Muslim Sicily and The Presence of the Ibāḍī Sect

Muslim and European scholars have studied and recounted the

history of medieval Europe and the Islamic world for more than a

century, but the period of Muslim rule in Sicily is still being

uncovered. The island was a bridge linking both Christian Europe and

the world of Islam. Economic relations between the two zones

flourished regardless of the political upheavals, bringing relative

prosperity to the general population of Sicily and southern Italy.

The Arabs and Berbers who migrated to Sicily came with a vitality

that transformed the island into a new Islamic society that became

economically and culturally part of the greater Muslim world. The

Arab conquest began in 212/827, and Muslim rule lasted until the

Norman conquest, which began in 457/1061 and ended with the

capitulation of Noto in 483/1090. Muslim communities remained active

throughout the island for more than another century, and the last

vestige of their communities disappear only when the Holy Roman

Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen (r. 605/1208-648/1250) defeated

their efforts of autonomy. (1)

In studying the history of Muslim Sicily scholars have depended

on the historical and biographical works of primarily Sunnī authors,

with some Shī ‘ite sources as well. The large number of these

writings have been available to scholars in the East and the West,

and they have therefore assumed that the Malikī school, or madhhab,

was predominant among the Muslim population of the island. Recently,

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however, with the addition of historical works by members of the

Ibāḍīte doctrine (madhhab) and archaeological findings we must add

this madhhab to the sectarian make-up of Sicily.

Thus, we must add the Ibāḍīya among the Muslim communities

living in Sicily during the period of Islamic rule. The Arab conquest

of Sicily began when the Aghlabid dynasty in Ifrīqīya (the region of

modern day Tunisia and western Tripolitania) launched its expedition

at the request of the rebellious Byzantine naval commander Euphemius

(d. 214/829). He sought the help of the Aghlabid amir Ziyādat Allāh I

(d.223/838) in re-conquering the island after losing his attempt to

put the island under his own command, independent of Constantinople.

(2) Along with the expedition’s military forces, Muslim religious

leaders and other civil officials (3) migrated to the island. Members

of the invading army of Arabs, Persians (Khurasānī), Andalusians and

Berbers settled there. The largest group to settle in Sicily was the

indigenous population of North Africa, known in the Middle Ages and

today as the Berbers. (4)

Medieval Arabic sources mention that the Berbers were among the

warriors who took part in the conquest of Sicily, (5) but some

historical sources, such as the geographer and historian ‘Alī al-

Ḥusayn al-Masʻūdī (d. ca. 346/957) (6) and the Moroccan historian Abū

al-Qāsim ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ziyyānī (d. 1249/1833), add that

the Berbers migrated and settled throughout the island. (7) A clearer

picture of Arabo/Berber settlement is seen in the work of the Malikī

legal scholar Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Dāwūdī (d. 402/10426). In his

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commentary on the legal status of the lands occupied by the Muslims

during their conquest of the island, entitled Kitāb al-amwāl, he

mentions that Berber groups had a major part in the conquest of

Sicily and then established estates. (8) Ibn Khaldūn indicates that

some Berber contingents came from the region known today as southern

Tunisia and Tripolitania in Libya. (9) It is most likely that the

invading forces came to Sicily as members of organized tribal groups

(10) who established their own settlements and populated existing

villages, towns and cities. (11)

The island’s fertility was well known, and since its soil

excelled in the production of the same crops (especially wheat,

barley, olives, grapes and figs) grown in North Africa, immigrants

moved there in substantial numbers. (12) In addition, land was

available for settlement because the previous century saw economic

and demographic instability most likely due to the series of plagues

from 541 to 135/752. It is estimated that the population within the

Byzantine Empire may have declined by as much as 30%. (13) Therefore,

by the 1st/7th century Sicilian cities, as well as the countryside had

periods of population decline. Some urban centers, such as Gela,

Selinunte, Segesta and other ancient settlements, had been abandoned.

(14) Depopulation and demographic decline is also confirmed in

contemporary Greek sources (15) and archeological findings. Some

Arabic sources also mention that the island was sparsely populated

when the Muslims arrive. (16)

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The Arabs were the other group to colonize the island. These

settlers, who originally came from Andalus, Arabia, Syria and Yemen,

(17) were not as numerous as the Berbers, but represented the

dominant religious, military and ruling elite. They were represented

by members of both the Muḍar and Qaḥṭān groups, such as the Azd,

Kināna, Lakhm, Sha‘rān, Tamīm, and others. (18) According to the

legal scholar al-Dāwūdī there was a steady flow of people from

Ifrīqīya to Sicily during the 4th/10th century. A major movement from

North Africa is recorded during the great famine of 395/1004 -1005,

when rich and poor, urban and rural folk, as well as Bedouins fled to

the island. (19) Another migration from Ifrīqīyah occurred in

451/1059, that is, after the Normans controlled most of the island.

(20)

The first group of Ibāḍīs to settle in Sicily were those of the

invading military forces and those auxiliary groups that sustained

them. A major part of the invading army was composed of members of

the Hawwāra tribe, one of the largest and most influential Ibāḍī

Berber groups in North Africa during the 2nd/8th to the 5th/11th

century. (21) It was among the major Berber tribes that supported the

Ibāḍī state at Tahert until its end after the Fatimids conquered it

in 297/909. Ibn Khaldūn states that after the Hawwāra in Ifrīqīya

failed in their rebellion against Aghlabid rule in 196/811, they

sought the help of the head and imām of the Ibāḍī Rustumid state,

‘Abd al-Wahhāb ibn Rustum (r. 171/788-208/824). Ibn Rustum mediated

an agreement whereby the Hawwāra would end their rebellion and

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support the Aghlabid regime. They and other Ibāḍī tribes, such as the

Zanāta, became for a period of time allies of the Aghlabids

and played a role in the conquest of Sicily. (22) One of the leading

commanders of the conquering army was Zawāwa Ibn Ni’mah al-Khalaf

(fl.3rd/9th century), a member of the Hawwāra tribe. (23)

It appears that these early settlers were mostly concentrated in

the north and west of the island, that is, where the Muslim army

first took control and established its administrative apparatus.

Evidence on the presence of Berber tribes adhering to Ibāḍīsm in this

northern region is revealed in the toponyms of the hamlets, towns and

villages of this period that show that a large number of the

settlements derive their names from individual members of Berber

tribes, or to the names of Berber tribes themselves. For example,

evidence indicates that a

number of tribes, such as the Kūmīya, a branch of the Nafzāwa, (24)

the Karkūda, a branch of the Hawwāra, (25) and the Zammūr, (26) a

branch of the Nafūsa, (27) gave their names to various settlements.

(28) In North Africa, the Banū Zammūr inhabited the major Ibāḍī

center of Jabal Nafūsa in Tripolitania (29) and was a major supporter

of the Rustumid state and Ibāḍī doctrine. (30) At times, we see a

Berber tribe giving its name to two settlements. One in the north,

near Palermo and one in the south, such as the Ibāḍī Berber tribe of

Faṭanāsa (also Fuṭṭanāsa). (31) One village, Raḥl Fuṭṭāsina, was

located in the north near the present village of Corleone; the other,

Fetanasino in Norman documents, lay between Ragusa and Enna. (32)

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This tribal name evokes the Ibāḍite Berber tribe of Faṭanāsa or

Fuṭṭanāsa, (34)

a branch of the Mazāta that in the medieval period inhabited the town

of Faṭanāsa located in the Jarīd region between Tozeur and Qabīlī on

the trade route going to Qābis. (35) Not far from the present town of

Monreale was the medieval village of Raḥl Maghāghī, (36) a settlement

named after the Lawāta sub-tribe of Maghāgha. (37) An abandoned

village near the present town of Acquaviva (near Mussomeli) was,

prior to the last century called Micchinisi, (38) a name most likely

derived from the Berber tribe Miknāsa, a branch of the Zanāta

inhabiting northern Morocco during the 4th/10th century. (39)

The names of individuals appearing in Norman registers of the

6th/12th century also reveal the presence of Ibāḍī Berber tribes. The

nisba ((an adjectival appellation, which may be formed from a town,

tribe or profession) of people such as al-Rīghī; al-Maklātī; al-

Masallātī; al-Misrātī, and Waddānī, (40) are found along with the

many Hawwārī, Zanātī, Lawātī, Nafzāwī, (41) the mainstay tribes of

the Ibāḍī Rustumid state. The Rīgha was a Zanāta tribe from the Mzab

in central Algeria, (42) and the Maklāta, a Lawāta branch of the

Nafzāwa, (43)

inhabited the Ibāḍī strongholds at Jabal Nafūsa and southern present

day Tunisia. The Masallāta and the Misrāta were important Ibāḍī

tribes belonging to branches of the Hawwāra that in North Africa

inhabited much of Tripolitania. (44) The name Waddānī indicates

someone from the Waddān region, some 100 km south of Surt and mostly

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inhabited by the Ibāḍī tribe of Mazāta. (45)

The capital city of Sicily, Palermo, also appears to have had an

Ibāḍī presence. Ibn Ḥawqal reports that a large number of the

inhabitants of the capital city were Barqajāna Berbers. The traveller

Ibn Ḥawqal, a partisan of the Fatimid dynasty who visited Sicily

around 362/972 comments on the city by saying: “The riffraf

predominate, and most of the people are of low condition, without

intelligence or real religion. Most of the are Barqajana and freedmen

claiming a connection with those who conquered the country and the

died out.” (46)

This significant because Arabic sources place the Barqajāna in

many of the major commercial centers of North Africa at the time,

especially along the trade routes that were monopolized by Ibāḍī

tribes. (47) They were found in the main trading centers of North

Africa along with other Ibāḍī tribes such as the Nafūsa, Lawāta,

Zanāta and Nafzāwa, all well-known Ibāḍī tribes active in the trans-

Saharan gold and slave trade. (48) The Polish scholar and specialist

on the Ibāḍīya,Tadeusz Lewicki, concluded that they were indeed

members of the Ibāḍīya (49) and when ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Rustam (d.

171/788) established Tāhart (144/761) as his capital for the newly

found Ibāḍī state, the Barqajāna already had established themselves

in the adjacent fortified town known as Old Tāhart, called Ḥiṣn li-

Barqajāna, (50)

also known as Qalʻah Hawwāra. (51) Lewicki believed that they playedan important part in the commerce of the newly founded city of

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Tāhart. (52)

The medieval Arab chronicler of the city of Tāhart, Ibn Ṣaghīr,

goes on to describe the Barqajāna as ‘ajam, that is non-Arabic

speakers who are often interpreted as being afāriqah or Romanized

Christian Berbers, possibly speaking a Latin dialect. (53) His

narration informs us that at least some were Christians, and he gives

them a prominent place in the city’s economic and political life.

(54)

It therefore seems plausible that with the fall of Tāhart to the

Fatimids, this Ibāḍī tribe would have moved to other trading centers

not unlike the other Ibāḍī tribes around Tāhart had done. They moved

in different directions (55) with many going south and east to the

Ibāḍite oasis of Warglān, a major Ibāḍī trans-Saharan trade center,

while other exiles went to Jerba (56) and Sicily. (57) All the tribes

mentioned above inhabiting Sicily are known to have professed Ibāḍism

from the 2nd/8th to the middle of the 5th/11th century. (58)

Besides Ibāḍī communities inhabiting the northern part of the

island, there were other communities settled in the southern part of

the island. In the “Appendix” to the work Kitāb al-Siyar by the Ibāḍī

religious scholar Abū al-‘Abbas Aḥmad ibn al-Shammākhī (d. 928/1522)

mention is made of the regions and settlements where Ibāḍī

communities prevail. It says that among them is the Sicilian city of

Qaṣr Yannū, that is, present day Enna. (59) From the region of Enna

south to Ragusa, Modica, Scicli and Noto we find settlements and

toponyms as well as archaeological finds that strongly hint of an

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Ibāḍī presence.

Thus we find in the south, between Ragusa and Enna, a town with

the same name as that found near Palermo, Fetanasino, named after the

Ibāḍī Berber tribe of Faṭanāsa. (60)

A stronger example is found in Angevin records of the 8th/14th century

where mention is made of the town of Tahartina in the region of Noto.

(61) In 535/1140 it was part of four hamlets, and today it is located

in the contrada San Marco, some 10 kms north of Noto Antica. (62)

Adjacent to this site is the cave complex and stream known today as

Manghisi. This appears to be the name of the Ibāḍī tribe and town of

Manjisa, which was part of the district of Tahert in Algeria. (63)

The change from “j” to “g”, or even “k” is due to the Arabic

orthography which had a

difficult time in writing the Berber “j”, which at times was hard,

like a “g”. This problem is clearly found in Arabic sources name for

the city of Agrigento. It is written as “Jirjint” and “Kirkint”,

which was noted by the 6th/12th century Sicilian linguist Ibn Makkī

(m. 501/1107),

who mentions that the dīwān and elite, meaning Arabs, wrote it with a

“jim”, Jirjint, but the common people wrote it with a “kaf”. (64)

Thus the change from “j” to “gh” is a common occurrence.

It would appear then that the inhabitants of Tahartina had some

connection to the Ibāḍī capital of Tāhart in Algeria. After the

city’s fall to the Fatimids in 297/909, Ibāḍī tribes dispersed, and

like the Barqajāna mentioned above, some must have migrated to this

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region of Sicily. This belief is bolstered by archaeological

excavations and their findings. Two new avenues of historical

evidence have been pursued and have strengthened this conclusion.

Studies on cave dwellings (troglodytic houses) found in western and

southern Sicily - especially in the areas of Enna, Modica, Noto,

Ragusa, and Scicli - indicate that their design and plan are the same

as those found in the troglodytic settlements of southern Tunisia and

Jabal Nafūsa, (65) that is, the region where Ibāḍī Berber tribes

predominated. In some cases these cave dwellings have been shown to

be used as mosques, since they clearly show a qiblah and miḥrāb. (66)

Recent archaeological studies have found that amphora in the

region of Agrigento and Palermo, which were locally produced, were in

the form and structure the same as those “of North Africa as is

demonstrated above all in the forms shown in the Algerian site of

Tihert-Tagdempt.” In addition, this Algerian site has also

similarities with the lamps, plates, jars and cups produced at

Agrigento. (67) Other ceramic pottery suggest that some ceramic ware

were similar in design and construction with those found in Libya,

especially Surt and Ajdabiya. (68)

The most compelling evidence, however, comes from the 5th/11th

century Ibāḍī scholar Sulaymān al-Wisyānī who sheds light on Sicily’s

confessional ties to the Ibāḍī spiritual center at Jerba. (69) He

reports in his work Kitāb al-Siyar that one of the Ibāḍī communities in

Sicily sought guidance on some legal questions. The inquiry was sent

to Abū Ṣāliḥ Bakr ibn Qāsim al-Yahrāsnī (fl. 350/962-400/1010) in the

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4th/10th century, that is, when Jerba was a major Ibāḍī legal and

learning center. (70) Al-Wisyānī reports that there were two

questions asked by the “ahl al-daʻwa”, or the Ibāḍīs in Sicily. The first

question concerned the legality of the levying the zakat before the

grain was harvested, which in this case the answer was “no”, although

the portion to be allotted to the poor was appropriate. The second

question involved an enquiry asking if a man can sell a slave while

he is being rented out to another person for a specific period of

time. The answer was that if the buyer of the slave knew he was being

rented out then he could wait until the time period expired and then

own him. But if the buyer was not aware that he was being rented out

for a period of time, then the buyer can nullify the sale. (71) These

two questions demonstrate that the Ibāḍīya in Sicily had held on to

their confessional identity even in the late 4th/10th or 5th/11th

century. Thus it can be assumed that whichever community on the

island sought the answers from Jerba, it sought a higher authority

than its local ‘azzaba, or local council of shaykhs. It is also to be

noted that it supports Ibn Ḥawqal’s claim that the people of Sicily

did not pay zakat , (72) leaving us to believe that it was not

collected or distributed by the provincial government but rather left

to the local communities based on their confession. It would

therefore appear that each local confessional community levied and

controlled the distribution of zakat. This also corresponds to the

Ibāḍī practice after the fall of Tāhart to the Fatimids, where

religious scholars decreed that Ibāḍī communities could only collect

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and pay zakat for their own communities. (73)

After the fall of the Rustamid imamate, Ibāḍī communities

resorted to a state of secrecy (kitmān), whereby they could develop

their own self-governing bodies independent or semi-independent of

any non-Ibāḍī central authority in the regions where they dwelt. (74)

At the same time, however, members of the Ibāḍīya could hold official

government positions in non-Ibāḍī states. They could serve as

military officials, such as qā’ids, religious figures like qādīs,

teachers and in other positions as part of the official Islamic

religious community, even though they secretly opposed the regime and

its ruler. (75)

The question can be asked of what is the significance of the

having Ibāḍī communities in Sicily? Their presence adds two important

elements to the history of Muslim Sicily. First, it points to

Sicily’s multi-sectarian religious heritage and the recognition that

Muslim Sicily reflected the religious diversity found in the rest of

the Islamic North Africa. It modifies the traditional belief that the

Muslims in Sicily followed exclusively the Malikī madhhab. Secondly

and most importantly, the presence of Ibāḍī tribes in Palermo and

other areas of Sicily indicates that during the period of Islamic

rule Sicily was part of the Ibāḍī trade network, which was organized

on “confessional” as well as a tribal lines, and monopolized trade

between the sub-Sahara and the Mediterranean coast. (76) There is

good reason to believe that the Ibāḍī community had a place in the

island’s commerce, especially if we consider that Ibāḍī tribes had a

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prominent position in the trans-Saharan gold and slave trade, and

that Sicily was a major transit point for these commodities.(77)

Sicily was a major importer of olive oil from North Africa and a

major producer and exporter of foodstuffs such as wheat and barley to

Ifrīqīyah. The sale of wheat, black and white slaves, (78) and other

products, to North Africa caused the island to acquire gold for its

coinage, such as the quarter dinar, or tari which became by the end of

the 5th/11th century the main currency for trade not only in Sicily

but in

southern Italy and the Mediterranean as well. (79) It is interesting

to note that in February 2015 it was reported that the largest hoard

of gold coins ever found off the coast of Israel yielded a large

number of quarter dinars from the second half of the 4th/9th century

minted in Palermo.

It appears that gold was so plentiful that the Byzantine

historian John Skylitzes says that when the Sicilian amir had to

purchase wheat from Calabria, the Byzantine governor raised the price

to an exorbitant level, declaring that the Saracens “paid his price

without arguing. They disbursed gold generously. (80)

Some evidence suggests the possibility that the Ibāḍī community

in Sicily may have remained in some autonomous form until the 7th/13th

century. A curious report is made in the work by Ibn Saʻīd al-

Maghrābī (610/1214-685/1286), ʻUnwān al-murqisāt wa al-muṭribāt, on the

noteworthy poets of North Africa and Spain. In it he says that the

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7th/13th century Sicilian poet Ibrāhīm ibn Maḥbūb was secretary (kātib)

to the “sāḥib al- ṣiqillīyah”, or “leader of the Muslims” of Sicily,

Ibn Rustumī. (81) The nisba Rustumī, whose name stems from the Persian

name “Rustum”, is associated in North Africa with the Ibāḍī dynasty

and state at Tāhart. (82)

Is it possible that he could have been the leader of an Ibāḍī or

Muslim before conflicts arose with the emperor Frederick II? The

mention, however, of a name associated with the Ibāḍīya being a ruler

of the Muslims in Sicily in the 7th/13th century brings up new

questions on the history of Muslim Sicily and the place of the

Ibāḍīya in it. . It also points to Sicily’s multi-sectarian religious

heritage and the recognition that Muslim Sicily reflected the

religious diversity found in the rest of the Muslim world.

Notes

1) F. Maurici, “Uno stato musulmano nell’Europa Cristiana del xiii secolo: l’emirato siciliano di Mohammed Ibn Abbad,” Acta historica et archaeological mediaevalia(1997), 257-280.; J. Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy, The Colony at Lucera (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003), passim.

2) Abī Bakr ‘Abd Allāh Mālikī, Kitāb Riyād al-Nufūs, eds B. Bakkūsh and M. Matwī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Gharb al-Islāmī, 1994), 1: 270.

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3) Ibn ‘Idhārī al-Marrākushī, Kitāb al-Bayān al-Mughrib, eds G.S. Colin and É. Levi-Provençal, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill,1948), 1:102.

4) M. Brett and E. Fentress, The Berbers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 6.

5) Dawūdī uses the Arabic word “qawm”, that is, “tribe” to describe the Berbers who were among the conquering forces. Ibn Naṣr al-Dāwūdī, “Le régime foncier en Sicile au Moyen Age (IXe etXe Siècles), ‘Kitāb al-Amwāl" d'al-Dāwūdī,” eds H.H. Abdul Wahab and F. Dachraoui. Études d'Orientalisme dediées à la mémoire de Lévi-Provençal, 2 vols. (Paris: G.P.Maisonneuve,1967), 2:410-427, 430-4441967, 2: 410-427, 430-444.

6) ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn Masʻūdi, Murūj al-dhahāb, eds C. Barbier de Meynard, 3 vols.(Paris: L’imprimerie imperiale, 1861-1864), 3: 242.

7) Abū al-Qāsim ibn Aḥmad Ziyyānī, Al-Turjumān al-mughrib ‘an duwāl al-Mashriq, MSS RabatNational Library, No. D 658, folios 14 vo and 16 ro.

8) Dāwūdī, “Le régime foncier en Sicile,” 2: 409, 429.9) ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar fī ayyām al-‘arab wa al-‘ajam, 14 vols.

(Beirut: Dar al-Thaqafa,1986), 11: 286 – 287.

10) Dāwūdī, “Le régime foncier en Sicile,” 2: 409, 429.11) Alessandra Molinari, “La Sicilia islamica: riflessioni sul passato e

sul futuro della ricerca in campo archeologico,” Mélanges de L’École Française deRome, Moyen Âge

116 (2004): 42 12) Preliminary studies have indicated that a large number of immigrants from North Africa settled

in Sicily during this period. See F. Mallegni, “Problemi di popolamento Musulmano in Sicilia.” In G. Castellana, ed Dagli Scavi di Montevago e di Rocca di Entella, un contributo di conoscenze per la Storia dei Musulmani della Valle del Belice (Montevago: Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Agrigento,1992), 243-247; R. Guglielmino, “La Nicropoli musulmana di Entella,”

in Castellana, Dagli Scavi di Montevago, 239.13) Angeliki E. Laiou and Cécile Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy (Cambridge:

Cambridge

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University Press, 2007), 38. Angeliki E. Laiou and Cécile Morrisson, The Byzantine Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 38.

14) M. Sanfilippo, “Le città siciliane dal VI al XIII secolo: Note per una storia urbanistica,” in Storia della Sicilia. 5 vols. (Naples: Societa editrice Storia di Napoli e della Sicilia, 1978), 2:454.

15) Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Thematibus (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1967), 94-96.

16) Mas‘ūdī, Murūj al-dhahāb, 3: 242; Ziyyānī, MSS Rabat National Library, No. D 658, folios 14 vo and 16 ro.; Yāqūt ibn ʻAbd Allāh, Mu‘jam al-buldān, 5 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Ṣādr,1955-1957, 3: 416-417.

17) M. Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. Revised and annotated by Carlo A. Nallino. 3 vols. (Catania: Prampolini, 1933-39) 3: 212-218.

18) Ibid.19) ‘Abd al-Raḥmān and Qāsim ibn ’Isā Ibn Nājī, Maʻālim al-īmān fī maʻrifat ahl al-

Qayrawān,ed Ibrahim Shabbūḥ, 4 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1968), 3:160; al-Mālikī says that besides rural folk Bedouins fled to Sicily. See Mālikī, Kitāb Riyād al-Nufūs, 3:12.

20) ‘Abd al-Wahid al-Marrākushī, Kitab al-mu’jib fi talkhis al-maghrib, ed P.A. Dozy(Amsterdam: Oriental Press, 1968), 259; Amar Allaoua, “Retour à la problématique du déclin économique du monde Musulman médiéval: le cas du maghreb Hammadide (XI-XIIe siècles),” The Maghreb Review 28 (2003), 9, 15. 21) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11: 286 – 287. 22) Ibid., 11: 287. 23) Ibid. 24) Ibid., 11: 283; T. Lewicki, “La répartition géographique des groupements Ibadis dans l'Afrique

du Nord au Moyen Age,”Rocznik Orientalistyczny 21 (1957), 320-321. 25) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11: 283. 26) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:235. 27) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11: 229, 231, 283. 28) S. Cusa, I Diplomi Greci ed Arabi di Sicilia, 2 vols. (Palermo: Lao, 1868), 1: 223-224.

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29) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11: 229, 231, 283. 30) T. Lewicki, Études Ibadis Nord-Africaines (Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1955), 81-87; Dhikr asma‘ ba‘d shuyukh al-Wahbiya, in Aḥmad ibn Saʻīd al-Shammākhī, Kitāb

al-Siyar, 2 vols. (Muscat, Oman: Wazara al-Thurath al-Qawmi wa al-Thaqafa, 1987), 2: 230; Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:229.

31) al-Shammākhī, Kitāb al-Siyar, 2: 229. 32) F. Maurici, L’Emirato sulle Montagne. Palermo: l’Epos, 1987; also F. Maurici, L’insediamento medievale nel territorio della Provincia di Palermo (Palermo: Beni Culturali di Palermo,1998), 80-81. 33) S. Fiorilla, “Insediamenti e territorio nella Sicilia centromeridionale,” Mélanges de L’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge 116 (2004), 97. 34) al-Shammākhī, Kitāb al-Siyar, 2: 229. 35) Virginie Prevost, L’aventure Ibāḍite dans le Sud tunisien (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2008), 365; Tadeusz Lewicki, “The Ibadites in Arabia and Africa,” Cahiers d’Histoire Mondiale. 13 (1971): 11. 36) Cusa, Diplomi Greci, 1:183-86, 207-10. 37) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:235. 38) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:279; also, H. Bresc, “Féodalité coloniale en terre d’Islam. La Sicile (1070-1240),” in Structures Féodales et Féodalisme dans l'Occident Mediterranée (Xe- XllleSiècles) (Rome: École française de Rome, 1980), 635. 39) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:246, 265-79. 40) Cusa, Diplomi Greci, 2: 506, 571, 566, 572. 41) Ibid., 1: 66, 106, 132, 2: 579. 42) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:282-83; Lewicki, “La répartition géographique des groupements Ibadis,” 314. 43) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:231, 240-243; Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 2:55. 44) Ibn Khaldūn, Kitāb al-‘ibar, 11:282-83; Lewicki, “La répartition géographique des groupements Ibadis,” 321-23; al-Shammākhī, Kitāb al-siyar, 2:235. 45) Lewicki, “The Ibadites in Arabia,” 93 ; Prevost, L’aventure Ibāḍite dans le Sud tunisien 67; Ibn ‘Idhārī al-Marrākushī, Kitāb al-Bayān,1:73. 46) Quote from Bernard Lewis translation. Bernard Lewis, ed. Islam from the

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Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1974), 93; M. Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb Ṣurat al-ʼarḍ (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāh, 1979),118. 47) N. Levtzion, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1973), 30, 130-137; E. Savage, Gateway to Hell, a Gateway to Paradise. The North African response to the Arab conquest (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997), 79. 48) ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Bakrī, al-Mughrib fī dhikr bilād Ifrīqīyah wa al Maghrib, ed Le Baron de Slane (Algiers: Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1857); reprint edition. (Baghdad: Yuṭlabu min Maktabat al-Muthannā,1968?), 158.; D. Robert & S. Devisse. Tegdaoust I. Recherches sur Aoudaghost (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphics, 1970), 140. 49) Lewicki, “The Ibadis in Arabia,” 123-124. 50) al-Bakrī, al-Mughrib fī dhikr bilād Ifrīqīyah,114; Ibn ʻIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān al-Mughrib, 1:155. 51) Kitāb al-Istibṣār fī ʻajāʾib al-amṣār. Ed. Saʻd Zaghlūl ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd (Alexandria:University of Alexandria, 1958), 178; al-Bakrī, al-Mughrib fī dhikr bilād Ifrīqīya, 139; Ibn ʻIdhārī, Kitāb al-Bayān al-Mughrib,1:155. This may indicate that the Barqajāna were related tothe Hawwāra. 52) Ibn Saghīr gives the name of the tribe that controlled the sūq as ‘ajim qawm min Majāna but Motylinski translated it into French as the tribe Marmajāna. But since Majāna and Marmajāna are the name of towns, I am not convinced that an unidentified tribe from Majāna could control the sūq of Tāhart. It appears to me that there was a misreading or an orthographic mistake in the text, and the sentence should be read as “ ‘ajim qawm Barqajāna.” See Ibn Saghīr, “Chronique d’Ibn Saghir sur les imams Rustamides de Tahert,” ed A. De Motylinski, Actes du XIVe congrès international des orientalistes, 3 vols. (Paris: E. Leroux, 1906-1908), Arabic text, 1:27, French translation, 1:86. See also Amor Ben Hamādī, “Sur lestraces d’un groupe “Tribal? enigmatique: les Barqğāna. Micro-question ou Macro-question?,” Revue Tunisienne

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de Sciences Sociales 41 (2004),180-188; Lewicki, “The Ibadis in Arabia and Africa,” 151-130. 53) T. Lewicki, “Une langue romane oubliée de l’Afrique du Nord,” Rocznik Orientalistyczny 17 (1951-1952), 424 – 425; Ben Hamādī, “Sur les traces d’un groupe “Tribal?,180-181, 188. 54) Ibn Saghīr, “Chronique d’Ibn Saghir sur les imams Rustamides de Tahert,”105; Arabic text p. 27, French translation, pp. 86, 99, 117-118; Savage, Gateway to Hell, 89-105. 55) Idrīs ‘Imād Dīn, Tārīkh al-khulafā’ al-Fāṭimīyīn bi-al-Maghrib (Vol. 5 of ‘Uyūnal-akhbār), ed Muḥammad al-Yaʻlāwī. (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1985), 214-219; Savage, Gateway to Hell, 137-158. 56) Renata Holod and Enrico Cirelli, “Islamic Pottery from Jerba (7th –10th Century),” Céramique maghrébine du haut Moyen Âge (VIII-X siècle) : état desrecherches, problemes et perspectives (Roma : École française de Rome, 2011), 177. 57) Ismaʻ īl Maḥmūd, al-Khawārij fī al-Maghrib al-islāmī (Beirut: Dār al-‘Awdah,1976), 176. 58) Lewicki, “La répartition géographique des groupements Ibadis,” 307-343. 59) al-Shammākhī, Kitāb al-Siyar, 2: 226. 60) Fiorilla, “Insediamenti e territorio nella Sicilia centromeridionale,” 97. 61) Gli Atti Perduti della Cancelleria Angioina, [Regesta Chartarum Italiae], (eds.) Riccardo Filangieri & Carlo De Lellis, 2 vols. (Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1939), 1: 252. 62. 62) Aldo Messina, Le chiese rupestri di Siracusano (Palermo: Istituto sicilianodi studi bizantini e neoellenici, 1979), 127. 63) al-Muqaddasī, The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions, trans. Basil Collins (Reading, U.K.: Garnet, 1994), 185. 64) Adalgisa De Simone, La descrizione dell'Italia nel Rawd al-mi ‘tar di al-Himyari (Mazara del Vallo: Liceo ginnasio Gian Giacomo Adria, 1984), 21, note 1. 65) Il territorio communale di Modica (RG). Analisi quantitative e strumenti per una carta archeologia, (eds.) S. Campana & G. Macchi Jánica (Siena: Università degli Studi di Siena, 2004/2005), 24-27.

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66) Aldo Messina, Sicilia rupestre. Il trogloditismo, gli edifice di culto, le immagini sacre (Caltanisetta-Rome, 2008), 36-37. 67) Fabiola Ardizzone Lo Bue, Anfore in Sicilia, (VIII – XII sec. D.C.) (Terra di Vento: Torri del Vento, 2012), 108 and note 68. 68) Lucia Arcifa, et al., “Archeologia della Sicilia islamica: nuove proposti di riflessione,” in Histoire et archeology de l’Occident musulman (VII – XV siècles), al-Andalus, Maghreb, Sicile, ed Philippe Senac. (Toulouse: CNRS), 246-250. 69) Abū Sulaymān al-Wisyānī, Siyar al-Wisyānī, ed. ‘Umar ibn Luqmān Ḥāmmū Sulaymān Bū ‘Aṣbānah (Muscat, Oman: Wazārah al-Turāth wa al-Thaqāfah, 2009), 1:465. 70) T. Lewicki, “Notice sur la chronique ibāḍite d’ad-Darginī,” RocznikOrientalistyczny 13 (1936), 151-152. 71) Abū Sulaymān al-Wisyānī, Siyar al-Wisyānī, 1:465. 72) Ibn Ḥawqal, Kitāb Ṣurat al-ʼarḍ, 123. 73) V. Prevost, “L’influence de l’État rustumide dans le Sud tunisien,”Acta Orientalia 68 (2007), 119. ‘Amr K. Ennami, Studies in Ibadism (Tripoli: University of Libya Faculty of Arts, 1972), 218. 74) Lewicki, “The Ibadis in Arabia and Africa,” 111; Talbi, L’Emirat aghlabide, 359-360. 75) Ennami, Studies in Ibadism (al-Ibadiya), 237-238 76) Michael Brett, “The Arab Conquest and the Rise of Islam in North Africa.” in The Cambridge History

of Africa. 2 vols. Ed. J. D. Fage. (Cambridge: 1978), 595; Prevost, L’aventure ibāḍite, 385-409.

77) Sa‘d Zaghlūl ‘Abd al-Mājid, “Hāshim ‘alā maṣādir tārīkh al-Ibāḍīyahfī al- maghrib,” in Actes du Premier Congres d’Histoire et de la civilisation du Maghreb, 2 vols. (Tunis: Centre d’Etudeset de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, 1979), 2: 49-60. 78) ‘Abd al-Mājid, “Hāshim ‘alā maṣādir tārīkh, 70; Lombard slaves fromItaly were most often sent to Sicily by Naples and Amalfi. Michael McCormick, Origins of the European Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 627-638; Native Greeks from Calabria were sold to the Arabs of Sicily by the Byzantines of southern Italy. See Erchempert, Erchemperti Historia Langobardorum Beneventorum. Eds. G.H. Pertz and G. Waitz. In Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum

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Saec. VI-IX, Monumenta Germaniae Historica. (Hanover 1878), 264. 79) Lucia Travaini, La monetazione nell’Italia Normanna (Rome: Istituto StoricoItaliano per il Medio Evo 1995), 20; Armando O. Citarella, “Merchants, Markets and Merchandise in Southern Italy in the High Middle Ages” in Merchants, Markets and Merchandise in Southern Italy in the High Middle Ages. 2 vols. (Spoleto: Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 1993),1: 255. 80) John Skylitzes, A Synopsis of Byzantine History 811-1057, trans. by John Wortley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 255. 81) ʻAlī ibn Mūsā al-Maghribī Ibn Saʻīd, ʼUnwān al-murqisāt wa al-muṭribāt, ed Mahdad Abdelkader (Algiers: Carbonel,1949), 49. 82) Muḥammad ibn Bābā‘ammī, Mu‘jam a‘lām al-Ibāḍīya min al-qarn al-awwal al-Hijrī ilā al-ʻaṣr al-ḥāḍir: qism al-Maghrib al-Islāmī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 2000),2: 218-219.

Lincoln 7/15/15

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