Medieval Sicily

[Margaret]

I recently reread one of my favorite novels of all time, Cecelia Holland's Great Maria, which is set in eleventh century Sicily. It's such a fascinating time period, when Norman robber barons were gradually taking over the island from the Muslim Saracens who had ruled it during the past couple of centuries. I followed up with Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in Her Navel, also set in medieval Sicily, but in the following century when the Norman takeover was complete and King Roger II was ruling the island.

These are very different novels. Great Maria has an intimate focus on one woman's life and her struggle to gain her husband's respect, while The Ruby in Her Navel is a more outward-looking novel of political intrigue, centering on a main character who works in King Roger's administration. I've reviewed them at www.HistoricalNovels.info. For Great Maria, see http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Great-Maria.html and for The Ruby in Her Navel, see http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Ruby-in-Her-Navel.html.

I also felt inspired to find out how many other novels are set in this time and place. Not many! I've posted an article about the few that are at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Medieval-Sicily.html. I have not read all of these. Maria Bordihn's The Falcon of Palermo was good - I read that several years ago, too long for me to write a review without rereading. Has anyone read Alfred Duggan's Count Bohemond?

[annis]

Carla has written one of her excellent review (http://carlanayland.blogspot.com/2008/02/count-bohemond-by-alfred-duggan-book.html)s of Alfred Duggan's "Count Bohemond", which I hope she won't mind me posting here.

I have read the book myself, but a long time ago. I have a memory of plenty of vivid military action, but rather flat characterization. I remember seeing somewhere a review which described the character of Count Bohemond as "a stuffed shirt, or in this case a mail shirt", which made me chuckle. I did think that it was a pretty fair assessment, though.

[Melisende]

Couldn't get into Unsworth's "Ruby" - tried - twice - but .....

[Margaret]

I think it was a mistake for Unsworth not to set up The Ruby in Her Navel as a mystery novel. He could easily have had a body drop somewhere in the first chapter. It's basically a semi-literary mystery novel, it's just that readers have no way of knowing that until well after the middle of the book. Once I realized that, the whole novel worked for me - of course, I'd already read most of it, so it was a bit late.

[Ariadne]

It took me about 100 pages before I got into The Ruby in Her Navel at all. If I hadn't been reading it for review, I would've given up, but it got much better after that. Now I have his subsequent novel in my review pile, and I'm keeping all that in mind in case it starts out slow.

[Leyland]

The link belows are from Rachel Bard's MedievalQueens.com website. Bard is an HF author, though I've not read any of her work yet. She does recommend several novels that are very familiar. http://www.medievalqueens.com/mediev..._fiction.shtml

I'm very intrigued by Queen Constance of Germany and Sicily after reading the page linked below and would like find out more about her. She sounds deserving of her own novel. Has anyone come across her in HF?

http://www.medievalqueens.com/queen-...y-sicily.shtml

(I pasted the above from the old forum)

[Margaret]

Maria R. Bordihn's 2005 novel The Falcon of Palermo is about Constance's son Frederick (who became the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II). There's quite a lot about Constance in that novel. She was an extremely interesting woman. That was all I was able to find on Constance when I researched Medieval Sicily novels for www.HistoricalNovels.info. There's not much. Authors take note: this is a fascinating time and place, which more novelists should write about!

[Kveto from Prague]

Please tell me about the Falcon of palermo. Im a huge fan of Frederico due, the holy Roman Emperor. I even visited his tomb when my wife and I were in Sicily. Id love to read about him in Historical fiction. Only the date 2005 puts me off a bit (im not a huge fan of most modern historical fiction)

thnx

[Margaret]

Keny, what is it you don't like about most modern historical fiction?

It's been awhile since I read The Falcon of Palermo, so I'm not able to be very specific. I thought it was a good, solid read, though not one of my all-time favorite novels. To me, the most interesting and memorable aspect of the story was that Frederick grew up in a place where Muslims were accepted as part of the city's life, and he developed a sympathy for them that was quite unusual among European Christian rulers. Having grown up in Sicily, he did not have much affinity for the climate and culture of northern Europe and the Holy Roman Empire, and he spent little time there, so the novel also spends little time there. The story is perhaps more slanted toward the characters' personal lives than toward politics, though in an era when the personal and the political could not be separated.

[Kveto from Prague]

thanks a bunch.

Id love to get someones take on frederico. he was such a once in a century type of character that i think hed be incredably difficult to capture in fiction. a scoundrel and renesaince man before the renesaince.

as for the modern stuff, its just been my experience that the older novelists style speaks to me a lot more, feels more authentic. many modern ones ive read feel as if they are writing for hollywood with happy hollywood endings and other stuff. also the characters feel much more like modern people with modern sesibilities transplanted to old times (a problem common to most historical fiction). also i hate when contemporary speech patterns are used. i like an author to at least try to remind the reader with dialouge that can be diferentiated from modern speech.

anyway, its my quirk, but i have read modern stuff ive liked.

[Margaret]

I know exactly what you mean now, Keny. A lot of the popular modern historical fiction does indeed suffer from the problems you describe. The worst offenders often seem to be the most likely to make the bestseller lists, because they tend to appeal more to general readers who aren't as familiar with historical fiction.

But there's a lot of good stuff being written. I mentioned some favorites in another thread yesterday - Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt is a stand-out, set during the English Civil War (see my review at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/As-Meat-Loves-Salt.html). I think you would also like Bernard Cornwell's novels. I haven't read a great many of them, but The Winter King was a grubby, gritty take on the King Arthur legends drawn from authentic research into post-Roman Britain. Cornwell's Saxon series is also highly authentic - for some reason I read the 2nd novel in this series (The Pale Horseman) without reading the first, but Annis reviewed The Last Kingdom (the first in the series) for my Historical Novels website (see www.HistoricalNovels.info/Last-Kingdom (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Last-Kingdom.html)). Cornwell's Sharpe series has a lot of fans, too, but I haven't read any of these yet. Another novel I read this year that I really, really liked is Linda Proud's A Tabernacle for the Sun, which I also reviewed at my website (see http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Tabernacle.html). This last is hard to find in the U.S., but can be ordered directly from the publisher in Oxford, England.

[Kveto from Prague]

I know exactly what you mean now, Keny. A lot of the popular modern historical fiction does indeed suffer from the problems you describe. The worst offenders often seem to be the most likely to make the bestseller lists, because they tend to appeal more to general readers who aren't as familiar with historical fiction.

But there's a lot of good stuff being written. I mentioned some favorites in another thread yesterday - Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt is a stand-out, set during the English Civil War (see my review at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/As-Meat-Loves-Salt.html). I think you would also like Bernard Cornwell's novels. I haven't read a great many of them, but The Winter King was a grubby, gritty take on the King Arthur legends drawn from authentic research into post-Roman Britain. Cornwell's Saxon series is also highly authentic - for some reason I read the 2nd novel in this series (The Pale Horseman) without reading the first, but Annis reviewed The Last Kingdom (the first in the series) for my Historical Novels website (see www.HistoricalNovels.info/Last-Kingdom (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Last-Kingdom.html)). Cornwell's Sharpe series has a lot of fans, too, but I haven't read any of these yet. Another novel I read this year that I really, really liked is Linda Proud's A Tabernacle for the Sun, which I also reviewed at my website (see http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Tabernacle.html). This last is hard to find in the U.S., but can be ordered directly from the publisher in Oxford, England.

thanks for the recommendations. I'll see about tabernacle for the sun, i usually have to order books from the UK anyway as the selection of English language books here is limited to best sellers. Im pretty keen on anything from Italian history, i used to live in rome.

ive always considered cornwells series as something id like, but im under a self imposed ban not to read anything Authur related for awhile. I think the Authur angles have been done to death in literature and cinema and personally im sick of it all. there are so many other more interesting (and actual) personages in history, i dont know why writers continue to go back to that same source (same for robin hood, in my opinion). i think id like em, and im sure one day ill try them.

sorry if it sounds like im complaining, i just think history is so rich and full of colourful characters and eras thats its a pity to concentrate on so few.

anyway, you gave me an idea for a new thread.

good reading to you

[Ariadne]

Back on the old HF board, I'd posted about a novel set in medieval Palermo that I'd bought recently but couldn't find and could remember very little about... I was starting to think I'd imagined it. But while going through my shelves this morning I found it at last! It's The Garden of Persephone: A Novel of 12th-Century Sicily by Cesar J. Rotondi, and it came out in 1982 by St. Martin's Press. It's about a young Englishman who becomes the special envoy of King Roger II, traveling on perilous diplomatic missions to help Roger consolidate a kingdom made up of all southern Italy.

[Margaret]

Thanks, Ariadne! I've just ordered a copy, and will add a listing at www.HistoricalNovels.info.

[Kveto from Prague]

Back on the old HF board, I'd posted about a novel set in medieval Palermo that I'd bought recently but couldn't find and could remember very little about... I was starting to think I'd imagined it. But while going through my shelves this morning I found it at last! It's The Garden of Persephone: A Novel of 12th-Century Sicily by Cesar J. Rotondi, and it came out in 1982 by St. Martin's Press. It's about a young Englishman who becomes the special envoy of King Roger II, traveling on perilous diplomatic missions to help Roger consolidate a kingdom made up of all southern Italy.

Thanks from me as well. Im always interested in Sicilian Normans. ill see if i can find it cheap.

[Margaret]

I've just discovered, also, that Frank Yerby's 1952 novel The Saracen Blade is set in medieval Sicily, and Frederick II is an important character.

[Kveto from Prague]

I've just discovered, also, that Frank Yerby's 1952 novel The Saracen Blade is set in medieval Sicily, and Frederick II is an important character.


thanks. i hadnt heard of Yerby, but what i read about him sounds interesting.

[Richard]

Not that I've managed to sell my first book yet... but the second, working title "Saint Mark's Lion", covers the first thrusts of the emergent Venice. They ally with the Byzantines in an attempt to kick the Saracens out of Sicily in 829. (really happened... yes, the year after they get the body!)

The invasion, by the way, starts out with a very juicy story. The drungaros (Admiral) Euphemios, the Byzantine governor, is deposed by a rival on the pretext of a sexual indiscretion. (some say he forced a nun to marry him... others say there was a boy involved.) But Euphemios defects to the Muslims... WITH HIS FLEET... and invites the Aghlabid Caliphate to come and garrison the island. Fighting and sieges follow, Euphemios dies of plague IIRC and it takes the Muslims about 70 years to completely conquer Sicily.

So... does anybody have a good source for the original Arab invasions? There is a lot of writing about the later periods (there are some advantages to being conquered by a literate people) but I haven't found anything really good as reference for 820-830. Thanks!

[Volgadon]

I think we might have some books that discuss the invasion of Sicily a little bit.

[annis]

You might find something if you trawl through the Islam section of the Medieval Sourcebook, Richard
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1d.html

There are also a lot of links to further information about Islamic invasions tthroughout history here ( scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-20-1-b.html

[annis]

Btw, I've just discovered that Cecelia Holland wrote a novel about Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Pub. 1970, it's called "Antichrist: a novel of the Emperor Frederick II" (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/cecelia-holland/antichrist.htm) For some reason I've never come across this title before.

[Richard]

You might find something if you trawl through the Islam section of the Medieval Sourcebook, Richard
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1d.html

There are also a lot of links to further information about Islamic invasions tthroughout history here ( scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-20-1-b.html


Thanks annis! I did check these sources and they and others (most particularly Hugh Kennedy's "When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World") were instrumental in writing about the Abbasid Caliphate. However, it was a different Muslim emprire that invaded Sicily, and there seems to be much less information about the Aghlabids from North Africa at that time.

[annis]

Sorry that was no use to you, Richard. My bad for not realising that the Aghlabids were a separate entity. The only reference to original sources relating to the Aghlabids that i noted was this mention, but I imagine you've already investigated them.

"It is possible to see an account of the Aghlabid invasion of Sicily from 827 in al-Nuwayri's book "Kitab nihayat l'adab" (the book of the ultimate goal in the art of humanities), his work is highly gobbetable. Al-Nuwayri's work can also be cross referenced with the 'Cambridge Chronicle', an account of the Aghlabid invasion of Sicily by an unknown Christian author. The 'Cambridge Chronicle' is also, highly gobbetable."

[Richard]

Thanks! I will try to find those two books, that's just what I was after. I think I've read a secondary source that references al-Nuwayri.

By the way, what means "gobbetable"? :)

[annis]

Posted by Richard
By the way, what means "gobbetable"?

Lol - it's new word for me as well- sounds positively nausea-inducing, doesn't it? My dictionary tells me that "gobbet" can have the meaning "an extract, especially for translation or comment" , so I'm assuming that "gobbetable" is related to this, perhaps meaning something like "useful for taking extracts from"?

*Edit
You might find this book interesting
"Muslims and Christians in Norman Sicily" (http://books.google.com/books?id=322gw-vur2UC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=%22cambridge+chronicle%22+medieval+sicily&source=bl&ots=HRPSO18PDq&sig=wDvISpePjr49hkvrMYZCMv6gULc&hl=en&ei=CnalSfKWCtK6kAWpkIivBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result) (See section "Sicily before 1100")

[Richard]

I think that's a palpable hit, Annis. Metcalfe's book looks like exactly the right place to start! Thanks for digging in for me.

[annis]

You're welcome, Richard. It's in my own interests- I want to read your book someday (especially after reading the first couple of chapters on your website) :)

[Richard]

Just got the 3-volume "A History of Sicily" from the library - by Finney and Denis Mack Smith. The entire invasion and conquest I'm interested in for my next book takes up two pages in the whole set - but I can get a lot of "color" material and there is always the bibliography for next steps. Still trying to locate a library copy of the book Annis recommended.

[Volgadon]

Plus it does help extrapolate earlier events.

[annis]

Richard- while doing some background browsing to go with my current read (Martin Davies' "The Unicorn Road" (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-unicorn-road-by-martin-davies-1546015.html)), I came across a couple of articles which might be of interest to you:


Sicilian Peoples: The Arabs (http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art168.htm)
Vincenzo Salerno


Muslim Sicily (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197806/muslim.sicily.htm)
Gian Luigi Scarfiotti and Paul Lunde

Timeline: Arab Invasion of Sicily and Italy (http://www.maat.it/livello2-i/mediterraneo-2-i.htm)


Islam in Sicily (http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cache:DiCVtd6vOmIJ:images.alwialatas.mult iply.com/attachment/0/RcF%401goKCrAAAB-to8o1/Islam%2520in%2520Sicily.doc%3Fnmid%3D18936909+alwi +alatas+islam+in+sicily&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=safari) ( Can be downloaded as a PDF doc. as well)
Alwi Alatas

[Richard]

Richard- while doing some background browsing to go with my current read (Martin Davies' "The Unicorn Road" (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-unicorn-road-by-martin-davies-1546015.html)), I came across a couple of articles which might be of interest to you:


Sicilian Peoples: The Arabs (http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art168.htm)
Vincenzo Salerno


Muslim Sicily (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197806/muslim.sicily.htm)
Gian Luigi Scarfiotti and Paul Lunde

Timeline: Arab Invasion of Sicily and Italy (http://www.maat.it/livello2-i/mediterraneo-2-i.htm)


Islam in Sicily (http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cache:DiCVtd6vOmIJ:images.alwialatas.mult iply.com/attachment/0/RcF%401goKCrAAAB-to8o1/Islam%2520in%2520Sicily.doc%3Fnmid%3D18936909+alwi +alatas+islam+in+sicily&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=safari) ( Can be downloaded as a PDF doc. as well)
Alwi Alatas

Great stuff, thank you! I had read the Alwi Alatas article and am looking for the book he references. I had not seen the Aramco article. Mu problem is that I want to write about the period from 826-830 or so, focusing on specific events of 829-830, and all the timelines and summaries jump from 827 straight to 831 for the most part.

But... if no one knows what happened exactly, I'm free to make it up without fear of contradiction!

[annis]

Posted by Richard
But... if no one knows what happened exactly, I'm free to make it up without fear of contradiction!

Yes, that's a real plus for an author, and also for the reader- if you read a story about a period which is not well recorded in history, you're much less likely to be distracted by unintentional errors on the author's part.

*Edit Saudi Aramco World's articles cover a wide range of interesting subjects (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/index/Subjects.aspx) and are well worth a browse.
Among their articles is one written by Margaret Donsbach, who posts here regularly, on the subject of Ali ibn Ridwan of Cairo (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200604/the.scholar.s.supernova.htm).

[annis]

Forgot to mention this intriguing piece which I came across here: (http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=870)

(The Muslim forces invading Sicily in 827 were led by Asad ibn Furat)
"Some Muslim historians have conjectured that Asad ibn Furat is the progenitor of the family of Napoleon Bonaparte: Asad's descendants were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart."

[Richard]

Forgot to mention this intriguing piece which I came across ... Asad's descendants were known as Banu Furat and Buonofart."

Buonofart? If I use that, they'll think I made it up! But it is intriguing. I believe Asad died of the plague during the siege of Syracuse.

[annis]

Yes, the article (http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=870) I took it from says Asad died in Syracuse of the plague in 828. His successor, elected by the army, was Muhammad ibn Abi al-Jawari, and he didn't do much better- he died a year later at the siege of Castrogiovanni. The next leader chosen, Zuhayr ibn al-Ghawath, lasted out until 838.

Buonofart does have a rather unfortunate connotation in English, doesn't it? :)

[Richard]

Buonofart does have a rather unfortunate connotation in English, doesn't it? :)

Yes it does- especially since I have a character in the first book called 'Buono'!

I remember hearing that some Bavarian colleagues would not be in the office one day because of Himmelfahrt. Thank goodness for Wikipedia, because I had a completely different idea what the holiday was all about.

[Margaret]

Annis keeps turning up more novels set in medieval Sicily. The latest, which she's reviewed at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Unicorn-Road.html is Martin Davies's new novel, The Unicorn Road, about an expedition sent to China by Manfred of Sicily in the 13th century. He wanted them to find a unicorn so he could present it to the Pope, who was becoming a dangerous enemy.

[annis]

Manfred of Sicily has a small but significant part in "Unicorn Road", but it led me to further study of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and the tragic story of the heirs of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, all of whom came to sad ends despite being blessed with exceptional good looks, intelligence and talent.

Their history is covered in the piece written in the 19th century. Although rather melodramatic in style, it gives the gist of the story.
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=german&story=fall
(I have mentioned this elsewhere, so apologies to those for whom this is repeat reading.)

[annis]

Just discovered that Jack Ludlow has a new series (series title "Conquest") coming out which covers the years leading up to the Norman Conquest of England, written from the POV of Tancred de Hautville and his twelve sons.

The first book, called "Mercenaries" (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/jack-ludlow/mercenaries.htm), is due out April.