Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas

Abstract

ted to the transformation of the city into a centre of consumption that imported luxury goods and a commercial centre for exporting, chartering and insuring ships. According to Bresc, the main effects of these dual developments were the decline of artisanal production, the impoverishment of technical knowledge and the reinforcement of feudal aristocracy. In his essay on religious Palermo in the section on “Transversal Approaches” Bresc reconstructs the ecclesiastical landscape and examines the evolution of piety and devotion between the sixth/twelfth and the ninth/fifteenth centuries, processes which “brought Palermo closer to the other Italian cities” (p. 379). In “Transversal Approaches”, there are five essays, each of which analyses the longer term development of a particular theme from the fifth/eleventh to the ninth/fifteenth century. Laura Sciascia gives a vivid and evocative image of political changes in Sicily from the Norman conquest in 465/1072 to the visit of Charles V of Spain in 942/ 1535. Palermo was used as a theatre where the rituals of coronation, cavalcades, funerals and royal weddings became stages and mirrors that underlined moments of crucial importance for the history of Sicily. In his exhaustive and well-articulated essay on the Jewish community of Palermo, GiuseppeMandalà analyses the settlement, juridical and fiscal status, productive and economic activities, cultural life and topography of the city’s Jews. Gian Luca Borghese’s essay about foreigners in Palermo, Sulamith Brodbeck’s study on Monreale and Benoit Grevin’s essay on linguistic cultures and textual production in Palermo complete the “Transversal Approaches” section. In conclusion, this book is of great interest and its main value lies in having analysed in a novel and scholarly way the economic and urban transformation of Palermo from an imperial province to the capital of a kingdom between the Byzantine and Norman periods. Less attention is given to Aragonese Palermo, best known and well studied in the past by Italian and foreign historians. Indicative bibliography is essentially based on books about Byzantine, Islamic and Norman history. The most original section is “Transversal Approaches” because it allows non-specialists to follow the evolution of some relevant topics across the long term in an effective manner, combining scientific rigour with a clear exposition.