The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy

Can the eclectic history of the world’s most conquered island be a lesson for our times? Home to Normans, Byzantines, Arabs, Germans and Jews, medieval Sicily was a crossroads of cultures, ethnicities and faiths. Here, where Europe, Asia and Africa met, was the epitome of diversity. Bilingualism was the norm, women's rights were defended, and the environment was protected. Literacy soared, while philosophy, science and the arts triumphed. Kings like Roger II, whose legal code of 1140 famously referred to "the diversity of our people," welcomed foreign luminaries at court in what emerged as one of the most prosperous states in Europe, encompassing the island of Sicily and most of the Italian peninsula south of Rome. Queens like Roger's daughter, Constance, and daughter-in-law, Margaret, emerged as the strongest female rulers in the medieval Mediterranean, governing a multiconfessional society of Muslims, Jews, and the Christians of the Byzantine East and Latin West. This history is a lesson for our times.