Norman Sicily

The term Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture,Norman-Sicilian culture or, less inclusive, Norman-Arab culture, (sometimes referred to as the "Norman-Arab civilization") refers to the interaction of the Norman, Arab and Byzantine cultures following the Norman conquest of Sicily from 1061 to around 1250. This civilization resulted from numerous exchanges in the cultural and scientific fields, based on the tolerance showed by the Normans towards the Greek-speaking populations and the Muslim settlers. As a result, Sicily under the Normans became a crossroad for the interaction between the Norman-Catholic, Byzantine-Orthodox and Arab-Islamic cultures.

In 965 Muslims completed their conquest of Sicily from the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire following the fall of the final significant Greek citadel of Taormina in 962. Seventy three years later, in 1038, Byzantine forces began a reconquest of Sicily under the Greek general George Maniakes. 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 Normans. Although Maniakes' death in a Byzantine civil war in 1043 cut the invasion short, the Normans followed up on the advances made by the Byzantines and completed the conquest of the island from the Saracens. 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 Norman Robert Guiscard, son of Tancred, invaded Sicily in 1060. The island was split politically between three Arab emirs, and the sizable Byzantine Christian population rebelled against the ruling Muslims. One year later Messina fell to troops under the leadership of Roger Bosso (the brother of Robert Guiscard and the future Count Roger I of Sicily), and in 1071 the Normans took Palermo. The loss of the cities, each with a splendid harbor, dealt a severe blow to Muslim power on the island. Eventually Normans took all of Sicily. In 1091, Noto in the southern tip of Sicily and the island of Malta, the last Arab strongholds, fell to the Christians.

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