George of Antioch (Greek: Γεώργιος ό Άντιοχεύς; died 1151 or 1152[1]) was a court official and military officer in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily[2] that played a significant role in the transformation of Norman Sicily into a multicultural society and naval power. He did so as chiefly as an advisor to Roger II of Sicily. He was a Greek Eastern Orthodox Christian from the Byzantine Empire.[1] George lived in Antioch for a part of his life before he and his family found work with the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos until their exile from the Empire. He and his family then worked for the Emir of Ifriqiya, Tamim ibn al-Muizz, becoming governor of the city of Sousse.[3] After the death of George's brother at the hands of Tamim's successor, Yahya, George fled the court and found refuge in Norman Sicily.[1] There he spent the remainder of his life, serving as both an administrator and military commander with profound influence within the Kingdom of Sicily until his death.[4][5]
- ^ a b c Al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-Tarikh al-Muqaffa li-Misr, in Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily: The Royal Dīwān, ed. and trans. Jeremy Johns, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 80-82.
- ^ Dawn Marie Hayes, “The Devotion of Roger II,” in Roger II of Sicily: Family, Faith, and Empire in the Medieval Mediterranean World (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2020), 116.
- ^ Sarah Davis-Secord, “George of Antioch and Other Immigrants to Sicily,” in Migration in the Medieval Mediterranean. (London: Arc Humanities Press, 2021), 84-86.
- ^ Francesco Carbonaro, “Christodulo and George of Antioch, the First Great Admirals,” in The Norman Admiralty: History of an Office Between Two Worlds, (Berlin: Logos Verlag Berlin, 2021), 55.
- ^ Jeremy Johns, “The Norman diwan and Fatimid Egypt,” in Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily: The Royal Diwan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 257, 282.