Islamic Studies scholar, writer, scholar of Iranian studies, Arabic studies scholar, creator of artificial language, historian of religion, Italian translator
Period
20th century
Alessandro Bausani (May 29, 1921 – March 12, 1988) was a scholar of Islam, Arab and Persian studies, interlinguistics and the History of Religion, translating many works into Italian. He was one of the greatest Italian scholars of Islam, as well as a translator and commentator of one of the most important translations of the Qur'an into the Italian language.
A great polyglot, he spoke more than 30 languages, including Esperanto, African and Native American languages such as Cherokee and several important languages in the islamic world such as Indonesian, Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
Education
Bausani first studied Arabic with a neighbour, Virginia Vacca [it]. By 1942, during World War II, he was sufficiently fluent in Persian to deliver radio broadcasts for Radio Roma. In 1943–1944, he learned Turkish under Paul Mulla. He received his doctorate from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1943 for a thesis on Persian syntax. By 1949, Bausani had abandoned his Catholic faith. He flirted with Protestantism before converting to the Baháʼí Faith by 1955.[1]
Both universities, and the Venezia were leading centres of Oriental studies, and his work drew great interest from students, created a school which is still today highly activity in studying the field of mystical-religious experience in the Islamic world, as well as study of Sunni and Shi'ite Islam. His work included the translation into Italian of the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (Parma, 1956), as well as that of Nizami, Omar Khayyam and Rumi.[2][1]
He served as the President of the Istituto per l'Oriente in Rome.
Influence
Alessandro Bausani's influence was recognised by diverse communities. His significance as an Italian scholar was noted in his inclusion in the Treccani Enciclopedia Italiana.[2] His significance as a scholar of Iranian culture is reflected by the entry on his work in the Encyclopædia Iranica.[1] The value of his work in the field of Indonesian studies was noted in an obituary published in the journal Indonesia Circle.[3] An obituary published in the Baháʼí Studies Review demonstrates the recognition his work gained in the religious community to which he belonged.[4]
Publications
A bibliography of his work up until 1 May 1981 is found in La bisaccia dello sheikh. Omaggio ad Alessandro Bausani islamista nel sessantesimo compleanno, Venezia, Quaderni del Seminario di Iranistica, Uralo-Altaistica e Caucasologia dell'Università degli studi di Venezia, 1981.
Here is a selection of his principal works:
Main translations of religious texts
Il Corano, introduzione, traduzione e commento, Firenze, Sansoni, 1955 (Translation of the Qur'an into Italian)
Testi religiosi zoroastriani, Catania, Ed. Paoline, 1962 (Zoroastrian Religious Texts)
La bbona notizzia. Vangelo di Matteo nella versione romanesca di Alessandro Bausani, Recco (Ge), Gruppo Editoriale Insieme, 1992 (The Good News, the Gospel of Matthew: a Romanesco Dialect version by Alessandro Bausani)
Nezami, Le sette principesse, Milano, Rizzoli-BUR, 1982 (The Seven Princesses)
Muhammad Iqbal, Il poema celeste, Bari, Leonardo da Vinci, 1965 (The Heavenly Poem)[5]
Monographs
"Sguardo alle letterature del Pakistan", in Oriente Moderno, XXXVII (1957), pp. 400–424 (An examination of the literature of Pakistan)
Storia delle letterature del Pakistan. Urdu, Pangiâbî, Sindhî, Beluci, Pasc'tô, Bengali, Pakistana, Milano, 1958 (History of the Literature of Pakistan)
Storia della Letteratura persiana, 1960 (The History of Persian Literature)
I Persiani, Firenze, Sansoni, 1962 (The Persians)
L'Islam non arabo, in Storia delle religioni, fondata da P. Tacchi Venturi (ed. interamente rifatta e ampliata), Torino, 1970-1 ("Non-Arab Islam" in "The History of Religions")
Le lingue inventate, Roma, 1974 (trad. tedesca abbreviata e anticipata Geheim- und Universalsprachen: Entwicklung und Typologie, Stoccarda, 1973) (Constructed Languages)
^Maria, Luigi Santa (March 1989). "Obituary: Alessandro Bausani". Indonesia Circle. School of Oriental & African Studies. Newsletter. 17 (47–48): 61–62. doi:10.1080/03062848908729705. ISSN0306-2848.
^Pakistan Affairs. Information Division, Embassy of Pakistan. 1961. p. 37. ...Italian scholar, Professor Alessandro Bausani has made a complete translation of Iqbal's Javid Namah into beautiful Italian, under the name Il Poema Celeste,
