Ida ZILIO-GRANDI

Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature (SSD L/OR-12) [National Scientific Qualification to Full Professor MS 10/N1) in Venice’s “Ca' Foscari” University, Department of Asian and Mediterranean African Studies (DSAAM). Served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Abu Dhabi, Embassy of Italy to the United Arab Emirates (2019-2023).

Graduated in Oriental Languages and Literatures (Arabic) from Ca' Foscari University, PhD in “Studies on the Middle East and the Maghreb from the founding of Islam to the Present day” at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”.

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

Her scholarly activity has followed a number of distinct lines of research.

The main line has concerned the Koran as viewed, both lexically and with regard to differing interpretations of content, in the subsequent Arab Islamic literature. To this area belong especially her studies on evil (2002), on such individuals as Mary (1990 & 1997), Cain (1999), Pharaoh (2004), Jonah (2006), and on the question of religious freedom, how the female is perceived (2009), the Night Journey and the Prophet's Ascension (2010). These studies are based on the most representative, mainly Sunnite, works of exegesis in the Arabic language, from the beginning until the present day, noting the authors’ affiliations to the principal schools of thought. In the same direction and working from the same sources, the encyclopaedia entry al-Fātiḥa (2013). Still in the same area but for a more general readership, a complete and partially annotated translation of the Koran (2010), essays on the angels (2012) and on the concept of “the chosen people” (2015), editing the Italian editions of the Dictionary of the Koran (2007) and of J. Van Ess’s Flowering of Muslim Theology (2008), and an essay on kalām (2005).

In a different but rather similar vein are a series of recent studies on religious ethics, part of an ongoing research project, particularly and thus far, on the obligatory nature of employment (2012), on gratitude or šukr (2012), redirection or tawba (2013), judiciousness or ḥilm, peace or salām, and mercy (all 2015); silence and speech etiquette (2016); tenderness or rifq, welcoming and hospitality, moderation or wasaṭiyya, and beauty as an Islamic value, modesty, decency and discretion (all 2017); patience (2018) and tolerance (2019). In these cases the enquiry is based on the canonical texts and the principal exegesis, on the religious adab literature, focusing on the classical period (e.g. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā), but also following it through to the modern and contemporary periods. From the same sources also the encyclopedia entry Gratitude and Ingratitude (2014). These works on Islamic morality finally flowed into The virtues of the good Muslim [Le virtù del buon musulmano], 2020; currently being printed in a revised and expanded English edition for Edizioni Ca' Foscari.

Another direction of study takes in elements of convergence and divergence between Islamic, Christian and Jewish religious thinking as reflected in Arabic mediaeval literature. To this area belong studies on Job for the Guida dei Perplessi (1997), on “the Golden Rule” (2004), on the correspondence between Ibn al-Munağğim e Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (2004), on the ethical theory of Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī in the Tahdhīb al-akhlāq (2009 and 2019), and a number of general academic works on, for example, Christian elements in the formation of Arabic philosophical thought (2005).

A more recent line of interest focuses on some symptomatic figures in cultural relations between the Islamic world and the West. To this line belong the studies on Mayy Ziyāda (1886-1941) and Maria Nallino (1908-1974), both 2018; and on Abdallah Bin Bayya (2020).

Another strand concerns adab literature on jewels and precious stones; in this context an essay on the writings of al-Tifāšī (1999), and a general academic work on that author (1999).

Finally, on cultural and social changes relating to the present-day Muslim population of Italy (2006, 2010, 2017).

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

SSD L/OR-12

2008 -2019: lectureship in Arabic language and literature, three-year degree course = LT laurea triennale; & LM - Masters Degree = laurea magistrale, DSAAM, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.

2002 - 2008: lectureship in Arabic literature and culture, Foreign languages and Literatures LT, University of Genoa.

2002 - 2004: lectureship in Arabic literature and culture, Oriental languages and Literatures LT, University of Urbino.

RELATED SSD L/OR-10

2014 – today: lectureship in Islamic thought and theology, LM, DSAAM, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice.

2014 - today: lectureship in Arabic and Islamic Culture, Studio Teologico Laurentianum (Venice) – Pontificia Università Antonianum (Rome), Master 1st level.

2012 – today: lectureship in Islamic philosophy, LT & LM, DSAAM, Ca' Foscari University, Venice.

2011- 2019: lectureship in Arabic and Islamic Culture, Master’s degree course in Islam in Europe, 1st level, University of Padua.

2010 - 2019: lectureship in Arabic and Islamic Culture, Master’s degree course in Interfaith Dialogue, 1st level, Istituto di Studi Ecumenici (ISE) S. Bernardino, Venice - Pontificia Università Antonianum, Rome.

2010 - 2019: lectureship in Arabic and Islamic Culture, Master’s degree course in Inter-Mediterranean Mediation (MIM), 1st level, then International LM “MIM – Crossing the Mediterranean”, Ca’ Foscari University.

2013 - 2014: lectureship in Arab and Islamic Culture, LM in Sanctuaries, Pilgrimage & Centres of Civilisation, Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose (ISSR) Santa Maria di Monte Berico, Vicenza – Marcianum, Rome.

2002-2009: lectureship in Islamic Law, Interculturality and Social Citizenship LM, Ca' Foscari University.

2002 - 2004: lectureship in the History of Religion in the Islamic World, Oriental Civilisations LT, University of Urbino.

Various other lectures and seminars held in universities and research centres in Italy and abroad.

An intense and continuing commitment to the furtherance of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Research and Cultural Institutions in Italy and abroad (“third academic mission”).

ASSOCIATED ACTIVITIES

2015 – today: sits on “Committee for Islam in Italy”, Ministry of Interior.

March 2019 – today : sits on Scientific Committee of the “Dialogue méditerranéen sur la modernité et le religieux”, Collège des Bernardins, Paris (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes-PSL - Paris, Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz – Casablanca, Beït el-Hikma - Carthage).

In Ca’ Foscari: 2015 – oct. 2017 Coordinator of the LM “Languages, Economies and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (LEISAAM)”; oct. 2017 - june 2019 Coordinator of the International LM “MIM – Crossing the Mediterranean”.

In Ca’ Foscari: 2015 – today: Erasmus + Coordinator: University of Jordan (Amman). 2017 - today Erasmus + Coordinator: University Mohammed V (Rabat).

Jul. 2017 – today: “Invited Researcher” in Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica (PISAI), Rome.

Sits on Scientific Editorial Committee of the “Annali di Ca’ Foscari” (ACF) Review (new Oriental series), DSAAM; “Islamo-Christiana” Review (ISCH), Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica (PISAI), Rome; and “L’opera Comune. Pubblicazioni del Centro di Studi Antonio Balletto” (Genova), Mimesis (Milano-Udine).

Memberships: Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI); International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA); Consulta Universitaria per gli Studi su Asia e Africa (CUSTAA); Istituto per l’Oriente “Carlo Alfonso Nallino” (IPOCAN); Ca’ Foscari Center for “Studies on Human Rights” (CESTUDIR, formerly CIRDU); “Les Amis de l’Idéo” (Institut dominicain d’études orientales / Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies, Cairo); Ca’ Foscari Center for Contemporay Middle East Studies (CEM); “Religion, Law and Economy in the Mediterranean Area Center” (REDESM), University of Insubria; “Gruppo di Ricerca Arabo-Cristiano” (GRAC), Bologna-Rome; Lay Association for Biblical Culture “Biblia”, Settimello (FI).