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ABSTRACT
This article critically reviews the recent historiography and primary sources pertaining to the Muslim presence in early medieval peninsular Italy. The study illuminates the intricate dynamics of Muslim incursions and settlements during this period, often obfuscated by Eurocentric narratives. By interrogating both Latin and Islamic sources, the article aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the Muslim–Christian interactions and their sociopolitical implications. The goal is to present a holistic perspective that recognizes the internal diversities within the so-called “Muslim” forces, and to highlight the influence of larger geopolitical events, such as the Fourth Fitna, on the unfolding events in peninsular Italy. This analysis contributes to a deeper, multifaceted understanding of early medieval peninsular Italy.ie
Acknowledgement
I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies of the University of Toronto for welcoming me into their scholarly community. My time spent at the Institute during my research in Toronto was greatly enriched by the generous hospitality extended to me, for which I am deeply thankful. Special appreciation is due to Joseph Pilsner and Augustine Thompson, whose support and guidance have been invaluable. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of al-Masāq for their thoughtful and constructive comments that enhanced the quality of my work. Their insights have been a source of inspiration and have prompted deeper inquiry into my research. Furthermore, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Editor-in-Chief of al-Masāq. Her prompt responses to my queries and her diligent assistance have been exemplary.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See in particular Luigi Andrea Berto, “Terra conquistata/di conquista e predoni-jihadisti. Fonti e recente storiografia sui musulmani nell’Italia peninsulare altomedievale”, Mediterranean Chronicle 11 (2021): 141–159; Luigi Andrea Berto, Christians and Muslims in Early Medieval Italy: Perceptions, Encounters, and Clashes (New York: Routledge, 2020); Marco Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano (Bologna: Il Mulino SpA publishing company, 2019); Federico Marazzi, “Ita ut facta videatur neapolis panormus vel Africa. Geopolitica e presenza Islamica nei domini di Napoli, Gaeta, Salerno e Benevento nel IX secolo”, Schede Medievali 45 (2007): 159–202, p. 172; Alex Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2009). See also the collection of studies included in Southern Italy as Contact Area and Border Region during the Early Middle Ages: Religious-Cultural Heterogeneity and Competing Powers in Local, Transregional and Universal Dimensions, eds. Kordula Wolf and Klaus Herbers (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2018).
2 However, it is important to note that while I reference and consider the ramifications of the Fourth Fitna, this article does not provide an in-depth account of this event.
3 The term “abnāʾ” specifically denotes the descendants of non-Arab Persian soldiers established in garrison towns during the early Islamic conquests. They played a crucial military and administrative role in the Abbasid Caliphate’s nascent period. During the Fourth Fitna, a civil war marked by the rivalry between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma’mun for the caliphate, the abnāʾ supported al-Amin. Conversely, al-Ma’mun found allies in the Barmakids, an influential Persian family with substantial administrative influence in the Abbasid court. Following al-Ma’mun’s eventual victory and ascendancy to the caliphate, the balance of power shifted significantly. Given their previous allegiance to his rival, the abnāʾ’s influence waned, while the wazīr, al-Faḍl b. Sahl (who had risen to importance through the patronage of the Barmakids) aligned with al-Ma’mun.
4 See the recent study by Giulia Zornetta, Italia Meridionale Longobarda. Competizione, conflitto e potere politico a Benevento (secoli VIII-IX) (Rome: Viella, 2020), in particular pp. 211–231.
5 Ibn al-Athir, Kitab al-Kamil, ed. C.J. Tornberg, 6 volumes (Beirut: Maṭbaʻat Brīl, 1982), p. 350.
6 Ulla Westerbergh, Chronicon Salernitanum: A Critical Edition with Studies on Literary and Historical Sources and on Language [Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, volume 3] (Stockholm, Sweden: Almquist & Wiksell, 1956), p. 79, “Sed dum creberrime talia iterarentur, audito hoc, Agarenorum gens generalen faciens monicionem, Calabrie finibus adiunt, circumquaque loca pervadunt. Tarentum veniunt eamque sine mora ceperunt; idipsum in Apulie finibus perveniunt, pene omnes civitates Apulie depopularunt, homines, qui ad istar segetum excreverant, succidunt”. See also the most recent edition and Italian translation: Anonymus Salernitanus, Chronicon, Traduzione, Introduzione e note di R. Matarazzo, ed. Raffaele Matarazzo (Naples: Arte tipografica, 2002), pp. 114–115.
7 Lupus Protospatharius, Annales Barenses, “ad. Ann. 919: explentur octaginta anni, ex quo Agareni intoierunt in Italiam”; Georg Heinrich Pertz, “Lupi Protospatarii Chronicon”, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores (Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Aulici Hahniani, 1844), pp. 51–63.
8 John the Deacon, “Istoria Veneticorum”, ed. G. Monticolo, Cronaca veneziana del diacono Giovanni, Fonti per la Storia d’Italia [Cronache veneziane antichissime, volume 9] (Rome: Forzani e c., 1890), pp. 57–174, esp. 113–114. See also John the Deacon, “Chronicon Venetum”, in Georg Heinrich Pertz (ed.), Monumenta Germaniae historica, scriptores VII (Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Aulici Hahniani, 1846), pp. 4–38, and Diacono Giovanni and Luigi Andrea Berto, Istoria Veneticorum (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1999), II: 50.
9 “Tunc praeparare sexaginta bellicosas naves omni sub festinatione studuit et usque ad Tarantum, ubi Saba Saracenorum princeps cum maximo exercitu manebat, easdem destinavit”, John the Deacon, Istoria Venticorum, II: 50.
10 Michele Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 3 volumes (Catania: R. Prampolini, 1933–38), I: 496, reprint (Firenze: Le Monnier, 2002), p. 279; see, in particular, note 11. Amari’s interpretation is supported by Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano: cristiani e musulmani nell’Italia medievale, p. 29.
11 Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyá Balādhurī, “Futuh al-buldan”, in Liber expugnationis regionum, auctore Imàmo Aḥmed ibn Jahja ibn Djàbir al-Beladsorì, ed. M.J. de Goeje (Leiden: Brill, 1866); Philip Khuri Hitti and F.C. Murgotten, trans., The Origins of the Islamic State (New York: AMS Press, 1916–24), pp. 234–235.
12 Luigi Andrea Berto, ed. and trans., The Little History of the Lombards of Benevento by Erchempert: A Critical Edition and Translation of Ystoriola Longobardorum Beneventum Degentium (London and New York: Routledge, 2022), pp. 95–96; see also Erchemperto and Luigi Andrea Berto, Piccola storia dei Longobardi di Benevento (Naples: Liguori, 2013).
13 For a discussion of the date of composition, the authors and the narrative structure of the Cronicae, see Luigi Andrea Berto, Making History in Ninth-Century Northern and Southern Italy (Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2018), pp. 47–49.
14 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, ed. and trans. Luigi Andrea Berto, with an appendix by Walter Pohl (Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2006), pp. 15–16.
15 See, in particular, Giosuè Musca, L’emirato di Bari, 847–871 (Bari: Dedalo Litostampa, 1964), p. 159; Marazzi, “Ita ut facta videatur neapolis panormus vel Africa. Geopolitica e presenza Islamica nei domini di Napoli, Gaeta, Salerno e Benevento nel IX secolo”, 172; Metcalfe, Muslims of Medieval Italy, 19; Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, 60–61 (Di Branco, however, dates the Arab conquest of Bari to between August 847 and the end of 848); Barbara Kreutz, Before the Normans: Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), p. 32.
16 I will return to this point below. See Lorenzo Bondioli, “Islamic Bari between the Aghlabids and the Two Empires”, in The Aghlabids and Their Neighbours: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa, eds. Glaire D. Anderson, Corisande Fenwick, Mariam Rosser-Owen and Sihem Lamine (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2018), pp. 470–590, esp. 471–479.
17 Bondioli, “Islamic Bari”, 478.
18 Erchempertus, Ystoriola, 96.
19 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 16.
20 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 16: “Cum his quoque Radelchis totam devastavit Siconulfi regionem Capuamque primariam universam redegit in cinerem”.
21 Westerbergh, Chronicon Salernitanum, 80: “Alius Agarenus, Apolaffar nomine, Tarentum deiebat, et ipse illo in tempore Agarenorum qui in Calabrie finibus demorabant <preherat>”.
22 However, it should be noted that Luigi Andrea Berto disagrees with this hypothesis, see Berto, “Terra conquistata/di conquista e predoni-jihadisti. Fonti e recente storiografia sui musulmani nell’Italia peninsulare altomedievale”, 153.
23 Erchempertus, Ystoriola, 116: “maxime quia Saraceni Benevento degentes, quorum rex erat Massari, infra extraque omnia funditus devastavit, ita ut etiam optimates illius pro nichilo ducerent atque ut ineptos servulos taureis duriter flagellarent”. Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 20; “Aliquantis interim elapsis temporibus, Massar dux Benevento residens in auxilum Radelchisi principis”.
24 The English translation is from Berto, The Little History of the Lombards of Benevento, 97–98.
25 Erchempertus, Ystoriola, 114; “Siconulfus […] contra Agarenos Radelgisi Libicos Hismaelitas Hispanos accivit”.
26 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 20.
27 Andreas of Bergamo, Historia, c. XIV in A. da Bergamo (ed.), Cronaca. Storia dei Longobardi 744–877 (Cassino: Ciolfi, 2011), p. 74.
28 The successful siege and conquest of Bari by the Frankish troops occurred in 871.
29 Andreas of Bergamo, Historia, c. XIV, p. 74.
30 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 279. See also Cristina Tonghini, “Gli Arabi ad Amantea: Elementi di Documentazione Materiale”, in Annali dell’istituto universitario orientale di Napoli, volume 57 (1997), 1–2: 203–230, esp. 205. Tonghini writes that Amantea was occupied by the Aghlabids in 846 and later became an Emirate like Tropea and Santa Severina.
31 Michele Amari believes that that it was the Andalusian Saracens who had invaded Crete who occupied Taranto in 840 and were hired as mercenaries by Siconulf. See Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, 279–280.
32 Balādhurī, Futuh al-buldan; Ibn al-Athir, Kitab al-Kamil, 350, Erchempertus, Ystoriola longobardorum, 95–96; Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 15–16, Westerbergh, Chronicon Salernitanum, 79.
33 See note 14. The mistaken claim that Bari fell under Saracen control in 847 should therefore be dismissed.
34 See note 9.
35 Bondioli, “Islamic Bari”, 472.
36 In this year, Al-Mufarraj “forwarded the news of the situation to the postmaster in Egypt and told him that he and the Muslims who were with him could not perform the prayer unless the imam confirmed him over his district and appointed him governor, so that he might not be included in the category of the usurpers”. Balādhurī, Futuh al-buldan, 233.
37 However, Talbi and Marazzi suggest that the Emirate of Bari was related to the Aghlabid attempt to intervene in mainland Italy. See Mohamed Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide 184–296/800–909: histoire politique, publication de la Faculté des Lettres, Tunis. Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1966), pp. 443–459; Marazzi, “Ita ut facta videatur neapolis panormus vel Africa”, pp. 175–177.
38 See Norman Calder, “Friday Prayer and the Juristic Theory of Government: Sarakhsī, Shīrāzī, Māwardī”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 49 (1986): 35–47. See also Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, 64; Bondioli, “Islamic Bari”, 482.
39 Westerbergh, Chronicon Salernitanum, 79–81.
40 Balādhurī, Futuh al-buldan, 233.
41 John the Deacon, Istoria Veneticorum, III: 6: “Interea Baris civitas domini Ludovici regis Francorum et Longobardorum ab exercitu capta est. Quam videlicet civitatem, Bandone eiusdem civitatis gastaldio agente, Sarracenorum gens per annos circiter triginta tenuerunt. Trigesimo primo anno, divina favente gratia, reddita est illis impietas quam christianis civibus olim intolerant. Capta est autem quarto nonas februarias, qua die sancta Dei genitrices et virginis Mariae purification celebrator”.
42 See in particular Clemens Gantner, “New Visions of Community in Ninth-Century Rome: The Impact of the Saracen Threat on the Papal World View”, in Visions of Community in the Post-Roman World, The West, Byzantium and the Islamic World, 300–1100, eds. Walter Pohl, Clemens Gantner, Richard Payne (Farnham: Routledge, 2012), pp. 403–421, esp. 418.
43 The attack is reported in the Louis Duchesne, Liber Pontificalis (Paris: E. Thorin, 1882), p. 100; see also The Lives of the Ninth-Century Popes (Liber Pontificalis), trans. Raymond Davis (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996), pp. 93–96; the Cronicae Sancti Benedicti Cassinensis, 16; ed. and trans. Luigi Andrea Berto, Iohannis gesta episcoporum neapolitanorum in storia dei vescovi napoletani (I secolo – 876) (Pisa: Pisa University Press, 2018), p. 100; John the Deacon, Istoria veneticorum, II: 51; Annals of St. Bertin, ed. Georg Waitz, MGH SS [Rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi, volume 5] (Hahn: Hanover, 1883), p. 34; see also The Annals of ST- Bertin [Ninth-Century Histories, volume I], trans. and annotated Janet L. Nelson (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1991), p. 63; Einhard, Rudolf, Meginhardus, Friedrich Kurze and Georg Heinrich Pertz, Annales Fuldenses: Sive Annales Regni Francorum Orientalis (Hannoverae: Impensis bibliopolii Hahniani, 1891), p. 36; Georg Heinrich Pertz, ed., Annales qui dicuntur Xantenses (Hannover: Impensis bibliopolii Hahniani, 1909), p. 16; and Benedict, monk of St. Andrew on Mount Soracte, Chronicon, in Il Chronicon di Benedetto Monaco di S. Andrea del Soratte e il Libellus de imperatoria potestate in urbe Roma, ed. G. Zucchetti [Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, volume 55] (Rome: Tipografia del Senato, 1920), pp. 1–187, esp. 149.
44 Cronicae sancti benedicti cassinensis, 16: “His diebus Saraceni egressi Romam, horatorium totum devastaverunt beatissimorum principis apostolorum Petri beatique ecclesiam Pauli multosque ibidem peremerunt Saxones aliosque quam plurimus utriusque sexus et etatis. Fundensemque capientes urbem vicinaque depredeantes loca, septembrio quoque mense secus Gaietam castrametati sunt”.
45 Annales qui dicuntur Xantenses, 16: “Eodem tempore, quod sine grandi merore nulli dicendum vel audiendum est, mater cunctarum ecclesiarum, basilica sancti Petri apostoli, a Mauris vel a Sarracenis, qui iam pridem Beneventaniam consederant, capta atque predata est, et omnes Christianos, quos foris Romam repperierunt, intus et foris eiusdem aecclesiae occiderunt. Reclausos etiam viros et mulieres abduxerunt. Altare sancti Petri cum aliis multis detraxerunt, et afflictio Christianorum propter scelera eorum cotidie hinc inde orta est”.
46 Annales fuldenses, 36: “His temporibus Mauri Romam cum exercitu venientes, cum non possent urbem inrumpere, ecclesiam sancti Petri vastaverunt”.
47 Annales bertiniani, 34: “Mense Augusto Saraceni Maurique Tiberi Romam adgressi, basilicam beati Petri apostolorum principis devastantes, ablatis cum ipso altaris, quod tumbae memorati apostolorum principis superpositum fuerat, omnibus ornamentis atque thesauris, quendam montem centum ab Urbe milibus munitissimum occupant”.
48 The Lives of the Ninth-Century Popes, 93–94.
49 Storia dei vescovi napoletani, 100: “Ac deinde Africani in forti brachio omnem hanc regionem divastare cupientes, Romam supervenerunt atque, iaculato de coelo iudicio, ecclesias apostolorum et cuncta quae extrinsecus repererunt lugenda pernicie et horribili captivitate diripuerunt”. However, Tommi Lankila believes that this raid was an example of Arab maritime Ghazw; see T.P. Lankila, “The Saracen Raid of Rome in 846: An Example of Maritime Ghazw”, in Travelling through Time: Essays in Honour of Kaj Öhrnberg, eds. Silvia Akar, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila and Inka Nokso-Koivisto (Helsinky: Finnish Oriental Society, 2013), pp. 93–120.
50 However, Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, 42, believes that the attack is “organizzato dalla leadership militare aglabita”.
51 Erchempertus, Ystoriola, 98–99.
52 Erchempertus, Ystoriola, 99; Cronicae sancti benedicti cassinensis, 25; see also Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, 57.
53 H. Kennedy, “The Origins of the Aghlabids”, in The Aghlabids and Their Neighbours: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa, eds. Glaire D. Anderson, Corisande Fenwick, Mariam Rosser-Owen and Sihem Lamine (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2018), pp. 33–48, esp. 47.
54 See Hugh Kennedy, The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 59–95; see also Hugh Kennedy, “Military pay and the economy of the early Islamic state”, Historical Research 75 (2002): 155–169.
55 IbnʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib fi akhbar al-Andalus wa’l-Maghrib = histoire de l’Afrique du nord et de l’Espagne musulmane intitulée “Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib”, et fragments de la “Chronique de ʿArīb”, in G.S. Colin and E. Lévi-Provençal (ed.), 4 volumes (Leiden: Brill, 1948–51), p. 72; see also Kennedy, “Origins of the Aghlabids”, 36–37.
56 Kennedy, “The Origins of the Aghlabids”, 37.
57 Balādhurī, Futuh al-buldan, 234.
58 The Fourth Fitna refers to the civil war that took place within the Islamic Caliphate from 809 to 813 CE. It was a power struggle for the succession of the Abbasid Caliphate following the death of Caliph Harun al-Rashid. The conflict primarily involved rival claims to the caliphate between two sons of Harun al-Rashid, al-Amin and al-Ma’mun, who each garnered support from different factions and regions. The war resulted in a series of battles and sieges, ultimately leading to the victory of al-Ma’mun and his establishment as the caliph in 813. There is evidence that the Aghlabids likely supported the al-Amin faction during the Fourth Fitna. At the time, the Aghlabid family held a prominent position within the elite of the Abbasid Caliphate. In 812, when the caliph al-Amin was besieged in the Round City of Baghdad during his resistance against his brother’s general, Tahir, he had the support of Ibrahim’s son, Muhammad, known as “al-Ifrīqī” in historical accounts. Muhammad proposed a plan to the caliph, suggesting a night sortie with a select group of loyal men mounted on the remaining swift horses, aiming to reach al-Jazira and Syria, where the caliph could raise troops and establish a new domain. However, due to pressure from other courtiers who feared losing their property, al-Amin ultimately rejected the plan. This episode demonstrates the close association between the Aghlabids and the caliph’s inner circle in Baghdad, as well as their connection to the abnā, from whom the Aghlabids themselves originated. Following the failure of this initiative, the Aghlabid family’s presence at the caliph’s court came to an end, and their activities became focused solely on the Maghreb (North Africa). See Tabari and M.J. de Goeje, Tarikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk, Series 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1879–1901) 3: 911–912 and Kennedy, “The Origins of the Aghlabids”, 46.
59 Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat al-ʿarab fi funun al-adab, partially translated in Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmans, volume 1, appendix. Translated by W.M.G. de Slane, Imprimerie du gouvernment, II volumes (France: P. Geuthner, 1925), p. 68.
60 Ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-ʿibar, ed. and trans. William McGuckin de Slane, 2 volumes (Algiers, 1847), IV: 423.
61 IbnʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 96; Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, II: 68.
62 Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, II: 68.
63 Ibn ʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 98, see also Mohamed Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide 184–296/800–909, p. 168.
64 Ibn al-Abbar, Kitab al-hullat al-siyaraʾ, ed. Husayn Muʿnis, Dar al-Maʿarif, 2 volumes, 2 editions (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, First edition 1963, Second edition 1985), 2: 382; Ibn ʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 98, see also Dwight Reynolds, “Ziryab in the Aghlabid Court”, in The Aghlabids and Their Neighbours: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa, eds. Glaire D. Anderson, Corisande Fenwick, Mariam Rosser-Owen and Sihem Lamine (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2018), pp. 144–160, esp. 153.
65 Ibn ʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 100.
66 Ibn al-Athir, Kitab al-Kamil, V: 186; Ibn ʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 10; Ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-ʿibar, IV: 423.
67 For a general overview of these events see Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide, pp. 200–207.
68 On the Arab attack on Sicily see, in particular, Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy, pp. 10–15.
69 Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, volume II, p. 72; IbnʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I, 103; edited by M. de Goeje and P. de Jong, Kitab al-’uyun wa’l-hada’iq fi akhbar al-haqa’iq (Lugduni Batavorum, 1869), p. 372.
70 Kitab al-’uyun, p. 372. See also Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide, pp. 208–209.
71 Bondioli, “Islamic Bari”, p. 483.
72 Marco Di Branco, “Due notizie concernenti l’Italia meridionale dal Kitāb al-ʿuyūn wa’l-ḥadaʾīq fī aḫbār al-ḥaqāʾiq”, Archivio Storico per la Calabria e la Lucania, 77 (2011): 5–13, p. 7.
73 See note 7. See also Bondioli, “Islamic Bari”, 483.
74 Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, II: 72; IbnʿIdhari, Kitab al-bayan al-mughrib, I: 102.
75 To my knowledge, Talbi is the only scholar that correctly identified ʿAbd al-Salam b. al-Mufarrij as a member of the Rabi’a; see Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide, 200. Talbi was followed by Di Branco, 915. La battaglia del Garigliano, 63, who mentions Talbi as his source in note 51.
76 See Talbi, L’émirat aghlabide, 203.
77 There is no evidence that Cincimo was acting for the Aghlabids. At any rate, the troops of Cincimo were mobilized only after Louis II had interfered in Calabria by offering protection to the Christian peasants against the Saracens of Cincimo.
78 Westerbergh, Chronicon salernitanum, 119–120; Matarazzo, Chronicon, 173.
79 The story of Aharon is narrated in the Chronicle of Aḥimaþaz ben Paltiel. An English translation of the Chronicle is included in Robert Bonfil, History and Foklore in a Medieval Jewish Chronicle: The Family Chronicle of Ahima’az Ben Paltiel (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009), pp. 240–256.
80 Bonfil, History and Foklore in a Medieval Jewish Chronicle, 250: “an incision in the flesh of my right arm and in the place where they cut the flesh there they placed the Name”.
81 Bonfil, History and Foklore, 54.
82 Bonfil, History and Foklore, 278.
83 Bonfil, History and Foklore, 280.
84 Ibid. An analysis of the kernel of historical truth included in the narration of the Chronicle and its symbolism and typology has already been convincingly carried out by Robert Bonfil. See, in particular, Bonfil, History and Foklore, 45–86. However, such an analysis is not relevant for the arguments presented in this article.
85 On Sawdān see the study by Christopher Heath, “Third/Ninth-Century Violence: ‘Saracens’ and Sawdān in Erchempert’s Historia”, Al-Masaq 27/1 (2015): 24–40.
86 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 30: “Nullus omnino preteribat dies, quod ad quingentos et eo amplius non interficeret homines et hoc pars Dei esse dicebat, ut illud compleretur evangelicum: Omnis qui interficit vos arbitrator se obsequium prestare Deo. Nam sevus ille tyrannus super cadavera mortuorum sedens, edebat tamquam unus putridus canis”.
87 Cronicae sancti benedicti casinensis, 30: “Interim gladius dominicae indignationis huc illocque discurrens, in deliquentium cervicibus grassabatur”.
88 Erchempert, Ystoriola, 85.
89 Westerbergh, Chronicon Salernitanum, 71; Matarazzo, Chronicon, 100–2: “Ibi maxima pars Beneventanorum Salernitanorumque vel de ceteris aliis civitatibus perierunt, tantique ibi viri fortes per contentionis malum et improvidentiam debellati sunt, quanti possent per unum consilium et salubri concordia multa milia prosternerent emulorum”.
90 See, for instance, among the most famous cases, Hasdai ibn Shaprut in Al-Andalus, Isaac the Jew as ambassador for Charlemagne, or Robert of London (a converted Jew) sent by King John to the Almohad Caliph. See Marco Zuccato, “Gerbert of Aurillac and a tenth-century Jewish channel for the transmission of Arabic science to the west”, Speculum 80 (2005): 742–763; Arthur J. Zuckerman, A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768–900 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972); Ilan Shoval, King John’s Delegation to the Almohad Court (1212): Medieval Interreligious Interactions and Modern Historiography (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016).