Michele Amari

Michele Amari (7 July 1806 – 16 July 1889) was an Italian patriot and historian.

Michele Amari
Michele Amari
Born(1806-07-07)7 July 1806
Palermo
Died16 July 1889(1889-07-16) (aged 83)
Florence
OccupationSicilian historian and orientalist

Biography

Born at Palermo son of Ferdinando and Giulia Venturelli, he devoted a great part of his life to the history of Sicily. Amari was also an Orientalist, who investigated the true character of the Sicilian Vespers. He also served as the Italy's first minister of public education.

Amari became an important figure during the Risorgimento. A liberal republican and carbonarist, who after the fall of Joachim Murat supported Sicilian secession. He became a link between Prime Minister Camillo Benso di Cavour and influential Sicilians, helping to convince them to support Italian unification. Amari did so expecting Cavour to grant Sicily some regional autonomy after unification.

He died at Florence in 1889.

Works

Amari's historical works focus on Medieval Sicilian history, including extensive works on the period of Muslim control. His efforts have earned him acknowledgment as one of 19th century Europe's premier translators of Medieval Arabic writings. His Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia (History of the Muslims of Sicily, 1854) has been translated into many languages, including Arabic by a group of Egyptian scholars in 2004.

His translation from an Arabic manuscript of a mirror for princes text, including a biography of its author, the medieval Sicilian Arab Ibn Zafar al Siqilli, was published in 1851. Richard Bentley translated Amari's Italian translation of this 12th century work by the so-called " Machiavelli precursor" into English and published it under the title Solwan, or Waters of Comfort in 1852.[1][2]

References
  1. Amari, Michele Solwan, or Waters of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, Vol.1
  2. Amari, Michele Solwan, or Waters of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, Vol.2

Sources
  • Carteggio di Michele Amari, by Michele Amari (Roux Frassati, 1896)
  • Cavour and Garibaldi, 1860: A Study in Political Conflict, by Denis Mack Smith (Cambridge University Press, 1954)
  • Diari e appunti autobiografici inediti, by Michele Amari (Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1981)
  • "Le idee politiche di Michele Amari", by Bianca Marcolongo in Documenti per servire alla storia di Sicilia, ed. Andrea Borruso, Rosa D'Angelo, and Rosa Scaglione Guccione (Societa Siciliana per la Storia Patria, 1991)
  • Modern Italy: A Political History, by Denis Mack Smith (Yale University, 1997)

Works
  • La Guerra del Vespro Siciliano (1876) vol.1; History of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1850) vol.2
  • Solwan; Or, Waters of Comfort by Ibn Zafer, (1852); vol.1; vol.2
  • Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, (1854); vol.1; vol.2
  • Biblioteca Arabo-sicula (1880) vol.1,vol.2
  • Un Periodo delle Istorie Siciliane del Secolo 13 (1842)


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