oppression of their heads in the city. They quickly evacuated it including the German rabbi Moses of Prague heading to Gaza89. In this regard, Obadiah said of Jerusalem’s Jewish heads, “They are those gray-​haired criminals who went to extremes by selling the scrolls of the law with their wrappers and the barokhites90. They sold the valuables and sacred possessions of Jerusalem to non-​Jews, who smuggled them and scattered them to strange lands. They sold numerous books, such as the Talmud and the collections of manuscripts deposited in Jerusalem by Ashkenazi Jews”91. The Geniza documents also indicated that Jerusalem at that time included the precious books of the Qaraite sect and others92. In addition evidences confirm the continued existence of some of the Jewish scholars in the city, with these difficult circumstances. He relates: “We met there an Ashkenazi, a man who had received his education in Italy. His name was Rabbi Jacob Kalman, and he took me with him to his house, and I stayed with him throughout the Easter period”. Obadiah did not bother to mention the name of this rabbi here, except that it is in a later place. He referred to a Jewish man in Jerusalem who was his reference in matters related to faith, as he says: “I sent to Eben Shethiah some inquiries about the place that houses the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple”. I was told: “The Ark is located under the dome”93. Soon Obadiah’s letters to his Italian relatives spoke about his efforts to bring about an awakening among the members of the Jerusalemite Jewish community. About his activity in the field of teaching he mentions, “We meet together every morning and evening to study Halacha [the Law], and he used to have two Sephardic students as well as two other Ashkenazi rabbis who are here with me regularly attending my lectures”94. The European Jew

8 9 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 232. 9 0 It is a velvet or silk curtain, luxuriously embroidered with silver or gold threads, usually presented as a gift for the purpose of placing it on the coffin containing the Books of the Torah inside the Temple. See: Ali, Arafa: Malaf Al-​Yahuud… [The Jews File…]: 221. 9 1 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 229. 9 2 Goitein, S. D. Mediterranean Society, the Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portroyed in Documents of the Cairo Geniza. 5 Vols. California: University of California Press, 1967: I, 51. 9 3 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 234, 237. 9 4 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 208.

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was very keen on education at that time, even if he had to emigrate95. After a few years a group of other students came to be disciples at the hand of Obadiah, who received them and made a change in the housing they rented. “He saw it necessary for the educational process that students live together in one place, He wished that his small apartment could accommodate them while they were all busy studying the Torah day and night”96. The experience of one of Obadiah’s students, hereunder, shows part of his method in the field of teaching. The Jewish student mentions: I opened my heart to him and told him about my bad condition and how I feel alienated, but I traveled here [Jerusalem] to learn the Torah. For the love of the Lord I left my family and my homeland so that he would accept me as his disciple and teach me the Torah. After that he spoke to me with love and affection, as is his custom, and said to me, I will take care of you as the best of my children…which made me very happy97.

The unknown Jewish student continued to evaluate his teacher, mentioning him as “the wise leader of Israel, Rabbi Obadiah”. And in his testimony that he wrote about him, he says: Rabbi Obadiah is a very great man; Jews from the farthest countries of the world come and obey him in every word. When he makes a decision, it becomes a law like the distance from Egypt to Babylon [Iraq]. Even Muslims, respect and fear him98.

As for the Jerusalemite community in general, Obadiah says: “I used to go twice a month to the synagogue to give lectures in Hebrew, and most of the people here understood it. The voice of my sermons flowed into their ears as if it was a beloved song”99. At a later stage, the anonymous Jewish student mentions about his teacher Obadiah: “He used to give them such lectures about three times a year, and he spoke with a calm voice and clear words that were well audible”100. It seems that this decline in the number of public lectures was due to the job burdens entrusted to Obadiah when

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Horowitz, Elliott. Families and their Fortunes, The Jews of Early Modern Italy (First published), ed. Biale, David. USA: Schocken Books, 1999: II, 602; Johnson, Poul. A History of the Jews: 183. 96 A Student’s letter: 87. 97 A Student’s letter: 86–​87. 98 A Student’s letter: 86–​87. 99 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 229. 100 A Student’s letter: 87.

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he became a deputy-​Nagid of the Jews, which made him delegate someone to assist him in giving these lectures. Obadiah provided additional clarifications about his method of advancing the scientific and social aspects of the general Jewish community in Jerusalem. He did not single out the daily lectures that were given by one sect over another (Ashkenaz or Sephard), as they were like public lessons or sermons. After hearing a sermon every day the sect continued to sit down in the house of Hamidrash to study the Torah for three hours. They went out in small groups either to visit the sick, or to visit the poor in order to give charity to them even if they had little. All this was under his supervision101. This clarification proves the emergence of Obadiah as an educational pioneer among his sect in addition to his emergence as a social pioneer. It is also clear that the Jewish temple was exploited in scientific activities such as the public lectures given by this settler. They were attended by the general Jews, who did not care much about understanding the minutes of the sermons he was giving. Another Jewish scholar named Zacharias the Spaniard, who was eighty years old mentioned by the Jewish student as a nice and polite man who spoke briefly to his students for a quarter of an hour a day, delving into all knowledge and religious sciences. His religious activity was not limited to his lectures to his students, but he used to meet with the Jewish community near the Temple Beis midrash to listen to the Torah and the Mishnah for three hours102. According to a specialized study, there are two types of students of knowledge belonging to the Jewish Religious Academy “Hesheva”: regular students and affiliated students103. This is in addition to the existence of a primary education for boys, in which they chanted aloud the books of the Torah, and mostly sing, imitating the style of Muslims in teaching their children in their Koranic schools104. Accordingly, the aforementioned foreign students, students of Obadiah and Zechariah, were of the regular class in higher academic theological studies. It is noticeable that when

1 01 A Student’s letter: 89. 1 02 A Student’s letter: 88. 1 03 Kandil, A. Al-​Athar al-​Islami fi al-​Fikr al-​Dini al-​Yahuudi [The Islamic Impact on Jewish Religious Thought]. Cairo: Dar Al Turath, in partnership with the Middle East Research Center, 1984: 166–​169. 1 04 Johnson, Poul. A History of the Jews: 198.

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Obadiah spoke about this type of study, he did not mention its location, which gives way to believe that he resorted to renting a school105 in order to achieve his goal, taking advantage of the donation money received from the wealthy Jews in the West for this purpose. As for the synagogue, it was the place everyone went to. The most important areas of teaching Obadiah meant was the science of Halakhah. This is a Hebrew word meaning legislation or Sharia, as the Talmud contains legislative parts and other anecdotal and exhortation106. On the other hand, the study of Halakhah relied on the intellectual and spiritual experiences of the Jews, and it formed a cornerstone in Jewish life among the rabbinic beginning in the eighth century AD from the reality of their lives, which shaped their history107. Obadiah was also concerned with the revival of the Hebrew language. The Jews in Europe used it in writing literature, just as the Christians used the Latin language in the same regard, as a language of international standing and a decent education108, especially in the Renaissance at the time when Obadiah wrote his speeches. The mixing of Jews and Arabs had a profound impact on the Hebrew language, as it became more eloquent by its proximity to the Arabic language, which is considered the finest language of the entire Semitic group109. As a result, it seems that Obadiah assigned himself to teach in the Hebrew language as a scholar from overseas, despite the presence of knowledgeable rabbis in Palestine before he referred to them. It is worth mentioning that the flourishing of Jewish scientific life in the Holy Land in Palestine was not limited to the Jerusalem Academy. Palestine witnessed the emergence of another Jewish scientific center in Safed, and we prove this through the presence of a number of men who were described as scholars during the late Middle Ages. The Jewish student spoke in 1495 AD about a man named Pertez Colombo, as one of the scholars and heads of the city, who welcomed him and made it easy 105 One of the Geniza documents indicates that one of the wealthy Jews in Jerusalem ran a school for himself, and it brought him an abundant income. See: Goitein, S. D. “A Mediterranean Society…”: I, 60. 1 06 Al-​Masiri, Abdel Wahab. Mawsou’at al-​Yahuud… [Encyclopedia of the Jews…]: V, 146. 1 07 Kaplan, Yosef, Benjudesma. The western Sephardic Diaspora in Cultures of Jews, ed. Bioe, David. USA: Schocken Books, 1999: II, 611, 639, 670. 1 08 Roth, Cecil: “The Jewish…”: 89. 1 09 Al-​Saadi, Ghazi: Al-​Aiad… [Holidays…]”: 57.

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for him to stay in Safed for the duration of his stay. He asked him and his brother [also a student] to stay with him to study for twenty ducats each, but they chose to go to study in Jerusalem. Then he added, explaining: “The government used to provide him with support, and I do not know how much it was paying him”110. Joseph Carlo, who resided in the city in 1488 AD, also stood out among the Jewish thinkers at the Safed Study Center and Isaac Loria, who died in 1532 AD111. Obadiah was also keen to stay for a while in Hebron due to the presence of twenty Jewish families there. He said: “My stay in this town is more beloved to my heart than my stay in Jerusalem, as the number of Jews in Hebron is few and they are good”. They are not as bad as those in Jerusalem and half of them were Maranos who showed their conversion to Christianity to escape the oppression of the Spaniards. Arriving in Hebron, they returned to their Judaism112. It is evident that Obadiah’s scientific and social activity included additional groups within the Holy Land, and that his burdens in Jerusalem were causing him suffering. Jerusalem scholars and the educational process that Obadiah and his disciples carried out in the late Middle Ages include another scholar not mentioned in what Obadiah wrote, Obadiah the Bertinoro proper. Encyclopedias specialized in Jewish studies agree on describing him as a famous scientist in the sciences of the Torah and the Mishnah, and attribute to him the achievement of important scientific works for the Jews. Some liturgical works (services) on religious rituals and rites are attributed to him113 besides his high literary value, which provided the search with abundant historical material. Therefore, we find the Israeli entity –​recently –​ keen to honor him by giving his name to a street in Jerusalem. Obadiah appeared to be a Jewish pioneer, descending from the family of Ebn Teppon that lived in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries. Scholars from Provence moved to Spain, Italy, and others, and it is attributed to them combining the culture of European Jews and their eastern brothers, where 1 10 A Student’s letter: 82. 1 11 Tuaima, Saber. Al-​Tareehk al-​Yahuudi al-​‘Am [General Jewish History] (third edition). Dar al-​Jabal, 1991: II, 191. 1 12 Obadiah. “Itinerary…”: 249; Ali, Fouad. Al-​Mugtama’ al-​Israili [The Israeli Society]: II, 19. 1 13 Wigoder, Geoffrey. The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: 101; Roth, Cecil. “Meshna The Bertinoro”. The Concuse Jewish Encyclopedia (First printing). London: 1980; Marmorstein, Rabbi Avrohom. “The Travel Letters…”: 10.

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their family had been striving to translate Arab heritage into Hebrew or Latin and vice versa. Their activity remained clear until the late 15th century 114 , and it seems that Obadiah used a large number of his students who came after their expulsion from Spain in his endeavors in Palestine. In view of their scientific and cultural superiority over their Arab Jewish peers, they became active in the cultural life of the Jews under his leadership until he was able to restore the Jewish Heshiva to Palestine, which it had lost in the 13th century after two centuries of seclusion, taking it from Mamluk Egypt and the Ottomans after that115. Thus, Obadiah brought about a great scientific, religious, and social awakening in the Jewish community, which was paved by Ibn Nachman, and before him, Maimonides. Together they constituted an intermittent Jewish awakening. However, the awakening of Obadiah was characterized by its comprehensiveness, as it relieved the suffering of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, addressed their social and economic conditions, and persuaded the state to support them. In conclusion, it can be said that Obadiah succeeded in reviving the status of Jerusalem among the Jewish sects in the east and west, due to the extreme religiousness he showed, by deepening religion in themselves, highlighting their identity, which brought about a reformist revolution, and made them a base for the Jews of Spain and the Mediterranean, Jews of the East in Persia and beyond, to appear more powerful with the beginning of the Ottoman era in Palestine 1516 AD, which made it a home for their immigration. In addition, a number of Jewish envoys to the East left Jerusalem for the purpose of collecting donations from the Jewish communities for the benefit of the Jewish settlers in Jerusalem and elsewhere. They also played the role of spiritual leaders. Jewish settlements worked in the field of teaching, guidance in the principles of law and worship, arousing the desire among Jews for salvation, and strengthening the ties between Palestine and the Jewish diaspora. The Jews of the East had always treated them with esteem and religious reverence, not only because they came from the Holy Land, but because they were more knowledgeable than them about Jewish law and all world issues compared to them, with the exception of the Jews of Baghdad, in whose midst the study of law was active116. Accordingly, we

1 14 Horowitz, Elliott. Families…”: I, Part. II, 597. 1 15 Genzberg, Louis. Jewish Encyclopedia…: 109. 1 16 For more, see: Afitbol, Michal, and others. “Al-​Yahuud fi al-​Bildan al-​Islamiah [The Jews in the Islamic Countries]”. Knowledge World (CLVII, 1995): 135–​136

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conclude that Obadiah’s settlement tendency did not cease at just being a moral idea, but went beyond that, even as a first step on the road to embodying religious identity and raising the slogan of the Land of Israel to the precursors of its political concept, the Zionist theory in the modern era.

Heba Mahmoud Saad Abdelnaby

Fascination with the East: The Foreigners’ Pursuit to Honor and Present the Islamic Heritage of Egypt

1. Introduction The question of identity has always been a resonating question in Egypt. In present time, the pharaonic identity is the most highlighted and presented because of its uniqueness and singularity in the world. At the same time, the other components of the Egyptian identity, such as the Coptic, Greaco-​ Roman, and Islamic, have always been recognized. The Islamic identity has its particularity since Egypt has always been recognized as the heart of the Muslim world. It played a leading role in the protection of the Muslim world for long periods and was the center of caliphate and housed the seat of the caliph for ages. As a result, Egypt has a wealth of heritage from the Islamic era that still stands and exists all over the country, witnessing the grandeur of that aspect of the Egyptian identity and manifesting the splendor of its facets. The uniqueness of the Islamic heritage of Egypt together with its diversity and variety were aspects that fascinated not only the Egyptians but also the foreigners. Thus, the efforts to protect, preserve, and present that heritage were exerted by both the Egyptians and the foreigners who were fascinated by the Islamic heritage. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to highlight three foreigners who lived in Egypt and fell in love with its Islamic Heritage to the limit that it became their passion and profession to protect and present it. The first question that could arise is why foreigners are in Egypt and how they were in relation with its Islamic Heritage? Since Medieval times, Egypt controlled the trade routes between East and West and the Mamluk sultanate (1250–​1517) established strong relations with many countries in

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the Mediterranean basin, mostly to support their control over trade routes. The Mamluks offered merchants of those countries many privileges to encourage them pursue their role in trade1. The Ottomans (1299–​1923) followed the same strategy to encourage trade, offering more Europeans the chance to settle in Egypt and enjoy the special buildings (wikala) given to them to live in and exhibit their merchandise and the concessions granted to their communities. When Mohammad Ali (1805–​1848) ascended the throne of Egypt, a new era of relations with Europe had started. His efforts to modernize Egypt called on and depended on foreign experts to promote and achieve such modernization. At the same time, the unstable political conditions and lack of job opportunities in some European countries were expeller factors for many Europeans. As a result, European migrants of all expertise in addition to workers and merchants of all fields flowed to Egypt throughout the 19th century. Both intellectual experts, such as architects, artists, engineers, teachers, and also technicians, and workers of middle and lower classes were welcomed in Egypt and found suitable job opportunities under the patronage of Mohammad Ali and his wide-​ranging projects. No doubt that those Europeans brought new ideas, styles, and techniques to Egypt, that helped in its modernization2. At the same time, the increasing power of Mohammad Ali, his successful external campaigns achieved by his mighty army, and his internal accomplishments magnified his presence to the extent that he acted as a rival or emulate to the Ottoman sultan. Mohammad Ali wanted to crown his major development achievements by building his famous Turkish-​style mosque at the Citadel. He wanted a mosque as fabulous and enormous as those of the Ottoman sultans, symbolizing the Islamic revival in Egypt and highlighting its heritage3. That draw the attention to the Islamic heritage

1

2 3

Haridi, Salah. The Communities in Alexandria during the Ottoman Era (In Arabic). Cairo: Ein for Human and Social Studies, 2004: 20–​21; Abdelnaby, Heba. “The Monument and Statue of Ismail in Alexandria: An Example of Italian-​Egyptian Friendship”, in Intercultural Relations between East and West 11–​21 centuries, Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar and Aly A. El-​Sayed . Szeged: JATE Press, 2020: 71–​72. Abd al-​Hafiz, Mohammad. The Role of Foreign and Arabic Communities in the Artistic Life in Egypt during the 18th and 19th Centuries (In Arabic). PhD Thesis: Faculty of Archaeology-​Cairo University (2000): 9–​14. Moussa, Magdy M. “Mario Rossi and the Egyptian School of Architecture in Alexandria”. Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design and Research Centre (1990): 102.

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in general and the Islamic heritage of Egypt in particular as an important source of inspiration for the development process that is occurring in Egypt. The successors of Mohammad Ali continued his endeavor to modernize Egypt and followed his steps in encouraging the Europeans to work in Egypt. Many Europeans settled in Egypt and that gave them the chance to engage with its people and to investigate and appreciate its vivid heritage. It was noticed that by the second half of the 19th century, more Europeans were influenced by the Egyptian heritage, and they had undenied role in the revival of that heritage. In this chapter, I will present three examples of three Europeans who were related to the Egyptian Islamic heritage and made unique efforts to preserve and present that heritage: the photographer Beniamino Facchinelli, the architect Mario Rossi, and the art collector Antonis Benakis. My objective is to explain the context in which they got engaged with Islamic heritage and to demonstrate how each one of them, according to his field and his expertise, was impressed with Islamic heritage and managed to preserve and present it in his own way.

2. The Photographer Beniamino Facchinelli (1829–​1895) Beniamino Briccio Cirillo Facchinelli was born on July 8, 1839, into a family of landowners living in the heart of the city of Trento. It seems that he left for Egypt in 1876 as proved by the birth certificate of his first son who was born in Egypt in December the same year. He probably moved several times to Cairo till he settled there in 1881 when he worked as chief photographer of the general staff to the viceroy of Egypt. Because of that position he followed the military expeditions carried out in Sudan and Eritrea against the Mahdist revolt and during that expedition he got the chance to photograph types of the tribes of the high lakes and offered those photographs to the Society of Ethnology of Florence4.

4

Bideault, Maryse. “A Dotted Biography”, Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​1895), Mercedes Volait, Jerome Delatour, Thomas Cazentre, et Maaryse Bideault. Paris: OpenEdition Books, 2017: 11–​12.

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2.1 Facchinelli’s Engagement with Islamic Heritage Like other photographers, in addition to his regular work, Facchinelli took photographs of some famous people5 and photographs that attracted the Europeans and satisfied their interest in Egypt. Facchinelli’s preoccupation with Islamic monuments started when he was in contact with the French amateur Arthur Rhoné (1836–​1910), who was interested in the Egyptian antiquities and monuments and who visited Egypt in 1864, in 1879 for three months and in 1881 for 9 months. After his first visit to Egypt, Rhoné published in 1877 his first book Egypt in Small Days: Studies and Memories. Cairo and Its Surroundings. He became known as a defender of Cairo’s heritage and was preparing to write a book about Egypt entitled Egypt in Small Days: Cairo of Formerly”6. It is in that context that Facchinelli worked for Rhoné and photographed the sites of Cairo; judging from an album of 200 photos entitled Sites and Monuments of Cairo” that were chosen and cataloged by the architect Ambroise Baudry, Rhoné’s friend between 1873 and 1893 for the latter’s project. The book was eventually published after the death of Rhoné and contained 20 photos taken by Facchinelli7. Moreover, other circumstances also participated in Facchinelli’s engagement with the Islamic heritage in particular. In the beginning of the 19th century many Islamic monuments collapsed although they were endowment properties that were supposed to be maintained by the endowment revenue. Moreover, the urban improvement projects during the 1860s resulted in the destruction of many monuments. As a result, an awareness campaign was launched by a group of Europeans and Egyptians at the end of 1870s aiming to draw the attention to the importance of the monument of Cairo and their threatened fate if no intervention was proposed to preserve them. That group included European and Egyptian architects,

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Bideault, Maryse. “Beniamino Facchinelli (1839–​1895)”. Le Caire photographie par Facchinelli. InVisu. 22 September 2021 . Volait, Mercedes. “Arthur-​Ali Rhoné (1836–​1910)-​Du Caire ancient au Vieux-​Paris ou le patrimoine au prisme de l’erudition dilettante”. Socio-​Anthropologie, 19 (2006): 11–​ 12; Francois, Martine, Fiori, Ruth. “RHONE Arthur”. Le comité des travaux historique et scientifiques. 28-​8-​2013. 22 September 2021. http://​cths.fr/​an/​sav​ant.php?id=​ 104​735#. Volait, Mercedes. “Une restitution unique du Caire historique et pittoresque du second XIXe siècle”, Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​1895): 6–​7.

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engineers, and historians such as Arthur Rhoné, Ambroise Baudry, Julius Franz, Edward Thomas Rogers, Yacoub Artin, and Hussein Fahmy8. The awareness created by that campaign in addition to the growing interest in the “Art Arabe” led to the establishment of the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe in 1881. The Comité was charged with surveying and documenting the Islamic monuments in Cairo with plans, elevations, photographs, and records of inscriptions in order to determine its condition and to take care of the restoration of threatened buildings and to upkeep and preserve the other buildings9. Therefore, the Comité assigned photographers and painters to document the Islamic monuments of Cairo and their status through photographs and drawings that covered by 1883 about 800 buildings and helped the Comité to achieve its ambitious plan of restoration10. Facchinelli was one of the photographers who worked for the Comité and during his stay in Egypt, he produced about 1200 photos most of which were documenting the Islamic heritage in Cairo. Facchinelli’s photos compiled over the years of his work documented the actual state of the Islamic monuments of Cairo, highlighting how many of them were abandoned, fell into ruin or were deliberately destroyed (Figure 1). They documented the status of the buildings before the first series of restorations executed by the Comité. In fact, it was these photos that helped the members of the Comité to write their reports that assessed

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Volait, Mercedes. “Contre les ravages du ‘vandalisme restaurateur”, Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​1895): 45–​46; Volait, Mercedes. “Beniamino Facchinelli (1829–​1895)”. BnF. Bibliotheques d’Orient. 20 September 2021. . Volait mentioned that the group was mainly established by Arthur Rhoné and Gabriel Charmes who were assisted by their friend; the architect Ambroise Baudry. They received support from other Europeans who worked in the Egyptian government such as Julius Franz who worked at the Ministry of Religious Goods and Edward Thomas Rogers who worked at the Ministry of Finance. They also received support from the Egyptologist Amelia Edwards in England. The group also included the historian Yacoub Artin and the architect Hussein Fahmy. Sanders, Paula. Creating Medieval Cairo: Empire, Religion and Architectural Preservation in Nineteenth Century Egypt. Cairo-​NY: AUC Press, 2008: 14–​15. Seif, Ola. “Topographical Photography in Cairo: The Lens of Beniamino Facchinelli”, Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle, Mercedes Volait. Paris: OpenEdition books, 2013: 196–​197. Ola Seif mentioned that the photographers who worked for the Comité from 1881 to 1901 were: Lekegian, Facchinelli, C. M. A., Banget Bey, M. A. Marchettini, Luzzato and V. Giuntini.

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the required intervention needed for the preservation and restoration of the monuments11. Although Facchinelli focused on religious buildings, he also photographed a number of houses being demolished at his time. Therefore, his archive when acquired by the Comité documented houses that have already disappeared during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, giving his archive the importance of being the only visual source of these no-​longer-​ existing houses12. Another important aspect of Facchinelli’s architectural archive is his attention to the details of Islamic ornament. He focused on the architectural elements, highlighting the beauty of their decorations. Therefore, his archive included photos of mashrabyias, bands of inscription on facades and interiors, marble decorations on floors, sculpted reliefs, details of minarets and domes…etc. Such photos were described as “a sort of visual encyclopedia of Islamic ornament”13, thus adding additional importance to his archive. Moreover, Facchinelli’s archive documented the early composition of the collections of the “Musée Arabe”, which was assembled in al-​Hakim Mosque starting from 1881 before moving it to the museum building at Bab al-​Khalq14. Facchinelli was also interested in the social life on the streets of Cairo, which reflected the Cairene urban life in the last quarter of the 19th century and complemented to the image he wanted to form about Cairo’s heritage. He photographed the movement of men and women busy in their everyday activities and the presence of pets in the city. He also photographed side streets, banks of the Nile and lakes with people engaged in different activities, graffiti on walls of buildings in Cairo, and other rarely seen aspects of Cairo’s vivid life. Moreover, he was able to obtain from his studio, situated on the edge of the old town, some touristic views of Egypt.

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For more details about the content of Facchinelli’s photo archive see: Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​1895): 48–​65. 12 Volait, Mercedes. “Maisons disparues”, Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​1895): 66–​71.; Seif, Ola. “Topographical Photography in Cairo”, Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle: 205–​211. 1 3 Cazentre, Thomas. “Une esthétique du fragment: moucharabiehs et ornements architecturaux”, Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​ 1895): 72. 14 Seif, Ola. “Topographical Photography in Cairo”, Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle: 211.

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Because of his expert eyes and shooting accuracy, Facchinelli was commissioned by several experts who specialized in Cairo monuments. As previously mentioned, Arthur Rhoné was the first and he used Facchinelli’s photos in his publication. Facchinelli also worked for the architect Ambroise Baudry15, the epigraphist Max Van Berchem, and the artist and collector Henry Wallis and they all used his photos in their publications. Even after his death, Facchinelli’s photos continued to be used in the publications until 1930s16. From that we conclude that Facchinelli spent 19 years of his life in Egypt, mainly in Cairo, occupied with photographing its rich heritage, highlighting its beauty and uniqueness, and drawing the attention to the need of its preservation. About 1200 photos have been attributed to him and they are now preserved in 6 libraries and museums17. Facchinelli died on November 29, 1895, in Cairo, at the age of 56.

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Seif, Ola. “Topographical Photography in Cairo”, Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe siècle: 212. 16 For more details see: Le Caire sur le vif: Beniamino Facchinelli photographe (1875–​ 1895): 103–​111. 17 The photographs are preserved in: Museum of Art and History at Geneva, The rare books and special collections library at the American University of Cairo, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Library of National Institute of Art History (Jacques Doucet collections) in Paris, National Library of France and Louvre Museum in Paris.

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Figure 1:  The Khanqah of Farag ibn Barquq, photographed by Facchinelli. Source: https://​collections.geneve.ch/​mah/​oeuvre/​photographie-​tirage/​2006-​0030-​061-​12

3. The Architect Mario Rossi (1897–​1961) Mario Rossi was born in Rome in 1897, graduated at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts in 1917 and moved to Egypt in 1921 like many other architects who came to work in Egypt. Ernesto Verruci, the decorator of Abdin Palace selected him to work as his assistant in the Royal Palace. At the same time, he worked as freelance architect with Antonio Lasciac who was also working in the Royal Palace. From 1921 to 1929 he participated in many projects executed by the Royal Palace such as the redecoration of Ras al-​Tin Palace, the design of al-​Haramlek Palace (both in Alexandria) and the design of both the northern and southern tea-​kiosks in Abdin Palace in Cairo18. 18 Sidky, Ahmed. “Mario Rossi’s Work in Awqaf ”. Medina, vol. 3 (July-​September 1998): 62; Pallini, Cristina. “The Revival of Islamic Architecture in Egypt: Some

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3.1 Rossi’s Role in the Revival of the Islamic Style of Architecture in Egypt During the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century Egypt witnessed the revival of the Islamic style of architecture and that was due to many reasons. The Egyptian patronage of architectural education started to pay off after the reopening of the High Institute of Arts and Crafts during the reign of Khedive Ismaiel and the opening of a department for architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, from which architects were graduated with ambitions to revive their national style of architecture. At the same time, the Egyptian architects who were sent to study in Europe were influenced with the prevailing thought there; valuing the national style of architecture over the foreign ones. Therefore, when they returned to Egypt, they tried to bring out their national identity though the revival of the Islamic style of architecture. At the same time, the active work of the Comité to conserve and restore the Islamic monuments and to salvage the art works scattered in such monuments together with the sincere work of many European architects all contributed to create an admiration and genuine interest in the revival of the Islamic style of architecture inspired by the prosperous Islamic heritage. From political side, the national movement established to face the British occupation of Egypt also accentuated the national identity and resulted in tendency to present the national style of architecture19. In fact, the Islamic monuments fascinated Rossi and he was deeply impressed by their style, which he analyzed, sketched, and photographed, and his portfolios of drawings show how he loved to study these monuments and intensively worked on them. In 1929 the ministry of Awqaf announced an international architectural competition to fill the position of chief architect of Awqaf. Influenced by the national movement of that time and the increasing preference to revive Islamic style, especially for an institution responsible for the Islamic endowments, the subject of the competition was to design a portal in Mamluk design for the extension of the Awqaf building. Thirty-​ seven architects from different countries participated in the competition and

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notes on the Italian Contribution (1898–​1953)”. CAA 94th Annual Conference at Boston (2005): 3. Ibrahim, Samah. The Religious Works of Mario Rossi in Alexandria (in Arabic). MA thesis: Faculty of Arts-​Alexandria University (2011): 25–​29.

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Rossi was one of them. It was a challenging task for Rossi because Verruci Bek asked him to give up his post in the Royal Palace in order to apply for the competition. Moreover, Rossi had only one month to finish all the drawings for the competition. Rossi’s deep understating of the Islamic style and the Islamic ornament gained from the long hours of observation, study, and drawing paid off, and he eventually won the competition. Rossi employed various motifs and innovative elements in his design, which reflected a high degree of inspiration, mostly from the late Mamluk Qaytbay period20. Consequently, Mario Rossi worked for the Ministry of Awqaf from 1929 to 1955, a period which was interrupted by World War II when, in 1941, he was captured by the British and only released in 1944. Rossi then returned to the Ministry of Awqaf as a consultant and converted to Islam in 1946. During that long period, Rossi was highly influenced with Islamic heritage. The previous studies about the works of Marrio Rossi classified his work into two phases: During the first phase (1929–​1941), he employed and mixed various elements of different Islamic monuments, giving most emphasis to the ornamentation and orders of the traditional mosque elements. He displayed his skill using calligraphy and traditional Islamic decorative elements derived mainly from Mamluk architecture. During the second phase (1945–​1955), his work was marked with freedom of imitation and tendency to simplify the architecture. He maintained the traditional elements of the Mamluk mosque, yet in a stylized simplified form. Moreover, this phase revealed more adaptation with local building materials21. During his work period in Egypt, Rossi designed and planned public buildings, royal residences, private residences for Egyptian notables in addition to 260 mosques22. Rossi’s greatest achievements was the mosque of Abu al-​Abbas in Alexandria (Figure 2), in which he demonstrated his talents and skills. The mosque was meant to be the main congregational mosque in Alexandria and a special site was chosen for it in the Turkish quarter, which was the site of an older structure from the 18th century for the burial place of the Andalusian Sufi Abou al-​Abbas. The work started in 20 21 22

Sidky, Ahmed. “Mario Rossi’s Work in Awqaf ”: 62–​63; Ibrahim, Samah. The Religious Works of Mario Rossi: 39. Sidky, Ahmed. “Mario Rossi’s Work in Awqaf ”: 63–​66; Ibrahim, Samah. The Religious Works of Mario Rossi: 40–​45. Turchiarulo, Mariangela. “Building Styles Brought to Egypt by the Italian Community Between 1850 and 1950: The Style of Mario Rossi”. Proceeding of the International Congress on Construction History. Cottbus (2009): 3.

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1929, at that time Rossi have had spent years studying and understanding the Islamic architecture, focusing on the Egyptian style in particular. He invested all his knowledge when he designed the mosque, coming up with an innovative design that was inspired by Islamic heritage. The cost of construction reached 140000 LE and the work continued for 16 years (1929–​1945), due to its high cost, complicated design, and the use of some imported materials, the importation of which was interrupted by WWII. Mario Rossi designed the mosque in the form of a free-​standing octagonal building, covered with four domes around a central octagonal lantern and has one elegant minaret rising to 80 m. The mosque has two entrances and a sabil on the south-​eastern façade. The interior of the mosque is also unique, containing eight Italian granite columns carrying the central lantern while the interior walls and ceiling are all richly decorated. Rossi adopted the Mamluk style of architecture and decorations integrated with Andalusian decorative elements23. He skillfully used stalactites, trilobed arches, arabesque, polygon star pattern, mashrabia, interlacing voussoirs, and many other decorative elements that collaborated to give the mosque its individuality and grandeur. The mosque is considered a rational continuation of the neo-​Mamluk mosques erected at the turn of the 20th century24. Mario Rossi also built al-​Qaid Ibrahim Mosque in Alexandria in 1948 to commemorate the death of Ibrahim the son of Mohamad Ali, the mosque of Omar Makram at Tahrir square in Cairo in 1948, Al-​Zamalik Mosque in Cairo in 1953, and Mohammad Kurriym Mosque in Ras al-​Tin palace in Alexandria in 195325. Although Mario Rossi designed a large number of 23

Abou al-​Abbas was born in Andalusia and migrated to Egypt at the end of the Ayyubid period and spent the rest of his life (during the Mamluk period) teaching in Alexandria till he died in 685/​1287. That means the active years of his life were in Egypt during the Mamluk period, therefore, Rossi inspired the decorations of the mosque from both the Mamluk and Andalusian Islamic styles, reflecting on the two important periods influencing Abou al-​Abbas. 24 Dickie, James. “The Works of Mario Rossi atAlexandria”. Environmental Design: Journal of Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre (1990): 95–​98; Moussa, Magdy. “Mario Rossi and the Egyptian School of Architecture in Alexandria”: 103–​104; Ibrahim, Samah. The Religious Works of Mario Rossi: 47–​69; Turchiarulo, Mariangela. “The Construction of Al-​Musri Abou Al-​‘Abbas Mosque, Alexandria”. Proceeding of the 2nd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering BCCCE, Epoka University, Tirana, Albania (2013): 1084–​1091. 25 Moussa, Magdy. “Mario Rossi and the Egyptian School of Architecture in Alexandria”: 104–​105.

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mosques –​as previously mentioned –​in different cities of Egypt, the designs were varied and diverse. He employed the traditional Islamic architectural elements and decorative motifs in modified simplified orders, in order to represent the Islamic heritage to the modern society in an appealing way. He also integrated his buildings with their surroundings creating a pleasant visual cohesion. In other words, we can say that Mario Rossi participated in the revival of the Islamic heritage, especially the neo-​Mamluk style of architecture, preserving its main features and highlighting its beauty. He successfully presented a twentieth century interpretation of the Islamic architecture through his innovation, creativity, and talent. Rossi ended his career with another achievement when he travelled to Saudi Arabia –​in 1954 –​to decorate the main Mosque of Mecca, then he returned to Egypt in 1960 where he died the following year.

Figure 2:  The mosque of Abou al-​Abbas in Alexandria. Source: https://​www.flickr.com/​ photos/​32038542@N07/​5374769215/​sizes/​l/​

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4. The Art Collector Antonis Benakis (1873–​1954) Antonis Benakis was born in Egypt in 1873 in one of the prominent Greek families. His father was the politician and magnate Emmanuel Benakis (1843–​ 1929) who settled in Egypt in 1865 and founded his company “Choremi-​ Benachi & Co” in 1876 and soon became a successful trader in the cotton business. He had 6 children and Antonis was the second eldest of them26. A close friend and colleague of the great statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, Emmanuel Benakis placed his fortune at the disposal of several charitable foundations and contributed to the settlement of refugees. Within this context, Antonis was raised up in a family that had a strong sense of duty toward society and funded philanthropic projects such as hospitals, schools, and orphanages27. Emmanuel sent his son, Antonis, to England to learn in Liverpool and when he returned to Egypt, he worked with his father in the family company for cotton exporting. Antonis grew up to be a man of many interests who loved scouting and polo playing and admired art. Within the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Alexandria, a city at the crossroads between East and West, Benakis became a passionate art collector who used to collect artifacts during his travels to London, Liverpool, Paris, and Athens, as oriental antiques were sold there. He had a wide range of interests in textile, ceramics, and armors and gradually he managed to form remarkable collections. But what are the circumstance that led Antonis to care for art and be an art collector? Late nineteenth century witnessed an increased interest in Islamic art and that was apparent in the series of exhibitions organized in several European cities. Such exhibitions were displays that attracted connoisseurs, scholars, and merchants of Islamic art. The earliest exhibitions were: Goupil’s Islamic Collection in Paris in 1888 which was a sales display, the exhibition in Paris in 1893, the Stockholm exhibition in 1897, the Burlington exhibition for ceramics in 1908, and Munich exhibition in 191028. The 26 His children were: Alexandra-​Antonis-​Penelope (who became a famous writer)-​ Constantine-​Alexander and Arghyro. 2 7 Newsroom. “More on the Life of a Great Man”. Ekathimerini.com. 13 December 2004. 20 May 2021 ; The Benaki Museum. “The Founder”. 20 May 2021. . 2 8 Komaroff, Linda. “Exhibiting the Middle East: Collections and Perceptions of Islamic Art”. Ars Orientalis, 30 (2000): 3.

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organization of these exhibitions affirms the existence of an active market trading Islamic artworks. Many factors collaborated to the existence of that market, starting with the unstable political situation of Egypt at the end of the eighteenth century that led to the French occupation, which left Egypt with a large number of ruined mosques, vulnerable to neglect and theft. Moreover, earthquakes that regularly hit Egypt during the nineteenth century –​such as in 1847, 1856 and 1863 –​resulted in more than 100 Islamic monuments completely or partly ruined. Such ruined monuments were fertile soils for plunder and although most of the monuments were supposed to be maintained by Awqaf, maintenance was rarely done due to the severe decrease in revenues. Add to this, as previously mentioned, the urbanization program of Cairo during the 1860s led to the destruction of many Islamic monuments29. As a result of all these factors, Islamic artworks and architectural elements were collected from ruined monuments and sold in markets and such business attracted foreigners in Egypt mainly from Iran and Greece in addition to local merchants too. On the contrary, the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art arabe was established and started a project to collect Islamic artworks and preserve them in a specialized museum, but still, their efforts did not stop the antique trade. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, many people were involved in the trade of Islamic artworks and most of them worked legally and had shops and galleries for their trade in Cairo or in other European cities30. It is in that context and atmosphere that Antonis Benakis was able to fulfill his passion toward art in general and Islamic art in particular. He not only collected Islamic artifacts but also felt responsible to raise awareness toward the uniqueness and splendor of Islamic art. In 1924 Antonis, together with a group of friends established a group called “les amies de l’art”, which aimed at supporting artists and raising awareness

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For more details about discussing the political, social and economic reason that created an active market of antique trade see: Volait, Mercedes. Antique Dealing and Creative Reuse in Cairo and Damascus 1850–​1890. Leiden-​Boston: Brill, 2021: 90–​93. Volait, Mercedes. Antique Dealing: 55–​64. She listed 25 names of antique dealers in Cairo alone such as Asadolla Irani, Joseph Cohen, Elias Hatoun, Gaspare Giuliana, Gandour Bey, Pascal Sebeh and many others. Some of them were dealers while others were photographers, cabinetmakers, or art lovers. Their nationalities also varied as some were Egyptians and others were Greeks, Iranians or Armenians.

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about art through the organization of lectures and exhibitions. The group organized their first exhibition for Islamic art in Alexandria in 1925. The exhibition contained 470 objects that were all from private collections of 24 owners, both Egyptians and foreigners including doctors, lawyers, noblemen (Omar Tusun), merchants (Moris Necma), and many others. Gaston Migeon prepared the exhibition catalog and Antonis spent the exhibition period accompanying the visitors to explain and describe the exhibited objects for them. The exhibition received recognition and much attention as articles were written about it praising its idea and appreciating the role of “les amies de l’art” in raising the awareness toward Islamic art. The group was even asked to organize similar exhibitions in Cairo, which would be a suitable context to present Islamic art. This was not achieved but the group continued to organize lectures and publications about Islamic art. In 1926 the group organized another exhibition for Chinese ceramics and textiles, which was the last activity for Antonis in Alexandria31. In the same year Antonis moved permanently to Athens, leaving a void in the cultural atmosphere of Alexandria. In 1928 he established a new group to preserve local heritage and in 1929, after the death of his father, he decided to transform his father’s house into a museum, which was opened in 1931. His collection together with his sisters and brothers’ collections were all housed in the museum and since the Islamic art collection is a large collection, a separate building was devoted for it (Figure 3). Antonis Benakis spent the rest of his life promoting art and heritage and continued his pursuit in collecting.

31 The Benaki Museum. “Mr. Byzantoine et ses amis: Antonis Benakis and the art scene of Alexandria”. YouTube. 7 July 2020. 20 May 2021. https://​www.yout​ube. com/​watch?v=​Mp3R​TL_​L​uNI.

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Figure 3:  Antonis Benakis and part of his collection of Islamic art. Source: https://​www. benaki.org/​index.php?option=​com_​landings&view=​founder&lang=​en&Itemid=​820

5. Conclusion The three figures Facchinelli, Rossi, and Benakis lived and worked in Egypt for long period; it was as a second homeland for them. They were influenced with the overwhelming identity of Egypt and its Islamic heritage in particular fascinated them. Thus, instead of bringing the heritage of their country of origin to Egypt, they were influenced with the Islamic heritage of Egypt and exploited their expertise to preserve and present that heritage. Facchnelli’s photo archive documented the Islamic monuments of Cairo before the restoration that was carried out during the twentieth century. The archive is still under-​studied, and its analysis can reveal a lot about the monuments before and after restoration and can help in the understanding of the architectural and social fabric of Cairo. Rossi’s buildings are still

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standing ornamenting many cities in Egypt and witnessing the revival of the Islamic style of architecture during the twentieth century. Rossi established a school of architecture that influenced a generation of Egyptian architects who learned from him how to accentuate the Egyptian identity in their designs. Antonis Benakis participated actively in raising the awareness and creating appreciation toward Islamic art. Although he collected the artworks for himself, that practice was accepted according to the standards of his era. He managed to preserve his collection and eventually donated it to create a museum that is presenting the Islamic heritage to the whole world.

Maria Antonella Pasci

Identities, Belongingness, and Places: Can Travel Literature Connect Cultures? Italian Travelers Discovering Egypt in the XIX Century

1. Introduction “Verum ipsum factum” (what is true is precisely what is made) said Giambattista Vico in Scienza Nuova while talking about History. Since human beings can only comprehend what they did, the truth of history can be understood and analyzed because they did it, they experienced it1. Our world History has been complex, harsh, and sometimes very difficult to be analyzed, though –​quoting Vico –​one can try to comprehend it. The main issues concern both human-​to-​human relationships and human-​ environment connection. Through the first type of bond, human beings discover one another and create their own identities and develop their own belongingness2. 1 2

Vico, Giambattsta, The New Science of Giambattista Vico, Translated from the third edition 1744 –​by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1948, p. 85 (331). The idea of using the words identity and belongingness stems from the fact that I intend them in a very different way, according to their own definitions. In fact, when dealing with belongingness, is defined as “the state or feeling of belonging to a particular group” (https://​www.lex​ico.com/​def​i nit​ion/​belong​ingn​ess, last consulted 9/​20/​2021), while identity is “the characteristics, feelings or beliefs that make people different from others” (https://​www.oxf​ordl​earn​ersd​icti​onar​ies.com/​def​i nit​ion/​engl​ish/​ ident​ity, last consulted 9/​20/​2021). Given this, using the word identity as a synonym or interchangeably with belongingness implies the existence of something “Different” rather than something “Other”. Talking about differences implies the existence of something normal. Who has the power to establish what is normal and what is not? The term “Otherness” is defined as the “quality that someone or something has which

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Identities are created in a specific environment and therefore it could be believed that also places have a fundamental role in cultural human growth. There are different ways to express the challenges our contemporary world is facing and the political, economic, and social theories submitted in the last decades are slowly losing their reliability, since they have totally, or partially, failed to explain and predict our world. Through deeply understanding the two kinds of connections mentioned in the premise –​human-​to-​human and human-​environment –​we can truly comprehend identities and cultures. Neither of them can be considered something permanent, something set in stone: they are versatile. They have been created, layer by layer –​ throughout the centuries –​in multiple ways in each country. Therefore, there could be other approaches to the same matter. In this way, the present essay refers to “Otherness” rather than “Difference” and how it can be perceived by people from different places and backgrounds. Could one of the ways to learn about the Other be experiencing its places and rituals? From what has been said these represent the testimony of a community’s history, its tangible and intangible heritages. The aim of this chapter is to examine two extremely varied experiences, lived and told by two writers from the Italic peninsula3 who went to Egypt during the first half of the XIX century, namely Amalia Sola and Giambattista Brocchi. How did they narrate their relationship with another culture? Have they had a privileged perspective? Or are their accounts what Edward Said in his work Orientalism4 –​published in 1978 –​would have been identified as an example of Western predominance? The main point here is to highlight the issue of describing cultures, identities, and belongingness. This chapter is going to show the way Egyptian culture in the first half of the XIX century was perceived by two

3 4

is different from yourself or from the things that you have experienced” (https://​www. collin​sdic​tion​ary.com/​it/​diz​iona​rio/​ingl​ese/​othern​ess, last consulted 9/​ 28/​ 2021). Ultimately, it identifies someone and something other than the self, thus enhancing the role and importance of diversity. The expression “Italic peninsula” refers to the fact that Italy was not yet a unified political entity. For convenience, from now on the terms “Italy” and “Italians” are going to be used. “Orientalism (…) that is, the collective notion through which a European “we” is identified as opposed to non-​European “others”; (…) the idea of a European identity rooted in a superiority over other peoples and other cultures” Said Edward, Orientalismo, L’immagine europea dell’Oriente, Feltrinelli Editore, Milano, 2013, p. 20.

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Italian writers, belonging to different places and different backgrounds. Even if travel writing as a genre was sometimes used as a way to tell people in the motherland about “italianità” –​which would mean “a way of being Italian abroad” –​these Italians used their own words to describe how they perceived Egypt and Egyptian customs. It is interesting to observe that despite the fact that they both experienced Egypt during the same period of time, their memoirs are really different and mirror their two personal backgrounds. The stories of Sola show her own sensibility and an approach that could be defined as empathic listening. She tried to fight prejudices through knowledge. Conversely, Brocchi had a reluctant and critical approach, typical of the aforementioned Orientalism attitude. Obviously, this work does not want to explain Egypt and Egyptian culture and society in the XIX century, or to judge in any way. It is going to offer one of the many views, a consciously partial approach provided by foreigners in their encounter with other cultures. The French historian, Fernand Braudel, stated in his work The Mediterranean Sea (1985) that a society is an art of living, the reproduction of thousands of attitudes5. I believe this concept to be true; therefore, I made it the fil rouge of this chapter. As mentioned before, identities can be considered as developed throughout the ages and they should be observed within their own historical and cultural framework. Therefore, in order to further delve into the topics so far exposed, the present chapter is going to describe Sola and Brocchi’s experiences, after having introduced in the next paragraph the context –​that is to say the relationship between Italy and Cairo since 1798 and the Italian presence in Egypt in the XIX century.

2. Italian-​Egyptian Relationships The Mediterranean area is sometimes represented as a demarcation line between two different types of way of living –​the Western world and the Arabic and Eastern one –​and they both are often seen as irreconcilable 5

Braudel, Fernand, Il Mediterraneo. Lo spazio, la storia, gli uomini, le tradizioni, Bompiani/​Giunti, Milano, 2019, p. 114.

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with one another. Nowadays, that imaginary line is gradually becoming a frontier of pain, death, and despair. But it was not always like that. The first contact dates back to thousands of years ago, though a new way of dealing with this liaison began after Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt at the end of the XVIII century. This chapter is not the place to analyze the relationship between the two shores of the Mediterranean Sea before the XIX century, thus I shall merely mention some studies about the matter6. The historian David Abulafia highlighted that since the Middle Ages, trade relations and the interaction with different cultures and religions started to cause problems to the governments and to influence –​already –​ political decision-​making7. In the later Middle Ages, “capitulations”8 were the chosen method for managing the two-​Mediterranean shore connections. The date that defines what Braudel named “Mediterranean Peace” is October 7, 1571. It was the day of the Battle of Lepanto, when the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Anti-​Turkish Holy League consisting of Spain, the Republics of Venice and Genoa, the Vatican City, and Malta. This period was distinguished by rather stable, peaceful relationships. This state of apparent peace, alas, was not supposed to last: the situation degenerated in 1798 after Napoleon’s expédition d’Égypte9. By means of Napoleon’s expedition, the modern West encountered a transforming East. Said defines this moment as “(…) the keystone of the newly established Near East-​Europe relationship”10. Then, the East was thus described through the use of stereotypes and rhetoric, linking the East and North Africa to conservatism and social, cultural, and political immobility. However, the then Egyptian ruler Muhammad ‘Ali (1769–​1849) –​an Ottoman official of Albanian origins –​quickly saw the advantages of the Western presence for the modernization of his country. His strategy was to build a modern state promoting social, economic, and military reforms11.

6

Corrao, Francesca, Islam, religione e politica. Una piccola introduzione, LUISS University Press, Roma, 2018, p. 146. 7 Abulafia, David, I regni del Mediterraneo Occidentale dal 1200 al 1500. La lotta per il dominio, Editori Laterza, Bari, 2012, p. 509. 8 Canale Cama, F., Casanova D., Quadri Rosa M. D., Storia del Mediterraneo moderno e contemporaneo, Guida, 2017, p. 61. 9 Ivi, p. 76. 10 E. Said, Orientalismo, p. 90. 11 Campanini, Massimo, Storia dell’Egitto. Dalla conquista araba a oggi, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017, p. 135.

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Not only western citizens went to Egypt but some Egyptians were sent to Europe too, in order to study and improve their knowledge, ultimately being able to use it for developing the Pharaohs’ country. It is interesting to know that thanks to the relationship between Egypt and Italy, in 1815 an Egyptian delegation was sent to Milan to learn the principles of printing. Then, in 1822 Muhammad ‘Ali established a government press in Bulaq, Cairo12. In December of the same year, the first book was printed in Bulaq Press: it was an Italian-​Arabic Dictionary by Raphael Antoine Zakhour, an Egypt-​born Roman Catholic monk from Aleppo, Syria13.

3. Italian Presence in Egypt As far as Italy is concerned, there were several men and a few women who reached Egypt for various reasons, and then found themselves appreciating the hospitality and the tolerance of local people, the majesty of the best-​ known places, and the beauty of the lesser-​known ones. I have chosen to give voice to two people, Amalia Sola and Giovanni Battista Brocchi. The Italian presence started to be numerically considerable after Muhammad ‘Ali’s process of modernization developed during the first part of the XIX century. This has to be linked to the need for qualified people, both skilled workforce and doctors or managers, in Egypt. Therefore, while Egyptians went abroad, generally to Europe for studying, trading, and enhancing diplomatic relationships14, foreign workers came to Egypt and some of these workers were Italians. It is estimated that the Italian community in Egypt was made up of 6000 people in 182015 and later, 12 Sawaie, Mohammed, Rifa a Rafi al-​Tahtawi and His Contribution to the Lexical Development of Modern Literary Arabic, p. 1, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Aug., 2000), pp. 395–​410, Cambridge University Press (https://​www.jstor.org/​sta​ble/​i211​468, last consulted 9/​25/​2021). 1 3 Bulaq El-​Amiriya Press, http://​www.biba​lex.org/​bul​aqpr​ess/​en/​Phase​sOfE​stab​lish​ing. htm, (last consulted 9/​25/​2021). 1 4 Abu-​Lughod, Ibrahim, Arab Rediscovery of Europe. A Study in Cultural Encounters, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1963, p. 66. 1 5 Bono, Salvatore, “Il censimento in Egitto nel 1882 e l’opera di Federico Amici Bey”, in: Atti del Congresso “L’Africa ai tempi di Daniele Comboni”, Roma, 1983, pp. 309–​315.

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as Clot-​Bey wrote in his work Aperçu general sur l’Egypte, he roughly calculated that the Italian Community comprised approximately 2000 people in 184016. The first information could be dated 1878, and it is interesting to highlight that it was a study undertaken by an Italian called Federico Amici Bey, who was appointed as the Director of the Egyptian Statistical Service in 1876. He wrote two volumes of the Essai de statistique générale de l’Egypte. As mentioned before, the Italian community was marked by a high-​ profile representation. This was the reason why many Italians were appointed to different Egyptian Cultural Institutions. Thus, Italy had developed an important influence in the country to the extent that the Italian language was commonly used in some areas of administration management –​that is, the organization of the mail service was entrusted to an Italian. Moreover, Italian Consuls had relevant political roles in the Egyptian state-​building process, and Italians’ capabilities as shipbuilders were very much appreciated17. The Italian community grew lively and dynamic within the Egyptian context. In fact, approximately 150 Italian magazines were published in Egypt, from Cairo to Alexandria. The first Italian newspaper was printed in Alexandria in 1845, called Lo Spettatore Egiziano –​“the Egyptian Spectator”. From that moment forward other publications were issued, that is, L’Eco d’Egitto in 1861 and L’Avvenire d’Egitto in 186418.

16

Amicucci, Davide, La Comunità italiana in Egitto attraverso i censimenti dal 1882 al 1947, in Branca P. (a cura di), Tradizione e modernizzazione in Egitto, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2000. 17 AA.VV., Italiani in Egitto. Osservazioni e riflessioni sulla base di materiali nuovi o poco noti, Asian and West conference “New Asian American writers and news from UK and Asia: Literature and visual arts”, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, 19–​20 dicembre 2005. 1 8 Dori, Luigi “Italiani in Africa: Tipografi e Giornalisti Italiani in Egitto”. Africa: Rivista Trimestrale Di Studi e Documentazione Dell’Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente 14, no. 3 (1959): 146–​48. http://​www.jstor.org/​sta​ble/​40757​067 (last consulted 9/​25/​ 2021).

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4. Amalia Sola (Livorno 1805–​1845?) The first Italian writer whose memoir is taken into account in this study is Amalia Sola, probably born in 1806. She left her house in Livorno, Tuscany, in September 1818, when she was thirteen, and traveled to Egypt with her family to reach her uncle, doctor F. Marucchi who was working as a physician at the Defterdarbey’s house, the head bookkeeper of Muhammad ‘Ali. During her stay, she learnt Arabic and that allowed her to have a privileged point of view, since she could attend places sometimes off-​limits to other Europeans. Later on, she married by proxy Giuseppe Nizzoli, in the Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Greater Cairo. Nizzoli was the chancellor of the Austrian consulate in Cairo till 1814, when he and Sola moved to Alexandria. During their stay in Egypt, they also spent some time in Saqqara due to Nizzoli’s work and Sola was the first woman leading an archaeological excavation. In 1840 she wrote a book about her experience titled Memorie sull’Egitto e specialmente sui costume delle donne orientali e gli harem, scritte durante il suo soggiorno in quel paese (1819–​1828) (Memories of Egypt and particularly regarding the customs of oriental women and harems, written during the author’s stay in that country). In her introduction of the book, she said the main goal she wished to achieve by publishing her memoir was to “far conoscere, come donna italiana, alle mie concittadine i costumi e le usanze da me esaminate, aneddoti e avventure non troppo noti, o grandemente travisate” (to introduce my fellow countrywomen to the customs and traditions I examined, as an Italian woman, and the anecdotes and adventures not too well known, or greatly misrepresented). 4.1 From Livorno to Alexandria At the beginning of the journey she didn’t sound too pleased with the idea “of living in countries that were told to be barbarian”19. Despite the 19

Sola, Amalia, Memorie sull’Egitto e specialmente sui costumi delle donne orientali e gli harem, scritte durante il suo soggiorno in quel paese (1819–​1828), Milano, Tipografia e libreria Pirotta, 1841, p. 4.

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monotony of the trip and her melancholy, she was distracted by the stories of some other passengers, among whom there was a man she called Doctor Colucci from Naples, who was going back to Alexandria to finally join his sweetheart again. While moving closer to the Egyptian coast, Sola narrated how she kept gazing at that unknown land “with extreme anxiety”, feeling glad already at seeing it, not knowing yet how much her own life would change in that place, and where her “destiny would be decided for good”20. Her description of Alexandria’s harbor landscape reminds the readers of its majesty. The city presented itself as a semi-​circle and she could already see “the Pasha’s harem and palace, the famous Pompey’s pillar and the tops of the spires, dedicated to Cleopatra, which gave the city an imposing appearance”21. A Sunday morning in the first days of November, Sola and her family set foot on Egyptian land. First, they went to the church, near which there was a convent and a hospital “franco” –​of the Franciscan order. While entering the church, Sola and the women of her family were told to reach a part of it that resembled “a sort of chapel closed by a grid and placed alongside the main altar”. At first, Sola felt quite disappointed by the treatment received, but then tried to justify such behavior. She told the reader that probably the priests adapted to the local traditions. This consideration did not sound weird to her, on the contrary she found the decision perfectly consistent within the Alexandrine framework –​“a wise and commendable precaution” –​she said22. The way Sola imagined Alexandria before the trip did not match what she saw and experienced there; in fact, later on she stated that “(…) I could not see myself living in such a strange country and very different from my own, and I am fervently praying that God would let me go back home, to Tuscany, as soon as possible”23. The following day Sola and her family went to an Italian shop owner named Giovanni Polani. He had just got married a few days before to a Georgian woman “bought by him and thereafter, having her baptized into the Catholic church”. From Sola’s words this woman

2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3

Ivi, p. 8. Ibidem. Ivi, p. 11. Ivi, p. 44.

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appears to have been a slave rather than a wife, since she heard the woman calling her new husband “good master” rather than partner24. While walking on the streets of Alexandria, Sola was struck by its peculiarity and multiculturality, both rare to be seen in any European city, and she said: “this picture (…) draws the attention of European travelers, amazed by such novelty and unexpected variety of customs, and by the presence of so many different human races”25. During the first days she spent in Alexandria, before leaving to the “Grand Cairo”, she met the Austrian Consul Giuseppe Nizzoli, who would become her husband some years later. Even in those days, when Amalia was just thirteen years old, Nizzoli showed signs of interest in her. On the other hand, for her it was just a joke26. 4.2 Her Stay in Egypt The second step of the journey was a four-​day visit to Rosetta. Here Sola told what she knew about the history of the city and how everything changed after the construction of the Mahmudiyah Canal, which could connect Alexandria to the Nile Delta27. Before the existence of the Canal, the city of Rosetta was the mandatory stop for every ship that went from Cairo to Alexandria and vice versa. Later, the city’s glory gradually decayed28. A passage is dedicated to the construction of the Canal, which took one year of work, a hard work done by Egyptians under extreme working conditions. She said that since they did not have enough and proper equipment they were forced to use their own hands and to work walking barefoot under the scorching sun during the summer and under the rain and exposed to the cold in winter29. After the sojourn in Rosetta, Sola and her family left for Asyut –​Siut in her text –​where her uncle Marucchi lived in the morning of November 12. The trip was longer than expected but the landscape she saw was described

2 4 2 5 2 6 2 7 2 8 2 9

Ivi, p. 12. Ivi, p. 13. Ivi, p. 16. Abulafia, D., I regni del Mediterraneo Occidentale dal 1200 al 1500, cit. p. 511. Sola, A., Memorie sull’Egitto, cit. p. 31. Ivi, p. 32.

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as a delight for her eyes. On the seventh day of traveling, they saw the Giza Pyramid –​Gizeh in the text –​and got off the ship in the harbor of Bulaq –​ a suburb near Cairo. After a walk they arrived to the city entrance: the Ezbekie door –​as Sola called it. She met the Defterdar Bey in Cairo, during the parade celebrating the victory of Ibrahim Pasha –​Head of the Ottoman Empire –​over Adb Allah bin Sa’ud –​the ruler of the First Saudi State. There, Sola described her first impression of the Egyptian Head bookkeeper: He was a handsome man, in his forties, and had the honor of being (…) the son-​in-​law of the deputy king; but this special relationship was not without its disadvantages, since he cannot use the privilege of having several wives as is also the practice in Constantinople. When a princess is given in marriage by the High Lord to a great ruler of the empire, the bride retains all the privileges of her birth: and she serves a despotic authority over her husband, who cannot, as long as she lives, attempt other marriages30

While seeing Cairo for the third time she said: I came back for the third time with the same feelings as if it was the first, I was struck by its majesty, uniqueness and noise. [While] Alexandria, as a commercial harbor, being constantly in touch with Europeans, can help you forget you are far from home, in Cairo you rarely find European customs.31

Then she went on telling how the city was a multicultural place since she saw all kinds of people keeping their own customs. After some more days of traveling, they eventually arrived at Asyut where she spent eight months. Once there, the Dragoman –​the interpreter –​ welcomed Sola’s family and gave the women some sort of sheets for covering. Sola was a bit surprised and asked to the Dragoman whether she had to wear them everyday. The answer was straight: “You better! Otherwise there’ll be trouble!”32. After the first shocking atmosphere, she spent her time there embroidering, reading, and studying Arabic. There she could appreciate the beauty of the landscape and the place, with its colors and sounds. The most common sound she became accustomed to was the chant of the Muezzin calling to prayer from minarets, “a chanting full of gentleness” –​she said.

3 0 3 1 3 2

Ivi, pp. 33–​34. Ivi, p. 140. Ivi, p. 58.

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The Defterdar Bey was transferred to Cairo and thus all Sola’s family was supposed to move there. Once back to Cairo, her life changed. Despite her young age, the Chancellor of the Austrian Consulate, whom she had met the first time she was in Cairo, asked to marry her by proxy. “When you are fourteen years old it is difficult to reflect upon such a decision”, but she was persuaded by her uncle to say “yes”, and that was what she did33. It was the second proposal she had received since she was in Egypt, but the first man –​the 55-​year-​old Piero d’Andrea –​got “no” as an answer. The day of the wedding she could not describe her feelings. She felt bewildered while swearing her love for a stranger, for a man who was not there. “How is it possible to bind oneself with someone for life with such indifference?” –​that was what she thought and then she cried all day long34. On January 29, 1820, she arrived –​again –​in Alexandria to meet her husband. Even though the marriage did not have the best of beginnings, mainly with regard to Sola’s feelings, she began to get used to it and appreciate her husband and the life she could –​from then on –​experience. Giuseppe Nizzoli –​the man she was married to –​other than a chancellor in the Consulate was also an antiquities dealer. Sola was involved in this occupation; in fact, Nizzoli decided to appoint his wife as head of archaeological excavations in Saqqara. There she discovered new places and had a chance to meet new people. Regarding people, she learnt to manage a site and to deal with Egyptian workers and to get ahead in that man’s world. She told about the fight among powerful European men who wanted to take the richest findings, no holds barred. One of the prominent figures involved in those quarrels was Bernardo Michele Maria Drovetti, an Italian diplomat in charge of the French Consulate. In fact, there is a collection of his entourage’s findings in the Egyptian Museum in Turin. With regard to the new places discovered, she had the opportunity to visit the area where the ancient city of Memphis was. She described the sites saying it was difficult to find something that had not been discovered yet because of the exposure to the elements, which had hidden the treasures accumulated and protected by “generations of great people”35. While walking underground in their ancient buildings, Egyptians drew on 3 3 3 4 3 5

Ivi, p. 70. Ivi, p. 71. Ivi, p. 242.

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the walls: “Over there one can find paintings –​as in a library for future generations –​describing the arts and customs of those ancient people”36. One of the main problems was the treatment and (dis)regard that the Westerners offered to those places. Sola said: And what about those great amounts of relics dug up and thrown and abandoned with such indifference and disdain, and what about who did this? It is done -​especially-​ by Europeans under the ostentatious behalf of the sake of science. This [behavior] awakened in me a feeling of sorrow and disgust so intense that I sometimes thought of suspending the excavations37.

4.3 Egyptian Women through Sola’s Eyes Almost every chapter in Sola’s memoir describes the role of women in that society. Once in Egypt she had to get accustomed to some new situations: for example, when Sola and her family were walking from the Bulaq harbor to reach Cairo, when they met a parade of Egyptian and Ottoman lords coming back victorious over the Wahhabiti –​what Sola called the Vehebiti –​ after the Wahhabi War (1811–​1818). She described a situation in which the Turkish were looking surprised at them: three European women walking with their faces uncovered. She said that only later on she discovered it was not appropriate for women to walk in the street barefaced, otherwise they could be considered “iscostumate” –​“shameless”38. The first time she saw and heard about a place called harem she described it using the words “serraglio delle donne” –​women’s menagerie39, something related to a place where animals were held. Despite some difficulties in communicating with them, Sola had a great consideration of Egyptian women’s strength. When she was in Saqqara she wrote about an uprising that took place in Cairo against a new taxation that the Pasha wanted to introduce. Once the revolt was put down Nizzoli reached his family and told Sola that most of the revolutionaries were women that were protesting on the streets clapping their hands and shouting

3 6 3 7 3 8 3 9

Ivi, p. 244. Ivi, p. 246. Ivi, p. 43. Ivi, p. 60.

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“batal, batal” –​“it [the new taxation] is worthless”, they said. This feeling of admiration can be found in the following lines: “It seems that Arabic women are meant to play an active role in every action of their lives. They are most determined”40. Chapter VIII of her memoir is dedicated to what Sola called “Customs of Muslim women”. Here –​more than in any other part of the book –​ emerges the writer’s point of view. Despite her Italian sense of belonging and her background she put herself in a listening position and she questioned her worldview. In Egypt she found that the tables were turned: she and her family were questioned because of their different customs. One of the encounters took place during her visit to Rossane, princess and wife of a Turkish General, Abdin-​Bey. Before coming back home, Rossane “turned another table” asking why Europeans walk outside their houses barefaced. She said, “Aren’t you ashamed to show yourself in public in such a manner? One could believe your husbands do not love you enough, since they feel such indifference and let you go outside and be seen by everyone; take a look at our husbands, they love us”41. Sola underlined and explicitly said that sometimes Europeans –​and Westerners in general –​misrepresented places and people they hardly had the opportunity to visit and meet. One of the places men are not allowed to attend is the harem but Western male writers insisted on describing women’s attitudes and customs without having the chance to experience the place they used to live in and, moreover, to raise judgment and the spirit of Orientalism, already described in the introduction of this chapter. Sola said: How wrong these European ‘sir doctors’ about Eastern harem are sometimes, and here it is easy to disprove the unverified claims that certain travelers used to describe the amorous adventures they supposedly experienced in the Western harems. I’ll repeat over and over again: it is very difficult for a foreign man to see a woman naked in the harem, and even more to have a love affair with her42.

Hence, even though sometimes Sola could not divest herself of some of her preconceptions –​deriving from what she had been through –​she always tried to observe and comprehend other cultures without judging.

4 0 4 1 4 2

Ivi, p. 251. Ivi, p. 192. Ivi, p. 215.

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The next traveler whose memoir is analyzed in this research has a very different approach, more judgmental and less sympathetic.

5. Giovanni Battista Brocchi (Bassano del Grappa 1772: Khartoum 1826) Giovanni Battista Brocchi was a geologist, naturalist, and mineralogist. He moved to Egypt to work for the Egyptian government in order to find mines to be exploited. He described thoroughly his experience in his book, published posthumously in 1841, titled Giornale delle osservazioni fatte ne’ viaggi in Egitto43, the first volume of the journal of his entire trip to Nubia, where he died in 1826. Besides his description of places from a scientific point of view, he went around admiring the grandeur of monuments we can also see nowadays. His portrayal of Egypt differs greatly from Sola’s. While reading his memoirs is not arduous to find misogynistic and racist comments. At a very young age Brocchi developed a strong interest in Egypt; in fact, he published a work that discusses Egyptian sculpture titled Ricerche sopra la scultura presso gli egiziani (1792). In the preface of this book, he explained why he chose to deal with Egypt: “Egypt is a land where the arts and sciences flourished, when most of the world was uneducated”44. In the Editor’s preface some information about Brocchi’s life can be found. In fact, it is said that the geologist traveled from the North of Italy to the South between 1818 and 1819. After going back to Milan, he decided to accept a job in the service of Muhammad ‘Ali as a member of a team responsible for a scientific expedition45. Brocchi left Triste on September 23, 1822, and after a long and complicated journey he arrived at Alexandria and took up his position that

43

Brocchi Giambattista, Giornale delle osservazioni fatte ne’ viaggi in Egitto, nella Siria e nella Nubia. Vol. 1, A. Roberti Tip. Ed. Editore, Bassano, 1841. 44 Brocchi G., Ricerche sopra la scultura presso gli egiziani, Stampe Silvestro Gatti, Venezia, 1792, p. III. 45 Brocchi, Giornale delle osservazioni fatte ne’ viaggi in Egitto, cit., p. XV.

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should have lasted three years, but unfortunately things went wrong: the Italian scientist died in Nubia in 1826, probably of dysentery. 5.1 From Trieste to Alexandria Once the vessel weighed anchor in Trieste, Brocchi described the atmosphere, with so many travelers headed to Egypt. The group consisted of Italians and Swiss –​among others –​in particular his colleague Giuseppe Forni with his wife.46. The first mention of Brocchi’s misogyny is easy to find in the very first page of his journal. In fact, while commenting on his travel companions, it seemed that he did not really appreciate the presence of three women, describing them as “a kind of companions always annoying during the sailing”47. The scientist had plenty of criticism for every passenger of the vessel. That is why, when two Dervish, Turkish religious people, came on board at Ragusi, Brocchi highlighted that they could not speak Arabic despite the fact that they needed it to illustrate their “religious code”. The point here is that he found no difference in the behavior of Catholic priests, because even if they are supposed to know Latin they did not speak it. Thus, how could they explain Holy texts if they had no idea of what they were talking about48? After this brief digression on European customs, Brocchi observed the Dervish men. He saw them staying exposed to the weather and feeding only on bread and water. This kind of resignation, according to the scientist, represented a typical attitude of “Easterners”. Here, it could be added that Brocchi’s words represented the point of view of an Orientalist, popular at that time and certainly acquired by the naturalist because of his readings. Then, the East was considered and described in the West as a unique cultural entity and depicted as a barbarian world where women were available for the Westerner traveler as lovers, dancers, and odalisques. A portrait extremely superficial and misrepresented although the most widely popular one back then, as pointed out also in the previous paragraphs49.

4 6 4 7 4 8 4 9

Ivi, p. 1. Ivi, p. 2. Ivi, p. 22. Ivi, p. 24.

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5.2 His Stay in Egypt Brocchi arrived at Alexandria’s harbor on November 2, after 36 days of navigation, even if –​he stressed –​ordinarily it was supposed to take only 20 or 25 days50. Just like Sola, Brocchi’s first impressions once in Egypt were different from what he had expected. The country was “the destination of such a longed-​for journey”, but he “was immersed in a deep melancholy”. Thus, his first thought was not addressed to the landscape that stood in front of him. Moreover, it was a cloudy day and, since he had the idea of finding himself in an exotic place –​likely to be imagined as a sunny place –​he got even more gloomy51. Then, while describing what he was seeing in Alexandria –​first the November 3 and then on 13 –​he wanted to emphasize how unhappy he was to be there52. The neighborhood he found the most interesting was the one of “Franchi”, that he depicted as being very tolerant and that can give the opportunity for people who live there to do whatever they want, especially if they are French53. Brocchi had a very high profile. He was very well-​educated and he studied at the university. This is important to stress in order to comprehend the language he used and the analysis he did. First of all, his background as a naturalist helped him recognize most of the flowers and plants and name them in Latin –​sometimes also in Arabic. Second, he compared what he saw with what he had studied in the works of Herodotus, Bellonius, Prospero Alpino, and Strabo and the book of Robert Wilson, “History of the British Expedition in Egypt” (1803), and the one of Count of Volney “Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie” (1787). Brocchi did not describe everything as “terrible”, even if sometimes the architecture is not strongly appreciated. The Italian scientist, at least, admired the people of Alexandria. He said, “[here] Muslims are very tolerant; not only the religious freedom is accepted for the Greek, Copt and Catholic Church; not only Christians are immune from harassment but [Muslims] accept also [the European custom of eating] pigs”54. 5 0 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4

Ivi, p. 36. Ivi, p. 43. Ivi, pp. 44–​45. Ivi, p. 91. Ivi, p. 127.

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Sometimes he described the places he saw in such a detailed manner and so vividly that one can clearly visualize those locations. Here there are just a few sentences that describe how cultural heritage was perceived by Italians. About Kom el Shoqafa’s catacombs he said: “At Pasha’s barns there were some catacombs carved into the rock; (…) These catacombs were different from the ones in Rome or Naples, etc, since corpses were not stored in those narrow loculi but in quite large cells”55. Once arrived at Saint Mark’s Church he made a detailed description of what he saw, namely the separation of areas dedicated to the worshippers and the clergy, and to men and women. He recalled the little altars where the clergy held the services, then went on focusing on the materials and structure56. Another example of Italian presence in Egypt is described by Brocchi. It is the Bulaq press, led by a young Maronite who learnt the job in Milan, thanks to Muhamad ‘Ali, who gave him –​and other Egyptians –​the opportunity to study in Europe57.

6. Bonds within the Italian Community in Egypt: A Letter from Brocchi to Sola During Brocchi’s stay in Cairo, he met some other Italians, including Amalia Sola and her husband. In Amalia’s memoirs she attached a letter the scientist sent to her. Nobody knows exactly which was their relationship but, in this letter, he told her about his journey toward Nubia. Brocchi wrote to Sola when he and his fellows had already left for Kennà, and during their journey they would go through Cosseir, in order to observe the mountains full of silver metals.58 After Sola and Brocchi met each other and Brocchi left for his expedition, he wrote some letters to her. The first one was sent from Girgeh, 5 5 5 6 5 7 5 8

Ivi, p. 64. Ivi, p. 76. Ivi, p. 172. Sola, A., Memorie sull’Egitto, cit., p. 122.

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and the second one –​sent from Khartoum on July 12, 1825 –​was included in Sola’s memoir. Moreover, this was also sent by Giuseppe Nizzoli to the Italian newspaper Osservatore Triestino and reported to the Appendix of a Milanese publication Gazzetta Privilegiata di Milano on August 8, 1830. The trip was not as Brocchi had imagined. He wrote to Sola about his misadventures and the reasons why his journey had been interrupted or slowed down. First of all, one of the main leaders of the area –​a man that the author named Osman Bey –​died, thus he had to wait for a new one to be appointed. Second, the weather was terrible and it was characterized by the alternation of heavy rains and very high temperatures. That is why he said: “when the thermometer marks 30°C (86°F) it feels like we are in paradise”59. Third, to find something to eat was not so easy and once found its quality was low-​grade. They generally used to have wheat, flour, and butter to dress the meat. Unfortunately, while writing, Brocchi said he was worried because his group was facing supply shortages. Finally, housing was another source of dissatisfaction for the scientist. He described two types of accommodation. The first one is a one-​room house made of mud, likely to be comfortable as a shelter from the foul weather, but it did not protect the occupant from scorpions and snakes. Therefore, he preferred a thatched hut. Probably, the Italian community in Egypt was cohesive and dynamic, because –​even when involved in an important exploration –​Brocchi felt the need to maintain contacts with people he had met in Cairo. Moreover, he was ready to help his friend, Nizzoli, in his search for antiquities. In fact, he saw an Egyptian-​styled bas-​relief near Schendi, a city in Northern Sudan. Unfortunately, it was too heavy to be carried. It was interesting for Brocchi because it represented two bouquets of lotus flowers. As far as he knew, he thought it was impossible to find this kind of flower in the country, particularly near the river Nile and in Upper Egypt. Despite everything he went through he stated he was in good health. Alas, this journey did not change his remarks toward the country and the people. On the contrary, his considerations were still deeply imbued with the Orientalistic spirit.

59

Ivi, p. 162.

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7. Conclusions and Recommendations for Future Research The examples provided by this study offer two very different approaches, which clearly show how demanding it could be to shed prejudices and observe another culture from a tabula rasa. Probably, it is not even possible. This chapter represents just a part of what could be a more structured analysis. In order to carry out a more thorough research, there are some recommendations to take into account. First, there is the opportunity to integrate this study by adding many other Italian travelers who went to Egypt and documented their experiences: not only the aforementioned Giuseppe Forni, but also –​among others –​the famous father of Italian Egyptology, Giambattista Belzoni. Second, sources and memoirs could be compared in order to find similarities and differences and to tell the evolution of places and traditions. Cultural heritage expresses and transforms itself throughout history and histories. In this work I have offered two of the many representations of what is generally defined as “East”, perceived as antithetical to the “West”. It is inaccurate and impractical to think about the East as a unique geographical and cultural entity. How can the expression “Eastern Culture” encompass all the traditions and beliefs of such a vast and varied territory? Likewise, talking about Arabic features and Muslim way of thinking does not adequately explicate the more complex human nature of those people. Returning to the original question “Can travel literature connect cultures?”, this study demonstrates that travel literature can indeed connect cultures and offer another point of view, adding a new sense of belonging and shaping identities. As mentioned in the introduction, the stories told by the two Italian writers do not have the aim to represent Egyptian society or the whole Italian community abroad. Instead, I focused on their feelings and words about places and people. In this sense I agree when it is said that “the meaning of historical texts exists both discursively (within the text) and contextually (from without)”60. Thus, starting from the context that surrounded Sola and Brocchi, they depicted the places they have experienced and the way they felt about them. 60 Campbell, Courtney J., Space, Place and Scale: Human Geography and Spatial History in Past and Present, Past & Present, Volume 239, Issue 1, May 2018, Pages e23–​e45, https://​doi.org/​10.1093/​pastj/​gtw​006, p. e28 (last consulted 10/​5/​2021).

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While Sola was able to narrate Egypt through her own sensibility, highlighting that relationships between men and women go beyond physical borders and alleged cultural obstacles, Brocchi built his knowledge of the East starting from an Orientalist background. When Sola left for Alexandria she was too young and she did not have the opportunity and the time to read the existing –​Orientalist –​literature about Middle Eastern countries. On the other hand, Brocchi had had access to those publications and was somehow unable to think that another way of living could be associated with another human-​environment connection. The world does not conform to the way one imagines it in one’s mind. In order to explain this concept, I would like to borrow a term from Physics referring to misreadings in estimations. Those are called parallax errors, and they occur due to the inability to understand that measurements taken from different points of observation provide different outcomes. Trying to understand someone else’s point of view can help reduce errors in comprehending the other. In addition, it helps balance the different information while relying less on our own biases. Long ago, while reading about another Italian traveler, I noticed this sentence: “A map identifies a place but does not reveal what that place is ‘actually’ like”61 (Urbancic, 2006). History, descriptions, and memories about places do so. Understanding “what the place is actually like” and avoiding parallax errors, mean that we need to fit the puzzle pieces together. This does not inevitably imply that we have to categorize every view and label it trying to find some kind of identity. Identity is a complex term that assumes the existence of identical and different people. In Edward Said’s words “the identity of the self or the other is a historical, social, intellectual and political process on which we intervene deeply and that within each society takes place as a confrontation involving individuals and institutions”62. In order to find out “what the place is actually like” why not focus on otherness and plural belongingness? Being part of a specific social group,

61 62

Urbancic, Anne, Picturing Annie’s Egypt. Terra di Cleopatra by Annie Vivanti, in Quaderni d’italianistica, Vol. XXVII, n. 2, 2006, 93, p. 97. “Lungi dall’essere un oggetto statico, l’identità del sé o dell’altro è un processo storico, sociale, intellettuale e politico su cui si interviene profondamente e che all’interno di ogni società si svolge come un confronto che coinvolge individui e istituzioni” Said, E., Orientalism, cit., p. 709.

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of a nation –​or a culture –​does not mean that within the same group people are identical. It only means that those same features represent the sense of belonging to that group –​among other characteristics related to other belongingness.

Zoltán Prantner and Abdallah Abdel-​Ati Al-​Naggar

“On Eagles’ Wing”: The History of the Yemeni Jews and Their Exodus to the Promised Land

1. Introduction Following the rise of the Islamic faith 13 centuries earlier, many branches of Islam found fertile ground in Yemen, such as the Zaydis1 (occasionally known as Fiver Shiites) and Ismailis within the Shiites “partisans” and the Shafis within the Sunnis “traditionalists”.2 As a result, by the middle of the 20th century, the religious population of the country was basically divided into two parts: minority Israelites and majority Muslims. The size of the Israeli community in Yemen at that time was more than 50,000. By the end of the 1950s, however, about 99 % of this community had left the country and emigrated to the State of Israel, established in 1948, via the rescue Operation “On Eagles’ Wings” –​which was unofficially referred to only as the “Magic Carpet” –​to establish a new home in the Promised Land. The occurrence of such large-​scale emigration cannot be explained solely by religious reasons. The issue is much more complex than this, which we would like to highlight in this study.

1 2

Zaidiyyah or Zaidism is one of the Shia sects, which emerged in the 8th century from Shi’a Islam. Followers of Zaydis make up about 25 % of Muslims in Yemen, with the greatest majority of Shia Muslims there. 85 % of Muslims in all over the world are Sunnis.

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2. The Situation of the Jewish Community in Antiquity The settlement of the ancestors of the Yemeni Jews in southern Arabia dates back thousands of years before Christ, and many different traditions have entered the public consciousness about the reasons for this. According to one of them, members of the Jewish group that migrated to the territory of present-​day Yemen for the first time opposed with Moses during the exodus.3 According to another story, the first settlers in Arabia were members of the Jewish army who marched there at the command of Moses and reaped victory over the Amalekites45. Again, according to another theory, they presumably came to the area as merchants, accompanied by the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon, between 965 and 925 BC.6 Also popular is the origins that the ancestors of the Yemeni Jewish community settled in Sanaa region 42 years before the demolition of the first great temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC. As a result of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the destruction of the city and its people, 75,000 crossed the Jordan River to follow in Moses’s footsteps in the desert. Reaching the city of Edom, however, they turned south and continued their way until they reached southern Arabia.7 Historians conclude that the period of Babylonian captivity was also authoritative in the settlement of Jews in Arabia, who were brought into the area as slaves. In connection with the latter, it was pointed out that when the last king of the Neo-​Babylonian Empire, Nabonidus (556–​539 BC), conquered North Hijaz to the present-​day Medina, several of the occupied cities listed on his inscription of victory later became known as Jewish

3 4 5 6

7

Parfitt, Tudor. The Road to Redemption: The Jews of the Yemen 1900–​1950. Leiden: E J Brill, 1996: 3. According to the Midrash: Amalekites were sorcerers who could transform themselves to resemble animals, in order to avoid capture. Newby, Gordon Darnell. A History of the Jews of Arabia. South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1988: 14–​15. The Queen of Sheba is believed to be Queen Bilquis of Saba which was located in the territory of present-​day Yemen. For a brief summary of the Queen’s visit see: Taibah, Nadia Jameel –​MacDonald, Margaret Read. Folktales from the Arabian Peninsula. Tales of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. World Folklore Series, Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 2016: 71. For more details see: The Old Testament, First Book of Kings, ­chapter 10. Barer, Shlomo. The Magic Carpet. London: Secker & Warburg, 1952: 113.

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settlements.8 It is probable that a larger proportion of their settlement took place after the second demolition of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans in AD 70.9 Their colonies were initially concentrated in Barash, near Jabal Nuqum.10 With the boom in trade, they continued to expand and soon represented themselves at major stations on the Incense Trade Route in the area. Gradually, they gained wealth and influence, forming not only a trading commune, but also a community of warriors who were able to defend themselves and assert their interests over others. In addition, their relationship with Palestine was still intense at the time; even in the 3rd century, the Jewish inhabitants of Sanaa region sent the earthly remains of people who had previously played an important role in their community to Palestine to find final peace there.11 In parallel with Judaism, Arian Christianity gained significant influence in southern Arabia during the 4th century.12 However, not only did the Jews effectively resist Christian missionary propaganda, but thanks to their successful conversion efforts, they further increased the size of their community, culminating in the Judaism of the Himyarite Royal Court, and the conversion of the Jewish religion into a state religion during the reign of King (Tubba) Abu Karib As’ad (385–​420 AD).13 However, their influence on the top management of the state did not prove to be long-​lived. The 8 9 10 1 1 1 2

13

Newby, Gordon Darnell. “A History of the Jews of Arabia”: 20–​21. Parfitt, Tudor. “The Road to Redemption …”: 7. It is a summit in Yemen elevated 2,889 meters and it is situated west of Jabal Barash. Macro, Eric. Yemen and the Western World. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1968: 84. In 341–​346 AD, Patriarch Theophilus sent a Syrian missionary to southern Arabia who established a bishopric in addition to his successful conversion work. Emperor Constantine II. also sent a Christian mission to the region in 356. The mission was led by Theophilus Indus, who built, among other things, the earliest Christian church in Aden, Southern Arabia. Little, Tom. South Arabia, Arena of Conflict. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1968: 4.; Stookey, Robert W. Yemen, The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Colorado: Westview Press, 1978: 20. In addition to religious considerations, serious political ideas presumably played a role in the adoption of the Jewish faith. Former rulers in the country have only recently succeeded in eliminating polytheism in the name of centralization. The court then turned its attention to monotheistic religions and foreign policy factors also played a role in the election. For if they had naturalized a world religion in their country that was professed by one of the neighboring empires, it would have been tantamount to recognizing the majesty of that state formation (The Himyarite Kingdom was then bordered by Christian Byzantium and Aksum as well as Sasanian Persia.) However, the

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ruler of Aksum occupied the region in 525 in retaliation for the infamous persecution of Christians by Dhu Nuwas, the last king of the royal family. The triumph of Christianity over Judaism also proved to be temporary, and the area came under Persian rule in 570. Under the changed circumstances, the Jews first had to hand over the right to collect taxes to the Arabs, and over time they also lost control over good quality lands and water resources. As a result, there was a growing interest among them in mysticism and eschatology when the spread of Islam in southern Arabia began barely half a century later.

3. The Minority Situation of Yemeni Jewry under Muslim Rule The Prophet Muhammad’s relationship with Arab Jewry was initially quite ambivalent, reflecting well the tensions of interest between individual local communities due to their attitudes. The first decisive agreement was the so-​called The Constitution of Medina between the Prophet and the Jews in 622 which was made to end wars between rival clans and to maintain cooperation between the communities of Medina. The document, which can be considered the foundations of a religiously colored Islam in Medina, named eight Jewish groups as part of the Medina community, effectively clarifying their separation from Muslims. However, certain Jewish tribes did not consider the forward-​ looking agreement to be authoritative, especially when Prophet Muhammad’s activities were considered to be detrimental to their commercial interests. The constitution formed a multireligious community in Medina. Certain groups therefore engaged in active propaganda against him and secretly allied themselves with his enemies. Prophet Muhammad resolutely acted against the violators of the Medina Constitution and first expelled the Banu Qaynuqa Jewish tribe from Medina, using a local incident as an excuse. He then took advantage of his victories over the armies of Mecca, as well as the resulting increase

Jewish faith was nowhere a state religion in the region, so it was ideal for emphasizing sovereignty.

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in prestige, to completely break the resistance of the Jewish tribes opposed to him after years of struggle.14 Despite the growing mediating authority and influence of the Prophet, the new religion only gradually began to spread in the southern Arab region due to the resistance of the Abyssinian Christians living there after Prophet Muhammad’s armies conquered the area in 629. The Prophet therefore sent his son-​in-​law, cousin, and companion Ali Ibn Abi-​Talib, to the territory of present-​day Yemen in 631 to invite them to Islam. Prophet Muhammad instructed Ali to not engage them in fighting, unless they attack him.15 Nevertheless, it was a clearly unfavorable change in their situation that their social status changed from average citizen to dhimmi who had to pay a head tax, the jizya, in exchange for protection. Many people who once professed the Jewish religion converted to the Muslim faith for personal convictions or due to financial considerations. The process was supported by Muslims by peaceful means, armed violence only took place if the converts later left their new religion.16 In the early stages of Islam, according to Arab sources, Muslim rulers were not very concerned with the Jews of southern Arabia, who lived their daily lives in a traditional, patriarchal society according to their own religious precepts and laws. For the most part, they seemed to have been fairly agreed with them in strict accordance with Sharia’s provisions on protected religions. The Shiite Zaydi trend, which became dominant in Yemen at the beginning of the 10th century, also acknowledged the existence of Ahl al-​ Kitab17 (“people of the Book”), like other religious trends in Islam.18 The rulers of the country, like the Ottoman caliphs, regarded them as peoples 1 4 Newby, Gordon Darnell. “A History of the Jews of Arabia”: 78–​94. 1 5 Muir, William. The life of Mahomet. Montana: Kessinger Publishing Co, 1878: 225–​226. 1 6 Leader Djariya ibn Kudama came into conflict with the Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib in Western Arabia, so he agreed with the Jewish tribe who converted to Islam under his sovereignty. However, the latter later abandoned his new religion, “so we killed them and buried them with fire after their death”. Shivitiel, A. –​Lockwood, W. –​Serjeant R. B. “The Jews of San’ā”. San’ā, an Arabian Islamic City. Ed. Serjeant, Robert. B. –​Lewcock, Ronald. London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1983: 391. 1 7 Those religionists who are possessors of divine books (i.e., the Torah, the Gospel, and the Avesta). 1 8 The Shiite Zaydi dynasty was founded by al-​Hadi Yahya ibn al-​Husayn in Yemen in 897. However, the existence of the Zaydi monarchy dates to 901, when al-​Hadi occupied Sana’ā, where he declared himself ruler.

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with separate religions and their own laws, who were initially protected.19 The coexistence of Judaism and Muslims in Yemen during the reign of the Sunni Rasulid dynasty (1229–​1454) was practically harmonious and this period was characterized by a complete lack of persecution. Jews enjoyed the benefits of stability as well as economic and social prosperity without discrimination.20 However, the tolerant attitude of the rulers underwent a radical change over time. During the Tahirid dynasty (1454–​1517),21 a number of restrictive measures had already been taken to discriminate against members of the Jewish community considered pariah and to deprive them of their rights until the beginning of the first Ottoman occupation of the area in 1546. This has degenerated to the point where they have been completely pushed out of the areas they rule on the pretext that only Muslims can live there.22 Later, because of their notoriously good relations with Porta, the local rulers looked at them with distrust, so that sometimes they could only enjoy the protection of the occupying forces during Ottoman rule.

19

2 0 2 1

22

Al-​Wuraafi, Ebrahim Mohammed. “Persecution and Longing of Yemenite Jews in the Handsome Jew”. Trames, 25 (2021): 52. The first Zaydi imam, al-​Hadi Yahya, protected their community with the following words: “If any Muslim harasses you, report the matter to me and I will serve you justice”. For this reason, later, when a Muslim Jew was abused, the latter said, “Aná fi’ismat al-​Imam (or al-​Amil)” –​I am under the protection of the imam (or governor). If the parties appealed to the imam or the governor, an immediate judgment was rendered. If a Muslim was convicted under the decision, he was fined and ordered to kill an animal he had to distribute among the poor. Serjeant, Robert Bertram. “A Judeo-​Arab House-​Deed from Habbān (With Notes on the former Jewish Communities of the Wāhhidī Sultanate)” Customary and Shari’ah Law in Arab Society. Hampshire: Variorum, 1991: 118; Shivitiel, A. –​Lockwood, W. –​ Serjeant R. B. “The Jews of San’ā”: 392. Tobi, Yosef. The Jews of Yemen. Leiden: Brill, 1999: 5. For detailed information on the Tahirid dynasty, see: Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858–​923/​1454–​1517, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-​Theses Online: http://​ethe​ ses.dur.ac.uk/​5867/​. The background to the expulsion of the Jews was, in fact, the collective punishment of the community for a messianic movement led by an unnamed Jewish person, to which some Muslim residents also joined. Moreover, both sides suspected them of cooperating with the other party when the Zaydi-​Ottoman opposition escalated. Tobi, Yosef. The Jews of Yemen: 6.

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Their situation deteriorated markedly in the first half of the 17th century, when the Zaydis managed to expel the Ottomans from the region and regained power in 1635. While the Sunni communities took a rather flexible stance toward the “people of the Book” under the agreement between the Caliph Omar and the Christian communities, the Shiite Zaydis sought a literal interpretation of the sharia and full compliance with it. Moreover, during the anti-​Ottoman uprisings of the imams, the image of their community was intertwined with the person of the sultan because of their services to him. The imams therefore made additional ordinances that served to discriminate, punish, and shame them at the same time. In this regard, during the reign of Imam al-​Mutawakkil Ismail (1644–​1676), a defining turning point was the messianic movement that unfolded in Sana’ā in 1667, announcing the imminent coming of the Saviour and calling for mass emigration to Palestine. The imam, however, saw the movement as an attempt to change the existing order, and therefore considered it a rebellion, especially after the movement’s leader, Slayman Jamal, tried to seize control from the Muslim governor of Sana’ā. In retaliation, the imam deprived them of all the rights of protected religious minorities. In accordance with his will, his successor, Imam al-​Mahdi Ahmad (1676–​1680), first demolished their synagogues and banned their rabbis from public life in 1676. Then, leaving their property behind, they were exiled to the Tihama plain for the first time in 1678, and from there two years later to Mawza, the malaria-​coastal areas, while selling their houses to Muslims. Thanks to the intercession of the governor of ‘Amran, they were able to return to Sana’ā in 1680. However, barely half of the community forced into exile has only returned to restart their lives in Qa ‘al-​Yahud, a special district outside the city gates, a fair distance from Muslim houses. During their absence, the imam nailed their only remaining synagogue of Sana’a, Kenisat al-​’Ulama. He later ordered the demolition of the synagogue and built a mosque in its site known as Masjid al-​Jala’. Their large bath was expropriated and handed over to the Waqf.23 After their return, they lived in peace in Sana’ā for nearly forty years. The rapid growth of their wealth is shown by the fact that no less than 22 synagogues were built during this period. However, in 1762, Imam al-​Mahdi Abbas again demolished all their places of worship

23

An endowment made by a Muslim for a religious, educational, or charitable cause.

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and the austerity decrees issued at that time were in force for about thirty years until they were revoked by al-​Mahdi’s son, Ali.24 However, apart from transitional peaceful periods, Jews, under the Shiite rule in Yemen, often had to face the fact that they were treated as multi-​subordinated subjects. To emphasize this, they were even forbidden to touch a Muslim person or his food. In addition, they were obliged to behave humbly towards Muslims, against whom they could not raise their voices. They also prescribed which side they could walk on and how to greet them. The subordination was also emphasized by the restrictions that their houses could not be higher than those of Muslims, that they could not ride a camel or a horse, and that they could only sit sideways on a mule or a donkey. In addition, in order to be clearly identifiable to everyone, they were required to walk barefoot in the Muslim quarters of the settlements and to grow a long sidelocks. Their vulnerability to the majority society was heightened by the fact that they were not allowed to defend themselves even when young people tossed stones or abused them with their fists.25 They could no longer wear turban or the jambiya/​janbia dagger, most closely associated with the people of Yemen, considered an iconic symbol of free men, tucked into their belts. The new laws also gave the Zaydis the opportunity to convert children under the age of 13 to Islam if their father died. Their disenfranchisement and vulnerability was well illustrated by the fact that the evidence they presented was automatically considered null and void against Muslims in litigation. To downgrade them, a decree in 1788 ordered the Jews of Sanaa to keep public toilets and baths clean and to remove animal dungs and carcasses from the streets.26 They 24

25

26

Serjeant, Robert Bertram. “A Judeo-​Arab House-​Deed from Habbān …”: 119; Schmidt, Dana Adams. Yemen: the Unknown War. London: The Bodley Head Ltd, 1968: 104–​ 106; Shivitiel, A. –​Lockwood, W. –​Serjeant R. B. “The Jews of San’ā”: 392–​394; Tobi, Yosef. “The Jews of Yemen”: 48–​84. The vulnerability of the Jewish community was heightened by the fact that a Muslim who killed a Jew only had to pay a blood feud to the family of the deceased, according to Sharia regulations. However, he also had to do so only if at least two Muslim witnesses testified against him. Many murders went unpunished because the Shiites refused to testify against their fellow believers in the case of a Jew who was considered unbelievers (Blady, Ken. Jewish Communities in Exotic Places. Jerusalem: Jason Aronson Inc. 2000: 10.) The so-​called Latrina decree also had the consequence that a narrow, inviolable group of its executors was formed, which was considered pariah and expelled within its own community.

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were increasingly the subject of atrocities on the part of the population dissatisfied with the decrees of the Imam in addition to the chaotic domestic political conditions and the detrimental consequences of clashes between opposing parties.27 For this reason, therefore, the Jews often enjoyed the protection of Arab tribes living at a fair distance from the settlements, often hostile to the imam, whose values and traditions were accepted and respected. Moreover, because they could not carry a weapon, the tribal warriors considered their killing unworthy because of their vulnerable position. If such a precedent did occur, it was mostly attempted to resolve it within a tribal framework in order to avoid the outbreak of a potential tribal war.28 At the same time, despite the numerous restrictions, it was also clear to the imams that they were doing a valuable service to society when they could perform several activities and tasks that were forbidden to faithful Muslims. Thus, for example, they could even produce alcohol and pursue any occupation of their choice other than military service. Over time, they have gained a virtually dominant position in Yemeni handicrafts and trade. They were recognized and sought-​after goldsmiths, metalworkers, and jewelers, and to a lesser extent shoemaker, tailors, potters, weavers, carpet makers, embroiderers, and stonemasons who made art jewelery and other

27

28

Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 11–​12. In the fight against the Ottomans, the tribes were a sure support for the imams, whose loyalty was ensured by the annual annuity paid by the ruler. A change in this practice occurred during the reign of Imam Abdullah ibn al-​Mutawakkil, who in 1818 ordered the imprisonment of tribal delegates who came to the court to receive this financial support. The imam entrusted the implementation of the idea to the Jews, who carried out the command received with great zeal to show their loyalty to the ruler. However, the tribes revolted and when the imam refused to withdraw the measure, they attacked the Jewish quarter of Sanaa. Shivitiel, A. –​Lockwood, W. –​Serjeant R. B. “The Jews of San’ā”: 394. In a 19th-​century incident, Hasid and Bakil, the two largest tribal alliances in Yemen, held a rally where one of the tribal fighters was ordered to pay four times the blood fee for killing a Jew. The warrior could even be glad that he received only such a penalty because strict tribal laws sentenced offenders to death in such cases. However, as this fighter appeared (or indeed was) insane during the trial, his judges spared his life and considered it sufficient to impose a fine. Half of the amount was then given to the relatives of the victim and the other half to the tribe of the killer, whose honor was abused. Dresch, Paul. Tribes, Government and History in Yemen. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989: 61.

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handicrafts. The exceptionally talented made their products exclusively for the court or the local tribal sheikh.29 They paid for their jizya but were exempt from a number of other taxes that Muslim rayas had to pay to the state. For this reason, in some periods, Muslim peasants were in a much worse position than Jewish artisans at certain times, if we consider the tax burden as a basis.30

4. The Beginning of Emigration to Palestine The Second Return of the Ottomans to Yemen and the occupation of Sanaa in 1879, under the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876–​1908) had mixed results for the Jewish community. The restoration of public security and stability had been a positive development for them, especially in terms of trade. On the other hand, intending to preserve the weakening Ottoman Empire, the Europeans directed Tanzimat reforms (1839–​1876), had little effect on them, as the Ottoman authorities did not want to risk confrontation with Muslim-​majority society. Thus, although the Jews became officially equal to the other inhabitants, in practice their legal status did not change compared to the situation before the Ottoman takeover. As a result, previous discriminatory laws have not only been repealed, but also have been supplemented by new ones. In particular, their financial situation, and thus their livelihood, was sensitively affected when prices started to rise sharply and then Ottomans soon doubled the amount of jizya so far and imposed other special taxes on trade, crops, and butchers. They were also adversely affected by the opening of the Suez Canal and the explosive development of British-​ruled Aden in southern Arabia. At the same time, the intermediary role of the Red Sea ports in northern Yemen has dramatically diminished in the increased trade, so that the Jewish communities that once lived and prospered there migrated to Aden or Muscat. In addition, local markets have entered the global economy thanks to the Aden trade center and the northern Yemeni ports opened by the Ottomans. As a result, food began to flow out 29 30

Wenner, Manfred W. Modern Yemen 1918–​1966. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967: 36–​37. Serjeant, Robert Bertram. “A Judeo-​Arab House-​Deed from Habbān …”: 118.

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of the area, which was replaced by cheap and mass-​produced imported goods. With the latter, the products of Jewish craftsmen and artisans could no longer compete.31 In addition to economic considerations, Yemeni Jewry came into contact with other Jewish communities around the world, which inspired them to change their previous social position. The social equality proclaimed by the Ottomans, the ideal of citizenship, and the example of the many successful and wealthy Jews who were part of the civilian and military rule of the empire all encouraged them to break with their hitherto subordinate position. In addition, Palestine was also under Ottoman rule at the time, which made it much easier to communicate and get there in the absence of borders.32 Finally, in addition to the lack of adverse economic changes and hoped-​ for political changes, Yemeni Jewry was also disappointed by the way the Ottoman administration disregarded their religious customs, which they were repeatedly forced to violate.33 Associated with this was the increase in trade with the region, and Yemeni Jewry gained a global outlook in religious terms as well. The intensity of relations with Jewish communities in different areas increased, and new relationships were formed, all based on common faith, regardless of origin. All these networks, as well as the Hebrew-​language newspapers that became available, had a clear effect on the rethinking of Yemeni Jewish identity, the development of a kind of national consciousness, and an incentive for their emigration.34 Throughout the centuries, Yemeni Jewry had remained in close contact with its fellow believers in Palestinian territory, to whom donations had been regularly collected and sent.35 Therefore, Zionist propaganda spread as early as the 1870s in Yemen, from where the first enterprising team arrived 31

Ariel, Ari. Jewish-​Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2014: 31–​36. 32 In this field, some have even disputed their dhimmī status (Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 36–​38.) 33 The Ottoman authorities had no regard for the Jews, and they were also forced to involve in the fight against the rebels. An emblematic case of this happened in October 1875, when about 40 Sana’ā Jews were forcibly enlisted and forced to carry wounded soldiers during the holiday of Sukkot, violating the Sabbath as well. Three of them lost their lives during the journey from Sana’a to Hudaydah. Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 29; Tobi, Yosef. “The Jews of Yemen”: 90. 3 4 Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 38–​43. 35 The earliest records date from the end of the 15th century about Yemeni Jews who migrated to Jerusalem and settled there for personal motivation and religious zeal.

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in the ancient port city Jaffa in 1875.36 However, significant emigration did not begin until years later, in 1881. One of the triggers was based on the Gematria-​based calculation that the Jewish year 5542 would be the year of Redemption, which corresponded to 1882. On the other hand, the false myth was also inspiring for them according to Baron Rothschild, the Prince of the Jews, who alone integrated secular and spiritual power, lived in Jerusalem and bought land in the area, which he would give them. The rumor proved so persistent that three groups of Yemeni Jewish artisans, with more than 100 families, set out for the Holy Land at that time to take advantage of the supposed opportunity, where they arrived in 1882 after many ordeals.37 However, the first experiences were extremely disappointing for them. The cost of travel consumed their financial reserves, so they were initially forced to live outdoors without cover. In addition, those already living there considered them dark-​skinned primitives, entrusted with degrading work that others refused to do. Luckily for them, their disadvantage eventually became widely publicized and they were eventually able to build houses for themselves on the Mount of Olives from donations from a wealthy Jew in Baghdad.38 Meanwhile, in Yemen, Muslim authorities soon recognized the losses they had suffered from the departure of their artisans and the decline in their tax revenues so far. For this reason, Jewish emigration was consistently hindered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the enforcement of the prohibition regulations had not proved effective. Moreover, shortly after the anti-​Ottoman Zaydi uprising and its success in 1906, their

3 6 3 7

38

However, we have no reason to doubt that there may have been relocations or pilgrimages by individuals or small groups even earlier. Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 23. Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 24. There is a consensus in the literature that it would be difficult to estimate the number of Yemenis who emigrated at that time. Complicating the problem is that, due to the ordeals experienced during the journey or the depletion of their material reserves, many turned back or eventually settled elsewhere (e.g., in Egypt or even India), changing their original intentions. This was well illustrated, among other things, by the fact that barely one-​fifth of the last most populous group of about 300 eventually reached the land of Israel. At the same time, the Jerusalem census of 1884 enumerated a total of 454 Yemeni Jews which could be a point of reference. Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 45–​50. Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 24.

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persecution resumed, exacerbated by intermittent famines.39 All this had such an incentive for further emigration that the emigration process, which was basically local until 1906, that is, mainly limited to Sana’ā and its surrounding area, became countrywide by 1907–​1908. Already a significant number of Jewish groups had set out for the Promised Land from Sadaa and Haydan in northern Yemen as well as from Hubaysh in southern Yemen.40 Although this outflow process was spontaneous, which lacked any conscious organizing activity, nearly 3,000 Yemeni Jews emigrated to the territories of Palestine by 1907.41 The Young Turk (Constitutionalist) Revolution of July 1908 also did not significantly change the situation of the Jewish community in Yemen. Besides, the Ottoman administration concluded the Treaty of Da’an with Imam Yahya in October 1911 due to the unreasonably high costs of military occupation, the ongoing clashes, and the outbreak of the Italian-​ Ottoman war. The agreement ended the Ottoman-​Yemeni conflict and recognized the rule of Imam Yahya over the Zaydi territories under Ottoman authority. For the Jewish community, this also meant that they became such a property of the imam, and their activities were again restricted by several discriminatory decrees that had hitherto been disregarded by the Ottomans.42 At the same time, there was a growing demand for labor on the

39

After the resumption of fighting against Imam Yahya, Ottoman governors, for example, obliged Jews to accommodate soldiers in their houses and to supply their flour reserves. Because of this, the drought of 1905 led to tragedy and about 20,000 Jews –​6,000 of them in Sanaa alone –​died of hunger across the country. Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 23. 40 Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 52–​53. 41 Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 146–​147; Schmidt, Dana Adams. “Yemen: the Unknown War”: 109; Shivitiel, A. –​Lockwood, W. –​Serjeant R. B. “The Jews of San’ā”: 397. 42 In addition to being taxed separately, they were forbidden to (1) raise their voices against Muslims, (2) build a house larger than Muslims, (3) touch a Muslim as he goes his way, (4) Muslims are traditional (5) warp to blaspheme the Islamic religion, (6) curse the Prophet, (7) argue about religion with Muslims, (8) ride an animal in a male saddle, (9) study their books outside the synagogue, (10) raise their voices, when they pray, (11) they blow the ram’s horns out loud, (12) they lend on profit, (13) they always had to stand up in the presence of Muslims, whom they had to show honor and respect every time (Schmidt, Dana Adams. “Yemen: the Unknown War”: 106.) For more details on their situation, see: Feldmann, Jehoschuah. Die Jemenitischen Juden. Köln: Verlag des Hauptbureaus des Jüdischen Nationalfonds, 1913: 10–​21.

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agricultural farms established in Palestine to replace Arab farmers. For this reason, and in hopes of establishing new settlements, the Palestinian Office of the Zionist Organization sent Shamuel Yavnieli, one of the first members of the Second Russian Aliyah,43 to Yemen with the aim of reporting to the Jewish communities on the work that was going on in Palestine at the time and convincing them to emigrate. His mission was a resounding success and more than 1,500 people from the estimated community of 24,000 moved to Palestine in 1911–​12. However, Yavnieli and the other delegates later ceased their activities in Yemen due to the saturation of the Palestinian labor market, and the promising emigration process was temporarily terminated after the outbreak of World War I.44 As the ruler of Yemen, which became independent after World War I, Imam Yahya enjoyed a kind of respect and admiration among Jews. Despite the revival of centuries of restrictions, including the conversion of orphaned Jewish children under the age of 13 to the Muslim faith, he also protected them and provided them with a sense of security. Compared to the practice of earlier times, he also granted them exceptional privileges such as settling outside the walls of the ghetto or freely selling their products in Arab suqs. Breaking with the hitherto ambiguous judiciary, Muslims who harmed or insulted Jewish life or property were also severely punished without discrimination.45 At first, he did not seriously hinder the emigration of Jews, although he did not really understand why Jews longed for Palestine. He even invited a prominent Palestinian rabbi to come to Yemen and personally explain to him the reasons for the emigration and the further intentions of the departed.46 However, this exchange of views proved futile when imam Yahya recognized the primarily material losses resulting from the emigration of the Jews. In addition, Palestinian Arab leaders specifically called on the Yemeni ruler to prevent the emigration of Jews following the May 1921 riots in Jaffa, in which nearly 100 people lost their lives.47 Thanks to all this, Imam Yahya ordered the confiscation of the property of emigrants in 1922, 43

Aliyah or ascent in Hebrew. It means the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Promised Land. 44 Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 147–​148.; Macro, Eric. “Yemen and the Western World”: 85–​86. 45 Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 24–​25. 46 Wenner, Manfred W. “Modern Yemen 1918–​1966”: 37. 47 Bat-​Zion Eraqi Klorman. Traditional Society in Transition: The Yemeni Jewish Experience. Leiden: Brill, 2014: 92–​93.

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and seven years later he also officially banned emigration.48 However, it was no longer possible to block the process by decree, which was inherently only possible in areas under the direct control of Imam Yahya.49 The unfavorable economic50 and political51 situation, as well as news from relatives settled in Palestine, revived the old messianic longing of those who remained at home.52 Thus, many immediately sold their property and secretly left the country as soon as administrative control paid little attention to them.53 Although the Jewish community of about 7,000 in the Aden Protectorate was in a much better position than its Yemeni counterparts, the events of 1931 had a decisive influence on their ideas about moving to Palestine. In the same year, there was a clash between the Muslim and Jewish communities over the fact that a Jewish girl wanted to marry a Muslim man. This eventually led to serious clashes in which many Jews fell victim and some of their residences were destroyed to the ground. This only further 48 Although the decree of Imam Yahya restricting emigration was not always strictly observed during his reign, it nevertheless made it virtually impossible for the Jews to leave that, after the occupation of the port of Hudaydah, the Red Sea ports could no longer be used for this purpose. In addition, Palestinian Arab leaders later emphatically reiterated their call for restrictions on the travel of Jews, and the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-​Husayni, personally discussed the matter with Imam Yahya in 1933 and 1935. Bat-​Zion Eraqi Klorman. “Traditional Society in Transition”: 93. 4 9 At the same time, the central government clearly proved incapable of enforcing its will in the tribal areas, where Jews continued to enjoy full freedom of movement and were not prevented from leaving, especially after the transit fee was paid. Bat-​Zion Eraqi Klorman. “Traditional Society in Transition”: 94–​95. 5 0 For instance: devaluation of the riyal currency, over taxation, or decline in trade etc. 5 1 For instance: arbitrariness of local nobles or the aforementioned Orphan Decree. 5 2 For the settlement of Yemeni Jews who emigrated to Palestine, see: Feldmann, Jehoschuah. “Die Jemenitischen Juden”: 21–​31. 5 3 Emigration only slowly unfolded after World War I and the Jewish Agency Immigration Office registered only 6 people in 1921. However, as early as 1923, 183 Yemenites were registered because of messages sent from Palestine. Their numbers have since steadily increased and a total of 1,413 Yemeni emigrants have been counted between 1919 and 1928. To support the process, the Jewish Agency opened an office in Aden in 1929 to facilitate the emigration of Yemeni Jews to Palestine. Thanks to their logistical involvement, the number of emigrants multiplied in the years that followed and 6,416 Yemeni Jews moved to Palestinian territory between 1932 and 1939. McCarthy, Justin. The Population of Palestine: Population, History and Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period and the Mandate. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990: 230.

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strengthened the longing for Palestine that was already present in the life of the community.54 However, especially after the riots of 1921, the British wanted to avoid the uncontrolled entry of Jews into the Palestinian Mandate. Therefore, for Jews concentrated in Aden, who were waiting to emigrate, the passing permit was made conditional on the actual economic situation and the absorption capacity of the labor market in the Palestinian region, as well as the employability of the applicants for resettlement. However, the events of the first half of the 1930s led to a significant increase in the influx of European Jewish emigrants into Palestinian territory, which was one of the main causes of the Great Arab Uprising of 1936. As a result, the British authorities imposed further restrictions on restricting Jewish immigration.

5. The First Phase of “On Eagles’ Wings”: The Evacuation of Illegal Emigrants The decision for a major exodus initiative was made in 1943, when a typhus epidemic that erupted a year earlier reached the Jewish quarter ofSana’ā . Their determination was only confirmed by the fact that after the shortage of cereals, wealthy traders bought commercial goods to stimulate the black market. The resulting food shortage sparked a wave of anti-​Jewish violence, forcing many families to leave their homes and move to the Aden Protectorate.55 Their emigration was prompted by the increase in Jewish Agency activity in Yemen, as well as a change in the attitude of Imam Yahya. To alleviate the afflictions of Jews, who had been even more exposed to food shortages, the ruler had been taken a neutral position on the issue, neither prohibiting nor allowing the emigration of Jews, and no more trying to stop the exiles or confiscate their remaining property.56 However, the Aden competent authorities tried to contain emigrants due to the Palestinian immigration quota introduced in 1939 under the MacDonald White Paper, and to prevent the spread of typhus. In the spirit of this, the borders were closed for months, the families who came there were 5 4 5 5 5 6

Little, Tom. “South Arabia, Arena of Conflict”: 123–​124. Macro, Eric. “Yemen and the Western World”: 86–​87. Bat-​Zion Eraqi Klorman. “Traditional Society in Transition”: 97–​98.

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tried to be turned back, and the people who entered the territory of Aden were placed in isolation camps to prevent the outbreak of the epidemics. However, despite the restrictions, the refugees continued to infiltrate the Protectorate illegally in order to secretly board a ship on the Red Sea coast. Thus, more than 5,000 people managed to emigrate to Palestine in 1943–​ 1944, while about 4,000 people were waiting to be transported to Palestine even in 1947. Their situation became critical after the UN resolution of November 29, 1947, on the partition of Palestine. Anti-​Jewish, spontaneous riots erupted on December 2 and the enraged crowd staged a pogrom in Aden with the assistance of Arab law enforcement forces. In the clashes, the mob looted the homes and shops of hundreds of Jews and then demolished them. In addition, 122 people lost their lives and another 164 were injured, so the British placed them in segregation camps to avoid further casualties, which were defended by armed forces to keep local Arabs away.57 Soon, conditions became unbearable for their peers too who remained in Yemen. In early 1948, riots broke out in Sana’ā after the bodies of two Arab girls were discovered in the cistern of the Jewish Quarter. Muslims demanded revenge, so six rabbis and prominent leaders of the Jewish community were arrested on charges of ritual murder. The anger of the crowd, fueled by malicious rumors, was so threatening that they had to surround the Jewish Quarter with soldiers to protect them.58 All this also dispelled the remaining hopes of the British authorities in Aden that at least some of the Jews from northern Yemen placed in the camps under critical conditions would be persuaded to return. With the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, the British restriction on immigration to there ceased to apply. However, London feared that allowing more refugees to pass would result spontaneous anti-​ British protests in various Arab capitals. In October 1948, for this reason, men of military age continued to be withheld and the British authorities only contributed to the departure of the others. However, the evacuation of the latter also encountered difficulties. The previous route in the Red Sea could no longer be used at that time, as Egypt had closed the Suez Canal

5 7 Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 155–​157. 5 8 The flogged temper and compliance with the expectations of the crowd were well demonstrated by the fact that the judge in the case accused the Jews of the murders even after a Muslim woman had already confessed to committing them. Ariel, Ari. “Jewish-​Muslim Relations …”: 152–​153.

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to all Israeli shipping. To solve the problem, the Jewish state launched Operation “On Eagles’ Wings” and established an air bridge between the Aden Protectorate and Israel. The first aircraft to arrive for this purpose landed on December 15, 1948, and not only the 3,881 people present at the scene, but also the hundreds of refugees who arrived in the meantime –​a total of about 5,500 –​were transported in the first phase of the operation until March 1949.59 Temporary camps were dismantled, and the border was mutually closed in agreement with the Yemeni imam to avoid any further unrest.60

6. The Second Phase of “On Eagles’ Wings”: The Exodus of the Yemeni Israelite Community The British distance policy had not proved to be long-​lasting. Seeing Israel’s success in the War of Independence, the viability of the young state soon became clear, forcing London to reconsider its relations so far. In relations between the two states, the new chapter was opened by the release of 11,000 refugees detained in Cyprus. This was followed by negotiations at ministerial level with the approval of the British Foreign Office in Aden and Israel during April and May. During the talks, an agreement was reached to open the Aden border on the condition that refugees gathered in camps operated by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel would be transferred to Israel immediately after their medical examination. Thus, by mid-​June 1949, the conditions for the relaunch of “On Eagles’ Wings” were created just in time; 5,000–​20,000 Yemeni Jews were already heading for the Aden border by that time.61 In May 1949, the ruler of Yemen, Imam Ahmed, the successor to Yahya who was assassinated in 1948, granted permission to the Jewish community to relocate to Israel on the condition that they transfer their

5 9 6 0 6 1

Bat-​Zion Eraqi Klorman. “Traditional Society in Transition”: 113. Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 154–​155. Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 166–​176.

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professional knowledge to local Muslims before leaving.62 The combined effect of several factors played a role in the decision of the imam pursuing isolationist politics. His decision was influenced by his intent to annoy Arab states facing Israel, his cool relationship with Arab League member states, the emphasis on his country’s sovereignty, and the untrue rumors of Palestinian Arab refugees about the Israeli atomic bomb and the retaliatory military strike on the Yemeni capital.63 The founding of the Jewish state and then the approval of the imam for their free departure and the news of Israel’s assumption of travel expenses gave the final impetus to leave Yemen for those who had hitherto insisted on their homes and livelihoods. Thousands of Jews in northern Yemen began their journey south. Although the memory of the drought in the country and the discriminatory treatment of them played a role in their decision, the main reason for their high proportion of exodus was still religious. For these persons set out and undertook the ordeals with the unquestionable faith that the Messiah had finally come, whom they had been waiting for centuries. The vast majority of Yemeni Jews practically left the country by early November 1949. At that time, it seemed that their emigration would not have negative consequences. However, time soon refuted this, and the imam lost his world-​famous craftsmen with their departure. The emigrants were forced to leave all their possessions behind or at least had to sell them at a huge loss.64 They then made their way through rented wheelbarrows, donkeys, on foot through mountains and deserts, 62 The American Joint Distribution Committee also allegedly played a major role in authorizing mass emigration, bribing Imam Ahmed in exchange for the release of the Jews. Yaʿakov Meron, “Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries”, The Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 2, no. 3, 1995, https://​www.mefo​rum.org/​263/​why-​jews-​fled-​the-​arab-​countr​ies Downloaded: 18.09.2021. 6 3 Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 178–​179; Blady, Ken. “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places”: 25. 6 4 Only a few of their abandoned houses were later used by poor Muslims and beggars. The others became dilapidated, many of which soon collapsed. Harold Ingrams, a British colonial official looked at Qa ‘Al-​Yahud, the old Jewish quarter, among other things, during his visit to Sana’a in the early 1960s. By then, there were only a few houses left. However, the few he inspected were found clean and comfortable even more than a decade after their former owners emigrated (Ingrams, Harold. The Yemen. Imam, Rulers & Revolution. London: John Murray, 1963: 21; O’Ballance, Edgar. The War in the Yemen. London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1971: 22.)

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paying a separate head tax to the imam, various sultans and sheikhs, officials, and armed bandits until they reached the border. Faced with their ordeals, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee soon sent buses and trucks for them to northern Yemen and provided financial assistance to all those who did not have enough money to pay the toll. The camps soon became overcrowded due to the constant influx of refugees. The British therefore temporarily closed the border to them to avoid a major catastrophe. Thousands were stranded on the Yemeni side of the border without any kind of care, hundreds of whom died from exhaustion and epidemics. After the border lock was released, those who arrived were malnourished, with an average body weight of 70 kg. Most of them suffered from malaria, tropical ulcer, trachoma, typhoid, or other infectious diseases. Israeli doctors and nurses have therefore arrived at the Joint’s ever-​expanding temporary accommodation to prepare them to continue their journey. Thanks to the efficient care they provided, the air bridge was put back into operation at the end of June. The six cargo carriers chartered from Alaska Airlines were able to transport 300–​500 crowded people a day on a nine-​hour flight to Lod from the Royal Air Force’s Sheikh Othman Airport, who were received on several occasions personally by Golda Meir, Minister of Labour and Social Security, at the airport upon their arrival. By the end of the operation in September 1950, the planes had traveled more than 400 times in total. 48,915 people were thus able to return to the land of their ancestors, where they settled in closed patriarchal groups, like the approximately 35,000 Yemeni Jews who had previously emigrated and became established by then. However, more than 500 people, like Moses, were not given the opportunity to reach the Promised Land at the end of their journey. They found ultimate peace in the cemeteries set up next to the temporary camps.65

65 Barer, Shlomo. “The Magic Carpet”: 249.; Schmidt, Dana Adams. “Yemen: the Unknown War”: 109–​110.

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7. Afterword After the departure of the Yemeni Jews, many of the villages they inhabited became completely depopulated. A foreign traveller visiting the country did not meet a Jew, although it was well known that few of them still lived in remote mountain villages. However, the total number of these surviving isolated communities was estimated to be only between 1,400 and 1,700 in 1971.66 Their numbers have steadily declined in later decades due to continued emigration or just free conversions to the Muslim faith. The situation was similar in Aden Protectorate; a 1955 census in the city of Aden had only counted 831 Jews.67 After the unification of the two parts of Yemen, hundreds left for Israel, especially after the strengthening of Muslim extremism. The end of the emigration was practically the ultimatum of the Shiite Houthis. The latter forced the members of the community of barely a few hundred people still on Yemeni land after the outbreak of the civil war to either convert to Islam or leave the country. For this reason, Israel continued to evacuate those wishing to leave with the help of the Jewish Agency, and the last major group, a family of 13, left the country in March 2021 for Cairo. According to the statements, only six elderly Jewish men remained in Yemen, one of whom had been imprisoned in the Houthis’ prison for years.68 Yemeni Jewry, different in many respects from other Israeli communities, brought valuable capabilities with them to the newly established state. They adapted easily due to their proficiency in a multitude of craft occupations. Israel’s economic gain was Yemen’s loss. No more was made of alloy silver jewelery adorned with semi-​precious stones. In Israel, the few Jews who tried to continue their old craft changed their style and followed European models. A tradition has come to an end. 6 6 6 7 6 8

Stookey, Robert W. “Yemen, The politics …”: 187. Little, Tom. “South Arabia, Arena of Conflict”: 123. Boxerman, Aaron. “As 13 Yemeni Jews leave pro-​Iran region for Cairo, community of 50,000 down to 6”. The Times of Israel, 30 March 2021. https://​www.timeso​fisr​ael. com/​as-​13-​yem​eni-​jews-​leave-​pro-​iran-​reg​ion-​for-​cairo-​nati​ons-​commun​ity-​down-​to-​ 6/​(Downloaded: 17.09.2021); Klein, David Ian. “In Yemen, antisemitism is rampant even though few Jews actually live there”. Forward, 14 April 2021. https://​forw​ard. com/​news/​467​761/​in-​yemen-​antis​emit​ism-​is-​ramp​ant-​even-​tho​ugh-​few-​jews-​actua​ lly-​live-​there/​ (Downloaded: 17.09.2021.)

Identities. An interdisciplinary approach to the roots of the present Identités. Une approche interdisciplinaire aux racines du présent Identidades. Una aproximación interdisciplinar a las raíces del presente

Individual or collective, assumed or imposed, accepted or disputed, identities mark out the basic framework that root the human being in society. Language, literature, the creation of a shared memory, social formulas and the range of all cultural expressions have contributed to articulating human life as a mixture of identities. Given these concerns, this series publishes books from the different branches of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which have taken identity as a prism through which the problems of current society and its historical roots are studied. The preferential use of English, French and Spanish ensure greater dissemination of research collected here. The series includes monographs, collected papers, conference proceedings. Individuelles ou collectives, assumées ou imposées, acceptées ou combattues, les identités configurent le premier cadre d’enracinement de l’être humain en société. La langue, la littérature, la création d’une mémoire commune déterminée, les formules sociales et toutes les expressions culturelles ont contribué à articuler la vie humaine comme un treillis d’identités. Compte tenu de ces préoccupations, cette collection publie ouvrages depuis les diverses branches des sciences humaines et sociales qui prennent l’identité comme prisme par lequel étudier les problèmes de la société d’aujourd’hui et ses racines historiques. L’utilisation préférentielle de l’anglais, le français et l’espagnol assure une plus grande diffusion des recherches ici présentés. La collection accueille des monographies, ouvrages collectifs et actes de congrès. Individuales o colectivas, asumidas o impuestas, aceptadas o combatidas, las identidades configuran el primer marco de enraizamiento del ser humano en sociedad. La lengua, la literatura, la creación de una determinada memoria común, las fórmulas sociales y todas las expresiones culturales han contribuido a articular la vida humana como un entramado de identidades. Asumiendo estas preocupaciones, esta colección publica obras provenientes de las distintas ramas de las Humanidades y las Ciencias Sociales que adopten la identidad a modo de prisma con que estudiar los problemas de la sociedad actual y sus raíces históricas. El uso preferente del inglés, el francés y el castellano garantizan una mayor difusión de las investigaciones aquí recogidas. La colección acoge monografías, obras colectivas y actas de congreso.

Editorial address:

Institut for Research into Identities and Society (IRIS) University of Lleida Plaça Víctor Siurana 1 25003 Lleida Catalonia / Spain

Vol. 1 Flocel Sabaté (ed.) Identities on the move ISBN 978-3-0343-1296-7, 2014 Vol. 2 Flocel Sabaté (ed.) Hybrid Identities ISBN 978-3-0343-1471-8, 2014 Vol. 3 Flocel Sabaté (ed.) Perverse Identities ISBN 978-3-0343-1556-2, 2015 Vol. 4 Flocel Sabaté (ed.) Conditioned Identities ISBN 978-3-0343-1618-7, 2015 Vol. 5 Flocel Sabaté & Luís Adão da Fonseca (eds.) Catalonia and Portugal ISBN 978-3-0343-1650-7, 2015 Vol. 6 Flocel Sabaté (ed.) Historical Analysis of the Catalan Identity ISBN 978-3-0343-2010-8, 2015 Vol. 7

Igor Filippov & Flocel Sabaté (eds.) Identity and Loss of Historical Memory The Destruction of Archives ISBN 978-3-0343-2506-6, 2017

Vol. 8

Miguel Ángel Sorroche Cuerva & Gonzalo Águila Escobar (eds.) Las riberas del Pacífico Lengua e identidad cultural hispanas ISBN 978-3-0343-2783-1, 2017

Vol. 9

Luciano Gallinari (ed.) Sardinia from the Middle Ages to Contemporaneity A case study of a Mediterranean island identity profile ISBN 978-3-0343-3518-8, 2018

Vol. 10 Àngel Casals / Giovanni C. Cattini (eds.) The Catalan Nation and Identity Throughout History ISBN 978-3-0343-3811-0, 2020 Vol. 11 D  ick E.h. De Boer / Nils Holger Petersen / Bas Spierings / Martin Van Der Velde (eds.)   The Historical Evolution of Regionalizing Identities in Europe   ISBN 978-3-0343-3922-3, 2020 Vol. 12 Luciano Gallinari / Heba Abdelnaby (eds.) Identities in touch between East and West: 11th to 21st century ISBN 978-3-0343-4497-5, 2022