Si tratta di una recensione del libro A Companion to Medieval Palermo, curato da A. Ne

SARDINA, Patrizia

Patrizia Sardina

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Al-Masāq

A Companion to Medieval Palermo

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Palermo

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=calm20Download by: [T&F Internal Users], [Heather Wallace] Date: 12 November 2015, At: 02:41Al-MasāqJournal of the Medieval MediterraneanISSN: 0950-3110 (Print) 1473-348X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/calm20A Companion to Medieval PalermoPatrizia SardinaTo cite this article: Patrizia Sardina (2015) A Companion to Medieval Palermo, Al-Masāq, 27:2,178-179, DOI: 10.1080/09503110.2015.1049428To link to this article:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2015.1049428Published online: 21 Aug 2015.Submit your article to this journal Article views: 14View related articles View Crossmark dataA Companion to Medieval PalermoANNLIESE NEF (Ed.), 2013[Brill’s Companions to European History, volume V]Leiden-Boston: BrillXVIII + 542 pp., ill., maps€167.00/US$216.00 (hardback)ISBN 9789004223929The aim of this book is to recast the medieval history of Palermo beyond the old andstereotypical idea of a city characterised by political immaturity and cultural richnessdue to a series of foreign dominations. Even though the history of Palermo is unevenlydocumented in the sources, the editor declares in the foreword an intention to attachequal significance to all the various historical periods, especially the Islamic one,which is usually less studied. Cultural, religious and archeological aspects are con-sidered to be as relevant as the political, social and economic dimensions of thecity’s history. The book contains five sections, divided into a total of sixteen chapters.Section 1 concerns the Byzantine and Islamic city, section 2 is about NormanPalermo, section 3 deals with Palermo in the eighth/fourteenth and ninth/fifteenthcenturies, and section 4 is dedicated to “Transversal Approaches”. The lastsection, by Fabrizio Titone, despite the title (“Conclusive Perspectives”), does notcontain a final conclusion, but only some considerations about the evolution of Sici-lian cities in the Aragonese period. At the end of the book, there is a very useful andaccurate index containing names, toponyms and other items.According to Vivien Prigent, during the Byzantine domination Palermo“assumed a prominent economic role” (p. 37) in the north-western part of Sicilythanks to the integration of its rich agricultural hinterland and possession of arenowned port that was frequented by Eastern merchants, especially Jews, Syriansand Egyptians. Annliese Nef underlines not only the growing political role givento Palermo by the Aghlabids, who transformed the city into the seat of government,but also its economic and monetary integration into the Fatimid realm. She alsomentions the religious and cultural position that the city attained in the Islamicworld, making Palermo a very important city of da¯r al-isla¯m. This idea is sharedby Alessandra Bagnera, who uses archaeological evidence to outline the urban evol-ution of Islamic Palermo. Mirella Cassarino examines the complex characteristics ofArabic and Islamic culture in Palermo from the third/ninth to the sixth/twelfthcentury and points out the difficulty in distinguishing “Palermo as experiencedfrom Palermo as imagined” (p. 128). In her essay on Norman monuments, RosaDi Liberto emphasises the gradual creation of a local architectonic tradition and aNorman figurative language. Elena Pezzini makes a fundamental contribution tothe topographic reconstruction of Norman Palermo and assumes that religious con-flicts conditioned Palermo’s forma urbis deeply and drove Christian elites to choosewell-defended spaces and the Muslims to take refuge in a patrolled quarter.In his two magisterial studies, Henri Bresc successfully provides a long-term per-spective at the same time as demonstrating his grasp of a wide variety of sources. Inhis first essay, on the urban economy and trade at the end of the Middle Ages,Bresc sets Palermo in the context of eighth/fourteenth- and ninth/fifteenth-centurypolitics and distinguishes between a “lower” economy “supervised by the municipalauthorities” (p. 235) and an “upper” economy based on long-distance commercial178 Book ReviewsDownloaded by [T&F Internal Users], [Heather Wallace] at 02:41 12 November 2015 exchanges. The latter was mainly supported by the foreign merchants, and contribu-ted to the transformation of the city into a centre of consumption that imported luxurygoods and a commercial centre for exporting, chartering and insuring ships. Accord-ing to Bresc, the main effects of these dual developments were the decline of artisanalproduction, the impoverishment of technical knowledge and the reinforcement offeudal aristocracy. In his essay on religious Palermo in the section on “TransversalApproaches” Bresc reconstructs the ecclesiastical landscape and examines the evol-ution of piety and devotion between the sixth/twelfth and the ninth/fifteenth centuries,processes which “brought Palermo closer to the other Italian cities” (p. 379).In “Transversal Approaches”, there are five essays, each of which analyses the longerterm development of a particular theme from the fifth/eleventh to the ninth/fifteenthcentury. Laura Sciascia gives a vivid and evocative image of political changes in Sicilyfrom the Norman conquest in 465/1072 to the visit of Charles V of Spain in 942/1535. Palermo was used as a theatre where the rituals of coronation, cavalcades, fun-erals and royal weddings became stages and mirrors that underlined moments ofcrucial importance for the history of Sicily. In his exhaustive and well-articulatedessay on the Jewish community of Palermo, GiuseppeMandalà analyses the settlement,juridical and fiscal status, productive and economic activities, cultural life and topogra-phy of the city’s Jews. Gian Luca Borghese’s essay about foreigners in Palermo, Sula-mith Brodbeck’s study on Monreale and Benoit Grevin’s essay on linguistic culturesand textual production in Palermo complete the “Transversal Approaches” section.In conclusion, this book is of great interest and its main value lies in having ana-lysed in a novel and scholarly way the economic and urban transformation ofPalermo from an imperial province to the capital of a kingdom between the Byzan-tine and Norman periods. Less attention is given to Aragonese Palermo, best knownand well studied in the past by Italian and foreign historians. Indicative bibliographyis essentially based on books about Byzantine, Islamic and Norman history. Themost original section is “Transversal Approaches” because it allows non-specialiststo follow the evolution of some relevant topics across the long term in an effectivemanner, combining scientific rigour with a clear exposition.PATRIZIA SARDINAUniversity of Palermo, Italypatrizia.sardina@unipa.it© 2015 Patrizia Sardinahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2015.1049428Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor ofDimitri GutasFELICITAS OPWIS and DAVID REISMAN (Eds), 2012[Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, volume LXXXIII]Leiden and Boston: Brill€161.00/$ 221.00 (hardback)ISBN 139789004202740This collected volume of essays written by colleagues, students and friends inhonour of Dimitri Gutas, Professor of Arabic and Graeco-Arabic at Yale University,Book Reviews 179Downloaded by [T&F Internal Users], [Heather Wallace] at 02:41 12 November 2015 

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A Companion to Medieval Palermo

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Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Palermo