ACROSS AN OPEN SEA. MEDITERRANEAN NETWORKS AND ITALIAN TRADE IN AN ERA OF CALAMITY BY ROMNEY DAVID SMITH A THESIS SUBMITTED IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO © Copyright by Romney David Smith 2016 ABSTRACT Across an Open Sea. Mediterranean Networks and Italian Trade in an Era of Calamity Romney David Smith Doctorate of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto. 2016 ABSTRACT In the eleventh century, commercial dominance of the Mediterranean passed from the Muslim and Jewish traders of the House of Islam to the Italians of such maritime cities as Pisa or Amalfi. Although the outcome of this economic transition is well-known, the purpose of this study is to consider the mechanisms that motored Italian takeover. An examination of the characteristics of the trade network, both before and after the economic transition, finds that little structural change occurred; it is therefore argued that Italian merchants operated in conformity with the commercial paradigms of the existing Muslim and Jewish trade network, which are known to us from the Cairo Geniza. It was only the coincidence of major political failure in the large Mediterranean polities that enabled a realignment of Italian merchants from participants to dominant players in the existing trade network. This political failure, which I term “the great calamity,” saw the end of the Caliphate of Cordoba and left both Byzantium and the !ii ABSTRACT Fatimid Caliphate much reduced, a situation which rebounded to the advantage of smaller polities. Among them, the city of Pisa serves as a test case for this study’s assertions about Italian integration into the Mediterranean network of Muslim and Jewish traders Following the emphasis of the “New Mediterranean Studies” on interconnectivity, a key conclusion is that the spaces defined by trade, such as the decks of ships shared between Jewish, Muslim and Christian merchants, provided an almost neutral medium for the exchange not only of commodities, but also their conceptual, material or stylistic commensals. The final chapters of this thesis concentrate on the social mechanisms that propelled merchants, material culture and knowledge across the Mediterranean. They look at the shared visual culture that permeated the Mediterranean and its concomitant lexicon of shared symbols and motifs. This common visual culture includes architecture, the famous bacini of Pisa, and the broad category of spices, incense and materia medica. This last group, it is suggested, marked an expanding locus of practices shared across both the Christian and Muslim shores of the Mediterranean. !iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people to whom I own a debt of gratitude. To my committee members, Professors Jill Caskey, Nick Everett and Mark Meyerson, without whose advice, enthusiasms, sticks and carrots, this dissertation would not have been written. To Professors Linda Safran and Adam Cohen, for help along the way, and to Professor Paul Freedman, for help at the end. To Dr. Anya King, for sharing her research. To friends and colleagues at the Centre for Medieval Studies and the History and Fine Art History Departments at the University of Toronto. And above all, to my wife Dr. Danielle A. Way, and our beloved daughter Carmen Winter Waysmith. !iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES VII INTRODUCTION: ACROSS AN OPEN SEA 1 New Mediterranean Studies 3 Evidence and Methodology 6 Time and Place 8 Chapter Plan 11 CALAMITY AND TRANSITION: RE-IMAGINING ITALIAN TRADE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY MEDITERRANEAN 14 Disproportion and Disparity 16 The Mediterranean Network and the Economic Transition 24 A Model of Network Expansion 35 The Great Calamity 43 Conclusion: Italian Outcomes 51 THEORIZING CONNECTIVITY IN THE NETWORK 55 Gaps in the Record 61 Mentalities & Culture 66 PISA’S PLACE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN NETWORK 73 From the Carolingian Era to the Tenth Century. 74 An Age of Aggrandizement 77 The Course of Pisan Expansion 82 The Example and Opportunity of Denia 85 In the Wake of the Great Calamity 98 Towers of Success 110 Towards the first crusade 117 The Culture of an Age of Expansion 120 Further Horizons 123 MEDIA OF EXCHANGE : MATERIAL CULTURE IN ELEVENTH CENTURY PISA 127 The Social Role of Bowls 130 Contexts, Italian and Otherwise 137 Conclusion: Media Exchanged 150 MOBILITY AND MATERIAL CULTURE ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN NETWORK 152 Social Mechanisms 156 Status and Emulation 160 Productive Forces 163 Assimilation and Difference 167 !v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dressing for Diaspora 172 Avenues of Emulation 176 Conclusions: Material Culture 183 INCENSUM & LUMINARIA 187 Terminology 188 The Matter of Materia 190 Heavenly Places 196 Numerous Rites 200 Numinous Bodies 207 Syncretic Ornamentalism 212 Visual Depictions 217 Supply Side Economics 224 Fragrance and Fashion 230 Aromas of Sanctity 236 Medicine and Consumption 240 Incensum & Luminaria Conclusion 242 CONCLUSION 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY 254 Primary Sources 254 Secondary Literature 260 FIGURES AND MAPS 282 !vi LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF FIGURES Please note that for copyright reasons, the figures are excluded from the electronic repository. 1: Gold dinar of the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim ((996–1021) 2: Gold tarí of Amalfi with pseudo-Kufic epigraphy, after 1038 3: Ship bacino from S.Piero in Grado. 4: The Waning of the Polities. 5: The flowering of the maritime republics 7: Fatimid glass coin weights. 8: Place name frequency in Pisan annals before the first crusade. 9: S. Matteo, Pisa 10: Latin tombstone from North Africa. 11: Capital from Medina al-Zahra. 12: Pisa Griffin. 13: S. Sisto, columns, Pisa 14: “Golden Gate” inscription, Pisa. 15: Medieval tower, Pisa. 16: S. Nicola, Pisa. 17: Sant’Agata, Pisa. 18: Duomo, north transept, Pisa. 19: Bacini in Pisa. 20: Bacino in the Museo San Matteo, Pisa. 21: S. Zeno, Pisa. 22: S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, Pisa. 23: S. Piero in Vinculis, Pisa. 24: S. Sisto, Pisa. 25: Extra-urban Pisan churches. 26: S. Jacopo, San Gimignano. 27: Interlace reliefs in situ on Pisan churches. 28: Architectural ornament in Pisa 29: Bacino, Sant’Andrea Forisportam, Pisa. 30: S. Matteo, atrium, Salerno. 31: Fatimid mosaic pavement. 32: Peacock relief, Great Mosque of Sfax. 33: Spolia, duomo, Pisa. 34: Ablaq, Morgan Beatus. 35: Ablaq, Medina al-Zahra. 36: Main portal, Zaytuna mosque, Tunis. 37: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. 38: S. Sepolcro, Pisa. 39: Ablaq, Pisa. 40: Stone inlays, Pisa, Syria, and North Africa. 41: Stone inlays, Pisa and Tunis. 42: Lozenge ornament, Pisa. 43: Lozenge ornament, S.Maria, Siponto. 44a: Lozenge ornament, detail, Mosque of Al-Hakim, Cairo. 44b: Lozenge ornament, Mosque of Al-Hakim, Cairo. 45: Mirhab, Great Mosque of Monastir. 46: S. Maria dei Catalani, Palermo. 47: Hortus delicarium illumination. 48: Oliphant. 49: Fatimid fresco fragment; Exultet roll detail. 50: Ivory pen case. 51: Salerno and the World map. 52: Marriage charter of Theophanu. 53: Fatimid drawing. !vii LIST OF FIGURES 54: Elite apparel in Exultet roll. 55: Fatimid water filters. 56: Roger II mosaic at the Martorana, Palermo. 57: The Wealth of Nations. 58: Fatimid mausoleums, Aswan, and the mausoleum of Bohemond, Canosa di Puglia. 59: Elite apparel on a Fatimid bacino. 60: Mantle of Roger II. 61: S. Piero in Grado, Porto Pisano. 62: Ivory pyxis from Al-Andalus. 63: Censer from Germany. 64: Perfume brazier, Venice. 65: Bacino, Cairo. 66: Sarcophagus of Dona Sancha. 67: Fresco, Aquileia. 68: Women at the tomb, Shaftesbury Psalter. 69: Annular chandelier, Qaywaran. 70: Bronze lamp, Qayrawan. 71: Fresco, San Clemente. 72: Mosque lamps, Syria. 73: Seal of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers. 74: Window and lozenge ornament, Al-Aqmar, Cairo. 75: Porta Ranieri, detail, duomo, Pisa. 76: Chasse of Champagnat, Limoges. 77: Melisende Psalter. 78: Temple pendant. 79: Babylon, Facundus Beatus. 80: Deposition, wood carving. 81: Fresco, San Clemente. 82: Diplomatic gifts in the Book of Gifts and Rarities. 83: Ornamental morters, Iran and Syria. !viii INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION: ACROSS AN OPEN SEA “Routes, not roots.”1 The eleventh century Mediterranean has often been interpreted in sectarian terms. Indeed, historians regularly identify the period as “before the crusades,” as though the events of 1095-99 cast a retroactive shadow over the preceding century. But even without the crusades, the era was rife with incident for students of Mediterranean history. In particular, it saw two developments of crucial importance. One, the total or partial collapse of every major polity on the sea. And two, the rise of the famous maritime city republics of Italy, whereby what Abulafia called “the primitive Levant trade” of the Italian cities was transformed into the preeminent commercial enterprise of the high middle ages.2 The subject of this study is the growth of that “primitive” trade in the period before the crusades, in the context of the city of Pisa and its place amid the changes that occurred in the eleventh century Mediterranean. Recent work on the medieval Mediterranean has suggested that many long-standing distinctions in the literature, such as merchant vs. pirate, or Christian vs. Muslim, are not very useful for investigating a historical context that is characterized by geographic, cultural and even sectarian fluidity. Such a characterization, as we will see, aptly suits the world of the eleventh century Mediterranean. In an influential example of this trend, Eva Hoffman has argued that with respect to material culture, the place of origin of objects is less important that their movement through human networks.3 Her work complemented Horden and Purcell’s Corrupting Sea, which pushed comparative study of disparate parts of the Mediterranean, and emphasized fluidity between regions.4 Such approaches have 1 Finbarr Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter, Princeton: 2009. 2 David Abulafia, “The Impact of the Orient: Economic Interactions between East and West in the Medieval Mediterranean,” in Across the Mediterranean Frontiers: Trade, Politics and Religion, 650-1450, edited by Dionisius A.