The Struggle For Sardinia In The Twelfth Century 227
willing to accept that there is not one historical truth, but diverse historical
truths dependent on the political, economic, and sociological interests of a
specific group, can we start to work with these texts. It is especially worth not-
ing that these “forged” or, more accurately, “modified” narrations are often
connected to a convincingly historical background: the idea of an “Islamic”
Sardinia, which has to be rescued and reintegrated into the Christian em-
pire is embedded in the wider context of the Crusades, into the bigger narra-
tive of the conflict between the two aggressively expansionary powers in the
Mediterranean in the twelfth century and their struggle for dominion.
Translated by Fiona Robb