By Alexander Borg
This is Alex Borg from Malta. I'm a technical writer at the Management Systems Unit, a Government agency. I've only just returned to the island after over ten years in Italy.
Actually I am myself half Italian since my mother hails from Recanati, the place where Italy's foremost bard was born and raised -- Giacomo Leopardi. My other half is proudly Maltese, but I cannot boast any connections as poetic as the other. But I suppose I can claim the legacy of those brave but desperate corsairs Toni Bajada and Juan Azzopardo who sailed and fought under the glorious but none too gentle flag of the Order of St John.
My interest are prevalently Mediterranean which is where my identity takes its shape with its rich motley of customs, beliefs, heritage and, not least, the countless contradictions. Hence "Ni Italien, ni anglais et ni arabe" as was stated staunchly at some conference on linguistics and identity by the Maltese scholars in the wake of Maltese independence and our reassertion of a distinct socio-cultural identity.
So my interests range from Mediterrean cuisine to politics, from jazz to an ethnic mix of rearranged traditional music, from the history of the one time Serene Republic of Venetia, where my wife comes from, to the history of piracy in Malta.
In a nutshell, Mediterranean is beautiful.
But the object of my writing to you is to make a little remark about your "Malta through the ages" page. I think it needs a little update. What we have been taught in our old mouldy Gateway to Maltese History text books is none other than the precipitation of our tendency to romanticise our past, especially our fervent Christian beliefs. This has been the result of our inability to admit an Islamic and Arabo-Berber past. Indeed it was too embarassing for Catholic Malta, Malta of the Knights of St John, the Malta who rebelled against the French for having robbed our churches to admit such a blatant factual reality.
Count Roger did not liberate Malta. Count Roger pillaged the island and went off with a few slaves, possibly Christian. The Arabs stayed, and only in Fredick's time (Swabian king of Siciliy) - around 1220/30 did they lose their political and cultural hold on the island. The Maltese then were either nearly all moslems (look at our surnames, placenames, language and the fragments of our collective unconscious that have filtered down to our day-to-day customs); actually the few who weren't were Christian slaves from other lands. Apparently Arabo-Berber influence lasted till as late as the 14th century where names such as Mohammed still appear among the local militia.
But before I get carried away by my interest in Maltese history I would like to refer you to historians like Brincat, Wettinger and Luttrel who wrote extensively about the Medieval period. Unfortunately much still needs to revealed about this era. More sources have to researched, especially new ones. Ours have always relied nearly exclusively on the European ones which intrinsically tend to be biased because they would want to glorify their impact on history. So by searching other nevertheless not unbiased sources we can perhaps strike a balance. Brincat has published a very compelling pamphlet about a new version of medieval Maltese history. The book is called Al Himyari's Account. He has researched some interesting sources: famous Arab Medieval geographers and historians like Al Idrisi and Al Himyari. If his theory is proved right we may well rewrite our Medieval history afresh. Apparently Malta was left abandoned in about 890 AD and then recolonised in about 1020/30 by the Arabs from neighbouring Sicily. Paradoxically, Arabo-Berber flourished from this date onwards for another two centuries.
Ultimately, the bottom line is that we must stop shying away from reality and admit what the Spandiards and Sicilians already do. That having had an Arabo-Berber past should not be a cause for embarrassment (Islamic fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon); on the contrary it makes us an infinitely richer nation. Remember we owe the Arabs a turn: Algebra, Geometry, citrus fruits, irrigational techniques, their translation and interpretation of the Greek Classics and Philosophy and myriads of other innovations. Above all in a time when Europe was going through its darkest periods, their Caliphates in Iraq, Spain, Sicily and Syria were hotbeds of art, culture and learning.
E-mailto Alexander Borg.