The term Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture,Michael Huxley: "The Geographical magazine", Vol. 34, Geographical Press, 1961, p. 339 Norman–Sicilian cultureGordon S. Brown: "The Norman conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily", McFarland, 2003, , p. 199 or, less inclusively, Norman–Arab cultureMoses I. Finley: "A History of Sicily", Chatto & Windus, 1986, , pp. 54, 61 (sometimes the "Arab–Norman civilization"),"In Sicily the feudal government, fastened on a country previously turbulent and backward, enabled an Arab-Norman civilization to flourish."Dossiers d'Archéologie, 1997: "It is legitimate to speak about an Arab-Norman civilization until the 13th century" (Original French: "on est fondé à parler d'une civilisation arabo-normande jusqu'au XIIIeme siècle" Abdallah Schleifer: "the monuments of a great Arab-Norman civilization" refers to the interaction of the Norman, Byzantine Greek, Latin, and Arab cultures following the Norman conquest of the former Emirate of Sicily and North Africa from 1061 to around 1250. The civilization resulted from numerous exchanges in the cultural and scientific fields, based on the tolerance shown by the Normans towards the Latin- and Greek-speaking Christian populations and the former Arab Muslim settlers.Lynn White, Jr.: "The Byzantinization of Sicily", The American Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1936), pp. 1-21 As a result, Sicily under the Normans became a crossroad for the interaction between the Norman and Latin Catholic, Byzantine–Orthodox, and Arab–Islamic cultures.

Norman conquest of southern Italy

The first Normans arrived in Southern Italy during the High Middle Ages, between the years 1000 and 1030. The de Hautevilles had enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the papacy in the period leading up to their arrival in Southern Italy, with the Church recognizing them as legitimate lords in return for their military allegiance. The Normans would seize upon divisions between the Lombards and Byzantines in the region in order to establish a foothold, and they would establish a capital at Aversa in 1030. A defining victory for the Normans would come in 1053, when they defeated a papal force constituted of Lombards and imperial Byzantine forces at Civitella sul Fortore. The battle would see them also capture Pope Leo IX, who had been backing the force opposing them. Robert Guiscard would mount later campaigns after his conquest of Sicily to further Norman influence in Southern Italy, notably capturing Bari in 1071 and Salerno in 1077.

Norman conquest of Sicily

Seventy-three years after the Islamic invasion of Southern Italy, the Byzantine forces began a reconquest of Sicily under the Byzantine general George Maniakes in 1038. This invasion relied on a number of Norse mercenaries, the Varangians, including the future King of Norway Harald Hardrada, as well as on several contingents of Italo-Norman warriors. Although Maniakes' death in a Byzantine civil war in 1043 cut the invasion short, the Normans followed up on the advances made by the Byzantines and completed the conquest of the former Emirate of Sicily and North Africa.

The Normans had been expanding south, as mercenaries and adventurers, driven by the myth of a happy and sunny island in the Southern Seas.Les Normands en Sicile, p. 123. The Norman Robert Guiscard, son of Tancred, conquered several regions of southern Italy in 1060. The island of Sicily was split politically between three Arab emirs, and the sizable Byzantine Orthodox Christian population rebelled against the ruling Muslims. One year later Messina fell to troops under the leadership of Roger Bosso (the brother of Robert Guiscard and the future Count Roger I of Sicily), and in 1071 the Normans took Palermo. Muslim Arabs and Berbers held onto Sicily and other regions of southern Italy until they were eventually defeated and expelled by the Christian Normans in 1072 to their Iberian and North African territories. The loss of the cities, each with a splendid harbor, dealt a severe blow to Muslim power on the island. Eventually Normans took all of Sicily. In 1091, Noto in the southern tip of Sicily and the island of Malta, the last Arab strongholds, fell to the Christian forces as well.

Norman conquest of Africa

The Kingdom of Africa was an extension of the frontier zone of the Siculo-Norman state in the former Roman province of Africa (Ifrīqiya in Tunisian Arabic), corresponding to Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya today. The main primary sources for the kingdom are Arabic (Muslim);All the Arabic sources can be found in Michele Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula (Rome and Turin: 1880). the Latin (Christian) sources are scanter. According to Hubert Houben, since "Africa" was never mentioned in the royal title of the kings of Sicily, "one ought not to speak of a 'Norman kingdom of Africa'."Houben, Roger II, 83. Rather, "[Norman Africa] really amounted to a constellation of Norman-held towns along coastal Ifrīqiya."Dalli, "Bridging Europe and Africa", 79.

The Sicilian conquest of Africa began under Roger II in 1146–48. Sicilian rule consisted of military garrisons in the major towns, exactions on the local Muslim population, protection of Christians and the minting of coin. The local aristocracy was largely left in place, and Muslim princes controlled the civil government under Sicilian oversight. Economic connections between Sicily and Africa, which were strong before the conquest, were strengthened, while ties between Africa and northern Italy were expanded. Early in the reign of William I, the "kingdom" of Africa fell to the Almohads (1158–60). Its most enduring legacy was the realignment of Mediterranean powers brought about by its demise and the Siculo-Almohad peace finalised in 1180.

Cultural interactions

Following the Norman conquest of southern Italy, an intense Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture developed in Sicily, exemplified by rulers such as Roger II of Sicily, who had Muslim soldiers, poets, and scientists at his court, and had Byzantine Greeks, Christodoulos, the famous George of Antioch, and finally Philip of Mahdia, serve successively as his ammiratus ammiratorum ("emir of emirs").Abulafia, David (2011) The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean. (London: Allen Lane). Roger II himself spoke Arabic and was fond of Arab culture. He used Arab and Byzantine Greek troops and siege engines in his campaigns in Southern Italy, and mobilized Arab and Byzantine architects to help his Normans build monuments in the Norman–Arab–Byzantine style. The various agricultural and industrial techniques which had been introduced by the Arabs in Sicily during the preceding two centuries were kept and further developed, allowing for the remarkable prosperity of the island. Numerous Classical Greek works, long lost to the Latin speaking West, were translated from Byzantine Greek manuscripts found in Sicily directly into Latin.Lindberg, David C. (ed.). Science in the Middle Ages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. p. 58-59 For the following two hundred years, Sicily under Norman rule became a model which was widely admired throughout Europe and Arabia.

The English historian John Julius Norwich remarked of the Kingdom of Sicily: Norman Sicily stood forth in Europe—and indeed in the whole bigoted medieval world—as an example of tolerance and enlightenment, a lesson in the respect that every man should feel for those whose blood and beliefs happen to differ from his own.

During Roger II's reign, the Kingdom of Sicily became increasingly characterized by its multi-ethnic composition and unusual religious tolerance. Catholic Normans, Langobards and native Sicilians, Muslim Arabs, and Orthodox Byzantine Greeks existed in a relative harmony for this time period, and Roger II was known to have planned for the establishment of an Empire that would have encompassed Fatimid Egypt and the Crusader states in the Levant up until his death in 1154.Les Normands en Sicile, p. 17. One of the greatest geographical treatises of the Middle Ages was written for Roger II by the Andalusian scholar Muhammad al-Idrisi, and entitled Kitab Rudjdjar ("The Book of Roger").

At the end of the 12th century, the population of Sicily is estimated to have been up to one-third Byzantine Greek speaking, with the remainder speaking Romance languages brought from mainland Italy (the Sicilian language, the Gallo-Italic of Sicily, and Old Norman), Siculo-Arabic, and Hebrew. Although the language of the court was the Old French dialect (Langue d'oïl) of Old Norman, all royal edicts were written in the language of the people they were addressed to: Latin, Byzantine Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew. Roger's royal mantel, used for his coronation (and also used for the coronation of Frederick II), bore an inscription in Arabic with the Hijri date of 528 (1133–1134).

Islamic authors marvelled at the forbearance of the Norman kings: They [the Muslims] were treated kindly, and they were protected, even against the Franks. Because of that, they had great love for king Roger.Ibn al-AthirQuoted in

Interactions continued with the succeeding Norman kings, for example under William II of Sicily, as attested by the Spanish–Arab geographer Ibn Jubair who landed in the island after returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1184. To his surprise, Ibn Jubair enjoyed a very warm reception by the Norman Christians. He was further surprised to find that even some Christians spoke Arabic and that several government officials were Muslim: The attitude of the king is really extraordinary. His attitude towards the Muslims is perfect: he gives them employment, he chooses his officers among them, and all, or almost all, keep their faith secret and can remain faithful to the faith of Islam. The king has full confidence in the Muslims and relies on them to handle many of his affairs, including the most important ones, to the point that the Great Intendant for cooking is a Muslim (...) His viziers and chamberlains are eunuchs, of which there are many, who are the members of his government and on whom he relies for his private affairs.Ibn Jubair, Rihla.Quoted in , also in . Ibn Jubair mentioned that some Christians in Palermo wore the Muslim dress and spoke Arabic. The Norman kings continued to strike coins in Arabic with Hijrah dates. The registers at the Royal court were written in Arabic. At one point, William II of Sicily is recorded to have said: "Every one of you should invoke the one he adores and of whom he follows the faith".

Norman–Arab–Byzantine art

Numerous artistic techniques from the Byzantine and Islamic world were also incorporated to form the basis of Arab-Norman art: inlays in mosaics or metals, sculpture of ivory or porphyry, sculpture of hard stones, bronze foundries, manufacture of silk (for which Roger II established a regium ergasterium, a state enterprise which would give Sicily the monopoly of silk manufacture for all Western Europe). During a raid on the Byzantine Empire, Roger II's admiral George of Antioch had transported the silk weavers from Thebes, Greece, where they had formed a part of the, until then, closely guarded monopoly that was the Byzantine silk industry.

The Norman kings were well known as supportive patrons of the arts. An example of this could be seen by the construction of a tiraz by certain Sicilian rulers, which were silk workshops typically seen in Islamic regimes, particularly in Egypt. Roger II was one such prominent patron of the arts, with the most well-known image of him in Sicily being found at the Church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio. The cultural fusion of Roger's kingdom is on display in this image, as seen by his donning of a ceremonial costume typical of Byzantine emperors and the placement of a Byzantine crown on his head.

Norman–Arab–Byzantine architecture