Malta: Archipelago has long been bridge linking Western Europe, Middle East

Sicily and Sardinia, two of the Republic of Italy’s 20 regions, are the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea. However, there are also several islands, not part of Italy, that historically, linguistically, and/or culturally have an association with Italy and Italians.

In the issue, we begin an 11-part series on Malta. Why Malta, one might ask? Unlike Sicily, Sardinia and even France’s Corsica, Malta’s heritage is not as Italian as these other aforementioned islands that lie well within Italy’s sphere of influence.

Malta is a sovereign state, but it is still historically linked to Italy, especially Sicily, through a minority language and customs. In fact, the distance from the City of Pozzallo in the province of Ragusa to the Maltese island of Gozo is a mere 60 miles. Like Sicily, Malta’s location has played a significant role in European history.

Malta can be found near Sicily, the “toe” of the “boot.”

From a geographical and historical perspective, the Maltese Islands are a group of small, barren rocks, jutting out of the middle of the dark blue Mediterranean Sea. Given these geographical conditions one would suspect the island would have been relegated to the footnotes of history. Yet, ever since the archipelago was first colonized thousands of years ago, Malta has never been far from the center of events and has often played a crucial role in the making of history.

Its strategic location in the center of the Mediterranean Sea makes up for all the lack of resources that nature endowed in other regions of Western Europe and the Middle East.

Malta, the largest island, and her sister islands of Gozo, Comino, Filfla and other small islands, are found in the narrow channel joining the eastern and the western basins of the Mediterranean. As such, they function as a bridge between Southern Europe and North Africa, or between Western Europe and the Middle East.

   This had placed the Maltese Islands right in the middle of some of the most significant events in the region: the wars between Rome and Carthage, the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the wars between Christians and Moslems, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the rise and fall of the British Empire, the fight for democracy against Fascism and Nazism, the Cold War, the rise of a United Europe and the challenges of the Third Millennium.

Looking closer at Malta’s history, it will become increasingly evident that much of it parallels Sicily, but it also reveals a divergence that led to a heritage and culture that would not be as Italic as Sicily’s, but peppered heavily with Sicilians in language and customs.

Malta has been inhabited from around 5200 B.C., since the arrival of settlers from the island of Sicily. A significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures, which date to circa 3600 B.C., existed on the islands, as evidenced by the temples of Mnajdra, Ggantija and others. The Phoenicians colonized Malta from about 1000 B.C., bringing their Semitic language and culture, and becoming the direct male-line ancestors of about a half of the modern Maltese population. They used the islands as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean until their successors, the Carthaginians, were ousted by the Romans in 216 B.C. with the help of the Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta became a municipium.

After a period of Byzantine rule from the 4th to 9th century and a probable sack by the Vandals, the islands were invaded by Fatimid Moslems in the year 870. They generally tolerated the population’s Christianity, and their language subsequently shifted to Siculo-Arabic.

Next issue: More on Malta’s language and history.