The Fall of Norman Africa and the Legacy of Zirid–Norman Interactions

This chapter addresses how local governors, drawing on a regional tradition of holy war against Christians and prevailing legal opinions from Maliki scholars, revolted against Norman rule during the mid-1150s and reduced Norman governance in the region to Mahdia, Zawila, and Sousse. The final blow to Norman Africa came courtesy of the Almohads from the Maghreb, who conquered Mahdia and ended Norman rule in Ifriqiya in 554H (1159–60). The Almohads instituted policies of forced deportation for many Ifriqiyan tribal leaders, which fundamentally realigned the regional political landscape. In Sicily, meanwhile, William I made no effort to reconquer his lost African possessions, and his successors instead forged lucrative trading contracts with the Almohads during the 1180s. Although medieval Christian authors paid little attention to the rise and fall of Norman Africa, Muslim writers like Ibn al-Athir and Ibn Khaldun kept alive the memory of Zirid–Norman conflict by presenting Norman aggression as one theater of a monolithic “Frankish” assault on the lands of Islam that spanned the Mediterranean.