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Pacem Portantes Advenerint : Ambivalent Images of Muslims in the Chronicles of Norman Italy

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09503110.2012.684743

1473-348X

Jesse Hysell,

Medieval History and Crusades

Abstract The goal of this essay is to call attention to some of the more positive and ambivalent depictions of Muslims in a set of historical texts associated with the Norman takeover of Sicily in the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries. To achieve that aim, it considers social vocabulary applied to Muslims in five sources written by Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, William of Apulia, Alexander of Telese, and Hugo Falcandus. Although recent scholarship has posited that medieval identity was often felt through a “self versus other” or “Christian versus non-Christian” dichotomy, this essay questions the notion that the actual language contained in these sources ever devolved into such simplistic, binary terms. On the contrary, though the perceptions and definitions applied to this group of people were, admittedly, sometimes based on uninformed stereotypes, they were more often deliberately constructed images that were highly dependent on the cultural milieu in which they were created. Keywords: Sicily (kingdom) – crusadesNormans – in SicilyRoger I, count of SicilyRobert Guiscard, duke of ApuliaGeoffrey Malaterra, chroniclerHugo Falcandus, chroniclerSicily (kingdom) – historiographyChronicles – in ItalyAmatus of Montecassino, chroniclerWilliam of Apulia, chroniclerAlessandro di Telese, chroniclerSaracens – in literature Notes 1 For an overview of the history of southern Italy prior to the Norman arrival, see Barbara M. Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Vera Von Falkenhausen, La dominazione bizantina nell’Italia meridionale dal IX all’XI secolo (Bari: Ecumenica Editrice, 1978); G.A. Loud, “Byzantium and Southern Italy (876–1000)”, in The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, ed. Jonathan Shepard (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 560–582. 2 On the rise of the Normans in southern Italy, see Huguette Taviani-Carozzi, La terreur du monde. Robert Guiscard et la conquête normande en Italie (Paris: Fayard, 1996); G.A. Loud, The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Norman Conquest (New York: Longman, 2000); Pierre Bouet, “1000–1100: la Conquête”, in Les Normands en Méditerranée, eds. Pierre Bouet and François Neveux (Caen: Presses Universitaires de Caen, 1994), pp. 11–25. 3 There is a vast literature on perceptions of Islam in the medieval European West, for an introduction to which see David R. Blanks, “Western views of Islam in the premodern period: a brief history of past approaches”, in Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Perceptions of Other, ed. David R. Blanks and Michael Frassetto (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), pp. 11–54. The present essay cannot hope to be comprehensive, but, by comparing the depiction of Muslims in several key works, it can still be instructive. Although this is intended to be a limited study, it may nevertheless lead to some refinement of understanding in what is, admittedly, an extremely large and complex area of scholarship. 4 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia de’ Normanni, ed. Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis [Fonti per la storia d’Italia, LXXVI] (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1935). Hereafter Storia. See also the English translation, Amatus of Montecassino, The History of the Normans, trans. Prescott N. Dunbar (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004). Unfortunately, no Latin manuscript of this text survives. It exists only as a much later Old French translation (MS. Français 688, Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale). Although the state of the text makes it impossible to conduct quite the same type of lexical analysis that might be done with a Latin original, the Storia can nevertheless provide some indication of Amatus's perceptions of the various peoples of the Mediterranean. 5 William of Apulia, La geste de Robert Guiscard, ed. and trans. Marguerite Mathieu [testi e monumenti, IV] (Palermo: Istituto siciliano di studi bizantini e neoellenici, 1961). Hereafter Gesta. See also the English translation, William of Apulia, The Deeds of Robert Guiscard, trans. Graham A. Loud. 6 Geoffrey Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius, ed. Ernesto Pontieri [Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, V] (Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli, 1928). Hereafter De rebus gestis Rogerii. See also the English translation, Geoffrey Malaterra, The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and of His Brother Duke Robert Guiscard, trans. Kenneth Baxter Wolf (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005). 7 Alexander of Telese, Ystoria Rogerii regis Sicilie Calabrie atque Apulie, eds. Ludovica de Nava and Dione Clementi [Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, CXII] (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1991). Hereafter Ystoria. See also the English translation, Alexander of Telese, The Deeds Done by King Roger of Sicily, trans. Graham A. Loud. 8 Hugo Falcandus, Liber de Regno Sicilie, ed. G.B. Siragusa [Fonti per la storia d’Italia, XXII] (Rome: Forzani, 1897). Hereafter Liber. See also the English translation, Hugo Falcandus, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by ‘Hugo Falcandus’ 1154–69, trans. Graham A. Loud and Thomas E.J. Wiedemann (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998). Although it has become common convention to refer to the unknown author of the Liber de Regno Sicilie as pseudo-Falcandus or “the so-called Hugo Falcandus”, I have chosen not to do this for ease of reading, and with the understanding that the writer's identity remains highly problematic. 9 Two other potential sources, Falco of Benevento's Chronicon Beneventanum and Romuald Guarna's Chronicon, both from the sixth/twelfth century, have been excluded from this study. Falco's chronicle, written outside the Norman kingdom, was first of all meant as an attack on King Roger II, whom he described as a rex nefandus. It seemed more appropriate to select only authors who, if not Normans themselves, at least took a favourable view towards Norman rule. The text, moreover, has been transmitted indirectly, surviving in the chronicle of the Cistercian monastery of St. Mary of Ferraria, and incompletely, as the beginning and ending have been lost. Although it is true that the sole extant manuscript of Amatus of Montecassino is quite problematic as well, its importance as the earliest of the five sources meant that it could not justifiably be excluded. The chronicle of Romuald, archbishop of Salerno from 1153/548 to 1181/576, has been left out for other reasons. The text was written as a world chronicle, and therefore only part of it concerns events from the sixth/twelfth-century kingdom of Sicily; and much of that material discusses only the Peace of Venice of 1177/572, which Romuald attended. Certain sections, moreover, may have been the product of another author, which would complicate the task of terminological analysis. On these two sources, see Errico Cuozzo and Edoardo D’Angelo, “Falcone da Benevento”, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1994), XLIV: 321–325; G.A. Loud, “The Genesis and Context of the Chronicle of Falco of Benevento”, Anglo-Norman Studies 15 (1993): 177–198; Donald J.A. Matthew, “The Chronicle of Romuald of Salerno”, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to R.W. Southern, eds. R.H.C. Davis and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), pp. 239–274. 10 Pierre Toubert has in this regard referred to “l’homogénéité culturelle relative” of the authors. Pierre Toubert, “La première historiographie de la conquête normande de l’Italie méridionale (XIe siècle)”, in I caratteri originari della conquista normanna: Diversità e identità nel Mezzogiorno (1030–1130), eds. Raffaele Licinio and Francesco Violante (Bari: Centro di Studi Normanni-Svevi della Università degli Studi di Bari, 2006), pp. 15–49, esp. p. 32. 11 That is, Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, and Alexander of Telese. E. Pontieri, introduction to De rebus gestis Rogerii, iv; Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, introduction to Storia, xxii–xxiii; L. De Nava, introduction to Ystoria, v. This similarity is no accident, and de Nava has aptly noted that “l’atmosfera benedettina era certo particolarmente favorevole alla pratica della storiografia” (ibid, xxvi). Very little is known about William of Apulia, although Mathieu thought it possible, if improbable, that he was a certain Guillelmus Apulus, monk of Marmoutier. While others have suggested that the poet was a layman, Mathieu pointed out that this possibility was “sans autre argument que l’absence de merveilleux chrétiens dans son œuvre, et le nombre restreint de citations des Ecritures Saintes” (Mathieu, introduction to Gesta, 23–25). There is, admittedly, even less to be said about “Hugo Falcandus”, whose very name is held in doubt. Siragusa noted that some scholars have argued the name could refer to “Hugues Focault”, abbot of St. Denis in 1186/582, who would have come to Sicily with Peter of Blois (c. 1135–c. 1203) and Stephen of Rouen (fl. sixth/twelfth century; G.B. Siragusa, introduction to Liber, x). Another suggestion has been that the author was either Eugenius (c. 1130–1202), a Greek royal official, or Robert of San Giovanni (d. c. 1185), a royal notary and canon. Evelyn Jamison, Admiral Eugenius of Sicily: His Life and Work, and the Authorship of the Epistola Ad Petrum and the Historia Hugonis Falcandi Siculi (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), pp. 200, 233. 12 For detailed analysis of the poet's style and language in comparison to contemporaries see Mathieu, introduction to Gesta, 56–70. “Les critiques postérieurs plus que l’écrivain, et tout en ne méconnaissant pas ses défauts … s’accordent à reconnaître en lui un poète supérieur à la moyenne de ses contemporains, et dans son œuvre une des meilleures épopées historiques du temps, par sa clarté, sa simplicité, sa versification habile et pas trop maniérée, son classicisme sans imitations serviles, et, par endroits, quelque élégance et quelque vivacité”. 13 De Nava observed, for example, that Alexander “pur tenendo presenti le regole della grammatica classica, slitta spesso nel sermo vulgaris” (De Nava, introduction to Ystoria, xx). It would, however, be wrong to characterise this historian as uneducated. 14 Some work has been done on the intellectual history of these writers, particularly that of William of Apulia, for which see Umberto Ronca, Cultura medioevale e poesia latina d’Italia nei secoli XI e XII (Rome: Società Laziale Editrice, 1892), pp. 403–409; A. Pagano, Il poema Gesta Roberti Wiscardi di Guglielmo Pugliese (Naples: S. Morano, 1909), pp. 108–118; Mathieu, introduction to Gesta, 61–62; Emily Albu, The Normans in their Histories: Propaganda, Myth and Subversion (Rochester: Boydell Press, 2001), pp. 106–144. Albu observed that the beginning of the text echoes Vergil's Aeneid while later sections darken to resemble Lucan's Pharsalia, in her view indicating the author's disillusionment with Robert Guiscard. 15 There is of course an unavoidable gap between literary convention and the “historical reality” being described. This gap has in recent years been made all the more apparent by the advent of the “linguistic turn”, which questioned the mimetic capacity of language in general. It has led to some rather extreme positions, above all from Hayden White, who sees historical narratives as no more than a literary genre. According to this view, history is challenged at two levels of reality: as both event and account. Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974). Others, including medievalists, are more optimistic about the historian's ability to explore human experience through the study of language, for which see Robert M. Stein, “Literary criticism and the evidence for history”, in Writing Medieval History, ed. Nancy Partner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 67–87. For commentary from a non-medievalist, see Georg G. Iggers, “The ‘linguistic turn’: the end of history as a scholarly discipline?” in Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge, ed. Georg G. Iggers (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1997), pp. 118–133. 16 For the thoughts expressed here, I am indebted to Germana Gandino and Luigi Andrea Berto. For elaboration on the utility of this approach, see especially the introduction to Germana Gandino, Il vocabolario politico e sociale di Liutprando di Cremona (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1995), pp. 3–5. See also Luigi Andrea Berto, Il vocabolario politico e sociale della “Istoria Veneticorum” di Giovanni Diacono (Padua: Il poligrafo, 2001). 17 William of Apulia's identification of the Turks as Persians (Perses) should not be seen as erroneous, but as a symptom of his classicising tendencies, which are common throughout his epic poem. The fact that he differentiated between Turks and Sicilians is most apparent in the following passage, where William wrote that, after the death of Robert Guiscard, his soldiers could not have been any more afraid, even if all the peoples of the world attacked them: “Omnes si Danai, gens Persica, gens Agarena / Hos invasissent, et ab omni climate mundi / Afflueret populus, peteretque armatus inermes: / Non illa hac formido foret formidine maior” (William of Apulia, Gesta, v. 368–371). Curiously, the word Agareni was utilised as a pejorative term for the Normans in certain Italian sources from the mid-fifth/eleventh century (Mathieu, introduction to Gesta, 4). 18 Although Malaterra referred to Africans, Arabs, and Sicilians all as Saracens, he nevertheless made an effort to distinguish between the Muslims of Sicily and their coreligionists who hailed from elsewhere in the Mediterranean. With the exception of chapter headings, Malaterra employed the term Saracenus or Sarracenus a total of twenty-six times: Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, I.4, 30; I.14, 33 (three times); I.16 (twice); I.20 (twice); I.29, 40 (twice); I.33, 42 (twice); II.33, 45; II.42; III.8; III.12; III.30, 75 (twice); III.32, 76; III.36, 78; IV.2, 86; IV.17, 96; IV.18, 98; IV.22, 100; IV.26, 104; IV.29, 108. He referred to the Arabici nine times: ibid, II.32 (three times); II.33; II.35, 45; II.46 (four times). He used Africani five times: ibid, II.17; II.32, 41; II.33, 42; II.44, 45; III.8. With the exception of the title comes Siculorum, Siciles occurred in ten cases: id., II.8, 32; II.17; II.32 (twice); II.33, 42–44 (twice); II.41, 49; III.20. William of Apulia employed the term Siculi or gens Sicula nine times: William of Apulia, Gesta, I.197; I.201; I.244; III.199; III.203 (gens sicula); III.319; III.338; III.343; III.433. Arabes appeared once: ibid, III.483. The words Afri or Affri occurred twice: ibid, III.225; III.483. 19 “Arabi et Barbare” were mentioned in Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, VII.1. Like Malaterra, Amatus typically identified Sicilians either as “Saracens (li Sarrazin)” or as “pagans (li Pagan, li Paen)”. He employed both terms when discussing the Sicilians as well as the Muslims in Spain and the Italian mainland, and had no specific word for the inhabitants of Sicily. Contrary to Metcalfe's observation, Amatus never in fact used the expression “Sicilien”. Cf. A. Metcalfe, Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily: Arabic Speakers and the End of Islam (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), p. 56. William of Apulia did not explicitly refer to Muslims as barbari, although he did write of a Byzantine army as composed of “Maxima barbaricae cum Graecis”. This force, in subsequent lines, was revealed to include Turks (William of Apulia, Gesta, IV.323). He also referred to Emperor Henry IV's soldiers as barbaries (ibid, IV.539). 20 Masmudi derives from the name of the Masmūdah Berbers, the tribe from which the Almohads arose. For an etymological discussion, see F. Corriente, Dictionary of Arabic and Allied Loanwords: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and Kindred Dialects (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 371. 21 Alex Metcalfe, however, feels that these terms were used in an idiosyncratic way and cannot be relied upon as precise indicators of identity (Metcalfe, Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily, 58). According to him, “there is no sense in which different terms came to be standardised with time and their meanings varied capriciously according to the source in which the name was applied”. 22 The term “stereotype” is a modern expression that cannot capture the opinions of medieval people in a wholly satisfactory way. It is used here because the concept (first employed by journalist Walter Lippmann in 1922) simply means prejudicial images. Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1991), p. 98. The category of the stereotype has been criticised in recent theoretical studies of ethnicity and is now sometimes substituted by the word “images”, for which see Jakub Kujawinski, “Le immagini dell’‘altro’ nella chronachistica del Mezzogiorno longobardo”, Rivista Storica Italiana 118/3 (2006): 768–815. 23 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.33; see also Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.45. 24 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, I.5, 13; see also Dunbar, The History of the Normans, I.5. 25 See, for example, Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, IV.39, a chapter in which the devil inspired Prince Pandulf IV of Capua. In ibid, VIII.29, the Cassinese historian reported that Prince Gisulf II of Salerno was aided by the devil; see also Dunbar, The History of the Normans, IV.39 and VIII.29. 26 See especially William of Apulia, Gesta, III.270–287; see also Loud, The Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III.35. 27 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.198–201; see also Loud, The Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III.33. 28 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.56–58; see also Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III.30. 29 Hubert Houben has offered some commentary on this: H. Houben, Roger II: A Ruler between East and West (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 47. The destruction is recorded by both Falco of Benevento and Romuald of Salerno. For more information, see below. 30 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.45, 53; cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.45, 125. 31 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.11, 33; cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.11, 91. See also Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Making History: The Normans and Their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), p. 160. Wolf suggested that this episode was meant to appeal to a courtly audience. 32 Malaterra described Islam as a superstition (superstitio) at two points: Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.45, 53; ibid, III.16. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.45, 125; ibid, III.16, 146. 33 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.6. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.6, 88. 34 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.6. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.6, 88. 35 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.6. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.6, 88. 36 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.6. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.6, 88–89. 37 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.5–II.6. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.5–II.6, 88–89. 38 Malaterra provided a similar example when discussing the Muslim defence of Centuripe against the Normans. He wrote that the inhabitants did not fear death and did not want to be thrown into servitude: “Mori tamen non abhorrentes, cum nullo modo servire volunt, in defensione urbis et sua propugnacula armant”. They resisted, and the Normans were again repelled as at Messina (Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.15; df. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.15). Compare this depiction of the Muslims as worthy adversaries to William of Apulia's account of the defence of Palermo, where the Muslims “came to the fight like men, firmly resolved either to live or to die (Ad pugnam veniunt sub condicione virili / Ut quo iure viri vel vivant vel moriantur)” (William of Apulia, Gesta, III.233–234; cf. Loud, The Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 34). 39 Pagani appeared in: Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.32, p. 42; II.33, p. 44; II.33, p. 45 (twice); III.30, p. 75 (twice); III.30, p. 76 (twice); IV.24. There were ten other instances in which Malaterra made reference to their religion: ibid, II.1, p. 29 (gens Deo ingrata); II.1, p. 29 (siciliam incredulam); II.13 (libris superstitionis); II.33, p. 44 (gens Deo rebellis); II.35, p. 46 (gens Deo rebellis); II.41, p. 50 (Malaterra's Robert Guiscard stated that a new Muslim leader was eiusdem religionis); III.16 (Islam referred to as a superstitio); IV.2, p. 86 (Benarvet, a Sicilian leader, threw himself to his death instinctu diaboli); IV.6 (Chamut, a Sicilian leader, gave up his warlike ways upon his conversion to Christianity); IV.7, p. 90 (incredula gens). 40 Malaterra referred to Muslims as incolae in: Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.36, p. 47; III.16; IV.16, p. 95. He called them cives in: ibid, I.7, p. 11; II.1, p. 29; II.11, p. 32; II.36, p. 47 (twice); III.11, p. 63; III.12; IV. 6 (not counted because they were said to have had Christian captives and cannot therefore be considered neutral language); IV.16, p. 95 (also disregarded because they were said to have had Christian prisoners); IV.18, p. 98. They were identified according to their city name in: ibid, I.7, p. 11; II.6 (twice); II.13 (twice); II.14; II.15, p. 33; II.36 (twice); II.37 (twice); II.45, p. 53; III.20 (four times); IV.12 (twice); IV.15, p. 93. With the exception of the title comes Siculorum, one passage in which the word sicilienses was used with invective (“condensitatem inimicorum paganorum ac Siciliensium” in ibid, II.33, p. 44) and the passage in which the Africans were described as Africani ergo Saraceni (ibid, III.8), there were twenty-two non-religious references to Sicilians, Africans, and Arabs. 41 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.1 ; cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, IV.1. Every verb in this episode is singular, with Benarvet as the subject. His forces, which the author ambiguously referred to as a navalis exercitus, were mentioned only once, and in the ablative. Thus, while others may have accompanied Benarvet, the author assigned agency to him alone. Malaterra's indictment, therefore, appears to have been levelled against one man in particular, rather than the Saracens in general. The translation, however, has changed the Latin singular verbs to plurals, and thus shifted the agency from Benarvet to his troops. As for Benarvet, Metcalfe has suggested that this may be a Latinised form of the name Ibn al-Ward or Ibn ʿAbbād. Nothing is known about this figure. A. Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), p. 100. 42 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.17, 96. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, IV.17, 194. 43 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.22, 100. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, IV.22, 200. 44 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.26, 104 Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, IV.26, 208. 45 Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 128. 46 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, III.17, 66. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, III.17, 147. 47 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, III.17, 67. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, III.17, 148. 48 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.33, 43. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, II.33, 109. According to Houben, the religious imagery in Malaterra's lively narrative of the Norman victory over Muslim forces at Cerami (fought in 1063) was incidental, as were the religious undertones of the entire mission in Sicily. The primary motives of the conquest were political and economic, and in fact had little in common with the ideals of the First Crusade (Houben, Roger II: A Ruler between East and West, 20). Scholars such as Pierre Toubert continue to reject this interpretation, writing for instance that it is possible to see “dans les Gesta de Malaterra les éléments constitutifs d’un récit de pré-croisade” (Toubert, “La première historiographie de la conquête normande de l’Italie méridionale (XIe siècle)”, 38). See also Paul E. Chevedden, “A Crusade from the First: The Norman Conquest of Islamic Sicily, 1060–1091”, Al-Masāq 22/2 (2010): 191–225, who argued that the Norman campaigns in Sicily generally, and Malaterra's description of the battle of Cerami especially, should be reinterpreted as evidence of a true proto-crusade. 49 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, III.17, 67. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, III.17, 147. 50 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, III.17, 67. Cf. Wolf, The Deeds of Count Roger, III.17, 147. 51 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.11. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.11. 52 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.11. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.11. 53 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, VIII.14, 354. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, VIII.14: “Il assembla troiz turmez de troiz manieres de gent: c’est de Latin, de Grex et de Sarrazin, et commanda que venissent molt de gent et de navie à garder lo port”. 54 Alexander of Telese, Ystoria, II.42. Cf. Loud, Deeds Done by King Roger, II.42, 38. “Interim autem, dum ita utrimque pugnaretur, Sarraceni per illud instrumentum ligna, quibus fossatus repleretur, iactabant”. 55 Alexander of Telese, Ystoria, II.34. Cf. Loud, Deeds Done by King Roger, II.34. According to the chronicler, a group of Christians killed several Muslims who were sent to construct a fortress at Bari because they had killed a nobleman's son. 56 Alexander of Telese mentioned Muslims at just one other place in his text, where he described Bohemond's capture by the Turks, which occurred at the Battle of Melitene in 1100. In his rather murky description of that event, the abbot stated only that the Norman commander was fiercely intercepted, disarmed, and later died (Alexander of Telese, Ystoria, I.12, 12–13; cf. Loud, Deeds Done by King Roger, I,12, 11). This account is misleading, since Bohemond, who did spend nearly three years as prisoner of the Turks, was ultimately freed. Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 78. 57 Falco of Benevento, Cronaca di Falcone Beneventano, in Cronisti e Scrittori Sincroni Napoletani Editi e Inediti, ed. Giuseppe Del Re (Naples: Stamperia Dell’Iride, 1845), p. 218: “Rex Rogerius Siculorum, exercitu Sarracenorum congregato, Pharum transivit; deinde in Apuliam cursu rapido acceleravit; et continuo civitatem Venusiam quam Tancredus comprehenderat, et alias civitates virtute comprehendens, igne, ferroque consummavit: viros quoque et mulieres, parvulosque earum variis mortis generibus necavit”. 58 Romuald Guarna, Cronica di Romualdo Guarna Arcivescovo Salernitano, in Cronisti e Scrittori Sincroni Napoletani Editi e Inediti, ed. Giuseppe Del Re (Naples: Stamperia Dell’Iride, 1845), p. 11: “Pueros de sinu auferentes matrum allidebant, gladiisque findebant; Sacerdotes juxta Crucem et Altare stantes interimebant, Sacramenta Ecclesiae, idest Sanctum Chrisma, in suis peronibus deridendo, seu corporibus fundebant; mulieres coram maritis adulterantes”. 59 The text's most recent editor, Ludovica de Nava, wrote that “v’è senza dubbio un certo sapore insincero in alcune pagine dell’Ystoria … l’autore non è riuscito a nascondere del tutto l’imbarazzo in cui si trovava nel narrare certi episodi” (De Nava, introduction to Ystoria, xliii). 60 Falcandus, Liber, c. 22. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 124. 61 Falcandus, Liber, c. 22. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 124. 62 Falcandus, Liber, c. 14, 56–57. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 109–110. 63 Falcandus, Liber, c. 21, 70. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 121. 64 Falcandus, Liber, c. 21, 70. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 122. 65 Marcus Tullius Cicero, M. Tulli Ciceronis De Doma Sua ad Pontifices Oratio, ed. Robert George Nisbet (New York: Arno Press, 1979), p. 6. 66 Jan-Frederick Niemeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus: lexique latin médiéval, français–anglais (Leiden: Brill, 1976), p. 514. 67 Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 185. 68 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.3, 87. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, IV.3, 179. 69 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.3, 87. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, IV.3, 179. 70 Niemeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, 593. 71 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.3, 87. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, IV.3, 179. 72 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, IV.3, 87. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, IV.3, 179. 73 Such a depiction fits with Roger I's diplomatic relations with North Africa, which improved considerably after the withdrawal of Zīrid forces from Sicily (see Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 99). Metcalfe noted that “any lingering Zirid hostility had effectively been neutralised by diplomacy and treaty sometime between 1068 … and the Pisan attack of 1087 … The Normans’ relations with overseas Muslim powers were complex and delicate, yet, in many respects, they were more consistent and less mutually threatening than relations with the German or Byzantine empires”, 99. 74 For historical background on the Norman presence in North Africa, see David Abulafia, “The Norman Kingdom of Africa and the Norman Expeditions to Majorca and the Muslim Mediterranean”, Anglo-Norman Studies 7 (1985): 26–49. 75 Falcandus, Liber, c. 10, 25–26. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 79. This rex was the Almohad caliph ʿAbd-al-Muʾmin (d. 1163/558), the principal opponent of the Norman presence in Africa (Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 160–174). 76 Falcandus, Liber, c. 10, 27. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 80. 77 Falcandus, Liber, c. 10, 27. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 80. 78 Falcandus, Liber, c. 10, 28. Cf. Loud, The History of the Tyrants of Sicily, 81. For more information on the fall of Norman Africa, see Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 174–175. 79 Ibn al-Thumna, qāʾid of eastern Sicily, is attested to in Arabic sources. In reality, he defeated and killed the ruler of Catania, Ibn al-Maklātī, and married the latter's wife. Ibn al-Thumna later entered into a conflict with his brother-in-law, Ibn al-Hawwās, and sought military assistance from the Normans (Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, 84–85; Houben, Roger II: A Ruler between East and West, 14–15). 80 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.16; id., II.18, 34. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, II.16, 93; id. II.18, 94. 81 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.3. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, II.3, 87. 82 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.3. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, II.3, 87. 83 Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii, II.22. Cf. Wolf, Deeds of Count Roger, II.22, 96. 84 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.8, 229. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.8. 85 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.8, 230. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.8. 86 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.9. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.9. 87 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, V.10, 232; id., V.22, 240. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, V.10 and V.22. 88 Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, II.10, 69. Cf. Dunbar, The History of the Normans, II.10. 89 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.56–58. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 30. “Direptis castris Romanum Persica ducit / Ad sua castra phalanx, et eum statuere sedili / Egregio, iuxta Persarum rege sedente”. Alp Arslan, who led the Seljuks to victory at Manzikert in 1071, was never actually identified by name in William of Apulia's text. 90 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.59–62. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 30. 91 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.63–64. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 30. 92 William of Apulia, Gesta, III. 66–70. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 30. The marriage alliance was also mentioned by Amatus of Montecassino, Storia, I.11. It also appeared in Byzantine sources, for which see de Bartholomaeis, Storia, 18n2. 93 William of Apulia, Gesta, III.71–72. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, III, 30. 94 The battle of Durazzo was fought in October 1081 between the Byzantines, Venetians, and Normans for control of the Straits of Otranto, for which see Paul Stephenson, Byantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204 (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 156–185. 95 William of Apulia, Gesta, IV.331–337. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, IV, 52. 96 William of Apulia, Gesta, IV.416. Cf. Loud, Deeds of Robert Guiscard, IV, 54.