THE ITALIAN PERSPECTIVE AND CONTRIBUTION TO ISLAMIC STUDIES. FROM ‘ORIENTAL STUDIES’ TO ‘ISLAMIC STUDIES’

Abstract

This article intends to focus on the contribution of Italian research to the knowledge of the Islamic world, underlining its path and evolution up to the present day in content, objectives and methodology. The Italian path has its roots in a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. Here we take ourselves back to the end of the 19th century, when studies on Islam were part of a generic discipline of Oriental Studies and Linguistics. Rather than on names and bibliographies (there would be too many - for which reference is made to the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia), we focus on the most significant 'stages', starting from the institutional configuration of Studies on Islam and Islamic Studies as autonomous disciplines: Michele Amari and the Italian Geographical Society, and therefore Leone Caetani and The Annals of Islam, the latter "forge" in which the great Islamists of the 20th century were trained: M. Guidi, C. A. Nallino, G. Levi Della Vida, F. Gabrieli. Alongside the academy and new fields of research (Turcology, Iranian studies, Arabic studies, etc.) three large institutions were added - supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the Institute for the Orient (later IsPO), the Institute for the Middle and Far East Oriente and the Italian Institute for Africa (still active). World War II also marked an important break in Italy, leading studies on the Arab and Islamic world to the use of new disciplines. The influence of the French Annales school and the entry of the 'social sciences' into the new methodological paths were decisive. Studies on Islam were not immune, but distanced themselves from political science and the media fascination with 'analysis' and 'scenarios', to strictly adhere to linguistic knowledge as an indispensable tool for the study and evaluation, including historical, of political, social and current cultures, in regions where very different civilizations and traditions had met, sometimes clashed and overlapped. Multidisciplinarity and 'field-work' were the instrument of this turning point in Italy. In the first years of the Third Millennium, 'sciences' and new research 'technologies' (archaeometry, physics, the drone, etc.) came together which, by supporting textual and non-textual sources, allow the 'confirmation' of those that had remained working hypothesis for a long time.