Theresa Jäckh und Hossameldin Ali, Water Communities in the Plain of Palermo. A Neglected Islamic Document from Norman Sicily, in: Der Islam. Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East, 102, 3 (2025), S. 130–167. 

Abstract: The Archivio Storico Diocesano di Palermo conserves a unique Arabic-Islamic document dating to 526/1132 that allows for insights into the legal practices of small-scale water management in the fertile countryside of Sicily's capital city Palermo. Almost entirely neglected by previous scholarship, this article offers the first analysis of the document's legal content and situates it within the wider context of Mālikī law, landscape engineering, and Muslim communal practices in medieval Sicily at a time when Latin-Christian elites came to dominate the possession of resources in Palermo's hinterland. It is equipped with an edition of the Arabic text, an English translation, a reproduction of the document, and a map of water resources in the Conca d'Oro.
 

A round table discussion jointly organized by "RELCOM: Interreligious Communication in and between the Latin-Christian and the Arabic-Islamic Sphere, funded by the UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities (AHRC/DFG) (Durham/Tübingen)" and the GHIL.

How do Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders make legal decisions? How do they look upon the religious 'Other' and interact with them from the perspective of their religious laws? This round table brings together practising religious professionals, jurists and scholars to hear how they deal with modern legal issues whilst considering and integrating historical legal sources.

Guests: Dr Amra Bone, Dr Helen Costigane, Joanne Greenaway, Shaykh Mohammad Yazdani Raza Misbahi, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE

Moderators: JProf Theresa Jäckh (Durham University/University of Tübingen) and Dr Kate Tinson (Durham University)

Date and venue: 05 February 2025, German Historical Institute London