Chewing the CHOGM
CHOGM and the Queen’s visit rekindled Malta’s ties with its former master, the last one in a long line that goes back thousands of years.
The Times took the cue to launch an online poll about whether the British should apologise for sending a group of Maltese pro-Italians to Uganda during World War II. This group included Nationalist Party leader Nerik Mizzi and other leading politicians.
Their only fault was that they supported and Italianised Malta, and unfortunately for them Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini who wanted to turn the Mediterranean into an Italian lake just like classical Roman times. Instead of Pax Romana he got the British fighting back, with Malta in the thick of it.
Where these Maltese true Maltese lovers of the patria just like the Maltese who saw their lives tied to and not severed from the British colonisers? Would you have thought of yourself as a traitor is you were to use torches at night to lead Italian bombers over Malta?
A similar thing has happened 140 years earlier. Some Maltese, disgruntled by the decadent Knights of the Order of St. John, helped the French in gaining possession of Malta. They did it because they believed in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in Malta. Would they have done the same if they knew that the price for this would be a rebellion from the Maltese who valued their Catholic beliefs more than the profane French revolutionary ideals?
Mikiel Anton Vassalli shared the French ideals and got his name in the black book of the Maltese Catholic Church. He paid the ultimate price, having to work for English Protestants to get some money and being buried not according to Catholic rites. Yet today he is regarded as one of the fathers of the Maltese language, one who was proud of his native tongue, and one who dreamt of a Maltese republic 200 years before it become a reality.
Dun Mikiel Xerri did not share Vassalli’s ideals. On the contrary, he fought the French and died in the process, killed by a French firing squad after an ill-fated attempt to seize Valletta. Yet he died for his country, a hero for many, and his fate recalled in many a school history text book.
But can we have two figures with divided and opposing loyalties, in the broad sense, being Maltese patriots at the same time?
Let’s go many more centuries back. The myth persists, but it’s historically proven that Malta’s Christianity does not date back to St. Paul for there is an interruption of several hundred years when Malta was taken by the Tunisian Arabs.
Scholars say a bloody battle saw Malta fall under the Arabs in 870 AD and then it remained uninhabited for a time until it was colonised by Tunisian immigrants. With time, these Tunisian migrants became Maltese for they lived and died in Malta. So much so Count Roger’s raid (not liberation) of Malta in 1091 did not free Maltese Christians, for there is no mention of them in the report of Count Roger’s chronicler Malaterra, but Christian 'captivi' (prisoners).
Maltese turned, slowly, back to the Christian fold, and from then on became an ardent bastion of Catholicism in the ‘infidel’-infested Mediterranean. So the next time someone makes a reference to the negative olfactory stimulation of stuck-up Maltese noses by Arabs in Malta should not forget that some 1,000 years ago the Maltese WERE Arabs.
To cut it short, if you get soaked in rain and wait to wave to the passing British monarch you’re no better or worse Maltese. Maybe nothing more than a curious Maltese. Just as I would not mind getting soaked in the rain just to watch Manchester United play. Or would I?
posted by Martin Debattista at 11/25/2005 10:44:00 AM
Can you refer to anything but your assumption that when the Arabs from Tunisia 'won' Malta, then it was uninhabited for "a while". Where did you get this from? What, they killed everyone that was on Malta at the time? And then came back later? And then they decided to become Christian? Why? This does not make sense my friend.
Dear anonymous,
Read Godfrey Wettinger, Anthony Luttrell and other decent Maltese historians not sponsored by the Maltese Church and you will have written and archeological proof. We are not 100% certain yet, but the little evidence we have does not indicate there were Maltese Christians under Arab rule.
After the Tunisians conquered Malta, with the local population being decimated in the process, the Maltese Islands were uninhabited. The Islands were used as a refuge and for re-supply of water. Later they were slowly re-populated with Tunisian immigrants. By time, after the son of Count Roger regained full control of the Maltese Islands in 1127 AD, many converted again to Christianity and the renewed ties with Christian Sicily put the Islands again under Christian influence.
The above story is just the surface history, or what was happening in the upper ranks or what Braudel would call the History of Political Events and school-history -exam dates. However, there are other, albeit more important layers of history mostly associated with socio-economic and geographic factors, that are often forgotten by the historians, just as much as CNN and the BBC today feed us a lot of what's up with Bush, Saddam, Sharon and the lot, but the real ppl on the ground may have much deeper and more realistic stories to tell. Indeed, after the Islamic onslaught, Malta never really got completely uninhabited as there were numerous troglodyte communities (still existent up to relatively recent times) who escaped to the various cave settlements that dotted the remotest parts of the Islands during the fury of the battles in the towns and villages. These villagers continued the ancient original Maltese ancestral lines (probably dating back to the Phoenicians and perhaps even further back to the great Maltese temple builders). Most of the Arabs that settled in Malta were in fact "Siculis" (the Arabs that had already invaded Sicily and got mixed racially as well as linguistically with the original Magna-Graetian inhabitants of this much larger island) - so much so that the Semitic element of the modern Maltese language is what remains of the Arabic dialect of Sicily, or as it was then known: "Siqali." (Sicilians are now trying to dig deep and filter it back after various waves of Italianisation nearly eroded completely their Siqali element). After the re-Europisation of Malta following the Norman conquest, the Maltese Islands saw a massive immigration from European "countries", mostly Sicilians and Southern Italians, but also Norman French, Aragonese, etc. Some Arabs who survived the fighting and slavery did stay on but they were far in between and mostly "harmless" women who nursed the children and thus ensured a continuity of the Semitic tongue in the homes (overlaying the previous Semitic remnants of the pre-Arab families). As Martin says, these eventually became Christians to avoid complete marginalisation within the new order, but the great majority of the ancestors of the present Maltese population were the new arrivals from the European mainland. Together with these, throughout the centuries that ensued, thousands of others made Malta their home. In 1530 alone, between 4,000 and 5,000 Greeks escaping the Turkish domination of Rhodes entered Malta with the Knights and eventually mingled with the Maltese population (all those still bearing the surname Grech are their descendants as, in order to simplify matters, all Greeks in Malta were dubbed "Greco" for notarial purposes, which was later on Anglicised into "Grech"). The flow of Italian colonists continued unabated (mostly merchants and craftsmen finding their "terra promessa" under the prosperous patronship of the Knights.) Energetic, hardworking, bursting with new ideas, quickwitted, adventurous, resourceful, crafty and at times wretched survivors, these hardened settlers set the characteristics for which their Maltese descendants are still notorious nowadays particularly in the great semi-circle around the Harbours where more than half the population of Malta lives. Being mostly single males, they found their love amongst the local women and thus integrated wholesomely in the Maltese population and multiplied, thus bringing about the majority of Italian surnames still dominating the Maltacom directory today): the Semitic "Tfajla" and then "Omm" with the Latin "Guvni" and then "Missier." As if the Maltese melting pot wasn't rich enough already, the British period brought in a totally new element, as a steady trickle of English, Scottish and Irish blood - again mostly male and this time of seaman stock - was the latest of a long series of genetic elements penetrating the Maltese population.
The very identity of the Maltese nation and people lies squarely on this mixed genetic and cultural jigsaw that make the inhabitants of those small Islands truly unique: not Italians, not Arabs, not British,... but Maltese.
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