Ius Regni: multiculturalismo giuridico e modelli di interazione normativa nella Sicilia normanna e sveva

Abstract

Multiculturalism is the main focus of the most recent historical studies on Norman Sicily. The famous 'Arab-Norman' monuments and the multilingual (Latin-Greek-Arabic) documents of the XI-XIIth centuries are the material witnesses of this syncretism. Encounter between cultures - Latin, Greek, Arabic - is structured in Sicily through complex mechanisms of integration and mutual acculturation. The legal interaction between different cultures is of course at the core of this complex phenomenon. This essay analyzes the dimension of multiculturalism and multinormativism, focusing on the various meanings of customs in Muslim, Norman and Swabian Sicily, and their relation with the rulers' statutes.