Sicily at the Center of the Mediterranean

This chapter examines the discontinuities behind the apparent continuities in Norman Sicily during the twelfth century. It looks at the Muslim population of the island, as viewed from both inside and outside of Sicily, and Muslims' reactions to living for the first time on the “wrong” side of the new boundary between religio-political cultures. The chapter discusses Sicily's political, military, and diplomatic connections with the wider Mediterranean world, the connections between Sicily's Muslim community and the dār al-Islām, Sicily's intellectual and religious connections to the dār al-Islām and Latin Christendom, and economic connections in the Latin and Muslim Mediterranean.