A Mosque and a Castle: The Discovery of the Salemi Mosque

Summary

In the summer of 2007 an elaborate, colonnaded gypsum-plaster floor was discovered outside of the Salemi Castle in western Sicily. Believed to date sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries, this feature was constructed during a period when the island of Sicily was repeatedly invaded and conquered by a series of expanding political entities. As such, interpretation of this feature has proved to be somewhat difficult. However, its orientation in an eastward direction may suggest that this structure was used as a mosque, possibly associated with an Islamic hilltop fortification similar to the hisn of medieval Iberia. In this presentation, we discuss both architectural and spatial evidence that suggests this find is comparable to other identified mosques found around the Mediterranean, and particularly those found across Sicily.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20052