Kingdom of Africa
Sicilian rule consisted of military garrisons in the major towns, exactions on the local Muslim population, protection of Christians, and the minting of coin.
Regarding the motive for the Normans' military involvement in Africa, historian David Abulafia raises three possibilities: religious ("the extension of crusading activity into a relatively neglected arena"), economic (such as "the protection of key trade routes"), or imperialistic ("an attempt to build a vast Mediterranean empire").
The Greek Orthodox monastery of San Salvatore in Messina was permitted to export its surplus wheat to north Africa in return for wax for its candles.
[4] During this time, Africa (i.e., the old Roman province) underwent rapid urbanisation as famines depopulated the countryside and industry shifted from agriculture to manufactures.
In 1117, when Rafi, governor of Gabès, challenged the trading monopoly of his overlord, Ali ibn Yahyā, emir of Mahdia, he asked Roger for assistance.
[8] Sicilian Muslims participated in the conquest of Djerba, but it is unknown what happened to the ancient Jewish community on the island, which was still there (or re-established) in the early thirteenth century.
Its foreign affairs fell to Roger, who forbade alliances with other Muslim states inimical to Sicily, and probably received its customs revenues in lieu of payment for the grain needed to feed it.
[8] One Arabic chronicler noted how "the accursed one [the king of Sicily] imposed the toughest conditions, and he [the emir] had to accept them, and he offered him obedience so that to all intents he became a mere ‘āmil [governor] for Roger".
Gervase of Tilbury, in a suspect passage of his Otia imperialia, implies that the Emperor Frederick I, who regarded Roger as a usurper in southern Italy, was upset by his extending his power into the old Roman province of Africa.
[e] And according to the Erfurt chronicles, at the Diet of Merseburg in 1135, a delegation from the Republic of Venice complained to the Emperor Lothair III that Roger had seized Africa, "one third of the world", from the king of Gretia (Greece).
[13] In 1087, when the organisers of the Mahdia campaign asked him for his assistance, Roger I, who since 1076 had an economic treaty with the Tamīm ibn Muʿizz, emir of Tunis,[14] refused, saying, "As far as we are concerned, Africa is always there.
On 1 July the city of Sousse (Susa), ruled by al-Hasan's son ‘Ali, surrendered without a fight, and ʿAli fled to his father in Almohad Morocco.
[19] The Banū Matrūh were left in power in Tripoli, and in Sfax Roger appointed Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Furrīānī, whose father was brought to Sicily as a hostage for his son's good behaviour.
After the brief period of conquest and acquisition, "the dominion of the Franks [Normans] extended from Tripoli to the borders of Tunis, and from the western Maghrib to Qayrawan".
[23] The Venetian chronicler Andrea Dandolo is probably correct in asserting: "and the kings of Tunis paid him [Roger] tribute" (regemque Tunixii sibi tributarium fecit).
The Italian Arabist Michele Amari suggested that this last was an endeavour to interrupt the Almohads' shipping routes, but Ibiza lies well to the north of the African coast.
"[24] In response, Caliph ʿAbd al-Muʾmin is said to have temporarily abandoned the siege in order to construct two large mounds of wheat and barley.
[22] A final peace with the Almohads was not signed until 1180, when a Sicilian naval vessel intercepted a ship bearing the daughter of the caliph Yūsuf to Spain.
[25] Robert of Torigny even says that two cities, Africa (Mahdia) and Sibilia (Zawīla), were returned to them, but in fact they probably only received warehouses and commercial facilities in these places.
[25] Later Anglo-Norman writers refer to a one-line, rhyming poem (monosticum): APVLVS ET CALABER, SICVLVS MICHI SERVIT ET AFER ("Apulia and Calabria, Sicily and Africa serve me").
[26] Radulphus de Diceto, in his Decani Lundoniensis Opuscula, briefly narrates the Norman conquest of southern Italy and then quotes the above line.
The anonymous poet refers to Roger II as "ruler of Italy and Sicily, Africa, Greece and Syria" and suggests that Persia, Ethiopia and Germany fear him.
[26] There is at least one surviving private Sicilian charter which refers to Roger as "our lord of Sicily and Italy and also of all Africa most serene and invincible king crowned by God, pious, fortunate, triumphant, always august".
[26] One tombstone from Palermo, that of the royal priest Grizantus, dated to 1148, refers to Roger in its Arabic and Judeo-Arabic inscriptions as "king (malik) of Italy, Longobardia, Calabria, Sicily and Africa (Ifrīqiyya).
As in Sicily, close attention was paid to the interests of the Muslim population, while the Christians benefit from the exemption from the poll-tax... Apart from the garrisons in the African towns, and apart from the use of Norman-style cavalry charges, evidence for the presence of 'Norman' or 'Frankish' characteristics cannot be found.
[18] Because of Sicily's good relations with Fatimid Egypt, Italian merchant ships could travel along the entire north African shore in peace during this period.
An important stopping point for these was Bougie, which Roger may have attacked during this period, but over which he could not extend authority, although he did maintain links with the deposed emir Yahyā ibn al-ʿAzīz.
[32] At Mahdia, Roger I and William I minted dinars of pure gold, 22 mm in diameter and weighing 4.15 g with Cufic inscriptions, probably for internal circulation in Africa.
Norman Africa "became rich and prosperous, while the remainder of Barbary and the great part of the Middle East felt the harsh pangs of hunger" during this period of constant famines.
Bishop Cosmas of Mahdia made a trip to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Eugene III and also to Palermo to visit his new sovereign.
