1190: A Letter from al-Mahdiyya Reports on a Muslim Uprising in Sicily

Abstract

In late summer 1190, Saladin’s head of chancery al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil informed the Sultan, then busy with fighting the Franks in Syria, that a letter had arrived in Alexandria from Almohad al-Mahdiyya. Among the news it reported from the West was information on a Muslim uprising in Norman Sicily. The article aims at contextualizing this elusive revolt in a three-step analysis: first, the information given in the letter will be compared to alternative accounts in order to gain a fuller picture of the events. As a second step, the article will discuss why and by whom the news from the island would have been transmitted to al-Mahdiyya, and from there to Alexandria. Finally, it will ask whether the dissemination of this news to North Africa and Egypt had any effect on the situation of Sicily’s Muslim insurgents.