Kingdom of Africa
Encyclopedia
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
today. The main primary sources for the kingdom are Arabic (Muslim); the Latin (Christian) sources are scanter. 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’." Rather, "[Norman Africa] really amounted to a constellation of Norman-held towns along coastal Ifrīqiya."
The Sicilian conquest of Africa began under Roger II in 1146–48. 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 connexions 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
William I of Sicily
William I , called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own...
, the "kingdom" of Africa fell to the Almohads (1158–60). Its most enduring legacy was the realignment of Mediterranean powers brought about by its demise and the Siculo-Almohad peace finalised in 1180.
Background
Regarding the motive for the Normans' military involvement in Africa, historian David AbulafiaDavid Abulafia
David Samuel Harvard Abulafia is an influential English historian with a particular interest in Italy, Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He has been Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge since 2000 and a Fellow of Gonville...
raises three possibilities: religious ("the extension of crusading activity
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
into a relatively neglected arena"), economic (such as "the protection of key trade routes"), or imperialistic ("an attempt to build a vast Mediterranean empire").
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 KairouanKairouan
Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...
(Qayrawan) and Mahdia
Mahdia
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as weaving. It is the capital of Mahdia Governorate.- History :...
(al-Mahdiyya), and cloth manufactured of Egyptian and local flax or cotton imported from India and Sicily. Besides this cotton, the Sicilians exported large quantities of wheat, cheese and processed meats. The Greek Orthodox monastery of San Salvatore in Messina was permitted to export its surplus wheat to north Africa in return for wax for its candles. During this time, Africa (i.e., the old Roman province) underwent rapid urbanisation as famines depopulated the countryside and industry shifted from agriculture to manufactures. The depredations of the Banū Hilal
Banu Hilal
The Banu Hilal were a confederation of Arabian Bedouin tribes that migrated from Upper Egypt into North Africa in the 11th century, having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiism. Other authors suggest that the tribes left the grasslands on the upper Nile because of...
and the Banū Sulaym also destroyed many fields and orchards, and forced the population to seek refuge in the towns.
Count Roger I of Sicily
Roger I of Sicily
Roger I , called Bosso and the Great Count, was the Norman Count of Sicily from 1071 to 1101. He was the last great leader of the Norman conquest of southern Italy.-Conquest of Calabria and Sicily:...
(1071–1101) is known to have maintained men in Mahdia to collect export duties, while Roger II (count from 1105, king 1130–54) twice sent forces against African towns when their rulers defaulted on payments for grain imports. In 1117, when Rafi, governor of Gabès
Gabès
Gabès , also spelt Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, the ancient Tacape, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate, a province of Tunisia. It lies on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 116,323 it is the 6th largest Tunisian city.-History:Strabo refers to Tacape as an...
, challenged the trading monopoly of his overlod, Ali ibn Yahyā, emir of Mahdia, he asked Roger for assistance. Rafi was trying to send out a merchant ship from his own port, and Roger responded by sending a small flotilla, which fled when confronted by Mahdian forces. Ali then arrested the Sicilian agents in his town and requested help from his allies, the Almoravids
Almoravids
The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty of Morocco, who formed an empire in the 11th-century that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus. Their capital was Marrakesh, a city which they founded in 1062 C.E...
, 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. The most serious raid took place against Nicotera
Nicotera
Nicotera is a comune in the province of Vibo Valentia, Calabria, southern Italy.-History:Nicòtera origins lie with the ancient Greek city of Medma which was founded by the Locresis of Locri Epizephyris....
in 1122, when women and children were taken captive.
In 1135 Roger II made his first permanent conquest (if Pantelleria
Pantelleria
Pantelleria , the ancient Cossyra, is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and just east of the Tunisian coast. Administratively Pantelleria is a comune belonging to the Sicilian province of Trapani...
in 1123 is not counted African). The isle of Djerba
Djerba
Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...
, which, according to Arabic sources, "acknowledged no sultan" and was a den of pirates, was captured by Roger, who carried off many of its inhabitants. Sicilian Muslims participated in the conquest of Djerba, but it is unknown what happened to the ancient Jewish community on the island, which was still there (or re-established) in the early thirteenth century. Djerba gave Roger a base from which to exert more influence over Mahdia, which, unable to pay for its grain, was forced to become a protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
of Sicily by 1142. Its foreign affairs fell to Roger, who forbade alliances with other Muslim states inimical to Sicily, and probably received its customs revenues in lieu of payment for the grain needed to feed it. Roger also had a right to seize any city rebelling against the lordship of the emir of Mahdia. The emir himself, Al-Hasan ibn Ali, whom Ali ibn al-Athīr
Ali ibn al-Athir
Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad, better known as Ali 'Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari was a Kurdish Muslim historian from the Ibn Athir family...
calls the "prince of Africa", was personally indebted to the Sicilian fisc
Fisc
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was...
, quite possibly as a result of his luxurious tastes. 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".
Religiosity
Two Latin chronicles, Robert of Torigny's Chronica and the anonymous continuation of Sigebert of GemblouxSigebert of Gembloux
Sigebert of Gembloux was a medieval author, known mainly as a pro-Imperial historian of a universal chronicle, opposed to the expansive papacy of Gregory VII and Pascal II...
's Chronica, are the only sources to assign religious motives to Roger's conquest of Africa, coming as it did at the same time as the Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...
and the Wendish Crusade
Wendish Crusade
The Wendish Crusade was an 1147 campaign, one of the Northern Crusades and also a part of the Second Crusade, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany inside the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs ....
. Roger is not known to have received any papal approval for his African venture. The Arabic sources do, however, refer to his army as being recruited from all around Christendom, an assertion which may be more hyperbole than fact. Ibn Idhari
Ibn Idhari
Abū al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Idhāri al-Marrākushi who lived in the late 13th and the early 14th century, was the author of an important medieval text on the history of the Maghreb and Iberia written in 1312.Little is known about the life of this author, who was born in Al-Andalus and...
says that Roger "called to arms the people of every Latin country". One non-Italian knight, Richard de Lingèvres, did participate in the capture of Tripoli and was rewarded with land in Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
.
Ambition
There is evidence that at least some of Roger's contemporaries, mostly his enemies, saw his conquests in Africa as usurpations. Gervase of TilburyGervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury or Gervasius Tilberiensis was a 13th century canon lawyer, statesman and writer, apparently born in either East Tilbury or West Tilbury, in Essex, England.-Life and works:...
, in a suspect passage of his Otia imperialia, implies that the Emperor Frederick I, who regarded Roger as a usurper in southern Italy, was upset by his extending his power into the old Roman province of Africa. And according to the Erfurt chronicles, at the Diet of Merseburg in 1135, a delegation from the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
complained to the 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.
Even the chroniclers of Roger's own kingdom believed his ambition played a primary role in his involvement in Africa. Archbishop Romuald 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." The pseudonymous court historian "Hugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus was an Italian historian who chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled The History of the Tyrants of Sicily . There is some doubt as to whether "Hugo Falcandus" is a real name or a pseudonym. Evelyn Jamison...
", 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, Gabes and many other barbarian cities after undergoing many labours and dangers.
The incorporation of northern Africa into the Sicilian kingdom would have posed no problems for Roger. The cultural connexions between Sicily and northern Africa were stronger than those between Sicily and his own peninsular Italian domains.
Rise and fall of Norman rule in Africa
In 1087, when the organisers of the Mahdia campaignMahdia campaign
The Mahdia campaign of 1087 was an attack on the North African town of Mahdia by armed ships from Genoa and Pisa in northern Italy. It had been prompted by the actions of its ruler Tamim as a pirate in waters off the Italian peninsula, along with his involvement in Sicily fighting the Norman...
asked him for his assistance, Roger I, who since 1076 had an economic treaty with the Tamīm ibn Mu‘izz, emir of Tunis, refused, saying, "As far as we are concerned, Africa is always there. When we are strong we will take it."
Conquest of Tripoli and Mahdia
In 1142/3, Roger II attacked TripoliTripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, further south down the coast from Mahdia. In 1146 he besieged it and took it. The city had already been depleted by a series of famines and was practically in a state of civil war when Roger's troops assaulted it. It was still an important port on the sea route from the Maghreb to Egypt. Several of the minor emirs in the vicinity of Tripoli sought Sicilian overlordship after this. Yūsuf, the ruler of Gabès, wrote to Roger requesting "the robes and letter of appointment making me wāli
Wali
Walī , is an Arabic word meaning "custodian", "protector", "sponsor", or authority as denoted by its definition "crown". "Wali" is someone who has "Walayah" over somebody else. For example, in Fiqh the father is wali of his children. In Islam, the phrase ولي الله walīyu 'llāh...
of Gabès, and I shall be your deputy there, as are the Banū Matrūh who hold Tripoli from you." 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
George of Antioch
George of Antioch was the first true ammiratus ammiratorum, successor of the great Christodulus. George was a Greek Melchite, born in Antioch, whence he moved with his father, Michael, and mother to Tunisia. His parents found employment under the Zirid Sultan, Tamim ibn Muizz...
, a former Mahdian officer, against al-Hasan. Off the island of Pantelleria
Pantelleria
Pantelleria , the ancient Cossyra, is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and just east of the Tunisian coast. Administratively Pantelleria is a comune belonging to the Sicilian province of Trapani...
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
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
. 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
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
acceptable to the population; and arranged well the government of these two cities." Food was released to encourage refugees to return.
On 1 July the city of Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
(Susa), ruled by al-Hasan's son ‘Ali, surrendered without a fight, and ‘Ali fled to his father in Almohad Morocco. On 12 July Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...
fell after a short resistance. The Africans "were treated humanely" and an amān full of "fine promises" was granted for the entire province, according to Ibn al-Athīr. Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
, in his Kitab al-Ibar, records the abuse the Christians of Sfax heaped on their Muslim neighbours. The Banū Matrūh were left in power in Tripoli, and in Sfax Roger appointed Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Furrīānī, whose father was brought to Sicily as a hostage for his son's good behaviour. The Arabic sources are unanimous in presenting Umar's father as encouraging his son to rebel nonetheless. The town of Barasht (Bresk) and the isles 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".
After the Almohads took the city of Bougie
Bougie
Bougie, Bougis or Bougy as a place name or surname may refer to:- Places :*Bougy , village, Département Calvados, Normandy, France*Bougy-lez-Neuville, village, Département Loiret, France...
, upon which Roger may have had designs, in 1152, a fleet under Philip of Mahdia
Philip of Mahdia
Philip of Mahdia, of Greek origin, was the emir of Palermo, the second ammiratus ammiratorum, and successor of the great George of Antioch. He was a eunuch who rose through the ranks of the royal curia in Palermo until he was eventually one of King Roger II's most trusted men...
was sent to conquer Bône
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...
. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Philip was a secret Muslim who treated the inhabitants of Bône gently.
Internal rebellions
Roger became involved in a war with Byzantium after 1148, and so was unable to follow up his conquests with TunisTunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
. The Tunisians feared they would be attacked, and sent grain to Sicily in hopes of averting it, according to Ibn Idhari, who also wrote that was still in power in the city when the Almohads attacked it in 1159, although he was in fact dead. The Venetian chronicler Andrea Dandolo
Andrea Dandolo
Andrea Dandolo was elected the 54th doge of Venice in 1343, replacing Bartolomeo Gradenigo who died in late 1342....
is probably correct in asserting: "and the kings of Tunis paid him [Roger] tribute" (regemque Tunixii sibi tributarium fecit). Roger died in 1154, and was succeeded by his son William I
William I of Sicily
William I , called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own...
, 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.
All the inhabitants of Africa 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
Maio of Bari
Maio of Bari , a Lombard merchant's son from Bari, was the third of the great admirals of Sicily. An ammiratus ammiratorum, or "Emir of Emirs," he was the most important man in the kingdom save the king himself. After the deposition and execution of Philip of Mahdia , the admiralcy was vacant for...
. 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.
Almohad invasion
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. In 1157/8—the chronology of these events is difficult to establish—a Sicilian fleet raided IbizaIbiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
in the Muslim Balearics
Taifa of Majorca
The Taifa of Majorca was a medieval Moorish taifa kingdom which existed from 1018 to 1203 in Majorca.-Mujahid dynasty:* Mujahid : 1018-1041* 'Ali Iqbal ud-Dawlah: 1041-1075-Aglabid dynasty:* Ibn Aglab al-Murtada: 1076-1093...
. 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.
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. In response to the Almohad caliph's question, "Why did you ever abandon so strongly-fortified a place as that?", al-Hasan, who was in his camp, is said to have replied, "Because I had few in whom I could place my trust; because food was lacking; and because it was the will of fate." In response, Caliph Abd al-Mū‘min 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
Gabès
Gabès , also spelt Cabès, Cabes, Kabes, Gabbs and Gaps, the ancient Tacape, is the capital city of the Gabès Governorate, a province of Tunisia. It lies on the coast of the Gulf of Gabès. With a population of 116,323 it is the 6th largest Tunisian city.-History:Strabo refers to Tacape as an...
was taken by force. In January 1160 Mahdia was breached and Abd al-Mū‘min gave its remaining Christians and Jews the option of Islam or death.
Afterlife
Hugo Falcandus blamed the fall of Africa, and the resulting persecution of African Christians, on William I and Maio of Bari's intransigence. A final peace with the Almohads was not signed until 1180, when a Sicilian naval vessel intercepted a ship bearing the daughter of the caliph YūsufAbu Yaqub Yusuf
Abu Ya`qub Yusuf or Yusuf I was the second Almohad Amir or caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built....
to Spain. According to Pietro da Eboli's Liber ad honorem Augusti
Liber ad honorem Augusti
The Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis is an illustrated narrative epic in Latin elegiac couplets, written in Palermo in 1196 by Peter of Eboli...
, the caliph offered to pay annual tribute in return for the return of the princess. A special office, the duana de secretis, was formed in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
to oversee incoming tribute payments. Robert of Torigny even says that two cities, Africa (Mahdia) and Sibilia (Zawīla), were returned to them, but in fact they probably only received warehouses and commercial facilities in these places. After the treaty, the Sicilians and Almohads exhibited a shared interest in stemming the expansion of Ayyubid Egypt, and William II of Sicily
William II of Sicily
William II , called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. William's character is very indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy...
turned his attention (1180–82) to the piracy of the Banū Jānīyah who ruled the Balearics and were avowed enemies of the Almohads.
Later Anglo-Norman writers refer to a one-line, rhyming poem (monosticum): APVLVS ET CALABER, SICVLVS MICHI SERVIT ET AFER ("Apulia and Calabria, Sicily and Africa serve me"). Radulphus de Diceto, in his Decani Lundoniensis Opuscula, briefly narrates the Norman conquest of southern Italy
Norman conquest of southern Italy
The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned the late eleventh and much of the twelfth centuries, involving many battles and many independent players conquering territories of their own...
and then quotes the above line. Ralph Niger
Ralph Niger
Ralph Niger, Latin Radulphus Niger or Radulfus Niger, anglicized Ralph the Black , was an Anglo-French theologian and one of the English chroniclers. He was from Bury St...
wrote that the line appeared on a seal of Roger II's, while a dubious passage in Gervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury
Gervase of Tilbury or Gervasius Tilberiensis was a 13th century canon lawyer, statesman and writer, apparently born in either East Tilbury or West Tilbury, in Essex, England.-Life and works:...
says that Roger had it inscribed on his sword. 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
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, the capital of Normandy
Duchy of Normandy
The Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Norwegian, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 9th century...
. 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.
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. There is at least one surviving private Sicilian charter which refers to Roger as "our lord of Sicily and Italy and also of all Africa most serene and invincible king crowned by God, pious, fortunate, triumphant, always august" Royal charters universally use the title "King of Sicily, of the Duchy of Apulia, and of the Principality of CapuaPrincipality of Capua
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state in Southern Italy, usually de facto independent, but under the varying suzerainty of Western and Eastern Roman Empires. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno....
". One tombstone from Palermo dated 1148 refers to Roger as malik Ifrīqiya (Arabic for "king of Africa").
Economy
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. Because of Sicily's good relations with 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-‘Azīz.At Mahdia, Roger I and William I minted dinar
Dinar
The dinar is the official currency of several countries.The history of the dinar dates to the gold dinar, an early Islamic coin corresponding to the Byzantine denarius auri...
s of pure gold, 22 mm in diameter and weighing 4.15 g with Cufic inscriptions, probably for internal circulation in Africa. The only two known coins were first discovered by the Tunisian scholar H. H. Abdul-Wahab in 1930. They were a close imitation of a type minted by the Fatimid caliph az-Zāhir
Az-Zahir
Al-Dahir was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 1225 to 1226. He was the son of an-Nasir, and was named as his successor in 1189. In his short reign, he lowered the taxes, and built a strong army to resist to invasions...
(1020–35) over a century earlier. These did not make use of a title, like "king", nor did they name any of Roger's domains, rather they employed language (al-Mu‘tazz bi-‘llāh, "who holds his glory of God") usually reserved by Muslims for the Amīr al-Mu‘minīn (commander of the faithful). The inscriptions on Roger's known coin are written in two concentric circles with two lines of text in the centre. The circular text is the same on both sides, while the central text differs: "This dinar was struck by order of the most respected [or excellent king] Roger, who holds his glory of God
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
centre reads "The King Roger", while the reverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
cente reads "He who holds his glory from God". William's coin is dated to 549 (1154/5). It has been observed that the inscriptions bear a resemblance to those of Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard
Robert d'Hauteville, known as Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, from Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel was a Norman adventurer conspicuous in the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily...
's tarì
Tarì
A tarì was the Christian designation of a type of gold coin of Islamic origin minted in Sicily, Malta and South Italy from about 913 to 1859.-History:...
struck at Palermo in 1072. In both cases the mint would have been staffed entirely by Muslims.
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 Barbary and the great part of the Middle East felt the harsh pangs of hunger" during this period of constant famines. According to Ibn al-Athīr, Tripoli prospered under Roger: "the Sicilians and the Rūm [the north Italians, Greeks, etc.] frequented it [for the sake of commerce], with the result that it became repopulated and prospered". Merchants from GenoaRepublic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
with ties to Sicily began trading with Tripoli as well.
Roger left religious and judicial authority in local hands, under a local governor (‘āmil). In each town there was a Sicilian garrison under a Sicilian commander, and a poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
(jizyah) was instituted on the Muslims communities, similar to that which they had thitherto 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. Bishop Cosmas of Mahdia made a trip to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Eugene III
Pope Eugene III
Pope Blessed Eugene III , born Bernardo da Pisa, was Pope from 1145 to 1153. He was the first Cistercian to become Pope.-Early life:...
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".