ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
1980 Certificate in Arabic of IsMEO (Institute of Middle and Far Eastern Studies) of Milan.
1982 Degree with honours (110/110 cum Laude) in Oriental Languages at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, with a dissertation on the thought of the Egyptian writer Khalid Muhammad Khalid.
1984 (Spring) Scholarship of Egyptian Government for field activities
1987/1988 Lecturer in Computational Linguistics at Catholic University of Milan
1989 Researcher in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Catholic University of Milan
1992 Senior researcher in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Catholic University of Milan
1994 Assistant professor of Arabic at University of Turin
1995/96 Assistant professor of Arabic at University of Pavia.
In 2011 he was a member of the Committee for Italian Islam at the Ministry of the Interior and Cardinal Angelo Scola appointed him responsible for relations with Muslims of the Archdiocese of Milan during his mandate.
PRESENT POSITION
Associate Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Catholic University of Milan.
PUBLICATIONS
A) ARTICLES
“An interview with Khalid Muhammad Khalid”, in Encounter n. 105/1984, pp. 1-11.
“La lemmatisation de l’arabe” in Actes du XII Colloque International de l’ALLC: Méthodes quantitatives et informatiques dans l’étude des textes, Nice (France) 1985, pp. 117-124.
“Il fenomeno dell’omonimia nei testi arabi” (On homonymy in Arabic), in Oriente Moderno n. 10-12/1985, pp. 195-202.
“Il trattamento informatico della lingua araba” (Computer Techniques in relation to the Arabic language), in Annali di Ca’ Foscari n. 3/1987, pp. 27-37.
“Il contributo di G. Zaydan agli studi linguistici arabi” (G. Zaydan: a Pioneer of modern Arabic Linguistics) in Rendiconti dell’Istituto Lombardo vol. 121 (1987), pp. 109-117.
“The Interdisciplinary Group of Expression Sign Computing”, in Computer and Humanities n. 24/1990, pp. 381-392.
“Il problema dell’unità elementare del discorso nella lingua araba sull’interfaccia grafico-semantico” (On Lexical Units in Arabic), in AEVUM n. 3/1990, pp. 489-501.
“Creatività e convenzione nella cultura araba: aspetti linguistici e letterari” (Linguistic and literary aspects of the relationship between creativity and convention in Arabic culture), in Atti della VII giornata di Studi Camito-Semitici e Indoeuropei, CSCS, Milan 1994, pp. 29-44.
“L’établissement de l’Islam et ses organisations”, in Islams d’Europe, Editions de l’Aube, Paris 1995, pp. 312-316.
“Some Druze “Catechisms” in Italian Libraries”, in Quaderni di Studi Arabi, n. 15/1997, pp. 151-164.
“La Jama’a Islamiyya e il suo ‘discorso’ religioso” (The thesis of the Jama’a Islamiyya), in Aa. Vv. Identità e Appartenenza in Medio Oriente, SeSaMO, Firenze 1998, pp. 177-185.
“Islam e diritti umani. Confronto a distanza fra le posizioni di un saudita e di un tunisino”, (Islam and Human Rights) in Rivista internazionale dei diritti dell’uomo, n. 2/1999, pp. 560-568.
“Le traduzioni italiane del Corano: storia, analisi e prospettive” (The Italian translations of the Holy Quran” in Aa. Vv., Il Corano, traduzioni, traduttori e lettori in Italia, IPL, Milano 1999, pp. 111-182.
“Il radicalismo islamico: tendenza innata o epifenomeno?” (The real nature of Islamic radicalism), in Annali di Scienze Reigiose, 4/1999, pp. 89-102.
“Dal Corano. L’origine del linguaggio in alcuni commentatori” (The origin of the language in some tfsirs”, in C. Milani (ed.), Origini del linguaggio, Demetra, Verona 2000, pp. 135-144.
“Le origini dell’islam: luci ed ombre di un approccio demitizzante” (Interview with Sayyid al-Qimani), in Nuova Rivista Storica, 3/1999, pp. 605-612.
“Tradition islamique et discours islamiste: mère inconnue ou filiation illégitime?”, in Se Comprendre 4/2000, pp. 1-9.
“The Druze Manuscripts of the Biblioteca Reale of Turin”, in Annales Islamologiques n. 34/2000, pp. 47-80.
“Italian Translations of the Qur’an”, in Journal of Qur’anic Studies, vol. II, n. II/2000, pp. 103/112.
“Origin and Diffusion of the So-called Druze Manuscripts in European Libraries”, in Journal of Druze Studies n. 1/2000, pp. 95-109.
154.
“More Details and Typologies of Druze Manuscripts in European Libraries”, in Journal of Druze Studies n. 2/2001, pp 1-30.
200. “The Translations of the Qur’an: a Comparative Approach Based on a Computer-Aided Analysis (Case Study: Italian Translations), in Journal of Qur’anic Studies, vol. V, n. I/2003, pp. 35-46.
P. Branca, A. Cuciniello, Destini incrociati. Europa e Islam (Europe and Islam: a connected destiny), Fond. Achille e Giulia Boroli, Novara 2007, p. 224 (di P. Branca pp. 9-28, 83-125, 161-209).
“E fa crescer per voi… l’olivo… e le viti e ogni specie di frutti” (On oil and wine in Arab culture) Vino e olio nella civiltà arabo-musulmana, in Olio e vino nell’alto medioevo, CISAM, Spoleto 2007, pp. 671-709.
“La manipulation des religions: quelques réflexions”, in Annali di Scienze Religiose, 11/2006, pp. 107-114.
“Islam between charisma and Power: the Political Philosophy of Gamal al-Banna”, in Oriente Moderno, N.S. anno 2/2007, pp. 355-360.
“Tradition islamique et discours islamiste: quelle continuité?” in Annali di Scienze Religiose, 2/2009, pp. 35-49.
“Il Corano: alcuni problemi testuali nel Itqàn fì ‘ulùn al-Qur’àn di al-Suyùtì” (Notes on al-Itqàn fi ‘ulùm al-Wur’àn by al-Suyuti) in M. Papa, G.M. Piccinelli, D. Scolart, Il libro e la bilancia. Studi in memoria di Francesco Castro, Ediz. Scienifiche Italiane, Roma 2011, tomo I, pp. 45-56.
Il sorriso della Mezzaluna. Umorismo, ironia e satira nella cultura araba (On Arab humour), con B. De Poli e P. Zanelli, Carocci, Roma 2011, pp. 11-34, 49-102, 177-185.
“’Come Pilato nel Credo?’. Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah pioniere di una narratologia coranica” (Quranic exegesis by Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah), in Quaderni di Studi Arabi, n. 9/2014, pp. 273-282.
Papa Francesco e il dialogo cristiani-islamici, (Pope Francis and the Islam-Christian dialogue), Cittadella, Assisi 2017, pp. 122.
Introduction to Hussein Ahmad Amin, The Sorrowful Muslim’s Guide, Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2018.
B) BOOKS
Voci dell’Islam moderno. Il pensiero arabo-musulmano fra rinnovamento e tradizione (Islam and Modernity: an
Anthology of Muslim Writers), Marietti, Genova 1991, pp. 314.
Introduzione all’Islam (An Introduction to Islam), S.Paolo, Milan 1995, pp. 342. I musulmani (The Muslims), Il Mulino, Bologna 2000, pp. 127.
Moschee inquiete (Mosques in turmoil), Il Mulino, Bologna 2003, pp. 200.
C) TRANSLATIONS
Nagib Mahfuz, Vicolo del Mortaio (Zuqƒq al-midaqq), Feltrinelli, Milan 1989, pp. 251.
Tabari/Bal’ami, Biografia del Profeta Maometto (The Life of Muhammad, from an ancient manuscript), Mondadori, Milan 1990, pp. 266.