The Muslims Of Medieval Italy By Alex M

The Muslims of Medieval Italy by Alex Metcalfe Less than two hundred years after the death of the prophet Muhammad the rule of Islam had spread from the Arab Peninsula to Italy after the Roman Empire had crumbled away; eventually it spread all the way to Iberia. The book The Muslims of Medieval Italy by Alex Metcalfe focuses on the Muslim-Christian dynamic and the respective ruling entities by examining the chronological timeline of events and more cultural history of the dynamic in the region. The first half of the book is more obviously focused on the chronological explanation of events and delving into the reasons for why things happened the way they did. As the book progresses, it noticeably starts to focus on the more cultural aspects of the history. The book takes a unique topic and sheds a lot of light on the European Christian and North African Muslim interaction in the Medieval Period. It is quite in depth in the approach to the chronological event history but can take the armature historian a bit of rereading to orient themselves correctly. However, the cultural and more “micro” history of the region is quite interesting. This book sheds a lot of light on a single side of the Muslim rise to prominence in the region and then how the interaction with later Christian rulers developed in the Medieval Period. The book starts off from the fall of Rome and the rise of Muslim North Africa and eventually the conquest and annexation of Sicily. From there the Muslim expansion begins in south Italy since Sicily gave them a foothold in the region. During this narrative there are explanations of the Muslim authority and leadership. After the expeditions of Malta and Syracuse there is a civil war that lasts for 4 years and opens the 900’s. After the conquests further into Italy, the Aghlabid rulers keep local Christian rulers in power. Certain things about this make it significant included a collective jizya. There is a brief aside to the long distance diplomacy

Bibliography: Metcalfe, Alex. The Muslims of Medieval Italy. Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Edinburgh. 2011.