Islam in Italy

File:Moschea Segrate 3.JPG

A Mosque in Milan.

The history of Islam in Italy dates back to the 9th century, when Sicily was occupied by Islamic conquerors. There was Muslim presence in Italy from 827 (the first occupation of Mazara) till 1300 (the destruction of the last Muslim settlement of Lucera). Thereafter, until the 1970s Islam was almost entirely absent in Italy.

In the 1970s, the first Somali immigrants from Somalia began to arrive. In more recent years, there has been migration from Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. Today there are approximately 1,500,000 Muslims and an estimated 500 mosques in Italy.

Islam is not yet formally recognized by the state despite being the second individually professed religion after Catholicism in Italy. The official recognition of a religion different from Catholicism on behalf of the Italian Government is in fact to be approved by the President of the Republic under request of the Italian Minister of the Interior, following a signed agreement between the proposing religious community and the Italian Government. Such recognition does not merely depend on the number of followers of a given religion, and it requires congruence between the proposing religion principles and the Constitution. Official recognition gives an organized religion a chance to benefit from a national "religion tax", known as the Eight per thousand. Other religions, including Judaism and smaller groups, such as the Assemblies of God, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Seventh-Day Adventists, already enjoy the official recognition in the form of signed agreements with the Italian government. In 2005, a council composed of Muslim people, the Council for Italian Islam, was founded by the Italian Minister of the Interior. Strong disagreement between Council members stands its work. The internal disagreement, the unstructured nature of the Italian Muslim community and its lack of leadership seem to be the main reasons for Islam not to have been already recognized by the state.

History

Saracens

Main article: History of Islam in southern Italy

The Italian island of Pantelleria (which lies between the western tip of Sicily and North Africa) was conquered by the Arabs in 700. The Arabs had earlier raided Roman Sicily in 652, 667 and 720 A.D.; Syracuse in the eastern end of the island was occupied for the first time temporarily in 708, but a planned invasion in 740 failed due to a rebellion of the Berbers of the Maghreb that lasted until 771 and civil wars in Ifriqiya lasting until 799. Arabian attacks on the island of Sardinia, less important than those on Sicily, failed to achieve its conquest although they induced its separation from the Roman Empire, giving birth to a period of Sardinian independence, the era of the giudicati.

Conquest of Sicily

Main article: Emirate of Sicily

The magistrate of Sicily, who rebelled against the Byzantine Empire, had called on the Muslims (mentioned as Saracens in earlier texts by the Europeans) for help. To end the constant mutinies of his army, the Aghlabid magistrate of Ifriqiya sent Arabian, Berber, and Andalusian rebels to conquer Sicily in 827, 830 and 875, led by, amongst others, Asad ibn al-Furat. Palermo fell to them in 831, followed by Messina in 843, Syracuse in 878. In 902 the Ifriqiyan magistrate himself led an army against the island, seizing Taormina in 902. Reggio Calabria on the mainland fell in 918, and in 964 Rometta, the last remaining Byzantine toehold on Sicily.

Under the Muslims, agriculture in Sicily prospered and became export oriented. Arts and crafts flourished in the cities. Palermo, the Muslim capital of the island, had 300,000 inhabitants at that time, more than all the cities of Germany combined. The local population conquered by the Muslims were Romanized Catholic Sicilians in Western Sicily and partially Greek speaking Christians, mainly in the eastern half of the island, but there were also a significant number of Jews. These conquered people were afforded a limited freedom of religion under the Muslims as dhimmi, but were subject to some restrictions. The dhimmi were also required to pay the jizya, or poll tax, and the kharaj or land tax, but were exempt from the tax that Muslims had to pay (Zakaat). Under Arab rule there were different categories of Jizya payers, but their common denominator was the payment of the Jizya as a mark of subjection to Muslim rule in exchange for protection against foreign and internal aggression. The conquered population could avoid this subservient status simply by converting to Islam. Whether by honest religious conviction or societal compulsion large numbers of native Sicilians converted to Islam. However, even after 100 years of Islamic rule, numerous Greek speaking Christian communities prospered, especially in north-eastern Sicily, as dhimmi. This was largely a result of the Jizya system which allowed co-existence. This co-existence with the conquered population fell apart after the reconquest of Sicily, particularly following the death of King William II of Sicily in 1189. By the mid-11th century, Muslims made up the majority of the population of Sicily.

The battle at Ostia in 849 ended the third Arab attack on Rome.

Emirates in Apulia

From Sicily, the Muslims launched attacks on the mainland and devastated Calabria. In 835 and again in 837, the Duke of Naples was fighting against the Duke of Benevento and appealed to the Sicilian Muslims for help. In 840 Taranto and Bari fell to the Muslims, and in 841 Brindisi. Capua was destroyed. Benevento, under Frankish protection at that time, was occupied 840-847 and again in 851-52. Muslims attacks on Rome failed in 843, 846 and 849. In 847 Taranto, Bari and Brindisi declared themselves emirates independent from the Aghlabids. For decades the Muslims ruled the Mediterranean and attacked the Italian coastal towns. Muslims occupied Ragusa in Sicily between 868 and 870.

Only after the fall of Malta in 870 did the occidental Christians succeeded in setting up an army capable of fighting the Muslims. Over the next two decades, most of the mainland was freed from Muslim rule. The Franco-Roman emperor Louis II conquered Brindisi and beat the Arabs at Bari in 871, but then fell captive to the Aghlabids. In his stead the Byzantines conquered Taranto in 880. A small number of Muslim strongholds in the south lasted until 885, for example Santa Severina Crotone in Calabria. In 882 the Muslims had founded at the mouth of Garigliano River between Naples and Rome a new base further in the north, which was in league with Gaeta, and had attacked Campania as well as Sabinia in Lazio. A hundred years later the Byzantines called the Sicilian Muslims for support against a campaign of German emperor Otto II. They beat Otto at Taranto in 982 in the battle at Crotone and in the next 200 years largely succeeded in preventing his successors from entering southern Italy.

In 1002 Bari was again conquered by the Muslims, but was soon recaptured by the Byzantines. After the Aghlabids were defeated in Ifriqiya as well, Sicily fell in the 10th century to their Fatimid successors, but claimed independence after fights between Sunni and Shia Muslims under the Kalbids.

Raids in Piedmont

After they had conquered the Visigoth State in Spain, the Arabs and Berbers 729-765 from Septimania and Narbonne carried out raids into northern Italy, and in 793 again invaded southern France (Nice 813, 859 and 880). In 888 Andalusian Muslims set up a new base in Fraxinet near Frejus in French Provence, from where they started raids along the coast and in inner France.

In 915, after the Battle of Garigliano, the Muslims lost their base in southern Lazio. In 926 King Hugh of Italy called the Muslims to fight against his northern Italian rivals. In 934 and 935 Genoa and La Spezia were attacked, followed by Nice in 942. In Piedmont the Muslims got as far as Asti and Novi, and also moved northwards along the Rhône valley and the western flank of the Alps. After defeating Burgundian troops, in 942-964 they conquered Savoy and occupied a part of Switzerland (952-960). Swiss town names such as Saaz still mark the Arabic presence in the area. To fight the Arabs, Emperor Berengar I, Hugh’s rival, called the Hungarians, who in their turn devastated northern Italy. Under the pressure of German kings, Fraxinet had to be given up in 972, but thirty years later, in 1002, Genoa was invaded, and in 1004 Pisa.

Pisa und Genoa joined forces to end Muslim rule over Corsica (Islamic 810/850-930/1020) and Sardinia. In Sardinia in 1015 the fleet of the Andalusian lord of Dénia come from Spain, settled a temporary military camp as a logistic base to control Tyrrhenian Sea and Italian peninsula, but in 1016 the fleet was forced to leave its base due to the military intervetion of maritime republics of Genoa and Pisa.

Sicily under the Normans

Former palace of the Emir: Palazzo dei Normanni.

San Giovanni degli Eremiti: Arabian-Roman-Norman symbiosis.

Arabic inscription on the Coronation Mantle of King Roger II of Sicily.

The cultural and economical bloom in Sicily that had started under the Kalbids was interrupted by internecine fights, followed by invasions by the Tunisian Zirids (1027), Pisa (1030–1035), and the Roman (1027 onwards). Eastern Sicily (Messina, Syracuse and Taormina) was captured by the Byzantines in 1038–1042. In 1059 Normans from southern Italy, led by Roger I, invaded the island. The Normans conquered Reggio in 1060 (conquered by the Romanin 1027). Messina fell to the Normans in 1061; an invasion by the Algerian Hammadids to preserve Islamic rule was thwarted in 1063 by the fleets of Genoa and Pisa. The loss of Palermo in 1072 and of Syracuse in 1088 could not be prevented. Noto and the last Muslim strongholds on Sicily fell in 1091. In 1090-91 the Normans also conquered Malta; Pantelleria fell in 1123.

A small Muslim population remained on Sicily under the Normans. The Roger II hosted at his court, among others, the famous geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and the poet Muhammad ibn Zafar. At first, Muslims were tolerated by the Normans, but soon pressure from the Popes led to their increasing discrimination; most mosques were destroyed or made into churches. The first Sicilian Normans did not take part in the Crusades, but they undertook a number of invasions and raids in Ifriqiya, before they were defeated there after 1157 by the Almohads.

The peaceful coexistence in Sicily finally ended with the death of King William II in 1189. The Muslim elite emigrated at that time. Their medical knowledge was preserved in the Schola Medica Salernitana; an Arabian-Roman-Norman synthesis in art and architecture survived as Sicilian Romanesque. The remaining Muslims fled, for example to Caltagirone on Sicily, or hid out in the mountains and continued to resist against the Hohenstaufen dynasty, who ruled the island from 1194 on. In the heartland of the island, the Muslims declared Ibn Abbad the last Emir of Sicily.

To end this upheaval, emperor Frederick II, himself a Crusader, instigated a policy to rid Sicily of the few remaining Muslims. This cleansing was done in small part under Papal influence but mostly in order to create a loyal force of troops which could not be influenced by non-Christian infiltrators. In 1224–1239 he deported every single Muslim from Sicily to an autonomous colony under strict military control (so that they could not infiltrate non-Muslim areas) in Lucera in Apulia. Muslims were recruited however by Frederick in the army and constituted his faithful personal bodyguard, since they had no connection to his political rivals. In 1249 he ejected the Muslims from Malta as well. Lucera was returned to the Christians in 1300 at the instigation of the pope by King Charles II of Naples. Muslims were forcefully converted, killed or expelled from Europe . However a Muslim community was still recorded in Apulia in 1336 and very recently in 2009, a genetic study revealed a small genetic Northwest African contribution among today's inhabitants near the region of Lucera.

15th century: Ottomans in Otranto

During this century, the Ottoman Empire was expanding mightily in southeastern Europe. It completed the absorption of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 under Sultan Mehmet II by conquering Constantinople and Galata. It seized Genoa's last bastions in the Black Sea in 1475 and Venice's Greek colony of Euboea in 1479. Turkish troops invaded the Friuli region in northeastern Italy in 1479 and again in 1499–1503. The Apulian harbor town of Otranto, located about 100 kilometers southeast of Brindisi, was seized in 1480 (Ottoman invasion of Otranto), but the Turks were routed there in 1481 when Mehmet died and a war for his succession broke out. Cem Sultan, pretender to the Ottoman throne, was defeated despite being supported by the pope; he fled with his family to the Kingdom of Naples, where his male descendants were bestowed with the title of Principe de Sayd by the Pope in 1492. They lived in Naples until the 17th century and in Sicily until 1668 before relocating to Malta.

Attacks in the 16th century

It is a subject of debate whether Otranto was meant to be the base for further conquests. In any case, the Ottoman sultans had not given up their ambition to take over Italian Peninsula and to install Islamic sovereignty. After the conquests of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Hungary in 1526 and the defeat of the Turkish army at Vienna in 1529, Turkish fleets again attacked southern Italy. In 1512 and 1526 the Ottomans conquered Reggio and in 1537 more of Calabria and in 1538 they defeated the Venetian Fleet. In 1539 Nice was raided by the Barbary states (Siege of Nice), but an attempted Turkish landing on Sicily failed, as did the attempted conquest of Pantelleria in 1553 and the siege of Malta in 1565.

Next to Spain, the biggest contribution to the victory of the Christian "Holy League" in the battle of Lepanto in 1571 was made by the Republic of Venice, which between 1423 and 1718 fought eight costly wars against the Ottoman Empire.

Present situation

Mosque of Rome, in Rome, the largest in Italy

Interior of the annexed mosque

According to latest Italian official statistics, Muslims make up about 34% of the 2,400,000 foreign residents living in Italy as of January 1, 2005. To these 820,000 foreign residents of Muslim heritage legally residing in Italy, another 100,000-150,000 should be added, as Muslims represent, according to annual estimates by the Italian association Caritas, about 40% of Italy's illegal immigrants.

Despite illegal immigrants representing a minority of the Muslim presence in Italy, the issue of Islam in contemporary Italy has been linked by some political parties (particularly the 'Northern League' or 'Lega Lombarda') with immigration, and more specifically illegal immigration. Immigration has become a prominent political issue, as reports of boatloads of illegal immigrants or clandestini dominate news programmes, especially in the summertime. Police forces have not had great success in intercepting many of the thousands of clandestini who land on Italian beaches, mainly because of the sheer length of the Italian coastline, some 8,000 km in total. However, many of the clandestini landing in Italy are only using Italy as a gateway to other EU nations, due to the fact that Italy offers fewer economic opportunities and social welfare for them than Germany or France.

The number of foreign Muslims who have been granted Italian nationality is estimated between 30,000 and 50,000, while Italian converts to Islam are estimated to number less than 10,000.

Muslims represent today 1.4% of Italy's population , a percentage much lower than that of other major EU countries, and still slightly lower than that recorded in Italy between the middle of the 9th century and the end of the 13th century, before the removal of the last Muslim strongholds in Puglia in 1300.

While in Medieval times the Muslim population was almost totally concentrated in Insular (Sicily) and Southern (Calabria, Puglia) Italy, it is today more evenly distributed, with almost 55% of Muslims living in the North of Italy, 25% in the Centre, and only 20% in the South. Muslims form a lower proportion of immigrants then in previous years, as the latest statistical reports by the Italian Ministry of Interior and Caritas indicate that the share of Muslims among new immigrants has declined from over 50% at the beginning of the 1990s (mainly Albanians and Moroccans) to less than 25% in the following decade.

Recent points of contention between native Italians and the Muslim immigrant population include the presence of crucifixes in public buildings including school classrooms, government offices, and hospital wards. Adel Smith has attracted considerable media attention by demanding that crucifixes in public facilities be removed. The Italian Council of State, in the Sentence No. 556, 13 February 2006, confirmed the display of the crucifix in government sponsored spaces. Smith was subsequently charged with defaming the Catholic religion in 2006.

Mosque

There have been a number of cases of extraordinary rendition of Muslim activists as well as attempts by the current government to close mosques. In September 2008 the Northern League was reported to have introduced a new bill which would block the construction of new mosques in much of the country. The construction of mosques has already been blocked in Milan. The government argues that Muslims can pray anywhere, and don't need a mosque.

Scholars

Italy does not have many prominent Muslim scholars. Many Muslims would rely on foreign scholars. Many South Asian Muslims in Italy, for example, would forward all their queries to a scholar from South Africa, Mufti Ismail Moosa.

Organizations

A minority of Italian Muslims belong to religious associations, the best known of which are:

• UCOII Unione delle Comunità Islamiche d'Italia
• CCII, Centro Culturale Islamico d'Italia (Islamic Cultural Center in Rome), which has its seat what is reputed to be the largest mosque in Europe

See also

• History of Islam in southern Italy
• Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture
• Moors
• Religion in Italy
• Christianity in Italy
• Sikhism in Italy
• Jews in Italy
• Buddhism in Italy
• List of Italian religious minority politicians
• Islamic dress in Europe

Further reading

• Allievi, Stefano (2003). "Sociology of a Newcomer: Muslim Migration to Italy - Religious Visibility, Cultural and Political Reactions". Immigrants and Minorities. 22 (2–3): 141–154. doi:10.1080/0261928042000244790. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |quotes=, |laysource=, |laysummary=, and |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Links: Islam in Western Europe:Italy
• Islam, Islamism and Jihadism in Italy