224 Haug
had been defeated in 1016 by the combined fleets of the then-allied maritime
republics of Pisa and Genoa.20 One of the oldest Pisan chronicles recorded
this campaign, just as in the famous naval victory inscription on the facade of
Pisa Cathedral, although this time without mentioning the abduction of the
queen of Mallorca.21 Not until the much later Liber Maiorichinus, written ca.
1120, is there a reference in a historical source to previous campaigns against
the Saracens and the hostage-taking of Muğāhid’s son, Ali, during fighting on
Sardinia in 1015:22
the woman in question might also have been brought as hostage to Pisa one hundred
years later during the Pisan military campaign in the Balearic Islands between 1113 and- Scholars have reopened the debate on the tombstone following Giuseppe Scalia’s
retraction of his previous assumptions, which were regarded as authoritative for re-
search; see “Pisa all’apice della gloria. L’epigrafe araba di S. Sisto e l’epitafio della regina di
Maiorca,” Studi Medievali ser. 3, no. 48 (2007), pp. 809–828; Marc Von der Höh, “Trophäen
und Gefangene. Nicht-schriftliche Erinnerungsmedien im hochmittelalterlichen Pisa,” in
Stadt zwischen Erinnreungsbewahrung und Gedächtnisverlust, eds Joachim J. Halbekann,
Ellen Widder, and Sabine von Heusinger (Ostfildern, 2015), pp. 147–174, points out that
nearly all “Zeugnisse der Erinnerungskultur” of Pisa focus on the battle against the
Saracens and brings new and important sources relating to Muğāhid and the campaign
against Sardinia.
20 Scalia, “Epigraphica,” pp. 273–282; and Von der Höh, “Erinnerungskultur,” pp. 413–423.
21 Gentile, Chronicon Pisanum, p. 100: “MXVI. Fecerunt Pisani et Ianuenses bellum cum
Mugieto et vicerunt illum (1016. The Pisans and Genoese waged war against Mugieto and
conquered him).”
22 Carlo Calisse, ed., Liber Maiorichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus (Rome, 1904). With
3,526 hexameter verses, this is the most comprehensive historiographical work from Pisa,
written between 1119 and 1126/1127. A contemporary source, the Chronicle of Thietmar of
Merseburg (died 1018), also alludes to this event, albeit with distortions that were perhaps
due to the great geographic distance. In 1016, Thietmar narrated that the Saracens invaded
Lombardy, capturing the city of Luni; the pope organized its defense, sending a large fleet
against the Saracen king Muğāhid, who fled after they destroyed his army. Thietmar of
Merseburg, Chronik, ed. and trans. Werner Trillmich (Darmstadt, 1962), p. 403: “Tunc regi-
na eorum capta [ob] audaciam viri capite plectitur. Aurum capitale eiusdem, ornamentum
invicem gemmatum, papa sibi pre caeteris vendicavit postque imperatori suam transmisit
partem, quae mille libris computabatur (Their queen was also captured and beheaded be-
cause of the evil deeds of her husband. Her golden headdress, decorated with jewels, was
seized by the pope for himself and later sent by him to the emperor as his share, valued
at 1,000 pounds).” Corrado Zedda (in this volume) conveys the name Hasan for the son of
Muğāhid, who was taken hostage and brought to the imperial court.