Tuesday, April 15, 20253:00 PM - 5:00 PM
The Center for European and Russian Studies, in cosponsorship with the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies and CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, invite you to a lecture by Roberto Tottoli. This lecture will take place in Bunche Hall, Room 10383 on April 15, 2025 at 3PM PST. Registration is requested.
About the Talk
The European interest in Islam and its followers dates back to the centuries following the early Muslim conquests and the spread of Islam across the Mediterranean (from the 1st century AH / 7th century AD). Over the past decades, numerous studies have examined European perceptions and interpretations of Islam from the Middle Ages to modern times, often with a particular focus on the Qur’an. The ways in which the Islamic holy text has been known, collected in manuscripts, translated, read, printed, and debated—both academically and polemically—since the 12th century form a significant chapter in the intellectual history of both Western and Eastern Europe. Recent research, especially projects funded by the European Commission, continues to contribute to the study of the Qur’an and its presence in European thought. In this field, the project EuQu – The European Qur’an, in which Roberto serves as a principal investigator, is particularly noteworthy, as it aims to demonstrate the role of the Qur’an in shaping Europe’s intellectual, cultural, and religious developments across the centuries.
About the Speaker
Roberto Tottoli is an internationally renowned scholar of Islamic studies and literature. Since 2020 he is Rector of University of Naples L’Orientale, where he teaches Islamic Studies and Islamic Arabic literature in the Africa, Mediterranean and Asia Department. He is a member of the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei and the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. He is is an eminent Arabist and scholar of Islamic history and an expert in Arabic Qur’anic manuscript traditions as well as in the history of European Latin and vernacular translations of the Qur’an. He is the principal investigator of the European Qur’an Project https://euqu.eu/the-european-quran/ of the European Research Council.