The Struggle For Sardinia In The Twelfth Century 225
The king’s son, who, as we have said, was taken hostage, was sent by vic-
torious Pisa to the German king. This noble prince was devoted to the
grandfather of the [Pisan] Petrus [Albicionis], and gave [him] at the lat-
ter’s request Alanta [Ali, son of Muğāhid]. He gave the child back to his
father as a most precious gift. That is why Albicio and his descendants
are called the brothers of Muğāhid and his descendants. Thus whoever
carries the royal sceptre of the Balearic Islands is called a brother of the
descendants of Albicio.23Where the Genoese reported they had themselves taken Muğāhid hostage in
1164 and sent him to the emperor, the Pisans slightly changed the theme to
claim that their own forebears had sent Ali, the son of the Saracen leader de-
feated on Sardinia. In this context, one must again refer to the tomb of the
anonymous queen, who describes herself as “bellica preda (war booty),” a prac-
tice which, as we know, the Pisans and the Genoese both used to adorn their
most important churches in the form of “spoils.”24
On the facade of the Pisan cathedral, near the stone panel with the naval
victory inscriptions and the tombstone of the queen of Mallorca, the grave-
stone inscription of the cathedral’s master builder, Busketo, can be found.25
It mentions the translation of columns for the construction of the church.
Giuseppe Scalia believed that the columns came from one of the islands in the
Tyrrhenian Sea, possibly Sardinia. This would mean that the Pisans, by trans-
lating these columns from the island—over which they had fought so intensely
throughout the twelfth century—could, in addition to their historiographical
works and inscriptions, have displayed further “material” spoils as proof for
their city’s claim to possession.
23 “Hunc regis puerum, qui captus dicitur esse, Pise victrices regi misere Lemanno. Huius avum
Petri princeps generosus amabat, qui dedit Alpheo, quesitum munus, Alanta. Reddidit hic
patri, karissima munera, natum: Albicio quare successoresque vocantur Mugeti frates suc-
cessorumque suorum. Ergo quisquis habet regum Balearica sceptra, ex hoc affirmat se fra-
trem seminis huius.” Fiona Robb’s English translation is based on the German translation
of the original Latin by Von der Höh, “Erinnerungskultur,” p. 414.
24 See, among others, Max Seidel, “Dombau, Kreuzzugsidee und Expansionspolitik. Zur
Ikonographie der Pisaner Kathedralbauten,” Frühmittelalterliche Studien 11 (1977),
pp. 340–369, at p. 345.
25 See especially Giuseppe Scalia, “ ‘Romanitas’ pisana tra XI e XII secolo. Le iscrizioni ro-
mane del duomo e la statua del console Rodolfo,” Studi Medievali 3rd series, 13 (1972),
pp. 791–843, at p. 795.