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A “Semi-Pagan Tyrant?”

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Norman Kings of Sicily and the Rise of the Anti-Islamic Critique

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Abstract

Birk examines the role Muslims played for the rulers of Sicily in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The chapter covers the challenges faced by Adelaide as a female regent and the increasing symbolic import of Muslims in Sicilian politics under her and her son Roger II’s rule. Birk shows that Muslim soldiers and administrators were used as symbols of Sicilian power, illustrating the scope of royal authority, while Muslim agrarian workers became a financial asset as sources of labor and tax revenue. The chapter concludes by discussing the depiction of Muslim soldiers in contemporary sources and argues that, though they garnered little attention from authors north of the regno, their importance was understood by both Roger’s allies and enemies in the newly formed regno.

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  1. Smith College, Northampton, USA

    Joshua C. Birk

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Birk, J.C. (2016). A “Semi-Pagan Tyrant?”. In: Norman Kings of Sicily and the Rise of the Anti-Islamic Critique. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47042-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47042-9_3

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