Il suono del cuore. Studi islamistici per Alberto Ventura

Roberto Tottoli; Francesco Alfonso Leccese

doi:10.6093/978-88-6719-324-0

Il suono del cuore. Studi islamistici per Alberto Ventura

Authors

Roberto Tottoli

University of Naples L’Orientale

Francesco Alfonso Leccese

University of Calabria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-324-0

Keywords:

Islamic Studies, Sufism, History, Literature, Manuscripts, Musicology

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Series Minor

ISSN: 1824-6109

Pages: 558

Language: English

NBN:

Abstract: Alberto Ventura was among the most prominent Islamicists of his generation—undoubtedly, and according to the judgment of many colleagues and scholars, a true pioneer in exploring topics that were little discussed in both national and international academic contexts. His writings have consistently demonstrated a rare ability to make complex authors and doctrines intelligible to both specialist and non-specialist readers. This quality was also well known to those who, over the years, had the privilege of attending his lectures at the Universities of Cagliari, the Orientale in Naples, and Calabria, as well as during seminars and conferences at other institutions.

Within the so-called chain of transmission in academic studies, Alberto Ventura’s writings and teachings place him among the most distinguished disciples of Alessandro Bausani. However, while Bausani masterfully focused his research interests on marginal or peripheral Islam, Ventura never ceased to study and meticulously demonstrate how those elements traditionally considered peripheral in Islam permeate the beliefs and practices of the doctrine’s original core.

Alberto Ventura’s work made a fundamental contribution to the dissemination of Islamic studies, and the understanding of Sufi thought, both as a method and a teaching approach. He achieved this through the analysis and comparison of specific case studies, as well as through broader works, such as his curated translation of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad.

Initially conceived as a Festschrift, the volume took on a new form following Ventura’s untimely passing in August 2022. It gathers contributions from scholars, colleagues, and students who wished to pay tribute to him through essays that explore themes close to his academic sensibility, viewed from various historical and geographical perspectives.

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Author Biographies

Roberto Tottoli, University of Naples L’Orientale

Roberto Tottoli - MA in Oriental Languages and Literature from Venice Ca’ Foscari (1988), PhD from Naples L’Orientale (1996) - studied in Cairo, American University and Jerusalem, Hebrew University, under the direction of M.J. Kister (1993-94), then taught in Turin (1999-2002) and Naples L’Orientale since 2002, where he has been Full Professor of Islamic Studies since 2011. He has done research on biblical prophets in Islam, worked on Islamic literature in general and, more recently, on editions and translations of the Qur’an in the modern age. He is the principal Investigator of the “ERC Synergy project EUQU- The European Qur’an” and Rector of the University of Naples L’Orientale since 2020. He is also fellow of Accademia nazionale dei Lincei since 2019.

Francesco Alfonso Leccese, University of Calabria

MA in Philologies, History and Cultures of Islamic from the University of Naples L’Orientale (2003). PhD from University of Naples L’Orientale under the supervision of Alberto Ventura (2007). He is currently an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Calabria. He carried out fieldwork in Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, and Turkey. His research interests encompass the history and institutions of the Muslim world, as well as Sufism in both Islamic and Western contexts. He is the head of the University of Calabria’s Research Unit for the PRIN project 20222ZRMFZ “Islamic Literatures in Sub-Saharan Africa: Themes, Genres and Publics”.