Alshaar Nuha (ed.) Muslim Sicily: Encounters and Legacy

Edinburgh University Press, 2024. — 376 p. — (Advances in the Study of Islam).The period of Arabo-Islamic domination of parts of Sicily, and the consequent large Muslim presence on the island from 800 to the mid-13th century constitutes a crucial epoch whose influence remains an integral part of the island’s architectural and cultural landscape. This volume builds on existing scholarship and goes beyond the ‘Arabo-Norman’ construct to afford greater recognition to the island’s Arabic and Islamic history. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the chapters examine Sicily’s mercantile, artistic and architectural links to the Muslim world, including the subjects of the Fāṭimids of Ifrīqiya and their Kalbid allies in Sicily. It also reflects upon the Arabo-Islamic philosophical legacy at the court of Frederick II, Muslim accounts of medieval Sicily, Fāṭimid influence on the arts, women’s textile production, discussions of linguistics and literature, and various other aspects of Sicily’s diverse cultural and religious life during this period.Nuha Alshaar is Associate Professor at the American University of Sharjah and Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. Her publications include On God and the World: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 49-51 (with Madelung, W., Baffioni, C., & Uy, Oxford University Press, 2019) and Ethics in Islam: Friendship in the Political Thought of al-Tawḥīdī and his Contemporaries (Routledge, 2015). She is also the volume editor of The Qur’an and Adab: The Shaping of Literary Traditions in Classical Islam (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Sources and Approaches across Disciplines in Near Eastern Studies: Proceedings of the 24th Congress of the L Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (with Verena Klemm, Peeters, 2013). She has also contributed several book chapters and articles to prestigious publications.