Maltese people Maltese people The Maltese (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Malta, and identified with the Maltese language. Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Included within the ethnic group defined by the Maltese people are the "Gozitans" (, ) who inhabit Malta's sister island, Gozo. The current Maltese people, characterised by the use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism, are the descendants – through much mixing and hybridisation – of colonists from Sicily and Calabria who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of
Duchy of the Archipelago already paying the Sultan tribute. The Sultan's appointed representative, the last Duke of Archipelago (1566–79) was a Portuguese Jew ("Marrano"), Joseph Nasi. Latin Christian rule was not entirely removed after that date: the Gozzadini family in Bologna survived as lords of Siphnos and other little islands in the Cyclades until 1617, and the island of Tenos remained Venetian until 1714. The last Venetian ports in Morea (the Peloponnese) were captured in 1718. Gaspar Graziani, a Dalmatian nobleman, was awarded the title of "Duke of the Archipelago" in 1616, but the island was again under direct Ottoman rule at the end