Michele Amari (7 July 1806 – 16 July 1889) was a Sicilian patriot, historian and orientalist.

Biography

Born at

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its ...

son of Ferdinando and Giulia Venturelli, he devoted a great part of his life to the history of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. Amari was also an Orientalist, who investigated the true character of the

Sicilian Vespers The Sicilian Vespers ( it, Vespri siciliani; scn, Vespiri siciliani) was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou, who had ruled the Kingdom of ...

. He also served as the

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

's first minister of public education. Amari became an important figure during the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. A liberal republican and

carbonari The Carbonari () was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay and Ru ...

st, who after the fall of

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

supported Sicilian secession. He became a link between Prime Minister

Camillo Benso di Cavour Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (, 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as Cavour ( , ), was an Italian politician, Businessperson, businessman, economist and nobility, noble, and a leading f ...

and influential Sicilians, helping to convince them to support

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. Amari did so expecting Cavour to grant Sicily some regional autonomy after unification. He died at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

in 1889.

Literary Works

Amari's historical works focus on Medieval Sicilian history, including extensive works on the period of

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

control. He viewed the arrival of the

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

as a positive development in that it freed Sicily from Byzantine civilization that for nearly three centuries had reduced the island, through excessive taxation, to a poor and under productive Island. And linked much of modern cultural traditions and elements of Sicilian society to the Islamic rule of Sicily. His efforts have earned him acknowledgment as one of 19th century Europe's premier translators of Medieval

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

writings. His ''Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia'' (History of the Muslims of Sicily, 1854) has been translated into many languages, including Arabic by a group of Egyptian scholars in 2004. His translation from an Arabic manuscript of a

mirror for princes Mirrors for princes ( la, specula principum) or mirrors of princes, are an educational literary genre, in a loose sense of the word, of political writings during the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, the late middle ages and the Renaissance. ...

text, including a biography of its author, the medieval Sicilian Arab

Ibn Zafar al Siqilli Hujjat al-Din Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Abi Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Zafar al-Siqilli ( ar, حجة الدين أبو عبد الله محمد بن أبي محمد بن محمد بن ظفر الصقلي, Ḥujjat al-Dīn Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥ ...

, was published in 1851. Richard Bentley translated Amari's Italian translation of this 12th century work by the so-called " Machiavelli precursor" into English and published it under the title ''Solwan, or Waters of Comfort'' in 1852. Amari, Michele ''Solwan, or Waters of Comfort by Ibn Zafer'', Vol.2.

Oriental Studies

Considered the founder of the modern organization of

Oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern stu ...

, he was a scholar of Muslim Sicily and

, and author of various literary works of international importance. Rationalist and positivist, he was endowed with a very strong ethical breath, all inspired by

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...

and "civil virtues", completely insensitive to religious tensions. His magisterium has been used by all historians of Islam of later age and, in Italy, Leone Caetani, Francesco Gabrieli,

Umberto Rizzitano Umberto Rizzitano was an Italian academic, known for reviving Arab-Islamic studies in the University of Palermo and Sicily, neglected since the death of Michele Amari. Life Rizzitano was born in Egypt, where his family (of Sicilian orig ...

and Paolo Minganti. The Professor Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer, of the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

, in publishing two supplements to ''the Arab-Sicula Library,'' called Michele Amari "''The regenerator of Orientalist studies among his compatriots."''

References

Sources

*''Carteggio di Michele Amari'', by Michele Amari (Roux Frassati, 1896) *''Cavour and Garibaldi, 1860: A Study in Political Conflict'', by

Denis Mack Smith Denis Mack Smith CBE FBA FRSL (3 March 1920 – 11 July 2017) was an English historian who specialized in the history of Italy from the Risorgimento onwards. He is best known for his biographies of Garibaldi, Cavour and Mussolini, and for hi ...

(Cambridge University Press, 1954) *''Diari e appunti autobiografici inediti'', by Michele Amari (Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1981) *"Le idee politiche di Michele Amari", by Bianca Marcolongo in ''Documenti per servire alla storia di Sicilia,'' ed. Andrea Borruso, Rosa D'Angelo, and Rosa Scaglione Guccione (Societa Siciliana per la Storia Patria, 1991) *''Modern Italy: A Political History'', by

(Yale University, 1997)

Works

*La Guerra del Vespro Siciliano (1876
vol.1
''History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers'' (1850
vol.2
*Solwan; Or, Waters of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, (1852)
vol.1vol.2
*Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, (1854);
vol.1
*Biblioteca Arabo-sicula (1880
vol.1vol.2
*Un Periodo delle Istorie Siciliane del Secolo 13 (1842

External links

A short biography
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amari 1806 births 1889 deaths Writers from Palermo 19th-century Italian historians Italian Arabists Italian orientalists Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Education ministers of Italy Burials at San Domenico, Palermo Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Sardinia Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Sicily Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities