Islam in Malta

Islam in Malta (Arabic: الإسلام في مالطا) has had a historically profound influence upon the country—especially its language and agriculture—as a consequence of several centuries of control and presence on the islands.

[6] Islam is believed to have been introduced to Malta when the North African Aghlabids, first led by Halaf al-Hadim and later by Sawada ibn Muhammad,[7] conquered the islands from the Byzantines, after arriving from Sicily in 870[8] (as part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars).

[7] As recognised by the acclaimed Maltese historian Godfrey Wettinger, the Arab conquest broke any continuity with previous population of the island.

This is also consistent with Joseph Brincat’s linguistic finding of no further sub-stratas beyond Arabic in the Maltese language, a very rare occurrence which may only be explained by a drastic lapse between one period and the following.

[20] They also introduced sweet pastries and spices and new crops, including citrus, figs, almond,[12] as well as the cultivation of the cotton plant, which would become the mainstay of the Maltese economy for several centuries,[21] until the latter stages of the rule of the Knights of St.

Elements of Islamic architecture also remain in the vernacular Maltese style, including the muxrabija, wooden oriel windows similar to the mashrabiya.

[28] Even in 1175, Burchard, bishop of Strasbourg, an envoy of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, had the impression, based upon his brief visit to Malta, that it was exclusively or mainly inhabited by Muslims.

[30] The conquest of the Normans lead to the gradual Latinization and subsequent firm establishment of Roman Catholicism in Malta, after previous respective Eastern Orthodox and Islamic domination.

[34] According to the author Stefan Goodwin, by the end of the 15th century all Maltese Muslims would be forced to convert to Christianity and had to find ways to disguise their previous identities.

Wettinger goes on to say that "there is no doubt that by the beginning of Angevin times [i.e. shortly after 1249] no professed Muslim Maltese remained either as free persons or even as serfs on the island.

[44] There was also a deliberate and ultimately successful campaign, using disinformation and often led by the Roman Catholic clergy, to de-emphasize Malta's historic links with Africa and Islam.

[45] This distorted history "determined the course of Maltese historiography till the second half of the twentieth century",[46] and it created the rampant Islamophobia which has been a traditional feature of Malta, like other southern European states.

[53] The 17th-century cemetery at Spencer Hill had to be relocated in 1865 to make way for planned road works,[54] with one tombstone dating to 1817 being conserved at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

The plans are available in Turkish archives in Istanbul which hold the words “Progetto di una moschea – Cimitero Musulmano“ (Project for a mosque – Muslim Cemetery).

History books were published that began to spread the idea of a disconnection between the Italian and Catholic populations, and instead tried to promote the theory of closer cultural and ethnic ties with North Africa.

[68] Malta and Libya also entered into a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, in response to repeated overtures by Gaddafi for a closer, more formal union between the two countries; and, for a brief period, Arabic had become a compulsory subject in Maltese secondary schools.