In the eleventh century, as Muslim sovereignty in the Western Mediterranean was eroded by both internal divisions and external attacks, Sicily fell to the Normans. At the same time, al-Andalus fragmented into a series of small kingdoms that were then picked off by powerful conquerors. Against this backdrop, Arabic poets made use of their craft to try and explain the changes in their world. Among them were the Andalusian Abu Ishaq and the Sicilian...