Short Description
He was the senior professor of Arabic language and literature in Rome University, prominent in studying Arabic poetry and revising texts of Islamic history and making comparisons between Christianity and Islam
He was the senior professor of Arabic language and literature in Rome University, prominent in studying Arabic poetry and revising texts of Islamic history and making comparisons between Christianity and Islam. He translated many texts of Islamic thought into Italian.
He was elected a correspondent member in the Scientific Arabic Academy of Damascus in 1948 as well as in other scientific academies and associations. His writings include the Manners of Kings; Successors of Hârûn ar-Rashîd and the War between al-Amîn and al-Ma’mûn; Documents of the Caliphate of al-Amîn; Concerning at-Tabari; the Muslim’s’ History of the Crusades; Shiites in the Era of al-Ma’mûn; and an Arabic Translation of Aristotle’s Poetics.
The highest summit of Sicily’s glory
“As to the characteristics of AraboIslamic rule in Sicily and the traces of it left to us, we note above all … looked at, however, with Western and Italian eyes (we are thinking primarily of its greatest historian, Michele Amari) it appears positive and beneficial because of the influx of new blood which suffused the depressed ethnic structure of Byzantine Sicily and above all for the changes introduced in the economic and social conditions of the island, where it broke up the latifundia, promoted small-scale holdings, and revived and enriched Sicilian agriculture with new techniques and cultures.
The decisive importance of the Arab period in this field is proved by the vocabulary of economic life, preserved in Sicilian and transferred also to Italian, which in great part refers to the agricultural sphere, to irrigation, to farm and household implements, and to products of the soil. … The Arab period remains in fact the highest point attained by the great Mediterranean island as regards the exploitation of its resources and the material life connected with it.”[1]
Between a special place and no place
“One must always remember that Islam assigned to the 'Religions of the Book', Christianity and Judaism, a definite and legally protected, if subordinate, place in the state, and only at times of stress and insecurity were there prolonged periods of rigorism and persecution. The law of Christianity, on the other hand, had no place at all for toleration of another faith; hence it passed, when victorious over Islam, very rapidly and with logical development, to intolerance and persecution.”[2]
References:
[1] Gabrieli Francesco, Islam in the Mediterranean world, the Legacy of Islam, Joseph Schakht and Califord Bozworth, 75-76.
[2] Ibid. 91-92.
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