Kingdom of Africa

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The "Kingdom of Africa" (Regno d'Africa) pinpointed in red

The Kingdom of Africa was an extension of the frontier zone of the

Ifrīqiya in Arabic),[a] corresponding to Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya today. The main primary sources for the kingdom are Arabic (Muslim);[b] the Latin (Christian) sources are scanter.[c]

The Sicilian conquest of Africa began under

Roger II in 1146–1148. Sicilian rule consisted of military garrisons in the major towns, exactions on the local Muslim population, protection of Christians, and the minting of coin. The local aristocracy was largely left in place, and Muslim princes controlled the civil government under Sicilian oversight. Economic connections between Sicily and Africa, which were strong before the conquest, were strengthened, while ties between Africa and northern Italy were expanded. Early in the reign of William I, the Kingdom of Africa fell to the Almohad Caliphate
(1158–1160). Its most enduring legacy was the realignment of Mediterranean powers brought about by its demise and the Siculo-Almohad peace finalised in 1180.

Background

See also: History of North Africa
Part of a series on the
History of Tunisia
Partie de la coste de Barbarie en Africque où sont les royaumes de Tunis et de Tripoli et pays circonvoisins - par le Sr Sanson d'Abbeville
Prehistoric
Prehistory
Ancient
Carthage12th C.–146 BC
1st Roman (Province)146 BC–435
Vandal435–534
2nd Roman (Byzantine) / Byzantine North Africa534–698
Prefecture534–590
Exarchate590–698
Early Islamic
Umayyad698–750
Abbasid750–800
Aghlabid800–909
Fatimid909–973
Medieval
Zirid973–1148
Norman1148–1160
Almohad1160–1229
Hafsid1229–1574
Early modern
Ottoman 1574–1705
Husainid 1705–1881
Modern
French Tunisia 1881–1956
Kingdom of Tunisia 1956–1957
Bourguiba rule 1957–1987
Ben Ali coup 1987
Ben Ali rule 1987–2011
Tunisian Revolution 2011
Parliamentary system 2011–present
map Africa portal •  History portal
Book of Roger
.

Regarding the motive for the Normans' military involvement in Africa, historian David Abulafia raises three possibilities: religious ("the extension of crusading activity into a relatively neglected arena"), economic (such as "the protection of key trade routes"), or imperialistic ("an attempt to build a vast Mediterranean empire").[3]

Economic motives

Sicily and Africa had close and growing economic ties during the period 1050–1150. The Sicilians imported gold, shipped by caravan across the Sahara to

Banū Sulaym also destroyed many fields and orchards, and forced the population to seek refuge in the towns.[5]

Count

Almoravids, and Roger pleaded with him to return relations to normal. A low-level naval war of raids and counter-raids ensued between the Normans and the Almoravids into the 1120s.[6] The most serious raid took place against Nicotera in 1122, when women and children were taken captive.[7]

In 1135 Roger II made his first permanent conquest (if

Ali ibn al-Athīr calls the "prince of Africa", was personally indebted to the Sicilian fisc, quite possibly as a result of his luxurious tastes.[8] One Arabic chronicler noted how "the accursed one [the king of Sicily] imposed the toughest conditions, and he [the emir] had to accept them, and he offered him obedience so that to all intents he became a mere ‘āmil [governor] for Roger".[9]

Religiosity

Two Latin chronicles,

Ibn Idhari says that Roger "called to arms the people of every Latin country".[10] One non-Italian knight, Richard de Lingèvres, did participate in the capture of Tripoli and was rewarded with land in Apulia. He is perhaps the same person as Count Richard of Andria
.

Ambition

There is evidence that at least some of Roger's contemporaries, mostly his enemies, saw his conquests in Africa as usurpations.

Emperor Lothair III that Roger had seized Africa, "one third of the world", from the king of Gretia (Greece). This garbled report completely detaches Roger's actions from the interreligious context by making the victim of his predations a Christian ruler. The Venetians' primary concern was Roger's ambition.[12][f]

Even the chroniclers of Roger's own kingdom believed his ambition played a primary role in his involvement in Africa. Archbishop Romuald II of Salerno in his Chronicon wrote that "because he had a proud heart and a great will to rule, because he was not simply content with Sicily and Apulia, he prepared a vast fleet, which he sent to Africa with very many troops, and [Roger] took and held Africa."[13] The pseudonymous court historian "Hugo Falcandus", in his Liber de regno sicilie e epistola ad Petrum panormitane ecclesie thesaurarium, also emphasised Roger's desire to expand his kingdom:

[H]e took care no less by force than by prudence to defeat his enemies and to extend his kingdom to its furthest limits. For he conquered Tripoli in Barbary, Mahdiyya, Sfax, Gabès and many other barbarian cities after undergoing many labours and dangers.[13]

The incorporation of northern Africa into the Sicilian kingdom would have posed no problems for Roger. The cultural connections between Sicily and northern Africa were stronger than those between Sicily and his own peninsular Italian domains.[13]

Rise and fall of Norman rule in Africa

In 1087, when the organisers of the Mahdia campaign asked him for his assistance, Roger I, who since 1076 had an economic treaty with the Tamīm ibn Muʿizz, emir of Tunis,[14] refused, saying, "As far as we are concerned, Africa is always there. When we are strong we will take it."[15]

Conquest of Tripoli and Mahdia

In 1142/3, Roger II

wāli of Gabès, and I shall be your deputy there, as are the Banū Matrūh who hold Tripoli from you."[16]
Roger complied and Yūsuf, in his new robes, read out the letter of appointment to an assemblage of notables. Gabès had long been an irritant to Mahdia, and al-Hasan of Mahdia attacked it and brought back Yūsuf to Mahdia, and stoned him to death. It is possible that Roger's attack on Mahdia in 1148 was a response to this insubordination on the part of its emir, but Ibn al-Athīr suggested that Roger was merely taking advantage of a famine in Africa, despite the fact that he had a treaty with al-Hasan until 1150.

In June 1148 Roger sent his admiral George of Antioch, a former Mahdian officer, against al-Hasan. Off the island of Pantelleria the Sicilian fleet encountered a Mahdia ship bearing some carrier pigeons. George had the birds sent home with false messages that the fleet was headed for Byzantium. When the Sicilians reached Mahdia on 22 June, the emir and his court fled the unprepared city leaving their treasure behind. This was seized as booty, but the Sicilians were given only two hours to plunder the city while its Muslim inhabitants took refuge in Christian homes and churches. Roger quickly issued a royal protection, or amān, to all the city's inhabitants. According to Ibn Abī Dīnār, George "restored both cities of Zawīla and Mahdiyya; lent money to the merchants; gave alms to the poor; placed the administration of justice in the hands of qadi acceptable to the population; and arranged well the government of these two cities."[17] Food was released to encourage refugees to return.

On 1 July the city of

Kerkennah fell to Roger, as did the unruly desert tribes. After the brief period of conquest and acquisition, "the dominion of the Franks [Normans] extended from Tripoli to the borders of Tunis, and from the western Maghrib to Qayrawan".[21]

After the Almohads took the city of

Bône. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Philip was a secret Muslim who treated the inhabitants of Bône gently.[22]

Submission of Tunis and internal unrest

Roger became involved in a war with Byzantium after 1148, and so was unable to follow up his conquests with an attack on Tunis. In fear, the Tunisians sent grain to Sicily in hopes of averting an attack, according to Ibn Idhari. This should probably be seen as tribute and submission, since Ibn Idhar writes that Roger was still in power in the city when the Almohads attacked it in 1159, although he was in fact dead.[23] The Venetian chronicler Andrea Dandolo is probably correct in asserting: "and the kings of Tunis paid him [Roger] tribute" (regemque Tunixii sibi tributarium fecit).[18] Roger died in 1154, and was succeeded by his son William I, who continued to rule Africa. His accession was taken for an opportunity by the native officials, who clamoured for more powers to tax. The Arabic historians Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Khaldun, both hoped that Roger would defend his African lands against Almohad extremism and intolerance. After his death, some Muslim officials demanded that sermons be preached against the Almohads in the mosques.[22]

The inhabitants of Africa, overwhelmingly Muslim by this time, generally preferred Muslim rule to Christian, and as the Almohads advanced eastward, William I's native governors made contacts with his Moroccan foes. The local uprisings in favour of the Almohads were well-organised, and Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Khaldun connect them with the contemporaneous Sicilian uprising engineered by Maio of Bari.[22] Among the rebels was Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Furrīānī, and among the cities lost was Zawīla, a suburb of Mahdia. It was reconquered, and served as a place of refuge for Christians escaping Almohad persecution in the last days of Norman Africa.[22]

Almohad invasion

See also: Almohad conquest of Norman Africa

After having regained his authority William sent the fleet against

Tinnīs in Egypt (c.1156), which Roger may have attacked as early as 1153/4.[g] In 1157/8—the chronology of these events is difficult to establish—a Sicilian fleet raided Ibiza in the Muslim Balearics. The Italian Arabist Michele Amari suggested that this last was an endeavour to interrupt the Almohads' shipping routes, but Ibiza lies well to the north of the African coast. From Ibiza the fleet had to come to the aid of Mahdia, which was under threat from Almohad forces.[22]

All of Norman Africa was essentially abandoned to the Almohads save Mahdia. Tripoli fell in 1158, and Mahdia was under siege from late in the summer of 1159.

ʿAbd al-Muʾmin is said to have temporarily abandoned the siege in order to construct two large mounds of wheat and barley. Sfax, which had been in revolt against William for some time, accepted Almohad overlordship during the siege, while the city of Gabès was taken by force. In January 1160 Mahdia was breached and ʿAbd al-Muʾmin gave its remaining Christians and Jews the option of Islam or death.[22]

Afterwards

Hugo Falcandus blamed the fall of Africa, and the resulting persecution of African Christians, on William I and Maio of Bari's intransigence.

Banū Jānīyah who ruled the Balearics and were avowed enemies of the Almohads.[25]

Later Anglo-Norman writers refer to a one-line, rhyming poem (

Radulphus de Diceto, in his Decani Lundoniensis Opuscula, briefly narrates the Norman conquest of southern Italy and then quotes the above line. Ralph Niger wrote that the line appeared on a seal of Roger II's, while a dubious passage in Gervase of Tilbury[11] says that Roger had it inscribed on his sword.[27] Andrea Dandolo referred to the legend of the sword, which was apparently well known in fourteenth-century Venice. A similar line to the monosticum appears in a mid-twelfth-century encomium on Rouen, the capital of Normandy. The anonymous poet refers to Roger II as "ruler of Italy and Sicily, Africa, Greece and Syria" and suggests that Persia, Ethiopia and Germany fear him.[i]


Administration

There is a tradition that Roger, after conquering Africa, took the title rex Africae (King of Africa). According to C.-E. Dufourcq, however, this was a mistake first committed by eighteenth-century copyists, who mistranscribed certain charters, placing Africae in place of Apuliae.

Judeo-Arabic inscriptions as "king (malik) of Italy, Longobardia, Calabria, Sicily and Africa (Ifrīqiyya).[29]

The government of Norman Africa was modelled carefully on the precedents offered by the pre-Norman emirs. As in Sicily, close attention was paid to the interests of the Muslim population, while the Christians benefit from the exemption from the poll-tax... Apart from the garrisons in the African towns, and apart from the use of Norman-style cavalry charges, evidence for the presence of 'Norman' or 'Frankish' characteristics cannot be found. The architects of the African empire were not 'Normans' but Greek and Arabic courtiers...[30]

Economy

A gold Sicilian tarì minted at Palermo during Roger II's reign. Sicily depended on African gold for its mints, but the dinars of Africa were of superior gold to the tarìs of Sicily.[31]

Control of Africa gave Sicily control of all the sea routes between the western and eastern Mediterranean. Roger II taxed shipping, although he seems to have allowed the local Muslims princelings to collect some tariffs of their own. Ibn Abī Dīnār states that the wāli of Gabès collected taxes in Roger's name.

Fatimid Egypt, Italian merchant ships could travel along the entire north African shore in peace during this period. Roger also taxed the overland caravan routes from Morocco to Egypt ("Kairouan" and "caravan" are cognates.) More profitable than these were the trans-Saharan caravans carrying paiole gold dust for the mints of northern African and southern Italy. An important stopping point for these was Bougie, which Roger may have attacked during this period, but over which he could not extend authority, although he did maintain links with the deposed emir Yahyā ibn al-ʿAzīz.[32]

At Mahdia, Roger I and William I minted

laqab "The powerful through God" (al-muʿtazz bi-ʾllāh).[33][35] William's coin is similar, but is dated to is dated to 549 (1154/5) and replaces Roger's Arabic laqab with his own, al-Hādī bi-Amr Allāh ("the Guide according to the command of God").[35] It has been observed that the inscriptions bear a resemblance to those of Robert Guiscard's tarì struck at Palermo in 1072. In both cases the mint would have been staffed entirely by Muslims.[33]

Religion

As ruler of Africa, Roger aimed to encourage Muslim refugees in Sicily to re-settle in Africa, and issued a decree to this effect. He maintained the loyalty of his African domains by offering grain. Norman Africa "became rich and prosperous, while the remainder of

Rūm [the north Italians, Greeks, etc.] frequented it [for the sake of commerce], with the result that it became repopulated and prospered".[32] Merchants from Genoa
with ties to Sicily began trading with Tripoli as well.

Roger left religious and judicial authority in local hands, under a local governor (ʿāmil).

jizyah) was instituted on the Muslim communities, similar to that which they had until then exacted from Jews and Christians, but lighter than that which was demanded of Sicilian Muslims at the same time. The local Christian community, largely servile and enslaved, probably benefited from Roger's rule for a time. Bishop Cosmas of Mahdia made a trip to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Eugene III and also to Palermo to visit his new sovereign. The anonymous continuator of Sigebert of Gembloux refers to Cosmas as returning to Africa "a free man".[20]

When Mahdia fell to the Almohads in 1160, Cosmas fled to Palermo. The Christians seem to have suffered under Almohad rule from their association with the Sicilians. The native church in Africa is rarely mentioned after that.[37]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Before it was finally conquered by the Muslims, this province was reorganised as the Byzantine exarchate of Africa.
  2. ^ All the Arabic sources can be found in Michele Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula (Rome and Turin: 1880).
  3. ^ According to Hubert Houben, since "Africa" was never mentioned in the royal title of the kings of Sicily, "one ought not to speak of a 'Norman kingdom of Africa'".[1] Rather, "[Norman Africa] really amounted to a constellation of Norman-held towns along coastal Ifrīqiya."[2]
  4. Abu Muhammad Abdallah at-Tijani, Rihlah. The Cairo Geniza
    shows how north African trade was monopolised by Tunis and Mahdia.
  5. ^ The passage is found in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's edition in the Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium (Hanover, 1707), i.943, but was omitted from the edition of F. Liebrecht (Hanover, 1856), who regarded it as a later interpolation.[11]
  6. ^ For the Erfurt chronicles, see O. Holder-Egger (ed.), Monumenta Erphesfurtensia saec. XII, XIII, XIV, MGH in usus scholarum (Hanover, 1899), 42.
  7. A Concise History of Humanity
    , and Roger's in Ibn al-Athīr.
  8. Decameron
    .
  9. ^ The poem bears resemblance in this respect to the classicising verse of Leo of Vercelli in praise of Otto III and Gregory V (c.1000), in which he notes that Africa, Syria and Greece submit to them.
  10. ^ Dominus noster Sycilie et Ytalie nec non et tocius Africe serenissimus et invictissimus rex a Deo coronatus pius felix triumphator semper augustus.[28] The definitive source of Sicilian diplomas is K. A. Kehr, Die Urkunden der normannisch-sizilischen Könige (Innsbruck, 1902).

References

  1. ^ Houben 2002, p. 83.
  2. ^ a b Dalli 2008, p. 79.
  3. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 26.
  4. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 29.
  5. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 27.
  6. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 30.
  7. ^ Dalli 2008, p. 84.
  8. ^ a b c Abulafia 1985, pp. 32–33.
  9. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 33 n. 35, quoting Ibn Abī Dīnār, Al Muʾnis fi Akhbar Ifriqya wa Tunis.
  10. The Amazing Story
    .
  11. ^ a b Abulafia 1985, pp. 39 and 40 n. 73.
  12. ^ Abulafia 1985, pp. 39–40.
  13. ^ a b c Abulafia 1985, p. 40.
  14. ^ Dalli 2008, p. 78.
  15. ^ Abulafia 1983, p. 5 n. 30, quoting from Ibn al-Athīr.
  16. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 34, quoting Ibn al-Athīr, The Complete History.
  17. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 34.
  18. ^ a b c Abulafia 1985, p. 35.
  19. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 42 n. 87.
  20. ^ a b c Abulafia 1985, pp. 37–38.
  21. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 35, quoting Ibn al-Athīr.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h Abulafia 1985, pp. 42–43.
  23. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 35, quoting Ibn Idhari.
  24. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 43, quoting Ibn al-Athīr.
  25. ^ a b Abulafia 1985, p. 44.
  26. ^ a b c Abulafia 1985, pp. 40–41.
  27. ^ Abulafia 1985, pp. 48–49.
  28. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 41.
  29. ^ Johns 1986, pp. 26 and 43.
  30. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 47.
  31. ^ Travaini 2001, p. 191.
  32. ^ a b Abulafia 1985, pp. 36–37.
  33. ^ a b c d Grierson & Travaini 1998, p. 120.
  34. ^ Johns 1987, p. 92.
  35. ^ a b Johns 1987, pp. 92–93.
  36. ^ Abulafia 1985, p. 36, quoting Amari.
  37. ^ Hamilton 2003, p. 174.

Bibliography

  • Abulafia, David (1973). "L'attività commerciale genovese nell'Africa normanna: la città di Tripoli". Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi sulla Sicilia normanna. Palermo. pp. 395–402.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Abulafia, David (1983). "The Crown and the Economy under Roger II and His Successors". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 37: 1–14.
    JSTOR 1291473
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  • Abulafia, David (1985). "The Norman Kingdom of Africa and the Norman Expeditions to Majorca and the Muslim Mediterranean". Anglo-Norman Studies. 7: 26–49.
  • Abdul-Wahab, H. H. (1930). "Deux dinars normands de Mahdia". Revue tunisienne. 1: 215–18.
  • Dalli, Charles (2008). "Bridging Europe and Africa: Norman Sicily's Other Kingdom". In Joaquim Carvalho (ed.). Bridging the Gaps: Sources, Methodology and Approaches to Religion in History. Pisa: Pisa University Press. pp. 77–93.
  • Belkhodja, Khaled (1966). "Roger II en Ifriqiya". Africa. Vol. Fasc. 1. Tunis: Institut national d'archéologie et d'art. pp. 111–117.
  • Bresc, H. (1998). "Le royaume normand d'Afrique et l'archevêché de Mahdiyya". In M. Balard; A. Ducellier (eds.). Le partage du monde Échanges et colonisation dans la Méditerranée médiévale. Paris. pp. 347–366.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Brett, Michael (1969). "Ifriqiya as a Market for Saharan Trade from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century AD". Journal of African Studies. 10: 347–364.
  • Grierson, Philip; Travaini, Lucia (1998). Medieval European Coinage 14, Italy III (South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Hamilton, Bernard (2003). The Christian World of the Middle Ages. BCA.
  • Houben, Hubert (2002). Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler Between East and West G A Loud and D Milbourn, trans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Johns, Jeremy (1986). "I titoli arabi dei sovrani normanni di Sicilia". Bollettino di Numismatica. 6–7: 11–54.
  • Johns, Jeremy (1987). "Malik Ifrīqiya: The Norman Kingdom of Africa and the Fāṭimids". Libyan Studies. 18: 89–101.
    S2CID 163054015
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  • King, Matthew (2018). The Norman Kingdom of Africa and the Medieval Mediterranean (PDF) (PhD diss.). University of Minnesota.
  • Metcalfe, Alex (2009). The Muslims of Medieval Italy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Travaini, Lucia (2001). "The Normans between Byzantium and the Islamic World". Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 55: 179–196.
    JSTOR 1291817
    .
  • Wieruszowski, Helen (1963). "Roger II of Sicily, Rex-Tyrannus in Twelfth-century Political Thought"".
    S2CID 154576747
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