al-Arab fi Siqilliya
- Author died
- 1424 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Thaqafa
al-Arab fi Siqilliya (The Arabs in Sicily) is a historical and literary study by the scholar Ihsan Abbas (d. 1424 AH / 2003 CE), examining the political, social, and cultural history of Muslims in Sicily and the development of Sicilian Arabic poetry .
Composition and Scope
Abbas originally intended to compose a history dedicated solely to Arabic poetry in Sicily . However, finding that poetic production could not be adequately understood in isolation from its context, he broadened the project to encompass the island’s political, social, and cultural dimensions before addressing its literature .
The work is organized into three principal books (kutub) :
- Book One: Covers the history of Sicily during the Islamic era, when the Muslim community exercised autonomous rule .
- Book Two: Traces the history and condition of the Muslims of Sicily under Norman rule and foreign domination .
- Book Three: Analyzes Arabic poetry across both eras, examining the factors that shaped Sicilian verse, its strengths and weaknesses, Sicily's reciprocal cultural influence, the impact of internal strife and the Norman conquest, court poetry under the Normans, and the connection between poetry and the Sicilian personality .
Sources and Methodology
For the historical sections, Abbas relied heavily on primary collections and modern orientalist scholarship, particularly Michele Amari’s Biblioteca arabo-sicula, the Centenario della nascita di Michele Amari, and the second edition of Amari’s Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, edited and annotated by Carlo Alfonso Nallino .
To reconstruct the corpus of Sicilian Arabic poetry, Abbas drew primarily on surviving abridgments and transmissions of Ibn al-Qatta’s (d. 515 AH) non-extant anthology, al-Durra al-khatira min shi'r shu'ara' al-jazira . These materials included:
- Abu Ishaq ibn Aghlab's abridgment of al-Durra al-khatira .
- The Sicilian sections preserved in Imad al-Din al-Isfahani’s Kharidat al-qasr wa-jaridat al-asr .
- Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi’s al-Mughrib fi hula al-Maghrib and his Rayat al-mubarrizin .
- Ali ibn Munjib Ibn al-Sayrafi’s (d. 542 AH) selection from al-Durra al-khatira .
- Excerpts cited by later biographers and historians, such as al-Qifti (Inbah al-ruwat and al-Muhammadun min al-shu'ara'), Yaqut al-Hamawi, al-Qadi Iyad (Tartib al-madarik), al-Safadi (al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat), and Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi (Mir'at al-zaman) .
Abbas also utilized specific poetic and biographical works, including the Diwan of Ibn Hamdis, Abu Tahir al-Silafi’s Mu'jam, Ibn Bassam’s al-Dhakhira fi mahasin ahl al-jazira, Ismail ibn Ahmad al-Tujibi's commentary on selections of Bashshar's poetry, as well as epigraphic inscriptions recorded by Amari and Ignazio Guidi .
Publication
The book was published in Cairo by Dar al-Ma'arif in 1959 . It was later reprinted in Beirut by Dar al-Thaqafa in 1395 AH / 1975 CE .
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