Lecture Access

This lecture will be available to view until 7 September 2026

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OVERVIEW

Watch on Demand | Online Lecture


Centuries ago, Palermo echoed with the calls from around three hundred mosques, highlighting its significance as Balarm, the administrative and cultural hub of Islamic Sicily.

The Aghlabid conquest in the ninth century integrated western Sicily into the Islamic Mediterranean sphere, transforming the region with new governance, agricultural practices, educational advancements, and urban development.

Palermo developed into an elegant city characterised by gardens, bustling markets, and neighbourhoods centred around water management and commerce. Although eastern Sicily continued to experience greater political instability, the western part of the island more thoroughly integrated these influences, which can still be seen today in Palermo’s street patterns, artistic styles, and place names like La Kalsa.

Rather than a simple story of domination, this period reveals a society marked by accommodation and exchange. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities interacted within shared legal, economic, and civic frameworks, even as authority shifted over time.

In this lecture, Dr Eireann Marshall situates Islamic Palermo within the wider Mediterranean world, exploring how cultural transfer and coexistence shaped the city after the end of Muslim rule.

LECTURER

Biography

Eireann is an Honorary Research Associate and Associate Lecturer with The Open University. Raised in the Veneto and educated at Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Universities of Birmingham and Exeter, she brings a rich international perspective to classical civilisation. With extensive experience as a lecturer and tour leader across Italy, Tunisia, Sicily and beyond including Venice, Pompeii and Ravenna – Eireann is bilingual in English and Italian, and combines scholarly rigour with engaging storytelling. Her lectures for Academy Travel invite listeners to explore the ancient world not just as history but as a living dialogue between past and present – bringing monuments, art and ideas vividly to life.

Dr Eireann Marshall

Classicist & Historian