Nasreddin. This is a long article because Nasreddin really is a big deal, all over the Middle East, Central Asia, and in South Asia too! It says that the oldest Nasreddin story manuscript dates to the sixteenth century, though of course the stories are older than that. Anyway, that suits my purposes very nicely because I am combining Nasruddin with Birbal and Tenali Raman, both of whom also date to the sixteenth century. Not that I am striving to be historical, but I am still glad that it's not completely random to combine these three trickster figures.
In Arabic, Nasreddin is conflated with a folk hero named Joha or Juha, which led me to the Sicilian version:
Giufà. The conflation of local Sicilian legends with the Arabic legends about Juha probably took place during the period of Islamic rule of Sicily, which is where I went next:
Emirate of Sicily. The emirate, with its capital at Palermo, lasted from 831 (following the first Muslim incursions in 652) until 1091, when Christian Norman mercenaries conquered the last city held by Muslims on the island. Muslims were a majority of the population until the 13th century when they were forced either to convert or to leave in 1240.
And this led me to look up another Italian emirate:
Emirate of Bari. This was a Berber state on the Italian coast. I knew about Muslim Sicily, but this was new to me! It didn't last long, just 847 to 871, and Wikipedia says that was the longest episode of Muslim rule on the Italian mainland.
I also looked at this: Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture, which Wikipedia defines as follows: "the interaction of the Norman, Latin, Arab and Byzantine Greek cultures following the Norman conquest of Sicily and of Norman Africa from 1061 to around 1250." I didn't know anything at all about Norman Africa, so this was really interesting to read about! The article discusses science, the arts, and architecture; here's a church in Palermo built with Gothic walls and Islamic domes: San Giovanni degli Eremiti.
at Court of Roger II in Sicily
(12th century)
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