Bio-bibliography

Italy

Francesco Gabrieli

1983 Balzan Prize for Oriental Studies

For his major contribution to knowledge of the Islamic world as a result of his research ranging from pre-Islamic Arabic poetry to contemporary literature, and from the history of the caliphate to the Arab reawakening, for which he has adopted a new methodological approach, thus obtaining original results.

Francesco Gabrieli was born in Rome on 27 April 1904 (†1996);

professor of Arabic and Arab literature in 1930;

professor of Arabic at the Istituto Orientale, Naples University in 1935-38;

professor of Arabic and Arab literature at Rome University from 1938 to 1979, being appointed Professor Emeritus in 1980;

fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei since 1947;

vice president of the Accademia dei Lincei since 1982;

ordinary fellow of Arcadia;

corresponding member of the Istituto Lombardo and the Accademia di Scienze Lettere e Arti di Palermo;

honorary fellow of the American Oriental Society;

foreign fellow of the Arab Academies of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Amman;

holder of an honorary Doctorate from the Sorbonne (Paris III) and Lecce University;

president of the Unione Accademica Nazionale from 1982 to 1983.

He bas published about 200 scientific works and papers on Arabic and Persian literature, ancient and modem Islamic culture and history, relations between classical civilization and the Muslim civilization.

His major works include:

— Al-Mamùn e gli Alidi (1929);

— Il califfato di Hishàm (1935);

— Giamil al-Udri (1938);

— Ibn Hamdìs (1948);

— Storia della letteratura araba (1951, 2 ed. 1959, 3 ed. 1967);

— Alfarabius. Compendium legum Platonis (1952);

— Il risorgimento arabo (1958);

— Abù Firàs (1977);

— Gli Arabi (1967);

— Maometto e le grandi conquiste arabe (1967);

— La poésie religieuse dans l’ancien Islam (1974);

— Viaggi e viaggiatori arabi (1975);

— La storiografia arabo-islamica in Italia (1975);

— Cultura araba del Novecento (1983).