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(More customer reviews)Metcalf's study examines the linguistic shift in Medieval Sicily from the time of the Muslim invasion in 827, to around 1100, a few generations after the arrival of Norman led Christian armies that recaptured the island from the Muslims. In this time period, the island went from an essentially Greek speaking area, to the end of the 10th century, when the island became (expect for some pockets in the east) primarily Arabic speaking, to a Latin speaking (or more properly a Romance, or early Sicilian Italian) speaking island. During the golden age of Norman rule, Greek, Arabic and Latin were the three official languages of the Norman court, and Metcalf impressively surveys court documents, travellers accounts, registries of land transfers to churches and monasteries (that used sur-names of occupants of that land, often Arabic, Greek, or Latin, or hybrids of the three, and geographical markers, again, hybrids of all three languages) to show the linguistic shifts in Sicily, and its progressive Latinization during this time period. All too often, the Muslim influence in areas of Europe recaptured from Muslim peoples is forgotten, erased or downplayed. Metcalf's study is an important book that illustrates the deep debt Sicily owes to its Arab period - and despite the attempts by later scholars to wipe clean the historical record -- the large measure of harmonization (social, political, and economic) that existed between Greek, Muslim and Latin Sicilian communities.
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