Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture

[8] The civilization resulted from numerous exchanges in the cultural and scientific fields, based on the tolerance shown by the Normans towards the Latin- and Greek-speaking Christian populations and the former Arab Muslim settlers.

[10][11][12] The de Hautevilles had enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the papacy in the period leading up to their arrival in Southern Italy, with the Church recognizing them as legitimate lords in return for their military allegiance.

[14] Robert Guiscard would mount later campaigns after his conquest of Sicily to further Norman influence in Southern Italy, notably capturing Bari in 1071 and Salerno in 1077.

This invasion relied on a number of Norse mercenaries, the Varangians, including the future King of Norway Harald Hardrada, as well as on several contingents of Italo-Norman warriors.

[10][11][15] The Normans had been expanding south, as mercenaries and adventurers, driven by the myth of a happy and sunny island in the Southern Seas.

The island of Sicily was split politically between three Arab emirs, and the sizable Byzantine Orthodox Christian population rebelled against the ruling Muslims.

[17] Muslim Arabs and Berbers held onto Sicily and other regions of southern Italy until they were eventually defeated and expelled by the Christian Normans in 1072 to their Iberian and North African territories.

Sicilian rule consisted of military garrisons in the major towns, exactions on the local Muslim population, protection of Christians and the minting of coin.

The local aristocracy was largely left in place, and Muslim princes controlled the civil government under Sicilian oversight.

Following the Norman conquest of southern Italy, an intense Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture developed in Sicily, exemplified by rulers such as Roger II of Sicily, who had Muslim soldiers, poets, and scientists at his court,[21] and had Byzantine Greeks, Christodoulos, the famous George of Antioch, and finally Philip of Mahdia, serve successively as his ammiratus ammiratorum ("emir of emirs").

The various agricultural and industrial techniques which had been introduced by the Arabs in Sicily during the preceding two centuries were kept and further developed, allowing for the remarkable prosperity of the island.

[27]During Roger II's reign, the Kingdom of Sicily became increasingly characterized by its multi-ethnic composition and unusual religious tolerance.

[28] Catholic Normans, Langobards and native Sicilians, Muslim Arabs, and Orthodox Byzantine Greeks existed in a relative harmony for this time period,[29][30] and Roger II was known to have planned for the establishment of an Empire that would have encompassed Fatimid Egypt and the Crusader states in the Levant up until his death in 1154.

He was further surprised to find that even some Christians spoke Arabic and that several government officials were Muslim:[32] The attitude of the king is really extraordinary.

[37] Numerous artistic techniques from the Byzantine and Islamic world were also incorporated to form the basis of Arab-Norman art: inlays in mosaics or metals, sculpture of ivory or porphyry, sculpture of hard stones, bronze foundries, manufacture of silk (for which Roger II established a regium ergasterium, a state enterprise which would give Sicily the monopoly of silk manufacture for all Western Europe).

[39] Roger II was one such prominent patron of the arts, with the most well-known image of him in Sicily being found at the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio.

The church is notable for its brilliant red domes, which show clearly the persistence of Arab influences in Sicily at the time of its reconstruction in the 12th century.

The Cappella Palatina, also in Palermo, combines harmoniously a variety of styles: the Norman architecture and door decor, the Arabic arches and scripts adorning the roof, the Byzantine dome and mosaics.

The outsides of the principal doorways and their pointed arches are magnificently enriched with carving and colored inlay, a curious combination of three styles—Norman–French, Byzantine and Arab.

Serving as the chief advisor to William I, Aristippus would be the one to bring Ptolemy's pivotal work the Almagest to Sicily from Constantinople after being gifted the text by Emperor Manuel Comnenos.

[53] The Byzantine influence on Roger was clear from early on in his life, with his formative years spent in Messina on Sicily's heavily Greek Eastern coast.

[54] He was tutored by Greeks and his use of Fabian warfare tactics and his interest in administration and finance are all interpreted as signs of the Byzantine influence on the ruler.

[56] In fact, Roger's love for Arabic culture was so pronounced that Ibn al-Athir would go so far as to point out a rumor that the king was actually a Muslim when writing about him.

Under this new title he would command the formidable Norman fleet and act as the de facto ruler of Sicily until Roger II came to power.

The Fatimid port city of Alexandria had emerged as the most prominent hub of Mediterranean trade, and the commerce between Sicily, Ifriqiya, and Egypt was large in scale.

Their numbers eventually reached between 15,000 and 20,000, leading Lucera to be called Lucaera Saracenorum because it represented the last stronghold of Islamic presence in Italy.