Une abbaye latine dans la société musulmane : Monreale au XIIe siècle

A Latin abbey in Islamic society : Monreale in the 12th century Under Islamic rule since 841 Sicily was progressively reconquered by Latin Christians from 1030 onward. The struggle for control over maritime routes and the supply of wheat was oriented in North-South direction. The few Norman men-at-arms who conquered the area at first limited control to towns. Implantation in the islamised countryside proceeded in a doubly colonializing sense, both economic (the landholding abbeys) and military (the feudalized army). The abbey of Monreale exemplifies this political process. In II years time control was established over one thousand square km of land occupied by an Islamic population. The abbot, perfectly integrated into the Norman feudal structure, was the ruling lord of the land responsible for collecting ground-rents which weighed heavily on land and men. Hence the Moslems revolted against their Christian overlords choosing as centers of resistance the hill-top strongholds of Iato, Kalatrasi, Entella. As for the abbey, the turmoil of wars and the crusading atmosphere led to the flight and deportation of the Moslem population, the collapse of the abbey's revenues, and hence the necessity of restoring the production system. At the end of the 13th century, the Moslems' land had ceased to be an area of polyculture around a casale, and had been transformed, under the influence of the abbey, into masseria, an estate intended for cultivation of wheat on a massive scale.Bercher Henri, Courteaux Annie, Mouton Jean. Une abbaye latine dans la société musulmane : Monreale au XIIe siècle. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 34ᵉ année, N. 3, 1979. pp. 525-547