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Sicilians () are an Italians ethnographic group who are indigenous to Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, as well as the largest and most populous of the autonomous regions of Italy.
three tribes lived both a sedentary pastoral farming and Orchard lifestyle, and a semi-nomadic fishing, transhumance and mixed farming lifestyle. Prior to the Neolithic Revolution, Paleolithic Sicilians would have lived a hunter-gatherers lifestyle, just like most Culture before the Neolithic. The river Salso was the territorial boundary between the Sicels and Sicanians. They wore basic clothing made of wool, Fiber crop, papyrus, esparto grass, animal skins, Arecaceae, leather and fur, and created everyday tools, as well as weapons, using Forging, woodworking and pottery. They typically lived in a nuclear family unit, with some extended family members as well, usually within a Trullo, a neolithic long house or a simple hut made of mud, stones, wood, palm leaves or grass. Their main methods of transportation were horseback, donkeys and chariots. Evidence of pet wildcats, cirneco dogs and children's toys have been discovered in archaeological digs, especially in Necropolis. Their diet was a typical Mediterranean diet, including unique food varieties such as Gaglioppo, Acitana and Diamante citron, while in modern times the Calabrian Salami, which is also produced in Sicily, and sometimes used to make spicy 'Nduja spreadable paste/sauce, is a popular type of salami sold in Brazil and the Anglosphere. All 3 tribes also specialised in building single-chambered dolmen, a tradition which dates back to the Neolithic. "An important archaeological site, located in Southeast Sicily, is the Necropolis of Pantalica, a collection of cemeteries with rock-cut chamber tombs. Dating from the 13th to the 7th centuries BC., recent estimates suggest a figure of just under 4,000 tombs. They extend around the flanks of a large promontory located at the junction of the Anapo with its tributary, the Calcinara, about 23 km (14 mi) northwest of Syracuse. Together with the city of Syracuse, Pantalica was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. The site was mainly excavated between 1895 and 1910 by the Italian archeologist, Paolo Orsi, although most of the tombs had already been looted long before his time. Items found within the tombs of Pantalica, some now on display at the Archaeology Museum in Syracuse, were the characteristic red-burnished pottery vessels, and metal objects, including weaponry (small knives and daggers) and clothing, such as bronze fibulae (brooches) and rings, which were placed with the deceased in the tombs. Most of the tombs contained between one and seven individuals of all ages and both sexes. Many tombs were evidently re-opened periodically for more burials. The average human life span at this time was probably around 30 years of age, although the size of the prehistoric population is hard to estimate from the available data, but might have been around 1000 people."
Nuragic ceramic, (from Sardinia), carbon dated to the 13th century BC, have been found in Lipari. The prehistoric Thapsos culture, associated with the Sicani, shows noticeable influences from Mycenaean Greece. Pantalica e i suoi monumenti di Paolo Orsi The type of burial found in the necropolis of the Thapsos culture, is characterized by large rock-cut chamber tombs, and often of tholos-type that some scholars believe to be of Mycenaean derivation, while others believe it to be the traditional shape of the hut. The housing are made up of mostly circular huts bounded by stone walls, mainly in small numbers. Some huts have rectangular shape, particularly the roof. The economy was based on farming, herding, hunting and fishing. There are numerous evidences of trading networks, in particular of bronze vessels and weapons of Mycenaean and Nuragic (Sardinian) production. There were close trading relationships/networks established with the Milazzo Culture of the Aeolian Islands, and with the Apennine culture of mainland southern Italy. In Sicily's earlier prehistory, there is also evidence of trade with the Capsian culture and Iberomaurusian
pp. 2682005 D. Lubell. Continuité et changement dans l'Epipaléolithique du Maghreb. In, M. Sahnouni (ed.) Le Paléolithique en Afrique: l’histoire la plus longue, pp. 205–226. Paris: Guides de la Préhistoire Mondiale, Éditions Artcom’/Errance.2004 N. Rahmani. Technological and cultural change among the last Hunter-Gatherers of the Maghreb: the Capsian (10,000 B.P. to 6000 B.P.). Journal of World Prehistory 18(1): 57–105.
Another archaeological site, originally identified by Paolo Orsi on the basis of a particular ceramic style, is the Castelluccio culture which dates back to the Ancient Bronze Age (2000 B.C. approximately), and is seen as sort of a "prehistoric proto-civilization", located between Noto and Siracusa. The discovery of a prehistoric village in Castelluccio di Noto, next to the remains of prehistoric circular huts, led to finds of Ceramic glass decorated with brown lines on a yellow-reddish background, and tri-color with the use of white. The weapons used in the days of Castelluccio culture were green stone and basalt axes and, in the most recent settlements, bronze axes, and frequently carved bones, considered idols similar to those of Malta, and of Troy. Burials were made in rounded tombs carved into the rock, with doors with relief carving of spiral symbols and motifs that evoke the sexual act. The Castelluccio culture is dated to a period between 2200 BC and 1800 BC, although some believe it to be contemporary to the Middle-Late Helladic period (1800/1400 BC)." "Sites related to the Castelluccio culture were present in the villages of south-east Sicily, including Monte Casale, Cava/Quarry d'Ispica, Pachino, Niscemi, Cava/Quarry Lazzaro, near Noto, of Rosolini, in the rocky Byzantine district of coastal Santa Febronia in Palagonia, in Cuddaru d' Crastu (Tornabé-Mercato d'Arrigo) near Pietraperzia, where there are remains of a fortress partly carved in stone, and – with different ceramic forms – also near Agrigento in Montedoro. The discovery of a cup of 'Etna type' in the area of Comiso, among local ceramic objects led to the discovery of commercial trades with the Castelluccio sites of Paternò, Adrano and Biancavilla, whose graves differ in making due to the hard basaltic terrain and also for the utilization of the as chamber tombs. In the area around Ragusa, there have been found evidences of mining among the ancient residents of Castelluccio; tunnels excavated by the use of basalt bats allowed the extraction and production of highly sought . Some dolmens, dated back to this same period, with sole funeral function, are found in different parts of Sicily and attributable to a people not belonging to the Castelluccio Culture."
The Sicelian polytheism worship of the ancient and native chthonic, animism-cult deities associated with geysers known as the Palici, as well as the worship of the volcano-fire god by the name of Adranus, were also worshiped throughout Sicily by the Elymians and Sicanians. Their (Palici) centre of worship was originally based on three small lakes that emitted vapors in the plains, and as a result these twin brothers were associated with geysers and the underworld. There was also a shrine to the Palici in Palacia, where people could subject themselves or others to Dowsing through divine judgement; passing meant that an oath could be trusted. The mythological lineage of the Palici is uncertain. According to Macrobius, the nymph Thalia gave birth to the divine twins while living underneath the Earth.Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.19.15 They were most likely either the sons of the native fire god Adranos, or, as Polish historian "Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak" suggests, the Palici may derive from the old Proto-Indo-European mytheme of the divine twins.Witczak, K. T.; Zawiasa, D. "The Sicilian Palici as representatives of the indo-european divine twins". In: ΜΥΘΟΣ, n. 12, 2004–2005. pp. 93–106. Mount Etna is named after the mythology Sicilian nymph called Aetna, who might have been the possible mother to the Palici twins. Mount Etna was also believed to have been the region where Zeus buried the Serpentine giant Typhon, and the humanoid giant Enceladus in classical mythology. The Cyclopes, giant one-eyed humanoid creatures in classical Greco-Roman mythology, known as the maker of Zeus' thunderbolts, were traditionally associated with Sicily and the Aeolian Islands. The Cyclopes were said to have been assistants to the Greek blacksmith God Hephaestus, at his forge in Sicily, underneath Mount Etna, or perhaps on one of the nearby Aeolian Islands. The Aeolian Islands, off the coast of Northwestern Sicily, were themselves named after the mythological king and "keeper of the heavy winds" known as Aeolus.Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 4.7.6 & 4.8.3 In his Hymn to Artemis, Cyrene poet Callimachus states that the Cyclopes on the Aeolian island of Lipari, working "at the anvils of Hephaestus", make the bows and arrows used by Apollo and Artemis.Callimachus, Hymn III to Artemis 8–10. The Latin poet Ovid names three Cyclopes "Brontes, Steropes and Acmonides" working as inside Sicilian caves.Ovid, Fasti 4.287–288, 4.473.Hard, pp 66, p. 166; Fowler 2013, p. 54; Bremmer, p. 139; Grimal, p. 119 s.v. Cyclopes.
Besides Demeter (the Greek mythology goddess of agriculture and law), and Persephone (the Greek Personification goddess of vegetation),"This April, I spent a month in Western Sicily, where I discovered much evidence of worship of the Goddesses Tanit, Astarte and Venus/Aphrodite, as well as Demeter and Persephone. I visited an abundance of ancient sacred sites dedicated to the aforementioned goddesses during my stay in Sicily"
Sometime after Carthage conquered most of Sicily except for the Southeast which was still controlled by Syracuse, Pyrrhus of Epirus, the Molossians king of Epirus, was installed as King/Tyrant of Sicily from 278 to 275 BC, even capturing the native Elymians mountain-city of Eryx, which was previously under Carthaginian fortification & protection before he captured it. Pyrrhus even attempted to capture Marsala (Siege of Lilybaeum) from the Punics, which didn't succeed. A couple years later (275 BC), Envoys from Southern Italy had notified him that of all the Magna Graecia in Italy, only Tarentum hadn't fallen to the Romans. Upon hearing this, coinciding with the fact that the Sicilian city-states had started becoming hostile towards him, due to him trying to force Sicily into becoming a Martial law, Pyrrhus made his decision to depart from the island and dethrone himself, leaving Syracuse and Carthage in charge of the island again. As his ship left the island, he turned and, foreshadowing the Punic Wars, said to his companions: "What a wrestling ground we are leaving, my friends, for the Carthaginians and the Romans." While his army was being transported by ship to mainland Italy, Pyrrhus' navy was destroyed by the Carthaginians at the Battle of the Strait of Messina, with 98 warships sunk or disabled out of 110. After Pyrrhus of Epirus landed on Mainland Italy, his Roman opponents had mastered up a large army under Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus, while he was still Tyrant of Sicily. After Pyrrhus was defeated at the Battle of Beneventum (275 BC) by the Romans, he decided to end his campaigns against Southern Italy, and return to Epirus, resulting in the loss of all his territorial gains in Italy. The city of Tarentum however still remained under Epirote control.
The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus who wrote and recorded the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, and the ancient Doric Greek revolutionary scientist, inventor and mathematician Archimedes who anticipated modern calculus, and analysis by applying methods of and exhaustion to rigorously derive and prove the range of geometry theorems, and invented the innovative Archimedean screw, compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native town of Syracuse from invasions, were both born, grew up in, lived and died in Sicily.
Besides Sicily, the Theme or province of Sicily also included the adjacent region of Calabria in Mainland Italy. The capital city of Byzantine Sicily was Syracuse. The province was looked after by the imperial governor known as a Praetor, and was militarily protected under a general by the title of Dux. Sicily itself was divided into many districts known as a Turma. The Byzantine Exarch of Ravennan Italy named Theophylact, between 702 and 709, originally came from Sicily. After he got promoted into the Exarchate, Theophylact marched from Sicily to Rome for unknown reasons, a decision which angered the local Roman soldiers living there, however the newly elected Pope John VI, was able to calm them down.
The Aghlabid invasions were in part caused by the Byzantine-Sicilian military commander Euphemius, who invited the Aghlabids to aid him in his rebellion against the imperial governor of Sicily in 826 AD. A similar situation happened a century prior, when the imperial governor of Sicily (Sergios), had declared a Byzantine official from Istanbul by the name of Basil Onomagoulos (regnal name Tiberius) as rival emperor, when false news reached Sicily that Constantinople had fallen to the Umayyads. When Emperor Leo the Syrian sent an Chartoularios named Paul to Sicily, the people and army of Syracuse surrendered Basil and his rebels up to him, leading to the beheading of Basil, while the former governor Sergios was able to escape to the parts of Mainland Italy controlled by the Lombards. Another rebellion took place between the years 781–793, when the aristocratic governor of Sicily, Elpidius, was accused of conspiring against Empress Irene in favour of Nikephoros. After Elpidius's forces were militarily defeated by Empress Irene's large fleet dispatched in Sicily, he, along with his lieutenant, the dux of Calabria named Nikephoros, defected to the Abbasid Caliphate, where he was posthumously acknowledged as rival emperor. After losing another military expedition, this time against Anatolia with the help of the Abbasids, he advised the Banu Abbas Emir of Mesopotamia, Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, to "throw away his silk and put on his armour", warning him against the aggressive new reign of Nikephoros I. The Muslim conquest was a see-saw affair; the local population resisted fiercely and the Aghlabids suffered considerable dissension and infighting among themselves during this process. Not until 965 was the island's conquest successfully completed by the Fatimid Caliphate, with Syracuse in particular resisting almost to the end (Siege of Syracuse (877-878)). Jawhar the Sicilian, the Fatimid general of Saqaliba origins that led the conquest of Egypt, under Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, was born and grew up in Ragusa, Sicily. Jawhar served as viceroy of Egypt until 973, consolidating Fatimid control over North Africa, and laying the foundations for Cairo.
The first phase of Muslim rule began with the conquests of the third Aghlabid Emir Ziyadat Allah I of Ifriqiya, and consolidated with the reign of the ninth Emir Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya after the conquest of Taormina. The first attempt to capture Syracuse was under general Asad ibn al-Furat, although it ended in a Byzantine victory. A combination of and troops helped to capture the Island between 830 and 831. After a revolt was suppressed, the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mansur Billah appointed a member of the Kalbids dynasty, Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Kalbi, as First Emir of Sicily. The Kalbids ruled Sicily from 948 to 1053. Al-Mu'izz ibn Badis, fourth ruler of the Zirid dynasty Sanhaja dynasty in North Africa, attempted to annex the island for the Zirids, but his attempts failed. The new Arab rulers initiated land reforms, which in turn increased productivity and encouraged the growth of smallholdings, a dent to the dominance of the landed estates. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems through Qanats, introducing oranges, lemons, pistachio, and sugarcane to Sicily. Ibn Hawqal, a merchant who visited Sicily in 950, commented that a walled suburb called the Kasr (the palace) was the center of Palermo, with the great Friday mosque on the site of the later Roman Catholic cathedral. The suburb of Al-Khalisa (Kalsa) contained the Sultan's palace, baths, a mosque, government offices, and a private prison. Ibn Hawqual reckoned there were 7,000 individual butchers trading in 150 shops. By 1050, Palermo had a population of 350,000, making it one of the largest cities in Europe, behind Moorish-Spain's capital Córdoba and the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which had populations over 450–500,000. Palermo's population dropped to 150,000 under Norman rule. By 1330 Palermo's population had declined to 51,000, possibly due to the inhabitants of the region being deported to other regions of Norman Sicily, or to the Norman County of Apulia and Calabria. The local population conquered by the Muslims were Greek-speaking Byzantine Christians,Mendola, Louis, and Jacqueline Alio, The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy, Trinacria Editions LLC, 2014. page 168 "Until the arrival of the Arabs, the most widely spoken language in Sicily was a medieval dialect of Greek. Under the Arabs, Sicily became a polyglot community; some localities were more Greek-speaking while others were predominantly Arabic-speaking.” pages 141–142 “Mosques were constructed, often with the help of Byzantine craftsmen, and in Sicily the Church, formally under the Patriarchate of Constantinople from 732, remained solidly Greek Orthodox into the early years of Norman rule, when the beginnings of Latinization took place.” but there were also a significant number of Jews. Archived link: From Islam to Christianity: the Case of Sicily, Charles Dalli, page 153. In Religion, ritual and mythology : aspects of identity formation in Europe / edited by Joaquim Carvalho, 2006, . Christians and Jews were tolerated in Muslim Sicily as , and had to pay the Jizya poll tax, and Kharaj land tax, but were exempt from the Zakat alms-giving tax Muslims had to pay. Many Jews immigrated to Sicily during Muslim rule, but left after the Normans arrived.
In the 11th century, the mainland southern Italian powers were hiring Norman mercenaries, who were Christians descendants of the Vikings; it was the Normans under Roger I (of the Hauteville dynasty) who conquered Sicily from the Muslims over a period of thirty years until finally controlling the entire island by 1091 as the County of Sicily. In 1130, Roger II founded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily as an independent state with its own Parliament, language, schooling, army and currency, while the Sicilian culture evolved distinct traditions, clothing, linguistic changes, Sicilian cuisine and customs not found in mainland Italy.James Minahan, Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World A-Z, 2002 p.1714. A great number of families from northern Italy began settling in Sicily during this time, with some of their descendants forming distinct communities that survive to the present day, such as the Lombards of Sicily. Other migrants arrived from southern Italy, as well as Normandy, southern France, England and other parts of northern Europe.
The Siculo-Norman rule of the Hauteville dynasty continued until 1198, when Frederick II of Sicily, the son of a Siculo-Norman queen and a Swabian-German emperor ascended the throne. In fact, it was during the reign of this Hohenstaufen king Frederick II, that the poetic form known as a sonnet was invented by Giacomo da Lentini, the head Poet, Teacher and Notary of the Sicilian School. Frederick II was also responsible for the Muslim settlement of Lucera. His descendants governed Sicily until the Papal States invited a Capetian dynasty prince to take the throne, which led to a decade-and-a-half of French rule under Charles I of Sicily; he was later deposed in the War of the Sicilian Vespers against French rule, which put the daughter of Manfred of Sicily – Constance II and her husband Peter III of Aragon, a member of the House of Barcelona, on the throne. Their descendants ruled the Kingdom of Sicily until 1401. Following the Compromise of Caspe in 1412 the Sicilian throne passed to the Iberian monarchs from Aragon and Castile.
In the early medieval era, Sicily experienced the brief rule of Germanic peoples Vandals and Iranian peoples Alans during the Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans, while under Byzantine Empire, Saracen and Norman rule, there were Byzantine Greeks, Arabs and Normans. From the late medieval period into the modern era, Aragonese, Spaniards and French people ruled over and left a minor impact on the island, while Albanians settled and formed communities which still exist today known as the Arbereshe people.
About five million people live in Sicily, making it the fourth most populated region in Italy. However, in the first century after the Italian unification, Sicily had one of the most negative net migration rates among the regions of Italy because of millions of people moving to the Italian mainland and countries like Germany, Sweden, Belgium, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. Many Sicilian communities, including those formed by the descendants of the Sicilian migrants, are all over the world. It is estimated that the number of people of Sicilian descent in the world is more than six million. The most famous community is represented by the Sicilian Americans.
Like the other parts of Southern Italy, immigration to the island is relatively low compared to other regions of Italy because workers tend to head to Northern Italy instead, in search of better employment and industrial opportunities. The most recent ISTAT figures show around 175,000 immigrants out of the total of almost 5.1 million population (nearly 3.5% of the population) ; Romanians with more than 50,000 make up the most immigrants, followed by Tunisians, Moroccans, Sri Lankans, Albanians, and others mostly from Eastern Europe. As in the rest of Italy, the primary religion is Roman Catholicism (but with combined Latin & ) and the official language is Italian language; Sicilian is currently not a recognised language in Italy.
Overall, there are fifteen cities and towns with a population above 50,000 people, these are:
In the United States, the Sicilian-Americans are a large subset of Americans whose ancestors came from Sicily. This group is perhaps the largest part of the Sicilian diaspora.
The entire autochthonous population of Malta is of Sicilian origin, but the Maltese people generally do not consider themselves Sicilian due to centuries of cultural and geographical separation, and the fact that Maltese language evolved from Siculo-Arabic instead of Italo-Dalmatian like the modern Sicilian language.
The Norman Kingdom of Sicily was created in 1130, with Palermo as its capital, 70 years after the initial Norman invasion and 40 after the conquest of the last town, Noto in 1091, and would last until 1198. Today, it is in north-west Sicily, around Trapani, Palermo and Agrigento where Italo-Normans Y-DNA is the most common, with 8% to 20% of the lineages belonging to haplogroup I1. Ancient and medieval Greeks genetic paternal legacy is estimated at 37% in Sicily. Sicilians are of genetic origin, with modern genetic profiles that are closely similar to people who lived in the region of Magna Graecia during the Classical antiquity period, these people were a mix of Italic peoples Roman people and Greeks genetic ancestry. Sicilians closely resemble mainland Italians and Greeks genetically.
It is a misconception that Sicilians are of primarily Moors or otherwise African origin, and this fabrication has been entirely disproven by genetic analysis of Sicilian . The falsified myth that Sicilian DNA was of Moorish origin was fabricated by Anti-Italianism Xenophobia nativists from primarily anglophonic nations. Overall, the estimated Balkans and Northwestern European paternal contributions in Sicily are about 63% and 34% respectively.
A 2022 genome-wide study of more than 700 individuals from the South Mediterranean area (102 from Southern Italy), combined with ancient DNA from neighbouring areas, found high affinities of South-Eastern Italians with modern Eastern Peloponnese, and a closer affinity of ancient Greek genomes with those from specific regions of South Italy than modern Greek genomes. The study also discovered common genetic sources shared between South Italy and Peloponnese, which can be modeled as a mixture of Anatolian Neolithic and Iranian Chalcolithic ancestries.
Monnereau et al (2024) analyzed burials at the site of Segesta to investigate the interactions between Muslims and Christians communities during the Middle Ages in Sicily. The biomolecular and Isotopic results suggest the Christians remained genetically distinct from the Muslim community at Segesta while following a substantially similar diet. Based on these results, the authours suggest that the two communities at Segesta could have followed endogamy rules.
Sicilian was an early influence in the development of standard Italian, although its use remained confined to an intellectual elite. This was a literary language in Sicily created under the auspices of Frederick II and his court of notaries or Magna Curia which, headed by Giacomo da Lentini, also gave birth to the Sicilian School, widely inspired by troubadour literature. It is in this language that appeared the first sonnet, whose invention is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini himself. Sicilian was also the official language of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1300 to 1543.
Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Sicilian people spoke only Sicilian as their mother tongue, with little or no fluent knowledge of Italian. Today, although not officially recognized by the Italian Republic, the Sicilian language is described as "a stable indigenous language of Italy" by Ethnologue and is recognized as a minority language by UNESCO. It has also been identified as a language by the Sicilian Region. Even so, Italian continues to be the sole official language recognized by the Italian Republic and predominates in the public arena, being used as everyday language in the daily lives of many Sicilians.
The Siculo-Arabic dialect was a vernacular variety of Arabic once spoken in Sicily and neighbouring Malta between the end of the ninth century and the mid to late thirteenth century. The language became extinct in Sicily, but in Malta it eventually evolved into what is now the Maltese language.
The Siculish dialect is the macaronic "Sicilianization" of English language words and phrases by immigrants from Sicily to the United States in the early 20th century. Forms of Siculish are also to be found in other Sicilian immigrant communities of Anglosphere, namely Canada and Australia. A surprising similarity can often be found between these forms, through either coincidence, trans-national movements of Sicilian immigrants, or more likely, through the logical adaptation of English language using linguistic norms from the Sicilian language.
Sicilian Catholics
For Catholics in Sicily, the Hodegetria is the patroness of Sicily. The Sicilian people are also known for their deep devotion to some Sicilian female saints: the martyrs Agatha and Saint Lucy, who are the patron saints of Catania and Syracuse respectively, and the hermit Saint Rosalia, patroness of Palermo. Sicilian people have significantly contributed to the history of many religions. There have been four Sicilian (Pope Agatho, Leo II, Sergius I, and Stephen III) and a Sicilian Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Methodios I). Sicily is also mentioned in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, 28:11–13, in which Saint Paul briefly visits Sicily for three days before leaving the Island. It is believed he was the first Christian to ever set foot in Sicily.
Sicilian Muslims
During the period of Muslim rule, many Sicilians converted to Islam. Many Islamic scholars were born on the island, including Al-Maziri, a prominent jurist of the Maliki school of Sunni Islamic Law. Under the rule of Frederick II, all Muslims were expelled from the Island following a rebellion of local Saracens who wished to keep their local independence in Western Sicily but were not allowed to due to Pope Gregory IX's demands.N.Daniel: The Arabs; op cit; p.154.A.Lowe: The Barrier and the bridge, op cit;p.92.
In more recent years, many immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries like Pakistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia have arrived on Sicily. In 1980, Catania, a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, became home to Italy's first modern mosque. Also known as the Omar Mosque, it was financed by Libya.
Sicilian Jewish community
There is a legend that the Jews were first brought to Sicily as captive slaves in the 1st century after the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans. However, it is generally presumed that Sicily's Jewish population was ceded before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Rabbi Akiva visited the city of Syracuse during one of his trips abroad. Judaism in Sicily was the first monotheistic religion to appear on the Island. The Jewish Sicilian community remained until the Aragonese rulers' Queen Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, expelled them in the year 1493 with the Alhambra Decree. On 3 February 1740, the Neapolitan King Charles III – hailed as an Enlightenment King, issued a proclamation containing 37 paragraphs, in which Jews for the first time were formally invited to return to Sicily. However, the effort was generally unsuccessful.
The Sicilian Jewish community still has several active members and has made a limited recovery in recent years. In the year 2005, for the first time since the Expulsion, a Passover Seder was conducted in Sicily (in Palermo), held by a Milanese Rabbi. The Jewish community in Sicily is led in part by Rabbi Stefano Di Mauro, a Sicilian American descendant of Sicilian neofiti. He opened a small synagogue in 2008, but he has not yet set up a full-time Jewish congregation in Sicily. Services are held weekly on Shabbat and the High Holy Days. Also, Shavei Israel has expressed interest in helping to facilitate the return of the Sicilian Bnei Anusim to Judaism.
.137 Valenza, Giuseppe. ELAMITI ELIMIOTI ELIMI Il teatro genealogico degli Elimi nel crocevia del Mediterraneo. Prefazione Vaccarella, Ilaria.2022. ISBN 978-88-908854-2-6
/ref> The Sacred bull Moloch (a significant deity also mentioned in the Hebrew Bible), the Phoenician moon goddess of fertility and prosperity Astarte (with her Roman mythology equivalent being Venus), the Punic goddess Tanit,"This April, I spent a month in Western Sicily, where I discovered much evidence of worship of the Goddesses Tanit, Astarte and Venus/Aphrodite, as well as Demeter and Persephone. I visited an abundance of ancient sacred sites dedicated to the aforementioned goddesses during my stay in Sicily (para quote)"
/ref> and the Weather god & war god Baal (which later evolved into the Punic religion god Baal Hammon), as well as the Carthaginian chief god Baal Hammon, also had centres of cultic-worship throughout Sicily. The Anapo was viewed as the personification of the river god Anapus in Greek-Sicilian mythology. The Elymians inhabited the western parts of Sicily, while the Sicanians inhabited the central parts, and the Sicels inhabited the Eastern Sicily parts.Thucydides, His. VI,2,3,4. The World's Writing Systems. 1996:301.
Ancient history
From the 11th century BC, Phoenicians began to settle in western Sicily, having already started colonies on the nearby parts of maghreb and Malta. Sicily was later colonized and heavily settled by Greeks, beginning in the 8th century BC. Initially, this was restricted to the Eastern Sicily and southern parts of the island. As the Greek and Phoenician communities grew more populous and more powerful, the Sicels and Sicanians were pushed further into the centre of the island. The independent Phoenician colonial settlements were eventually absorbed by Carthage during the 6th century BC. By the 3rd century BC, Syracuse was the most populous City-state in the world. Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Ancient Greece itself, leading Classical Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous Sicilian Expedition against Syracuse in 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War, which ended up severely affecting a defeated Athens, both politically and economically, in the following years to come. Another battle which Syracuse took part in, this time under the Tyrant Hiero I of Syracuse, was the Battle of Cumae, where the combined navy of Syracuse and Cumae defeated an Etruscan force, resulting in significant territorial loses for the Etruscans. The Sicilian Wars between Ancient Carthage and the Magna Graecia eventually opened the door to an emerging Roman Republic. In the 3rd century BC, the Messina, caused by Mamertines mercenaries from Campania, when the city-states of Messina (Punics) and Syracuse (Dorians) were being constantly raided and pillaged by Mamertines, during the period (282–240 BC) when Central, Western and Northeast Sicily were put under Carthaginian rule, motivated the intervention of the Roman Republic into Sicilian affairs, and led to the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. By the end of the war in 242 BC, and with the death of Hiero II, all of Sicily except Syracuse was in Roman hands, becoming Rome's first province outside of the Italian peninsula. For the next 600 years, Sicily would be a province of the Roman Republic and later Roman Empire. Prior to Roman rule, there were three native Elymian towns by the names of Segesta, Eryx and Entella, as well as several Sicels towns called Agira, Caronia (founded by the Sicel leader Ducetius), Enna and Pantalica, and one town known as Thapsos. (Greek language: Θάψος)
Middle Ages
As the Roman Empire was falling apart, a Germanic peoples tribe known as the Vandals along with a Scythians tribe originating from the Pannonian Basin known as the Alans took over Sicily for a relatively brief period beginning in 440 AD under the rule of their king Geiseric, forming the Kingdom of the Vandals. The Vandals and Alans gained a monopoly on the Mediterranean grain trade during their monarchical reign, with all grain taxes being monitored by them. Due to the Western Roman Empire being too preoccupied with war in Gaul, when the Vandals & Alans started Invasion Sicily in 440, the Romans could not respond. Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II sent a failed expeditionary force to deal with them in 441, which ended in a Vandal-Alan counter-victory. However, they soon lost these newly acquired possessions, except for one toehold in Marsala, to Odoacer (an Arianism Barbarian statesman & general of possible East Germanic & Huns descent, and client king under Zeno whose reign over Italy marked the Fall of the Western Roman Empire) in 476 and completely to the Ostrogothic conquest of Sicily by Theodoric the Great which began in 488; although the Goths were Germanic peoples, Theodoric sought to revive Roman people culture and government and allowed freedom of religion. In contrast to the prior Carthaginian, Syracusan (Dorian) and Roman Empires which ruled Sicily in the past, Sicily did not serve as a distinct province or administrative region under Germanic control, although it did retain a certain amount of autonomy. The Gothic War took place between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantine Empire (with its capital-city based at Constantinople, modern Istanbul), and during the reign of Justinian I, Sicily was brought back under Greco-Roman rule under the military expeditions of Byzantine generals Belisarius and Narses, resulting in Medieval Greek and religion being embraced by the majority of the population. It was Syracuse where the Byzantine Emperor Constans II desired to move his capital in 663 AD, a decision which eventually led to his assassination. Sicily remained under autonomous stable Constantinople as the Theme/Province of Sicily (Theme (Byzantine district)) for several peaceful centuries, until an invasion by Arab Muslims (Aghlabids from the Banu Tamim) in the 9th century.
(1989). 9780853232162, University of Liverpool Press. ISBN 9780853232162 While Theophylact was still Exarch, Byzantine Emperor Justinian II seized all the leading citizens and officials of Ravenna at a local banquet, and dragged them abroad a ship to Constantinople. He sentenced all but one of the Ravennan captives to death, the exception being Archbishop Felix, who was permanently blinded instead.Described in great detail by Andreas Agnellus (chaps. 138–140), whose ancestor Johannicus was one of those carried off; Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis (translator and editor), The Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2004), pp.259–265. This was due to a recent rebellion which Ravenna took part in, in 695. Justinian II later sacked Ravenna, weakening the Exarchate in charge of it. Theophylact was not a victim of the catastrophe, but was the first Exarch to experience a weakened Ravenna. Theophylact possibly moved back to Sicily after he retired from the Exarchate in 709. Theophylact might have also been the Strategos of Sicily from 700 to 710. The Strategos of Sicily was also able to exercise some control over the autonomous duchies of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi, depending on the local political situation or faction at the time.
Modern and contemporary history
In 1735, the Spanish Empire ended when Charles V from the House of Bourbon was crowned king. For the better part of the next century-and-a-half, Sicily was in personal union with the other Southern Italian Kingdom of Naples, with the official residence located in Naples, under the Bourbon dynasty. After the Napoleonic Wars, King Ferdinand I, who had just recently been restored back to the throneship of Southern Italy in 1815, made a decision to administratively and politically merged the two separate Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, which ended up forming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816. In 1861, however, Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Italy as a result of the Risorgimento. Prior to the Risorgimento, the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia during the Expedition of the Thousand (led by general Giuseppe Garibaldi) in 1860, and subsequently brought under the monarchial realm of Sardinia. After the unification of Italy and the Fascism, a wave of Sicilian nationalism led to the adoption of the Statute of Sicily, under which the island has become an autonomous region. Since 1946, the island enjoys the most advanced special status of all the autonomous regions.
Demographics
Sicily has experienced the presence of a number of different cultures and ethnicities in its vast history, including the aboriginal peoples of differing ethnolinguistic origins (Sicani, Siculi and Elymians), Bruttians, Morgetes, Oenotrians, Phoenicians and Punics, Ancient Greeks (Magna Graecia), Mamertines, Roman people and Jews during the ancient history and classical periods.
Major settlements
In Sicily, there are three metropolitan areas:
Names and surnames
The most common Sicilian names are Giuseppe, Maria and Salvatore. The most common Sicilian surnames are Russo, Messina and Lombardo. I venti cognomi più diffusi in Sicilia – siciliafan.it
Russo Messina Lombardo Caruso Marino Rizzo Grasso Greco Romano Parisi Amato Puglisi La Rosa Costa Vitale Arena Pappalardo Bruno Catalano Randazzo
Diaspora
In 2008, the number of Sicilians abroad was well over 1 million. The countries in which they are most numerous on this date are: United States, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, France and Canada. The population of the Diaspora without including those in the United States is 629,114 individuals.
Genetics
Autosomal studies
Several studies involving whole genome analysis of mainland Italians and Sicilians have found that samples from Northern Italy, Southern Italy and Sicily belong to their own unique/distinct separate clusters, while a genetic gap is filled by an intermediate Central Italy cluster, creating a continuous cline of variation that mirrors geography. Genetically, Sicilians cluster the closest to other Southern Italy, and especially to . Other studies have also demonstrated that the population of Sicily is genetically very similar to that of Malta, and to Greeks ethnic group from the Ionian Islands, the Aegean Islands, Crete and the Peloponnese while the rest of mainland Greece appears as slightly differentiated, by clustering with the other Balkans populations such as Albanians of Albania, Kosovo and the Arbëreshë people.Anthropological Review | Volume 81: Issue 3
/ref>"By principal component analysis (PCA) and ADMIXTURE analysis the 'Peloponnesians' are clearly distinguishable from the populations of the Slavic & Balkan homeland, and are very similar to 'Sicilians' and Southern Italians."
/ref>
mtDNA and Y-DNA studies
According to one study, Y-DNA haplogroups were found at the following frequencies in Sicily:
R1 (36.76%), J (29.65%), E1b1b (18.21%), I (7.62%), G (5.93%), T (5.51%), Q (2.54%). R1 and I haplogroups are typical in Western Europe and Northern Europe populations while J, T, G, Q and E1b1b (and their various ) consist of lineages with differential distribution across Europe and the Mediterranean. The five main MtDNA haplogroups present in Sicily are haplogroups H, K, X, W and U, which are also the five most commonly found MtDNA-haplogroups in Europe and the Caucasus.
mtDNA 5% HV 45,2% H 2,3% HV0+V 6,7% J 7,1% T 10% U* 6,3% K 6% N1+I 1% N2+W 3,7% X 6,7% Other
Paleogenetics
Fernandes et al. (2019), The Arrival of Steppe and Iranian Related Ancestry in the Islands of the Western Mediterranean, found that in Sicily, Western Steppe Herders ancestry arrived by ~2200 BCE and likely came at least in part from Spain. 4 of the 5 Early Bronze Age Sicilian males had Steppe-associated Y-haplogroup R1b1a1a2a1a2 (R-P312). Two of these were Y-haplogroup R1b1a1a2a1a2a1 (Z195) which today is largely restricted to Iberia and has been hypothesized to have originated there 2500–2000 BCE.
Culture
Languages
Today in Sicily most people are bilingual and speak both Italian language and Sicilian, a distinct Romance language. Many Sicilian words are of Greek language origin, while smaller numbers of other are from Norman language, Arabic language, Catalan language, Occitan language, Spanish language and other languages. Other dialects of Sicilian, or those very closely related to it, are also spoken in southern Calabria, Salentino and Lower Cilentano.
Ethno-linguistic minorities
There are two main historical Ethnolinguistics minorities in Sicily, the Lombards of Sicily and the Arbëreshë:
Religion
Historically, Sicily has been home to many religions, including Islam, , Judaism, Classical Paganism, Punic religion, and Byzantine Orthodoxy, the coexistence of which has been historically seen as an ideal example of religious multiculturalism. Most Sicilians today are baptized as Catholic. Catholicism and Latinization in Sicily originated from the islands Norman occupiers and forced conversion continued under the Spanish invaders, where the majority of Sicily's population were forced to convert from their former religions. Despite the historical push for Catholicism in Sicily, a minority of other religious communities thrive in Sicily.
David Abulafia (1988). 071399004X, Allen Lane. 071399004X Any remaining Muslim was eventually expelled by the Spanish inquisition.
Art and architecture
Cuisine
Gallery
See also
External links
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