Carlo Alfonso Nallino (18 February 1872 – 25 July 1938) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

orientalist.

Biography

Nallino was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, and studied literature under

Italo Pizzi Italo Pizzi (Parma, 30 November 1849 – Turin, 6 December 1920) was an Italian academic and scholar of Persian language and literature. He was the first to establish the academic field of Persian language and literature in Italy. Biography Fro ...

at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

. From 1896 he taught in the Istituto Universitario Orientale of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and then at the

University of Palermo The University of Palermo ( it, Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties. History The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its ...

(1902–1913). By the age of 21 Nallino had gained an international reputation for his publication of an Arabic manuscript by the celebrated tenth-century

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

astronomer

al-Battānī Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī aṣ-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī ( ar, محمد بن جابر بن سنان البتاني) ( Latinized as Albategnius, Albategni or Albatenius) (c. 858 – 929) was an astron ...

. With his publication of a book on Egyptian Arab dialect in 1900 he was invited by King

Fuad I of Egypt Fuad I ( ar, فؤاد الأول ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; tr, I. Fuad or ; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sultan ...

to teach at the Egyptian Khedive University. Amongst his pupils there was

Taha Husayn Taha Hussein (, ar, طه حسين; November 15, 1889 – October 28, 1973) was one of the most influential 20th-century Egyptian writers and intellectuals, and a figurehead for the Egyptian Renaissance and the modernist movement in the Middle ...

, who would go on to become Minister of the Education. Nallino eventually returned to Italy to take up the position of ordinary professor at the

University La Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

of Rome, where, in 1921, he had founded the Istituto per l'Oriente, which published the magazine ''Oriente Moderno''. In 1933 he was named member of the Royal Academy of Arab Language in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, and he was a member of the Italian

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...

and of the

Royal Academy of Italy The Royal Academy of Italy ( it, Reale Accademia d'Italia, italic=no) was a short-lived Italian academy of the Fascist period. It was created on 7 January 1926 by royal decree,See reference . but was not inaugurated until 28 October 1929. It was e ...

. In 1938 he travelled for two months in the

Arabic Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

, but he died shortly afterwards in Rome from a cardiac arrest after publishing only the first volumes of the studies about his trip.

Publications

*''Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia'' by

Michele Amari Michele Amari (7 July 1806 – 16 July 1889) was a Sicilian patriot, historian and orientalist. Biography Born at Palermo son of Ferdinando and Giulia Venturelli, he devoted a great part of his life to the history of Sicily. Amari was also a ...

(1854). *''Chrestimathia Qorani Arabica'' (1893). *''Al-Battānī sive Albatenii opus astronomicum: ad fidem codicis Escurialensis Arabice editum'', (1899 - 1907); the Latin title of al-Battānī's ''Kitāb Zīj al-Ṣābī’'' () ; multi-volume scientific treatise on geography and astronomy from Arabic manuscript with Latin annotations.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

Biography

Publications

References

Bibliography

See also