I am abroad again! It is no surprise to me... I have the travel bug, diagnosed by me.
This time I am to an even smaller country believe it or not.
This is a map of the islands in comparison to Europe. Do not worry you are not going blind: yes you can barely see them.
Here is a map of all three islands. Valleta is the capital of Malta (Mdina used to be the capital) and Victoria is the capital of Gozo.
Fun fact: Mdina was used for filming in the HBO series Game of Thrones. It was used as the location of Kings Landing!!
As you can see in the first picture, the islands are off the coast of Sicily. They are very close to Northeast Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe and have a rich history of many different conquestors therefore their culture is influenced by many different places.
I will not go into the rich history of the Maltese islands in this post but if you wish to know more please go to this website. To sum it up a bit, the islands were inhabited first in 4500 BC and are home to the oldest temples in the world. In 1200 BC the Phoenicians took over the island through the expansion of their trade. In 218 BC (after many wars) Malta was under the Roman empire. After this ruling Arabs came to Malta (roughly 870 AD) and this is known as a dark time in Maltese history. This is when Islam came to the islands and challenged their strong Catholic background. Arab physical influence remained intact in Malta until 1224 even though Normans took over Malta in 1090. Arabic influences in Maltese culture are still prominent. The Knights of St. John have played a very important role in Maltese history because they eradicated Muslim rule in the country and rebuilt the city. Turks had taken over the city and forced the population into slavery in 1547. The Knights of St. John are known throughout the islands to be heros.
Malta has so much history it would take forever for me to do any of it justice. The Maltese people have played prominent roles in World Wars and other aspects of history so it is worth researching.
So what will I be doing here exactly?
Good question.
There are thirteen students here from the US, England, Belgium and Canada. We each have the opportunity to design our own research project and conduct field work in three weeks on Gozo. I am still working out what I want to do exactly... So are many others. We only just got settled it on June 2nd. I am thinking of possibly working with refugees. Malta is quite close to northern Africa and many north African refugees find Malta as a home. However, Malta has not been very welcoming to them... I still have to research this topic further and see how plausible it is to do my work in three weeks. Ideally I would interview refugees to record their experiences and then natives of Gozo as well in order to get their opinion on immigration law.
Wish me luck!
Don't worry my next blog post will be a bit more interesting and have many more pictures of these beautiful islands.
I will not go into the rich history of the Maltese islands in this post but if you wish to know more please go to this website. To sum it up a bit, the islands were inhabited first in 4500 BC and are home to the oldest temples in the world. In 1200 BC the Phoenicians took over the island through the expansion of their trade. In 218 BC (after many wars) Malta was under the Roman empire. After this ruling Arabs came to Malta (roughly 870 AD) and this is known as a dark time in Maltese history. This is when Islam came to the islands and challenged their strong Catholic background. Arab physical influence remained intact in Malta until 1224 even though Normans took over Malta in 1090. Arabic influences in Maltese culture are still prominent. The Knights of St. John have played a very important role in Maltese history because they eradicated Muslim rule in the country and rebuilt the city. Turks had taken over the city and forced the population into slavery in 1547. The Knights of St. John are known throughout the islands to be heros.
The Maltese cross.
Malta has so much history it would take forever for me to do any of it justice. The Maltese people have played prominent roles in World Wars and other aspects of history so it is worth researching.
To give a present example of outside influences on Malta, the Maltese language has influences in Arabic, but with a latin alphabet so it is different than anything I've ever heard before and it is hard to pick up on. For example the town I am staying in on Gozo is named Xlendi but it is pronounced Shlendi.
Kif inti (pronounces like it is spelt with an emphasis on the i on inti) means "how are you" and is a common greeting. Many people on Gozo and Malta (especially Malta) speak English. It makes it a lot easier to conduct our fieldwork in three weeks that we do not have to learn a whole new language. People on the islands are very friendly and are very easy to strike up a conversation with.
So what will I be doing here exactly?
Good question.
There are thirteen students here from the US, England, Belgium and Canada. We each have the opportunity to design our own research project and conduct field work in three weeks on Gozo. I am still working out what I want to do exactly... So are many others. We only just got settled it on June 2nd. I am thinking of possibly working with refugees. Malta is quite close to northern Africa and many north African refugees find Malta as a home. However, Malta has not been very welcoming to them... I still have to research this topic further and see how plausible it is to do my work in three weeks. Ideally I would interview refugees to record their experiences and then natives of Gozo as well in order to get their opinion on immigration law.
Wish me luck!
Don't worry my next blog post will be a bit more interesting and have many more pictures of these beautiful islands.
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