Project description
Exploring early modern European views of Islam
Early modern Europe’s understanding of Islam is still an incomplete story. Why? Many crucial Arabic sources written right in Europe have been largely ignored. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Spirit project aims to change that. It centres on the Spiritual Conversations, a 16th-century Arabic text by Giovanni Battista Eliano. The work features a fictional dialogue between two Muslim pilgrims debating doctrine and the Qur’an. By analysing this text, researchers hope to map how knowledge crossed cultural borders between Europe and the Middle East. Ultimately, the project will deliver an open-access critical edition, shedding light on the deeply interconnected histories of Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Objective
The general objective (GO) of Spirit is to produce a philological and historical study of the Spiritual Conversations (Muṣāḥaba rūḥāniyya) by Giovanni Battista Eliano (1530–1589), a Jewish convert to Christianity who became a member of the Society of Jesus. The Spiritual Conversations (SC) is a work that simulates a dialogue between two Muslim pilgrims in Mecca on doctrinal questions concerning Islam and the Qur’an. It was produced in Rome in the late sixteenth century and circulated widely across Europe and the Middle East, both in printed and manuscript versions. The sub-objectives of Spirit are: (SO_1) to demonstrate that European textual sources in Arabic are essential for understanding and reconstructing the global cultural and religious impact of the Qur’an; (SO_2) to show the co-produced nature of knowledge about Islam in early modern Europe, which was often created with the support of Muslims, Jews, converts, and Arab Christians, and subsequently disseminated across confessional boundaries in both Europe and the Middle East. Dr Stella will carry out his research at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (IAJS) at Boston College, at the Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Art, and Performing Arts (SARAS) at Sapienza University of Rome, and at the Center for Arab Christian Research and Documentation (CEDRAC) of Saint Joseph University of Beirut. The two main research outputs will be: 1) An open-access digital critical edition of the Arabic text of SC, which will include: critical apparatus; source and parallel passages apparatus; index of lemmas, proper names, and places; list of citations (from the Qur’an, Islamic and Christian literature); 2) A final monograph, consisting of a historical essay that will explore the relationship between the textual and intellectual production of SC and its surrounding social, cross-confessional and cross-religious environment.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions islam
- humanities arts
- humanities languages and literature literature studies literary genres essays
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions christianity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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00185 Roma
Italy
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