Political Martyrdom and Religious Censorship in Islamic Sicily : a Case Study During the Age of Ibrahim II (261-289/875-902)

At the end of Sicily's Islamic period, the Mālikī juridical school was firmly rooted and documented in the island; but like many aspects of the cultural life of the island during the Islamic Age, the historical process that led to this situation is yet to be clarified. The present study aims to contribute by providing a historical context for a passage of the Kitāb al-mihan, a book of Islamic martyrology written by Abū l-'Arab Muhammad al-Tamīmī (d. 333/945), which until now has been overlooked by every study - both old and new - on Islamic Sicily. The works relates how a judge living and working in Sicily, Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tā'ī, known as Ibn al-Majjānī, was imprisoned and tortured at the behest of Ibrāhīm II (261-289/875-902), the Aghlabid sovereign who has been of most interest to historians. Other than establishing a plausible date for the event (275/888-889), the article analyses the historical role of places and people, placing the 'martyrdom' of Ibn al-Majjānī in the context of the political repression exerted by Ibrāhīm II following the episode of Ibn Tālib (d. 275/888-889) and the subsequent religious censorship imposed by the Aghlabid at the expense of the Mālikī élites in Ifrīqiya and, perhaps also, in the nearby wilāya of Sicily.