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Book review of Christian Peltz, Der Koran des Abū l-ʿAlāʾ. Teil 1: Materialien und Überlegungen zum K. al-Fuṣūl wa-l-ġāyāt des al-Maʿarrī. Teil 2. Glossar, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag 2013

Book review of: Mehdi Azaiez, Sabrina Mervin (eds), Le Coran. Nouvelles Approches, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2013

Book Review of Pierre Larcher, Le brigand et l’amant. Deux poèmes préislamiques de Ta’abbata Sharran et Imru’ al-Qays, Paris-Arles, Actes Sud (« Sindbad »), 2012

Contemporary Middle East is characterized by an unprecedented outburst of violence. This issue of the journal Oasis offers three levels of explanation for this phenomenon and a tentative general hypothesis.

Oriental Christians are facing a serious crisis in current Middle East. Many attempts to avoid their exodus failed in past years. Now their possible disappearance should attract the concern of everybody, since their presence is essential to the pluralist fabric of the Middle East.

A conversation with André Miquel: the Classical Arabic Literature and its significance for a man of the XXI century; the relationship between Arabism and Islam; the necessity of a new approach to Arab Studies

What is reform in Islam? This article introduces and translates some passages of the Risalat at-Tawhid by Muhammad 'Abduh, which are especially consecrated to this subject.

What is jihad? An anthology of texts in the Sunni and Shiite traditions allows to highlight the multiple meanings of this term in Classical Islam.

A Translation of Târîkh Ibn Khaldûn, ‘Âdil Ibn Sa‘d (ed.), Volume I, Dâr al-Kutub al-‘ilmiyya, Bayrût 2010, Book I, Section 5, Chapter 1, pp. 300-301; Book I, Section 3, Chapters 38.40.43, pp. 218-224 passim. The texts sum up the thought of Ibn Khaldun as regards taxes, income and fiscal policies.

A Translation of Muhammad Iqbal's "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam", Sh. Muhammad Ashraf Publisher & Bookseller, Lahore 1965, V conference, pp. 124-127; VI conference, pp. 178-180; VII conference, pp. 195-198. The texts bear upon the meaning of the title "seal of the prophets" applied to Muhammad, the relation between science and Islam and the necessity of a reform in Islamic Law.

Louis Massignon endeavoured to know Islamic culture from within, through a form of "sacred hospitality" which transcends the narrow limits of positivistic rationality to which he had been educated. Thanks to his spiritual experience, marked indelibly by the visit of the Foreigner in 1908, Massignon became interested in the figures of saints and apotropaic mystics, but he did not disdain poets and writers, such as al-Mutanabbi or al-Ma'arri, thereby overcoming the distinction between sacred and profane literature. This cultural interest was supported by an authentic passion for Arabic, understood as the archetype of Semitic languages.

The Coptic Historian al-Makin Girgis ibn al-'Amid (1206 - after 1280) is the author of a universal history known as al-Majmu' al-Mubarak (‘The blessed collection’). This work is divided into two parts: a section on pre-Islamic history, still unpublished, and a summary of Islamic history, edited by Erpenius in 1625 and completed by Claude Cahen. The article analyzes the two recensions of the first part of the Majmu' through the comparison of three manuscripts, in particular as regards the sections on Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine history. After discussing the particular version of the Testimonium Flavianum which can be found in the longer recension of the Majmu', the article traces the fortune of al-Makin in subsequent Islamic historiography, especially al-Qalqashandi, al-Maqrizi and Ibn Khaldun

A conversation with Michel Kilo about Syria, the revolution, civil war and democratisation.

Many actors involved in the Syrian civil war have started to invoke reconciliation. Is this realistic? What is the exact meaning of the word and what lessons can be drawn from recent experiences like South Africa?

A Conversation with Tawadros II, Pope of the Coptic Churc, about the past and present of the Christian communities in Egypt.

Review of Dirk Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya. Second edition, Cambridge University Press, New York 2012

Review of Gamâl al-Bannâ, L’Islam, la liberté, la laïcité et Le crime de la tribu des « Il nous a été rapporté », L’Harmattan, Paris 2013.

An overview of the themes discussed at the tenth international meeting of the Oasis Foundation (Milan, 17-18 June 2013)

Reflections on the ousting of Muhammad Mursi in July 2013

Italian translation of the Fatwa by Yusuf al-Qaradawi condemning the deposition of Muhammad Mursi from the Egyptian presidency.

Review of Allen J. Fromherz, Qatar. A Modern History, I.B. Tauris, London 2012

Book review of Bernard Rougier, Qu'est-ce que le salafisme ?

Introduction and translation of the chapter on Caiaphas in Muhammad Kamil Husayn, Qarya Zâlima City of Wrong), ed. Maktabat al-usra, al-Qāhira 1997, pp. 67-79 passim.

Jamil Buthayna, the famous poet of the Banu 'Udhra, stands out in classical Arabic Literature as the standard-bearer of chaste and pure love, in contrast to the hedonistic vein found in 'Umar Ibn Abi Rabi'a. But he also parts ways with the neo-platonic trend embodied in Ibn Dawud and his Kitab al-Zahra. Surely, both Jamil and Ibn Dawud agree that "whoever loves and dies, dies the death of a martyr", but for Jamil love is an originally positive affection, while for Ibn Dawud it is a forbidden and potentially ruinous passion. In this sense, Jamil is among the ancestors of Sufi love poetry.

Introduzione alla lingua araba: l'arabo tra le lingue semitiche; l'arabo preislamico; l'arabo coranico; la codificazione dell'arabo classico (grammatica e lessicografia); il Modern Standard Arabic; i dialetti e la diglossia.

The Epistle of Forgiveness, masterpiece of al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1057), can be read as a radical questioning of historical religions. Al-Maʿarrī witnesses to the corrosive strength of the bāṭiniyya movement and at the same time to its inability to construct a new concrete, universal faith.

An annotated Italian translation of al-Maʿarrī's Epistle of Forgiveness (First part - the voyage in the afterworld), with introduction.

In his "Arab Political Reason" Moroccan philosopher Mohammed 'Abid al-Jabri emphasizes the need for a new foundation of Islamic political thought. In his view, the current situation calls for a revision of the determinants of tribalism, revenue, and dogma that have dominated Arab political reason. Otherwise, he argues, religious extremism will re-emerge forcefully.

On October 12, 2009, Mg.r. Padovese - Vicar apostolic of Anatolia and President of the Turkish Bishops' Conference - gave an interview to the Oasis Foundation in Venice. After his murder (June 3, 2010) this text was published on the Osservatore Romano (July 3, 2010). It gives a unique overview of the Christian presence in Turkey and the difficulties it faces.

Il volume presenta la traduzione italiana annotata di un'intervista in arabo dialettale egiziano concessa da Georges Anawātī poco prima di morire

Il volume presenta la prima traduzione italiana, con testo arabo a fronte, delle Sayfiyyāt di al-Mutanabbī. Nell'introduzione è contestualizzato l'autore e delineata la storia della tradizione

This article examines the formal characteristics of the Sayfiyyāt, the poetical cycle composed by Abū ṭ-Ṭayyib al-Mutanabbī in praise of the Hamdanid emir Sayf ad-Dawla. Contrary to Ibn Qutayba’s description of the classical ode, the Sayfiyyāt show a predominance of monothematic praise qaṣāʾid, followed by bipartite odes. Only a few poems correspond to Ibn Qutayba’s canons. A more precise description of Mutanabbī’s compositional strategies can be found in a page by Ibn al-Aṯīr.

This article examines the structure of the famous poem that al-Buḥturī composed describing the Sasanid palace called Īwān Kisrà, near Baghdad. The text is related to its historical context, and especially to the murder of the caliph al-Mutawakkil. First complete Italian translation, with Arabic text.

This chapter presents the main features of Sayf al-Dawla's Emirate on Northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia and its literary reflection in al-Mutanabbī's work.