Viator 45 No. 3 (2014) 1–24. 10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.102918 THE MUSLIMS AS OTHERS IN THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MEDIEVAL SOUTHERN ITALY Luigi Andrea Berto * Abstract: Early medieval southern Italian chroniclers related the great strife Muslim forces brought to their lands. Their accounts, however, were far more nuanced than scholars have previously proposed. A closer reading of the evidence reveals that these authors did not consider Saracens to be evil incarnate. Indeed, some sources offer examples of their humanity. Moreover, Muslims were not always considered a distant and unapproachable other. These writers also showed that Franks, Byzantines, and some Lombard rulers could be far worse. Through examining three surviving chronicles, which narrate the history of the southern Lombards, the Deeds of the Neapolitan Bishops, and a Jewish-family history, this article will advocate for a new reckoning of the way southern Italian peoples perceived Muslims during the early Middle Ages. Keywords: Muslims, Southern Italy, Lombards, Byzantines, Franks, Naples, Jews, chronicles, perception. A century after the Iberian Peninsula, Italy too became the target of Muslim cam- paigns. Sicily was first invaded in 827, was completely subdued during the ninth cen- tury, and remained under Muslim rule until the arrival of the Normans in the second half of the eleventh century. The situation was different on the Italian mainland, where there was no durable Muslim dominion. For example, the two small emirates of Bari and Taranto were established in the mid-ninth century and lasted for about twenty-five years while the nest of pirates at the mouth of Garigliano river lasted from 880 to 915. The southern part of the Italian peninsula was, however, the target of Saracen 1 raids and Muslims were also employed as mercenaries in various wars among the Christian rulers of southern Italy. 2 In this article I will examine how the Muslims were depicted in the chronicles of early medieval southern Italy (ninth–tenth century) and in particular explore if the authors of these texts perceived the Saracens as “others.” In order to have a clear un- * Department of History, Western Michigan University, 4432 Friedmann Hall, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. I wish to thank the anonymous readers at Viator for their precious suggestions, my assistants Jesse Hysell and Adam Matthews for help in translating this article into English, and the Com- mittee of the Burnham-MacMillan History Department Endowment of Western Michigan University for supporting this research. 1 The term Saracen was the most common word used by early medieval southern Italian authors to refer to Muslims. In this article, Saracen will be utilized as a synonym for Muslim. 2 For a summary of events and relevant bibliography, see N. Cilento, “Le incursioni saraceniche nell’Italia meridionale,” Italia meridionale longobarda (Milan–Naples 1971 2 ) 135–166; F. Gabrieli, “Storia cultura e civiltà degli Arabi in Italia,” Gli Arabi in Italia, ed. F. Gabrieli and U. Scerrato (Milan 1979) 109– 148; B. K. Kreutz, Before the Normans. Southern Italy in the Ninth and Tenth centuries (Philadelphia 1991) 18ff.; F. Marazzi, “Ita ut facta esse videatur Neapolis Panormus vel Africa. Geopolitica della presenza islamica nei domini di Napoli, Gaeta, Salerno e Benevento nel IX secolo,” Schede Medievali 45 (2007) 159–202; A. Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy (Edinburgh 2009) 7–24; A. Feniello, Sotto il segno del leone. Storia dell’Italia musulmana (Rome–Bari 2011) 4–120. For analyses of particular regions, see G. Musca, L’emirato di Bari. 847–871 (Bari 1967); S. Palmieri, “Un esempio di mobilità etnica altomedievale: i saraceni in Campania,” Montecassino dalla prima alla seconda distruzione. Momenti e aspetti di storia cassinese (secc. VI–IX). Atti del II convegno di studi sul medioevo meridionale (Montecassino 1987) 597– 627; A. Papagna, I saraceni e la Puglia nel secolo decimo (Bari 1990); R. Tucciarone, I saraceni nel ducato di Gaeta e nell’Italia centro-meridonale (secoli IX e X) (Gaeta 1991); G. Noyé, “La Calabre entre Byzan- tins, Sarrasins et Normands,” Cavalieri alla conquista del Sud. Studi sull’Italia normanna in memoria di Léon-Robert Ménager, ed. E. Cuozzo and J. M. Martin (Rome–Bari 1998) 90–110: S. Del Lungo, Bahr ’as Sham. La presenza musulmana nel Tirreno centrale e settentrionale nell’alto Medioevo (Oxford 2000). For the history of continental Southern Italy in this period, see the essays collected in Storia del Mezzogiorno, II. Il Medioevo 1 (Naples 1988); and Kreutz, Before the Normans (n. 2 above).