Copyright © The Malta Historical Society, 2005.

Source: Melita Historica. [Published by the Malta Historical Society]. 8(1980)1(85)

J MICALLEF, L-Istorja ta’ Ħal Safi, Malta, Stamperija Indipendenza. 1980, 81 pp., £M1.

After his Ħal Luqa, Niesha u Ġrajjietha and Raħal fi Gwerra, Fr. Micallef has produced another highly readable monograph about one of Malta's smallest villages covering me period between the beginning of the fifteenth century to the present day. His idea seems to be the presentation of the texture and tenor of life of the common people and what really constituted national life in the past history of our islands. His aim is
certainly not to re-write our island's history through the discovery of some long-lost material but rather to use even the material which used to be discarded by historiographers when writing on a national scale and show how our forefathers really lived in their particular rahal. It should be pointed out that parochialism is not the scope behind this publication. The work itself is in fact valuable as a sociological study and has ample material which reflects the economic aspect in the life of the Maltese.

What emerges is a well-balanced and amply-documented presentation of life in one of our smallest and remotest villages and which, I think, is an instructive addition to our Melitensia.

Joseph F. Grima