Where Three Worlds Met: Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean

Sarah C. Davis-Secord

Published by Cornell University Press 2017

Where Three Worlds Met

Sicily in the Early Medieval Mediterranean

Sarah C. Davis-Secord

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501712593

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Where Three Worlds Met, Sarah Davis-Secord investigates Sicily's place within the religious, diplomatic, military, commercial, and intellectual networks of the Mediterranean by tracing the patterns of travel, trade, and communication among Christians (Latin and Greek), Muslims, and Jews. By looking at the island across this long expanse of time and during the periods of transition from one dominant culture to another, Davis-Secord uncovers the patterns that defined and redefined the broader Muslim-Christian encounter in the Middle Ages.

Author / Editor information

Sarah Davis-Secord is Associate Professor of History at the University of New Mexico.

Reviews

Clifford R. Backman, Boston University, author of The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Religion, and Economy in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296–1337:

Where Three Worlds Met is an ambitious and intelligent portrait of Sicily's place in Mediterranean life, a topic well worth undertaking. Located at the center of the Mediterranean, the island was not surprisingly the center of the various commercial, diplomatic, and cultural networks that spread throughout the basin.

Davis-Secord's work makes a signigicant contribution to the way we ought to frame our questions about the medieval Mediterranean and Sicily, in particular.

"Where Three Worlds Met" is an apt title for a book that emphasises the role of Sicily as a place of cultural exchange, an island conquered by several groups over its long and fascinating history. Davis-Secord develops this colourful story though a chronological re-telling of important events and trends in the multi-cultural societies that grew there.

Sarah Davis-Secord illuminates both the intrinsic importance of Sicily and also the roles it played in larger transformations of the Mediterranean Basin.

Davis-Secord explores—imaginatively and successfully—the travel and communication networks produced and experienced by its Byzantine, Muslim, and Norman conquerors.

Davis-Secord's work makes a significant contribution to the way we ought to frame our questions about the medieval Mediterranean and Sicily, in particular.

A very interesting book.... Few scholars today would have dared to undertake such an ambitious project, and students in particular will learn a great deal from this thoughtful and stimulating work.

Davis-Secord's book represents a valuable contribution to our understanding of medieval Sicily. The synthesis of such a vast body of source material and its situation within the most recent advances in the historiography of the region is quite an achievement indeed.

Where Three Worlds Met is important for helping to understand medieval Sicily. It covers a sweeping chronological scope, not just synthesizing a broad range of scholarship, but also crafting a new lens through which we can view the island.

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Maps and Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Timeline Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Sicily between Constantinople and Rome Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
2. Sicily between Byzantium and the Islamic World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
3. Sicily in the Dār al-Islām Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
4. Sicily from the Dār al-Islām to Latin Christendom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
5. Sicily at the Center of the Mediterranean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 318
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 10
- Images: 10
Keywords: Sicily; medieval Sicily; Mediterranean; Muslim-Christian encounter; Muslim-Christian interaction; Middle Ages; Christian; Muslim; Jew; travel; communication; cultural exchange

eBook

Published: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 9781501712593