Islam in Italy
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The history of Islam in Italy started in the 9th century: Sicily and some regions in Peninsular Italy were part of the Muslim Ummah between 828 (Muslim conquest of Sicily) and 1300 (destruction of the last Islamic stronghold of Lucera in Puglia), Islam was almost entirely absent in Italy from the time of the country's unification in 1861 until the 1970s, when the first trickle of North African immigrants began arriving. These North Africans, mostly of Berber or Arab origin, came mainly from Morocco. Many also come from Albania, though they have been followed in more recent years by persons from Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal, Somalia, Pakistan and others.[1]
Today there are 500,000 or so Italian citizens who are Muslim. They are foreigners who have received Italian citizenship and native Italians who have converted[citation needed] to Islam.
Islam is not formally recognized by the state in Italy despite being the second largest[citation needed] faith after Catholicism. Other religions including Judaism and smaller groups such as the Assemblies of God and the Seventh-Day Adventists, have signed agreements with the Italian government. Official recognition has given these other religions a chance to benefit from a national "religion tax", known as the Eight per thousand. [2]
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[edit] History
As early as the 7th and 8th century some of the Lombards, a Germanic people that ruled parts of Italy, converted from Arianism to Islam instead of to Catholicism. These al-Ankubarti mostly fought as mercenaries in Arabian armies at the African Mediterranean coast, especially in Tunesian Ifriqiya, and were apportioned to the Saqaliba by the Arabian Muslims. In medieval Palermo a whole district was named Saqaliba. A famous Sicilian Saqaliba of the 10th century was Gawhar Al-Siqilli, a military leader to the Fatimids and founder of Cairo. Another Sicilian Saqaliba, the Slav Sabir al-Fata, destroyed Taranto and Otranto in 927.
[edit] Arabian Muslims in Italy
The first Arabian attacks on Byzantine Sicily in 652, 667 and 720 failed; Syracuse was conquered for the first time temporarily in 708, but a planned invasion in 740 failed because of a rebellion of the Berbers of the Maghreb that lasted until 771 and civil wars in Ifriqiya lasting until 799. Arabian attacks on the island of Sardinia, less important than those over Sicily, did not manage to conquer it altough they forced a separation of the island from Byzantines, giving birth of a short period of sardinian indipendence, the "Giudicati". The Italian island Pantelleria had been conquered by the Arabs in 700.
[edit] Muslims on Sicily
To end the constant mutinies of his army, the Aghlabid magistrate of Ifriqiya sent Arabian, Berber and Andalusian rebels to conquer Sicily in 827, 830 and 875, led by, amongst others, Asad ibn al-Furat. In 902 the Ifriqiyan magistrate himself led an army against the island. The magistrate of Sicily, who rebelled against Constantinople, had called the Muslims (named Saracens by the Europeans) for help. In 831 Palermo fell to them, in 843 followed Messina, in 878 Syracuse, in 902 Taormina, in 918 Reggio Calabria on the mainland, and in 964 fell Rometta, the last remaining Byzantine toehold on Sicily.
Under the Arabs in Sicily agriculture prospered and became export-oriented. Arts and crafts flourished in the cities. Palermo, the Arabian capital of the island, had 300,000 inhabitants at that time, more than all cities of Germany combined. At the beginning of the 11th century Muslims made up half of the population of Sicily, with Arabs dominating the north of the island around Palermo and the Berbers prevailing in the area around Agrigento in the south.
[edit] Emirates in Apulia
From Sicily the Muslims set over to the mainland and devastated Calabria.In 835 and again in 837 the Duke of Naples had been fighting against the Duke of Benevento and had called the Muslims for help. In 840 Taranto and Bari fell to the Muslims, and in 841 Brindisi. Capua was destroyed, Benevento, under Frankish protection at that time, was occupied 840-847 and again 851-52. Arab attacks on Rome in 843, 846 and 849 failed. In 847 Taranto, Bari and Brindisi declared themselves emirates independent from the Aghlabids. For decades the Muslims ruled the Mediterranean and attacked the Italian coastal towns. 868-70 Ragusa in Sicily stood under Arabian rule.
Only after the fall of Malta in 870 the occidental Christians succeeded in setting up an army capable of fighting the Muslims. The Franko-Roman emperor Louis II conquered Brindisi and beat the Arabs at Bari in 871, but then fell captive to the Aghlabids. In his stead the Byzantines conquered Taranto in 880. A small number of Arabian strongholds in the south lasted until 885, for example Santa Severina Crotone in Calabria. In 882 the Muslims had founded at the mouth of Garigliano River between Naples and Rome a new basis further in the north, which was leagued with Gaeta, and had attacked Campania as well as Sabinia in Lazio. A hundred years later the Byzantines called the Sicilian Arabs for support against a campaign of German emperor Otto II. They beat Otto at Taranto in 982 in the battle at Crotone and in the next 200 years largely succeeded in preventing his successors from entering southern Italy.
In 1002 Bari was again conquered by the Arabs, but was soon recaptured by the Byzantines. Melus (Melo), Emir of Bari 1009-1019, stood up against the Byzantines and called the Normans for help. Melus, of Lombard-Arabic origin, is depicted as Ismahel (Ismail) on the gold-embroidered "Sternenmantel" he gave to German emperor Henry II.
After the Aghlabids were defeated in Ifriqiya as well, Sicily fell in the 10th century to their Fatimid successors, but claimed independence after fights between Sunni and Shia Muslims under the Kalbids.
[edit] Invasions in Piedmont
After they had conquered the Visigoth empire in Spain, the Arabs and Berbers 729-765 from Septimania and Narbonne carried out raids into northern Italy, and in 793 again invaded southern France (Nice 813, 859 and 880). In 888 Andalusian Muslims set up a new base in Fraxinet near Frejus in French Provence, from where they started raids along the coast and in inner France.
In 915, after the Battle of Garigliano, the Muslims lost their base in southern Lazio. In 926 King Hugh of Italy called the Arabs to fight against his northern Italian rivals. In 934 and 935 Genoa and La Spezia were attacked, followed by Nice in 942. In Piedmont the Muslims got as far as Asti and Novi, moving northwards along the Rhône valley and the western flank of the Alps. After the defeat of Burgundian troops, in 942-964 they conquered Savoy and occupied a part of Switzerland (952-960). Swiss town names such as Saratz still bring the mark of Arabic presence in the area. To fight against the Arabs, Emperor Berengar I, Hugh’s rival, called the Hungarians, who in their turn devastated northern Italy. Under the pressure of German kings Fraxinet had to be given up in 972, but thirty years later, in 1002, Genoa was invaded, and in 1004 Pisa.
Pisa und Genoa leagued to end Muslim rule over Corsica (Islamic 810/850-930/1020) and Sardinia. Since 1015 Sardinia was protected by the fleet of the Andalusian Emir of Dénia in Spain, who was defeated by allied Italians in 1016 and again after his invasion in 1022. Only in 1027 the Italians succeeded in defeating the Sardinian Muslims for good; the last Muslim upheaval ended in 1050.
[edit] Sicily under the Normans
The cultural and economical bloom on Sicily that had started under the Kalbids had been interrupted by internicine fights, followed by the intervention, in 1027, of by the Tunisian Zirids, and by those of Pisa (1030-1035) and the Byzantines. Eastern Sicily (Messina, Syracuse and Taormina) was captured by the Byzantines in 1038-1042. In 1059 then Normans from southern Italy, led by Roger I, joined the fights. The Normans conquered Reggio in 1060 (In 1027 taken from the Arabs by the Byzantines). In 1061 Messina fell to the Normans; an invasion by the Algerian Hammadids to preserve Islamic rule was thwarted in 1063 by the fleet of Genoa and Pisa. The loss of Palermo in 1072 and of Syracuse in 1088 could not be prevented. Noto and the last Muslim strongholds on Sicily fell in 1091. In 1090-91 the Normans also conquered Malta; Pantelleria fell in 1123.
A noteworthy Muslim population remained on Sicily under the Normans.[1][2] The Roger II hosted at his court, among others, the famous geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and the poet Muhammad ibn Zafar. At first, Muslims were tolerated by the Normans, but soon pressure from the Popes led to their increasing discrimination; most mosques were destroyed or made into churches.[citation needed] The first Sicilian Normans did not take part in the Crusades, but they undertook a number of invasions and raids in Ifriqiya, before they were defeated there after 1157 by the Almohads.
The peaceful coexistence on Sicily finally ended with the death of “good” King William II in 1189. The Muslim elite emigrated at that time. Their medical knowledge was maintained in the Schola Medica Salernitana; an Arabian-Byzantine-Norman symbiosis in art and architecture survived as Sicilian Romanesque. The remaining Muslims fled, for example to Caltagirone on Sicily, or hid out in the mountains and continued to resist against the Hohenstaufen dynasty, who ruled the island from 1194 on. In the heartland of the island, the Muslims pronounced Ibn Abbad the last Emir of Sicily.
To end this upheaval, emperor Frederick II,[3] himself a Crusader, instigated a policy to rid Sicily of the few remaining muslims. This cleansing was done in small part under Papal influence but mostly in order to create a loyal force of troops which could not be influenced by non-Christian infiltrators. In 1224-1239 he deported every single Muslim from Sicily to an autonomous colony under strict military control (so that they could not infiltrate non-Muslim areas) in Lucera in Apulia. In 1249 he ejected the Muslims from Malta as well. Lucera was returned to the Christians in 1300 on instigation of the pope by king Charles II of Naples, all the muslims were killed or sent out of Europe.
[edit] Ottomans in Otranto
Apulia belonged to the Kingdom of Naples and stood under Spanish rule since the midst-15th century. The Spaniards had started the final strike in the conquest of Granada in 1481. This last Islamic toehold in Spain had sent out desperate calls for help to all Islamic states of the Mediterranean.
The Ottoman Empire, which in 1453 under Sultan Mehmed II had already conquered Constantinople and Galata, in 1475 Genuas last toeholds in the Black Sea and in 1479 the Venetian colony of Euboea in Greece, in 1480 carried out a halfhearted diversionary attack on the Spanish territories in southern Italy, after in 1479 Turkish troops had already entered the Friuli in northern Italy (and again 1499-1503). The Apulian harbor town of Otranto, located about 100 kilometers southeast of Brindisi, was conquered and set up to serve as a bridgehead for the Turks, but was given up again in 1481, when Mehmed died and Constantinople saw fights for the throne.
Cem, pretender to the Ottoman throne, was defeated despite being supported by the pope; he fled with his family to the Kingdom of Naples, where his male descendants where bestowed with the title of Principe de Sayd by the Pope in 1492. They lived in Naples until the 17th century and in Sicily until 1668 before relocating to Malta.
[edit] Attacks in the 16th century
It is debated if Otranto was meant to be the base for further conquests. The Ottoman sultans had not however given up their ambition to end Christianity in Rome and to install Islamic sovereignty.
After the conquest of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Hungary in 1526 and the defeat of the Turkish army at Vienna in 1529, Turkish fleets again attacked southern Italy. In 1512/1526 the Ottomans conquered Reggio and in 1537 parts of Calabria and in 1538 defeated the Venetian Fleet. In 15439 Nice was raided by the Barbary states (Siege of Nice), but an attempted Turkish landing on Sicily failed, as did the attempted conquest of Pantelleria in 1553 and the siege of Malta in 1565.
Next to Spain, the biggest contribution to the victory of the Christian "Holy League" in the battle of Lepanto in 1571 was made by the Republic of Venice, which between 1423 (and especially since 1463) and 1718 fought eight costly wars against the Ottoman Empire.
[edit] Present situation
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According to latest Italian official statistics, Muslims make up about 34% of the 2,400,000 foreign residents living in Italy as of January, 1, 2005.
To these 820,000 foreign residents of Muslim heritage legally residing in Italy, another 100,000-150,000 should be added, as Muslims represent, according to the widely accepted yearly estimates of Italian association Caritas, about 40% of Italy's illegal immigrants.
Despite illegal immigrants representing a minority of the Muslim presence in Italy, the issue of Islam in contemporary Italy has been linked by some political parties (particularly the 'Northern League' or 'Lega Lombarda') with immigration, and more specifically illegal immigration. Immigration has become a prominent political issue, as, especially in the summer, reports of boatloads of illegal immigrants or clandestini dominate news programmes.
Police forces have not had great success in intercepting many of the thousands of clandestini who land on Italian beaches, mainly because of the sheer length of the Italian coastline: some 8,000 km in total. However, many of the clandestini landings in Italy are only using Italy as a gateway to other EU nations, due to the fact Italy doesn't have as many economic opportunities for them as Germany or France, and a somewhat more hostile climate to their presence, due to a still devout Catholic Italy, is perceived.
The number of foreign Muslims who have been granted Italian nationality is estimated between 30,000 and 50,000, while Italian Muslims (converts of full Italian ancestry who previously belonged to the Catholic faith or had no religion) are estimated to be less than 10,000.
Therefore, in 2005 the number of Muslims living in Italy is estimated to be between 960,000 and 1,030,000,with an average estimate strikingly close to the million mark which Italian media have started to adopt while referring to the numbers of Muslims in Italy.
Muslims represent today 1.4% of Italy's population, a percentage much lower than that of other major EU countries, and still slightly lower than that recorded in Italy between the middle of the 9th century and the end of the 13th century, before the removal of the last Muslim strongholds in Puglia in year 1300.
While in Medieval times the Muslim population was almost totally concentrated in Insular (Sicily, Sardinia) and Southern (Calabria, Puglia) Italy, it is today more evenly distributed, with almost 55% of Muslims living in the North of Italy, 25% in the Centre, and only 20% in the South.
It should be remarked that despite the stereotype of a 'Muslim invasion', Muslims form a lower proportion of immigrants then in previous years, as the latest statistical reports of the Italian Ministry of Interior and of Caritas show that the share of Muslims among new immigrants has declined from over 50% at the beginning of the 1990s (mainly Albanians and Moroccans) to less than 25% in the following decade, with non-Muslim Countries like Romania, Moldavia, and Ukraine taking the lead of the latest "wave" of immigration.
The relatively small size of the local Muslim community means that Islam has yet to make a significant impact on public life, but there are signs that this is changing. Recent points of contention between native Italians and the Muslim immigrant population include the presence of crucifixes in Italian State school classrooms and hospital bedrooms. Adel Smith has attracted considerable media attention by demanding that crucifixes in public places (i.e., schools, hospitals, and government offices) be removed. The Italian Council of State, with the sentence number 556, 13 February 2006 , confirmed the display of the crucifix in government-sponsored spaces. Smith has subsequently been charged with defaming the Catholic religion in 2006.[4]
[edit] See also
- History of Islam in southern Italy
- Islam by country
- Religion in Italy
- Christianity in Italy
- Jews in Italy
- Buddhism in Italy
- List of Italian religious minority politicians
- Islamic dress controversy in Europe
[edit] Further reading
- Allievi, Stefano (July 2003). "Sociology of a Newcomer: Muslim Migration to Italy - Religious Visibility, Cultural and Political Reactions". Immigrants and Minorities 22 (2-3): 141-154. doi:.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Euro-Islam: breaking news on Islam in Europe (legislation, security, opinion polls) including profiles of Islam by country
- Links: Islam in Western Europe:Italy
