Rector of the Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica (PISAI), Roma.
Mail address
preside@pisai.it
Affiliated University - Country
Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica (PISAI), Roma - Italia
Faculty Rank
  • Rector
  • Professore straordinario
  • Islamochristiana – Editorial Board
Academic degrees
  • Ph.D. in Theological & Religious Studies (Georgetown University)
  • Licentiate in Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI)
Teaching fields
  • Classical Islamic theology
  • Muslim-Christian relations
  • Arabic grammar
  • Qur’an and Tafsir
Research fields
  • Muslim-Christian relations
  • Interreligious polemics
Research topics
  • The intellectual history of Muslim-Christian relations and the continuing reciprocal theological constructions that this history has bequeathed to Christians and Muslims today.
Publications / contributions
  • [Co-authored with Marek Nasiłowski] “Medieval Muslim Polemics against the Christian Creed: The Critique of Ṣāliḥ b. al-Ḥusayn al-Ǧaʿfarī (d. 668/1270),” in Islamochristiana 42 (2016) 71-102.
  • [Co-authored with Daniel A. Madigan] “Thinking Outside the Box: Developments in Catholic Understandings of Salvation,” in Diverse Religions On Religious Diversity, ed. Robert McKim (Leiden: Brill, 2016) 63-119. Series: Philosophy of Religion – World Religions, 6.
  • Muslim-Christian Polemics across the Mediterranean: The Splendid Replies of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī (d. 684/1285), The History of Christian-Muslim Relations 23, Leiden: Brill, 2015.
  • “Se battre pour la cause de Dieu : vice ou vertu ? Vues de Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī (d. 1285)”, Islamochristiana 41 (2015) 95-107.
  • “The Philosopher as the Heir of the Prophets: Averroes’s Islamic Rationalism”, Al-Qanṭara: Revista de Estudios Arabes 36, no. 1 (2015) 45-68.
  • “Corresponding across Religious Borders: Al-Bājī’s Response to a Missionary Letter from France”, Medieval Encounters 18 (2012) 1-35.
  • “Spiritual Anti-Elitism: Ibn Taymiyya’s Doctrine of Sainthood (walāya)”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22, no. 3 (2011)275-291.
  • [Co-authored with Daniel A. Madigan] “Islam and Christianity”, in Oxford Bibliographies: Islamic Studies, ed. Tamara Sonn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0114.xml
  • “Carta de Ibn Taymiyya a un cruzado en Chipre”, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 8 (2011) 109-164.
  • “Corresponding across Religious Borders: Letter from Ibn Taymiyya to a Crusader in Cyprus”, Islamochristiana 36 (Roma: PISAI, 2010) 187-212.
  • “La fetua de Ibn Taymiyya sobre los monjes”, Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos (Sección Árabe-Islam) 59 (2010) 171-190.
  • “Jihād and the Islamic philosophers: Alfarabi as a case study”, Encounter: Documents for Muslim-Christian Understanding 354 (Rome: PISAI, May 2010).
  • “Dans la Sunna le Prophète donne le bon exemple”, Oasis 9 (Venezia: Fondazione Internationale Oasis, 2009), 37-40.
  • “Un irreductible choque de ortodoxias: Ibn Taymiyya y la controversia religiosa medieval en torno a la interpretación del Corán”, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 6 (2009) 287-337.
  • “Iglesias en tierra de Islam: La Mas’alat al-kanā’is de Ibn Taymiyya”, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 5 (2008) 287-324.
  • “Carta a un amigo musulmán de Sidón de Pablo de Antioquia”, Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 4 (2007) 189-215.
  • “The Tijâniyya – an infallible way of salvation”, Encounter: Documents for Muslim-Christian Understanding 316 (Roma: PISAI, 2005).
  • “Muhammad b. Abd al Wahhāb y los origines del wahhabismo”, Encuentro Islamo-Cristiano 401 (Madrid: Darek-Nyumba, 2005).
  • “¿Podemos rezar juntos? La práctica de la oración interreligiosa”, Encuentro Islamo-Cristiano 349 (Madrid: Darek-Nyumba, 2001).
Research topic
Articles