The collection of articles in this volume is largely the result of a project that I first organised in Sicily in December 2017. I have always been fascinated by Sicily, by its charm, natural beauty, and history, which is one of shaping and reshaping individual and collective identities. It is where different cultures, languages and creeds were never fully superseded, but were assimilated and even partly adopted. This fascination resulted in a conference that I organised in cooperation with colleagues from the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA), namely Dr Beate Ulrike La Sala, Dr Ammar Abdulrahman, Dr Oliver Korn and Dr Norman Domeire, as well as from the University of Palermo. This conference was funded by AGYA, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Over the years, I expanded the scope of this project by inviting other scholars to contribute articles to this volume, in order to explore more widely the rich intellectual and artistic legacy of Muslim Sicily in its own right, an area which is still in need of more research.

The publication of this volume was interrupted by a long period of my own illness and the sad passing of Professor Massimo Campanini. The support and love of so many friends, family members and colleagues carried me through this difficult time.