Medieval Islamic Sicily ate pork, study finds
Despite pork being forbidden in Islamic dietary law, a study found evidence that it was consumed in the rural areas of Sicily while the island was under Muslim rule in the Middle Ages.
Brown pig (photo credit: ING IMAGE/ASAP)
Despite the strict dietary restrictions of Islam and its view of pigs as dirty and unholy animals, non-Muslims living under Muslim rule in Sicily during the Middle Ages still found time to pig out on some pork, according to one study.
During
the parts of the Middle Ages, Sicily was under Islamic rule, with the
largest island in the Mediterranean being seized from the Byzantine
Empire and incorporated into dar al-Islam, the countries ruled by
Muslims. The Emirate of Sicily was under the control of Ifriqiya and
then the Fatimid Caliphate before it was eventually conquered by the
Normans in 1091. However, Muslims remained a majority on the island
until the 13th century.
With
such a major Muslim presence for four centuries, one might think that
the agricultural and culinary habits on the island would have been
influenced. And evidence does show this, as the study, published in the
online academic journal PLOS ONE, does note the introduction of Islamic agricultural innovations, resources and techniques.
But
it wasn't just Muslims living there. Throughout the centuries,
Christian and Jewish communities lived side by side with their Muslim
neighbors. While this is far from unprecedented in the Islamic world,
which frequently had Christians and Jews, recognized as "People of the
Book," living in its countries, Sicily was especially pluralistic, and
its central location in the Mediterranean made it an important
commercial hub.
And
while residents of major cities like Palmero were found to abide by
Islamic dietary laws, those in rural areas were another story.
A
chemical analysis of food residue on ceramics and cooking pots in
Sicily conducted by the study's lead author, University of York's Dr.
Jasmine Lundy, found that those living in rural areas of Sicily ate
"pigs, dairy products and grapes."
The
presence of pig consumption isn't entirely unexpected. After all, wine
was frequently brought and traded in Islamic Sicily despite being banned
in Islamic law. However, the question of whether Muslim farmers in
rural Sicily kept secret pig farms is something raised by this study.
It is possible, too, that Muslim farmers kept pig farms without
consuming any pigs. This happened in Morocco in the early 2000s, when pig farming began to spike among Moroccan farmers
to help the country's tourism industry. Indeed, while many countries in
the Middle East today ban pig farming – such as Algeria, Libya and
Israel – the practice remains legal in others, like Morocco and Tunisia.
The study is one of several recent looks into the religious dietary habits in the medieval period.
Recent studies regarding medieval England found that Jews at the time kept kosher,
refraining from eating pigs and shellfish, despite evidence suggesting
they frequented the same food markets as their Christian neighbors.
By contrast, recent studies have found that kashrut laws, particularly regarding fish, were not strictly observed in ancient Judea.
A recent Israeli study found that the consumption of non-kosher fish –
specifically catfish and sharks – was very common up until and including
the Persian period (586 BCE-332 BCE).
However,
there seems to be significant support for the fact that despite eating
non-kosher fish, ancient Jews, too, refrained from eating pork.
Rossella Tercatin and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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