A Revision Of Sardinian History 129
chroniclers of Sardinian history.32 As a result, it is rather difficult to disentangle
the various sources upon which it is predicated. It is possible that, despite the
linguistic problems raised by Malut of Sardinia, the prince of Denia did in fact
slay the island’s lord in battle and created the conditions that precipitated the
arrival of the Pisans and Genoese. Such a crisis in the dynasty, wherein the
lord of Sardinia was killed and the entire island was left exposed to potential
newcomers, would have also left local lords struggling over the same ambitions
of dominion.
With the conquest of Sardinia, peninsular Italy found itself exposed, no lon-
ger merely to formidable and random pirate raids, but to a significantly graver
threat: an Islamic lord dominating a vast, albeit inhomogeneous area that en-
compassed the principality of Denia, the Balearic Islands, and Sardinia. The
immediate effect of Mughaid’s Sardinian initiative was a raid by his ships along
the Tuscan coast, which led to the destruction of Luni. Only at this point, and
at the request of the pope, did the maritime republics feel authorized to enter
the field to safeguard their interests, as well as those of a good part of Western
Christendom, and defend the island.
5 The Origin of the Giudicati and the Creation of a New Balance of
Power
Even today, the results of the Islamic conquest of Sardinia are unclear due to the
many powers and interests involved. There is a sense that the Christian expedi-
tion was endorsed, not only by the pope, but also by the emperor. There are too
many coincidences to reject the hypothesis that the latter was also involved, or
at least intended to be. The participation of the marquis of Obertenghi, from a
family loyal to the emperor, as well as the role of the Pisan and Genoese fleets,
which were part of the imperial complex at the time and not in a position—as
they were two centuries later—to act autonomously, suggest that the emperor
32 Francisco Codera, “Mochéid, conquistador de Cerdeña,” in Centenario della nascita di
Michele Amari. Scritti di filologia e storia araba; di geografia, storia, diritto della Sicilia me-
dioevale; studi bizantini e giudaici relativi all’Italia meridionale nel medio evo; documenti
sulle relazioni fra gli Stati italiani e il Levante (Palermo, 1910), vol. 2, p. 124. On the recep-
tion of this hypothesis in Italy, see Michele Amari, Biblioteca Arabo Sicula (Turin and
Rome, 1880), vol. 1, pp. 358–359; Travis Bruce, “The Politics of Violence and Trade: Denia
and Pisa in the Eleventh Century,” Journal of Medieval History 32 (2006), pp. 127–142; and
Enrica Salvatori, “Lo spazio economico di Pisa nel Mediterraneo: dall’XI alla metà del XII,”
Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 15 (2013), pp. 119–152.