Riccardo Paredi is Italian and lives in Milan. A Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, he is preparing, within the SEMENSUF project, a critical edition and annotated English translation of Abū Naṣr al-Sarrāj’s Kitāb al-Lumaʿ; he also teaches Sufism at PISAI in Rome. He holds an MA in Religious Studies (Muslim-Christian relations) from Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut (2016), and a PhD in Arabic and Near Eastern Languages from the American University of Beirut (2023). His research focuses on premodern Arabic literature, early Sufism, the history of emotions, and Christian-Muslim relations.
Bibliography
Monographs
Avamposti di amicizia: prove di incontro tra cristiani e musulmani. Venice: Marcianum Press, 2024.
T-Arab: rivoluzioni cantate. Motivi musicali e politici del mondo arabo contemporaneo. Venice: Marcianum Press, 2023.
Edited Volumes
Of Priests and Sufis: Revisiting Catholic Scholarship on Islamic Mysticism (ed.). Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Series, forthcoming (June 2027).
Bilal Orfali, Christian Junge, and Riccardo Paredi (eds.). Mapping the World with Lists: The Art of Enumeration in Arabic Literature and Culture. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Series, forthcoming (December 2026).
Giuseppe Scattolin and Riccardo Paredi (eds.). Manifestazioni spirituali nell’Islam. Palermo: Officina di Studi Medievali, 2021.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
“Toward Asphyxiation: An Exploration of the Early Sufi Breathscape.” Journal of Sufi Studies (2026): 1–29.
“Abū Manṣūr al-Ṯaʿālibī’s Ḫaṣāʾiṣ al-buldān: A Study of an adīb’s Geography, Stereotypes and Lists.” Arabica 70/3 (2023): 323–358.
“Présence et Absence chez Ramon Llull : le paradoxe d’un voyage ‘soufi’ dans le Llibre d’Amic i Amat.” Alcinoé 11 (2018): 1–13.
“The Interpreter of Desires by Ibn ʿArabī and the Vita Nova by Dante Alighieri: The Common Concepts of Absence, Memory and the Indefinite.” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 58 (2015): 17–30. Spanish translation in El Azufre Rojo 5 (2018): 163–174.
Book Chapters and Reference Entries
“Trading Insults: From Geographical Lists to Agonistic Enumeration in Premodern Arabic Literature.” In Mapping the World with Lists: The Art of Enumeration in Arabic Literature and Culture, edited by B. Orfali, C. Junge, and R. Paredi. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, forthcoming (December 2026).
“To Grieve or Not to Grieve: The Ambivalence of Ḥuzn in Early Sufism.” In Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, edited by Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom, 31–47. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2022.
Ten book entries (in Arabic). In Miʾat kitāb wa-kitāb [A Hundred and One Books], edited by Lina Jammal. Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Center for Arabic Language, 2022.
Other Articles
“In Memoriam. Giuseppe Scattolin, MCCJ (1942–2026).” MIDÉO 42 (2027), forthcoming.
“Un sospiro di luce. Meditazione e respiro nel Sufismo.” Humanitas 80/5–6 (2025): 746–753.
“Elezioni studentesche in Libano: una rondine non fa (ancora) primavera.” Oasis 32, Medio Oriente oltre la pandemia (2021): 82–94.
“Lebanon: If These Keep Silence the Stones Will Cry Out.” Oasis 31, Unfinished Revolutions (2020): 130–143.
Translation
Paolo Dall’Oglio. Dialogo sempre con tutti. Translated from Arabic. Milan: Centro Ambrosiano, 2024 (previously unpublished lectures given at the monastery of Mar Musa, Syria).
Book Reviews
Louise Gallorini, The Functions of Angels in Sufi Literature. MIDÉO 41 (2026).
Francesco Piraino, Sufism in Europe: Islam, Esotericism and the New Age. Islamochristiana 52 (2026).
Mohamed Meouak and Cristina de la Puente (eds.), Connected Stories: Contacts, Traditions and Transmissions in Premodern Mediterranean Islam. Al-Markaz: Majallat al-Dirāsāt al-ʿArabiyya 3/2 (2024): 285–302 (in Arabic).
Library of Arabic Literature Series for Young Readers. Quaderni di Studi Arabi 16/1 (2021): 380–383.
Christopher Melchert, Before Sufism: Early Islamic Renunciant Piety. Al-Abhath 69/1 (2021): 248–251.
Adrien Candiard, Du fanatisme : quand la religion est malade. Oasis online (2021).
Claudio Burgio, In viaggio verso Allah. Oasis 27, Sunni Islam: Malaise and Renewal (2018): 138–139.
Work in Progress
Seeking Sorrow: Emotion in Early Islamic Renunciant and Sufi Piety. Monograph, manuscript submitted (2026).
Abū Naṣr al-Sarrāj, Kitāb al-Lumaʿ fī l-taṣawwuf: Critical Edition, Annotated English Translation, and Study. In preparation.
Podcast
Avamposti di amicizia: prove di incontro tra cristiani e musulmani. Podcast produced by WIP Italia for the Oasis International Foundation, with support from Fondazione Cariplo, 2024 (listen on Spotify).
