Muslims in the Surroundings of Thomas Aquinas Part 1

Aquino

Thomas was born around 1224-1225 in the castle of Roccasecca, Aquino, in the Kingdom of Sicily. Aquino was roughly 116 miles northwest of Lucera where, according to conservative estimates, some 20,000 Muslims were settled by Fredrick II in 1224. The Muslim exile Ahmad ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Rummani in 1230 told the Caliph “al-Kamil that 170,000 people had been turned out of their homelands, stripped of their wealth and transported to the Italian mainland.” Saba Malaspina claimed that there were 40,000 to 50,000 Muslims in Lucera. Graham A. Loud rejects these high numbers as exaggerations and agrees with Taylor, Metcalfe and Abulafia that there were between 15,000 to 20,000 Muslims settled by Frederick in Lucera. Close to 30,000 Muslims were settled in the nearby areas of Apulia, and 10,000 outside Apulia. Lucera was as big as the London of the early thirteenth century.

Muslim Presence

Within 116 miles of Aquino, the birthplace of St. Thomas Aquinas, there was a significant Muslim presence. The region of Apulia essentially transformed into a Muslim community. David Abulafia records that Lucera evolved into a predominantly Muslim settlement, where the arrival of the Saracens caused the local bishop to flee, marking Lucera as a distinctly Muslim enclave, its residents' allegiance secured by their separation from the broader Islamic world. By the standards of the thirteenth century, Lucera was a considerable Muslim city. The Emperor allowed the practice of Islam in Lucera, initially imposing the Jizya, a tax on Muslims, but later substituted it with military service. The application of Islamic Shari’ah was allowed, and Muslim entities like mosques, schools, and courts operated freely.

Muslims of Lucera

In Lucera, Muslims freely practiced their faith, congregating for Friday prayers in a mosque, possibly a repurposed building. During the reign of Frederick’s son, Manfred, a delegate from Sultan Baybars of Egypt noted the open religious practices of the city’s people. Notably, influential Muslims were part of Manfred’s court, and there might have been Qur’anic schools established. Pope Gregory IX referred to the presence of “Agarenorum gymnasia,” indicating schools of the Hagarites, a term biblically associating Arabs with the descendants of Hagar, suggesting a community of learned individuals, including a qadi or judge, and one Latin source even mentioned a “bishop of the Saracens.”

An Enlightened City

Lucera was an example of “rare enlightenment”. Karen Armstrong notes that “Here (in Lucera) they were allowed to build their own independent city-state. They had their own amir, their own qadis, sheik and imams. They built mosques and the muezzin sounded loudly and freely. Within the city, Frederick built a scientific institute for the study of all branches of speculative science, and he made the Muslims of Lucera his favoured court officials. "Most of his officials and courtier were Muslims," wrote the Arab historian Jamal ad-Din Ibn Wasil "and in his camp the call to prayer and even the canonic prayer themselves were openly heard." The Arabs themselves were fanatically loyal to Frederick and called him their sultan.”

Frederick was an innovating paradigm breaker. The pompous thirteenth-century historian Matthew of Paris labeled Frederick with the epithet “Stupor qouque mundi et immutator mirabilis.” To the papal camp he was the anti-Christ, the sixth or the seventh head of the terrible dragon envisioned in the revelation of St. John the Divine.

Emperor's Motives

The Emperor's establishment of a predominantly Muslim colony in mainland Italy was driven by multifaceted motives. He aimed to sever the connections between Muslim insurgents and their principal sources of arms in North Africa, integrate them into their new surroundings, and convert them into dedicated taxpayers, artisans, and soldiers. To this end, he offered them exemptions from royal taxes in exchange for services to the empire. His strategy included leveraging their expertise in agriculture to boost the production of grain, cotton, and fruits, utilizing their martial prowess for the manufacture of specialized weaponry like arrows, bows, swords, and shields, and incorporating them into his army for campaigns against papal forces, thereby expanding his fiscal resources through the imposition of the jizya tax on certain individuals. The Emperor facilitated their resettlement in Lucera, providing the essential capital and resources to increase their productivity.

His approach was marked by pragmatism, diplomacy, and adaptability, aligning with his economic, military, and political objectives. He forged a strong bond with his Muslim soldiers, valuing their proficiency, dedication, and enthusiasm in combating his primary adversary, the papacy. Contrary to his Christian troops, the Muslim mercenaries were impervious to the influence of papal decrees and religious manipulation. Given that the papal curia represented Frederick's foremost antagonist, the Muslim archer units emerged as his most reliable force against both the Curia and its allies within the Lombard League. This explains Frederick's substantial investment in the Lucera Muslim community.

Emperor's Investment

Julie Ann Taylor states that “Frederick made an investment in the colony, sending oxen to the Muslim settlers and making arrangements with local landowners so that the arrivals could farm land in and around the city. In his lifetime, the Emperor would demonstrate a certain affinity for the region of Apulia. Frederick built a castle there, ordering that decorative statues be brought from Naples, and he imported animals such as camels and leopards to be raised by Muslim keepers.” Metcalfe states that “in 1239–40, Frederick offered a thousand head of cattle to the Luceran Muslims in order to tie them to the land, ‘as was the case in the time of King William’, strengthening the idea that Lucera was intended as a type of imperial tax farm.” He further notes that “Frederick had also been eager to stimulate the rural economy – and in this respect Lucera certainly prospered. Indeed, the occupations of the Luceran Muslims were almost as wide-ranging as they had been in western Sicily. Many names indicating an involvement in a ‘profession’, which are found among the population of Monreale in the 1170s and 1180s, are also attested (in much less rich sources) at Lucera. In addition to the various tasks which existed in any south Italian medieval town surrounded by countryside, professions specifically attested in both Monreale and Lucera were: those involved with stock breeding and animal husbandry (including rearers and keepers of pigs, goats, sheep, horses, donkeys and bees), shepherds, butchers, tanners, saddlers, falconers and huntsmen, millers, bakers, potters, stonemasons, cotton growers, vintners and fruit growers, tailors, tentmakers, carpenters, soldiers, guards, castellans and stewards, in addition to a range of smiths and metal-workers, buglers, musicians, bath-house keepers, notaries, minor officials and qa’ids – who in the case of Lucera were clearly associated with the military.”

Influential Muslims

Julie Taylor notes that “Most members of the privileged class at Lucera had served the crown as soldiers, but people became influential and prosperous in other ways as well. An Arabic-speaking physician practiced in the city. Muslims served as intermediaries between the local population and crown officials, helping to coordinate major building projects at Lucera. Most of the people who lived at Lucera made their living by farming. They grew wheat and barley, and they planted fruit trees. Honey from the bees raised at Lucera was used to make sweets. Lucerine wine was transported to Rome and other cities. Among the animals kept at Lucera were leopards and camels. People also raised sheep, cows, and goats.” Frederick established one of the seven annual fairs in Lucera where people from all over the empire would participate, and the Muslim craftsmen of Lucera were encouraged to participate in other fairs. “With permission, merchants and some skilled craftsmen were able to travel outside the city. Merchants sold their goods to Christians nearby in San Severo and as far away as Salerno. Muslim smiths, carpenters, and animal keepers worked in Canosa and Melfi.”

The Muslims of Lucera and greater Apulia province were well assimilated in the larger society. They moved around, traveled within the empire for business and imperial services, mingled, communicated and interacted with their fellow Sicilians and often adopted Latinised names. “Where assimilation into the background culture was attested, it was in the direction of Latinisation – or, rather, south Italianisation. Thus, the limited onomastic evidence available reveals a number of Muslims who had adopted (alternative?) names chosen from Frankish, New Testament or saintly repertoires such as Richard, Roger, Jordan, Matthew, John, Peter, Anthony and Paschal.” The Muslims spoke Arabic between themselves but used various forms of Italian dialects while communicating with the surrounding Christian populations and their army colleagues.

Reliable Soldiers

The Sicilian Muslims were reliable soldiers, especially against the papal army, the main opposition to Frederick’s political designs in Southern Italy. Metcalfe notes that “while farming and agriculture were fundamentally important to the Luceran economy, the population also played vital military roles both as a resource for soldiers (especially light cavalry and archers) and as manufacturers of specialist weaponry such as bows, arrows and shields. Over this formidable arsenal, the Muslims acted as reliable guardians within the walls of the city.”

There were around 10,000 to 15,000 Muslim men in the special forces of Frederick II; contemporary sources noted that over 10,000 Muslim archers were employed by Frederick on the battlefield of Cortenuova fought on November 27, 1237 against Pope Gregory IX and his Lombard League. The Muslim soldiers constituted the majority of Frederick’s army. Abulafia observes that “It has been suggested that about thirty-five thousand men were on the Cortenuova battlefield, about nineteen thousand under imperial banners, the rest fighting for the Lombard League…” Fergus Kerr notes that “Thomas’s father was one of the officers entrusted with guarding prisoners captured at the battle of Cortenuova…when, with up to 10,000 Apulian Muslim archers, Frederick II defeated the city states in Lombardy.” The same battalion was part of Frederick’s attacks on Viterbo, Benevento, Rome (the papal possessions) as well as Monte Cassino in 1239. Thomas Aquinas was a teen oblate in the Abbey of Monte Cassino when Emperor’s troops including thousands of Muslim soldiers expelled papal troops and monks from the Abbey.   

Trusted Soldiers

There existed tremendous trust between the Emperor and his Muslim bodyguards and soldiers. The Emperor and his immediate family members often leaned on the Muslims of Lucera in their most difficult times. The Muslims were happy to fight for an Emperor who was relatively secular, enlightened, Muslim friendly and pitched against the popes who hated Muslims, wanted to kill or convert them and were actively engaged in crusades against the Muslim lands. This sense of mutual enemy translated into cordial and trustworthy relations between Frederick and thousands of his Muslim soldiers. Metcalfe observes that “The castle at Lucera, built by the 1240s and probably begun shortly after the earliest Muslim settlement, served not only as a well-appointed palace which Frederick himself had often visited, but also as an armoury, illustrating the considerable extent of mutual trust and understanding that existed between Frederick and the Muslims – a political relationship continued by his son, Manfred, who took refuge in the town in 1254 when fleeing papal forces. Such was the importance of arms-manufacturing at Lucera that at the start of the Wars of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, some 60,000 arrows were commissioned from there. The established tradition of military service was the principal mechanism open to the Muslims for socio-economic improvement, and families known to have been associated with the army were also attested as landholders. Indeed, given the colony’s strategic military role as a fortress and armoury, the Luceran military – subject to Christian command – constituted a prestigious, responsible and privileged group within the community.” St. Thomas’s family, including his brothers, were also part of Frederick’s army and until 1245 fought alongside the Muslim soldiers against the papal armies. They must have made some Muslim friends.

To be continued.