Companion to Medieval Palermo

Annliese Nef is Maître de Conférences at the University Paris 1-Panthéon and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She has published on Norman Sicily (Conquérir et gouverner la Sicile islamique aux XIe et XIIe siècles, BEFAR, 2011) and works currently on Islamic Sicily.

"This collection of essays by historians, philologists and, to a lesser extent, archaeologists and architects allows us to retrace and decipher this complexity [of Palermo] through the periods of Byzantine, Islamic, Norman, Suebian, Angevin and Aragonese domination and makes the most recent thinking and interpretations of the history of this Mediterranean city accessible in English. Alongside relatively well known aspects of the historiography of Palermo… the editor has endeavoured to give prominent to the city’s cultural and religious history for which there are no recent syntheses."Alessandra Molinari, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Medieval Archeology, Vol. 59 (2015)

• List of Figures ... ixAcknowledgements ... xiiiAbbreviations ... xvList of Contributors ... xviiThe Medieval History of Palermo in a New Light ... 1Annliese NefFrom an Empire to another Empire (VIth–XIth) 1.. Palermo in the Eastern Roman Empire ... 11Vivien Prigent2.. Islamic Palermo and the dār al-islām: Politics, Society and the Economy (from the mid-9th to the mid-11th Century) ... 39Annliese Nef3.. From a Small Town to a Capital: The Urban Evolution of Islamic Palermo (9th–mid-11th Century) ... 61Alessandra Bagnera4.. Palermo Experienced, Palermo Imagined. Arabic and Islamic Culture between the 9th and the 12th Century ... 89Mirella CassarinoThe Hauteville’s experiment (XIth–XIIth) 5.. Norman Palermo: The Capital of a Kingdom or the Dream Scene of an Empire? ... 133Annliese Nef6.. Norman Palermo: Architecture between the 11th and 12th Century ... 139Rosi Di Liberto7. Palermo in the 12th Century: Transformations in forma urbis ... 195Elena PezziniPalermo and the Mediterranean at the end of the Middle Ages8. Palermo in the 14th–15th Century: Urban Economy and Trade ... 235Henri Bresc9. Palermo in the 14th–15th Century: The Urban Society ... 269E. Igor MineoTransversal approaches10. Palermo as a Stage for, and a Mirror of, Political Developments from the 12th to the 15th Century ... 299Laura Sciascia11. The City of Foreigners: Palermo and the Mediterranean from the 11th to the 15th Century ... 325Gian Luca Borghese12. Religious Palermo: A Panorama between the 12th and the 15th Centuries ... 349Henri Bresc13. Monreale from Its Origin to the End of the Middle Ages ... 383Sulamith Brodbeck14. Linguistic Cultures and Textual Production in Palermo, from the End of the 11th to the End of the 15th Century ... 413Benoit Grevin15. The Jews of Palermo from Late Antiquity to the Expulsion (598–1492–93) ... 437Giuseppe MandalaConclusive perspectives16. Citizens and Freedom in Medieval Sicily ... 489Fabrizio TitoneIndicative Bibliography ... 525Index ... 529