The presence of “Saqaliba or Slav or other white slaves” was documented in the name Ta’ Skorba, which is derived from sqalba (slaves). Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Defining the identity of 11th century slaves in Malta as Slavic may solve the problem of accounting for the eventual complete disappearance of a sizeable black population but raises another issue, according to historian Godfrey Wettinger.

“I am now faced with the problem of explaining the innumerable blacks that were wiped out by Count Roger II in 1127.”

Prof. Wettinger was reacting to the conclusions drawn by eminent American medievalist Michael Cooperson who argued that the much-debated identity of the slaves in 11th century Malta – from whom the present Maltese population is supposedly descended from – was Slavic.

A 15th century book by the North African geographer al-Himyari recounts that Malta was attacked by Arabs in the ninth century and then left deserted. The Arabs returned in the mid-11th century and resettled on the island, together with their slaves.

I now have the problem of explaining the innumerable blacks wiped out in 1127

Malta was then attacked by the Byzantines. Reportedly, the Muslims made a pact with their slaves that they would repay them with freedom and riches if they joined them in repelling the Byzantines.

Al-Himyari refers to the slaves as għabid, a word that was normally understood to be black mercenaries. However, Prof. Cooperson pointed out that the geographer al-Bakri, writing before al-Himyari, described a certain group of għabid as saqaliba (Slavs). Therefore, he concluded, the għabid of 11th century Malta might have been saqaliba too, as opposed to Africans.

Prof. Cooperson also stressed that Arabic speakers used the term saqaliba to refer to many different European peoples and not necessarily those whom we today call Slavs. Prof. Wettinger had observed that if one assumed that there were a substantial number of African slaves, “that interpretation would involve having to account for the eventual complete disappearance of a sizeable Negro population”.

“I do not agree with the idea that the għabid in al-Himyari must be Slavs,” he told Times of Malta.

This interpretation, he continued, did not account for the “innumerable black slaves” that were wiped out by Count Roger II in 1127, as per the poem in 12th century Greek, which was recently translated into English by three Maltese academics.

“In later times, Slav people undoubtedly reached Malta, Gozo and Sicily in smallish numbers through commercial contact in the port of Ragusa or Dubrovnik or elsewhere on the Dalmatian coastline.”

Prof. Cooperson used Ta’ Skorba, derived from sqalba, as an example that the Slavic presence was documented in Malta. Prof. Wettinger adds more names to the list.

“There are also the surnames Schiavone and Zarb, which are derived from slaves and Serbs. But, then again, there is also Nigret and Ngieret, which mean ‘black’. However, he fully agreed with Prof. Cooperson that the slaves were Muslims.

Historian Charles Dalli remarked that a new reading of a known source, though less exciting than the discovery of a new one, was always interesting to consider. It has long been known, he noted, that the term saqaliba referred to slaves of eastern European origin.

The only thing we knew concretely, however, was that the slaves in Malta were għabid and that, in a central Mediterranean context, this seemed to refer to slave soldiers, possibly of African origin in view of the usage of the term għabid in similar contexts.

“Is it possible that there were a number of people of eastern European origin among them?

“Yes, of course, it is always a possibility that there were saqaliba among the għabid of Malta but there is no independent evidence to support this. That all the għabid on Malta were really saqaliba seems even less likely.

“In his entry on Malta, al-Himyari uses għabid and not saqaliba; the theory as reported claims that al-Himyari was writing għabid while really referring to saqaliba.

“This reading does not seem to consider the fact that al-Himyari does employ the word saqaliba to mean saqaliba elsewhere in the same work.”