Kingdom Of Sicily 1100-1250

by MALLETTE, KARLA

• ISBN13: 9780812238853
• ISBN10: 0812238850
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-25
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

When Muslim invaders conquered Sicily in the ninth century, they took control of a weakened Greek state in cultural decadence. When, two centuries later, the Normans seized control of the island, they found a Muslim state just entering its cultural prime. Rather than replace the practices and idioms of the vanquished people with their own, the Normans in Sicily adopted and adapted the Greco-Arabic culture that had developed on the island. Yet less than a hundred years later, the cultural and linguistic mix had been reduced, a Romance tradition had come to dominate, and Sicilian poets composed the first body of love lyrics in an Italianate vernacular. Karla Mallette has written the first literary history of the Kingdom of Sicily in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Where other scholars have separated out the island's literature along linguistic grounds, Mallette surveys the literary production in Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Romance dialects, in addition to the architectural remains, numismatic inscriptions, and diplomatic records, to argue for a multilingual, multicultural, and coherent literary tradition. Drawing on postcolonial theory to consider institutional and intellectual power, the exchange of knowledge across cultural boundaries, and the containment and celebration of the other that accompanies cultural transition, the book includes an extensive selection of poems and documents translated from the Arabic, Latin, Old French, and Italian.The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250opens up new venues for understanding the complexity of a place and culture at the crossroads of East and West, Islam and Christianity, tradition and innovation.

Author Biography

Karla Mallette teaches civilization studies at American University of Beirut.

Table of Contents

1. Toward a Literary History of the Kingdom of Sicily	1	(16)
2. An Archeology of the Sicilian Park	17	(30)
3. Frederick II and the Genesis of a Sicilian Romance Culture	47	(18)
4. Rereading Le Origini: Sicilian Romance Poetry and the Language of Natural Philosophy	65	(19)
5. Beyond Le Origini: Sicilian Romance Poetry in a Feminine Voice	84	(26)
6. Vernacularity and Sicilian Culture	110	(21)
TEXTS IN TRANSLATION
FROM THE ARABIC
Ibn Hamdis
"In youth, the soul attains its desire" (from the Siqilliyyat)	131	(3)
"Because of long-lasting grief" (from the Siqilliyyat)	134	(3)
"Oh, garden of love"	137	(1)
"You tortured me with the two elements"	138	(1)
Abu Musa
"Oh, blonde tribe, my blood is on your hands"	138	(1)
"My tears expose my love"	139	(1)
Al-Atrabanishi, "Oh, Favara of the two seas!"	139	(2)
Al-Buthayri and Ibn Bashnm, "Pass round the golden carnelian-red [wine]"	141	(13)
Abu al-Daw, "The radiant moon has been extinguished"	143	(2)
Abu Hafs, "He sought solace"	145	(1)
Introduction to al-Idrisi's Geography	146	(2)
The Travels of Ibn Jubayr	148	(3)
The Daughter of Ibn Abbad and Frederick II	151	(3)
FROM THE LATIN
Henricus Aristippus's Preface to His Translation of Plato's Phaedo, ca. 1156	154	(2)
Preface to a Translation of Ptolemy's Almagest by an Unknown Translator, ca. 1160	156	(2)
"Hugo Falcandus" on the Death of William and the Arrival of the Germans	158	(3)
Peter of Eboli, Lament on the Death of William II	161	(1)
Frederick II, Hunting with Birds	162	(2)
Frederick II and Lucera	164	(2)
Innocent IV Excommunicates Frederick	166	(1)
The Destruction of Lucera	167	(1)
FROM THE OLD FRENCH
Introduction to the Book of Sydrac	168	(4)
FROM THE SICILIAN
Giacomo da Lentini
"Maravigliosamente"	172	(2)
"Amor non vole"	174	(1)
"Or come pote si gran donna intrare"	175	(1)
"A faire claro ò vista ploggia dare"	176	(1)
Frederick II, "Dolze meo drudo"	177	(1)
Mazzeo di Ricco, "Sei anni ò travagliato"	178	(2)
Rinaldo d'Aquino, "Giá mai non mi conforto"	180	(2)
Guido delle Colonne, "Ancor the l'aigua per lo foco lassi"	182	(3)
Anonymous, "Oi lassa 'namorata"	185	(2)
Notes	187	(12)
Bibliography	199	(10)
Index	209	(4)
Acknowledgments	213