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The Muslim settlement of Lucera was the result of the decision of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194–1250) to move 20,000 Sicilian Muslims to Lucera, a settlement in Apulia in southern Italy. The settlement thrived for about 75 years. In 1300, it was sacked by the Christian forces of Charles II of Naples and its Muslim inhabitants were exiled or sold into slavery.〔 ==Antecedents== The Sicilian territories inherited by Frederick II from his mother Constance of Sicily carried with them not only authority over the Roman Catholic majority of the island, but also over significant numbers of Greeks, Jews and Muslims. The Muslims of the ''regno'' were a heterogeneous community, that included Arabs (concentrated particularly in the triangle made by Mazara del Vallo-Monreale-Corleone), Berbers (settled mostly in Agrigento and in its province), small groups of Persians (amongst them, in particular, the Khwarizmi community of Palermo), and a sizable number of local people who had converted to Islam during the Muslim rule in Sicily. Frederick’s accession to the throne did not bring social and religious peace to Sicily. The terrain of the island favoured in fact the resistance action of groups of Muslims, hoping to restore the dominion of Islam in what in Arabic had initially been called ''Al-ard al-Kabira'', the "Great Land", and then, simply, Siqilliyya. The more stubborn Muslim groups had found bases for resistance in central and western Sicily, around Iato and Entella. In Entella the resistance was led by a Muslim woman recorded in the contemporary Christian chronicles as the “Virago of Entella”.〔Lévi-Provençal, É.: "Une héroine de la resistance musulmane en Sicile au début du XIIIe siècle", in "Oriente Moderno", XXXIV, 1954, pp. 283–288.〕 As a consequence, after most of the affluent and powerful Muslims had returned to North Africa, in 1220 Frederick II determined to expel the remaining Muslims from Sicily, or at least the less docile groups amongst them, who constituted the essential remaining leadership of the Muslim community, the notables, the scholars and the warriors with their families, and resettle them in the southern Italian mainland. The localities of Lucera (in Apulia, dating from 1224), Girofalco (now Girifalco, in Calabria) and Acerenza (in Lucania) were chosen for the resettlement. Smaller groups of Sicilian Muslims were also deported to the localities of Stornara, Casal Monte Saraceno and Castel Saraceno as well as to Campania.〔(Tonino Del Duca: "Origine, vita e distruzione della colonia saracena di Lucera" ) (pdf file)〕 The total population of these Muslim communities has been estimated by most modern scholars at around 60,000 individuals, judging from the community's ability to supply the Kings of Sicily a theoretical military contingent of around 14–15,000 men strong, of which 7–10,000, as reported by contemporary sources, were effectively employable on the battlefield at Cortenuova.〔("Giovanni Amatuccio: Saracen Archers in Southern Italy" )〕 These troops, most of them lightly armed archers and many also trained in the use of the sling,〔The so-called "shepherd's sling" was still largely employed by the saracens of Lucera but the "staff sling" () was now their more characteristic sling weapon for military purposes, a weapon largely employed by all muslim forces around the Mediterranean.〕 constituted the faithful personal bodyguard of the Hohenstaufens, since they had no connection to the political rivals of the "House of Swabia" and were ready to wage war—ferociously even for the contemporary standards—on the local populations, and depended entirely on their sovereign. In 1239 the Emperor Frederick II ordered the concentration of the Saracen communities in Lucera and Apulia, a command that was substantially enforced. By 1240 the resettlements had taken place, with 20,000 Muslims settled in Lucera, 30,000 in other nearby parts of Apulia and the remaining 10,000 who would have been placed in communities outside Apulia. In this controlled environment, they could not challenge royal authority and still benefited the crown with taxes and military service. In Lucera (''Lucaera Saracenorum'' or ''Lugêrah'' as it was known in Arabic), the de facto political and cultural capital of these Islamic communities and also an important royal residence of the Swabian rulers, 20,000 Sicilian Muslims lived for approximately 80 years, till 1300, when their community was dispersed by order of the new Angevin monarch Charles II of Naples. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Muslim settlement of Lucera」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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