Roger II of Sicily

Roger II of Sicily was the Norman ruler who created the kingdom of Sicily in 1130. He united Sicily and southern Italy, resisted papal and imperial opposition and governed a multilingual realm drawing on Latin, Greek and Arabic administrative traditions.

Roger II of Sicily also held the offices or ranks of count and King of Naples. Roger II of Sicily belonged to the Hauteville family and operated within County of Sicily; Kingdom of Sicily. Roger II of Sicily was born in Mileto and died in Palermo.

Tariq Ali’s A Sultan in Palermo (Islam Quintet 4) portrays Roger II through the court of his geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. The king presides over a Norman Sicily where Arabic, Greek, Latin, Jewish and Christian traditions meet, while Idrisi’s work on the great geographical survey depends on royal patronage. Roger’s cosmopolitan court is not idealised: the novel also sets his authority against the increasingly unequal position of Sicily’s Muslim population and the political compromises required to sustain Norman rule.