Enrico Cerulli (15 February 1898 – 19 August 1988)Enrico Cerulli
''Worldcat''. Retrieved 27 Oct 2024. was an

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

scholar of Somali and Ethiopian studies, a

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

and a

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

Biography

Cerulli was born in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1898. He wrote his doctoral

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

at the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...

Federico II on the traditional law of the Somali. At the same time, he studied Ethio-Semitic languages under Francesco Gallina, and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

under Carlo Alfonso Nallino and Giorgio Levi Della Vida at the Regio Istituto Orientale (later Istituto Universitario Orientale, today Università di Napoli "L'Orientale").Ricci 2003, p. 708b. Cerulli is also renowned for his studies on the Latin and Old French translation of the Arabic '' Kitab al-Miraj'', a famous

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

book concerned with

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

's ascension into

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

(known as the '' Mi'raj''), following his miraculous one-night journey from

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

(the ''Isra''). The book's Islamic depictions of

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

are believed by some scholars, including Cerulli, to have been a major influence on

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's 14th century masterpiece, the

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

. Between January 1939 and June 1940, Cerulli was Governor of Scioa ( Shewa) and later of

Harar Harar (; Harari language, Harari: ሀረር / ; ; ; ), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply Gey (Harari: ጌይ, ݘٛىيْ, ''Gēy'', ), is a List of cities with defensive walls, walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is al ...

, two provinces of Italian East Africa. He also headed the political office for East Africa in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. The restored regime of

Haile Selassie I Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

approached the United Nations War Crimes Commission in 1947 to have him tried for war crimes, along with nine other Italians. In 1948, the Commission ruled that he was suspected war criminal, and his name was added to the international registry of war criminals. The Ethiopian government abandoned its case against him due to its inability to obtain extraditions, but barred him permanently from entering Ethiopia.Pankhurst 1999, p. 124, 128. Later, from 1950 to 1954, Cerulli served as the Italian Ambassador to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Finally he was named President of

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), 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 Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Works

* 1922: ''Folk-literature of the Galla of Southern Abyssinia''. Cambridge, MA. * 1930-1933: ''Etiopia Occidentale (dallo Scioa alla frontiera del Sudan). Note del viaggio, 1927-1928''. 2 Vols. Roma. * 1931: ''Documenti arabi per la storia dell'Etiopia''. Roma: G. Bardi. * 1936: ''Studi etiopici''. Vol. I: ''La lingua e la storia di Harar''. Roma: Istituto per l'Oriente. * 1936: ''Studi etiopici''. Vol. II: ''La lingue e la storia dei Sidamo''. Roma: Istituto per l'Oriente. * 1938: ''Studi etiopici''. Vol. III: ''Il linguaggio dei Giangerò ed alcune lingue Sidama dell'Omo (Basket, Ciara, Zaissè)''. Roma; Istituto per l'Oriente. eprinted: 1963* 1943: ''Il Libro etiopico dei Miracoli di Maria e le sue fonti nelle letterature del Medio Evo latino''. Roma. * 1943-1947: ''Etiopi in Palestina: storia della comunità etiopica di Gerusalemme''. 2 vols. Roma: Libreria dello Stato. * 1949: ''Il 'Libro della Scala' e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia''. Città del Vaticano. * 1951: ''Studi etiopici''. Vol. IV: ''La lingua Caffina''. Roma: Istituto per l'Oriente. * 1956: (ed.) ''Atti di Krestos Samra''. ( Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 163–164; Scriptores Aetiopici, 33–34) Louvain. * 1957-1964: ''Somalia: scritti vari editi ed inediti''. 3 vols. * 1958: ''Storia della letteratura etiopica''. Milano. rd. ed. 1968 * 1958-1960: ''Scritti teologici etiopici dei secoli XVI-XVII''. 2 vols. Città del Vaticano. * 1959: (ed.) ''Atti di Giulio di Aqfahs''. (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, 190–191; Scriptores Aetiopici, 37–38) Louvain. * 1971: (with: Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti) ''Testi neo-aramaici dell’Iran settentrionale''. Napoli : Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli. * 1971: ''L'Islam di ieri e di oggi''. Roma. Istituto per l'Oriente

Notes

References

* Celli, Andrea (2022). ''Dante and the Mediterranean Comedy. From Muslim Spain to Post-Colonial Italy.'' Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 27-78 * Mallette, Karla (2010). European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean. Pennsylvania University Press: Philadelphia * Pankhurst, Richard (1999). "Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia", in: ''Northeast African Studies'' 6/1-2 (New series), pp. 83–140. * Ricci, Lanfranco (1988 990. "Enrico Cerulli", in: ''Rassegna di Studi Etiopici'' 32, pp. 4–19; "Bibliografia" (by Gianfrancesco Lusini), pp. 20–44; "errata-corrige", 33 (1989

991 Year 991 (Roman numerals, CMXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events * March 1: In Rouen, Pope John XV ratifies the first Peace and Truce of God, Truce of God, between Æthelred the Unready and Richard I o ...

, pp. 197–198. * Ricci, Lanfranco (2003). "Cerulli, Enrico", in: S. Uhlig et al. (eds.), ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'' Vol. 1: A-C (Wiesbadn: Harrassowitz), pp. 708b-709b.

External links

* «Enrico Cerulli» (Filippo Bertotti)

in:

Encyclopaedia Iranica An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cerulli, Enrico 1898 births 1988 deaths Italian war crimes in Ethiopia Italian war criminals Ethiopianists Heads of universities in Italy Writers from Naples Somalists University of Naples Federico II alumni Ambassadors of Italy to Iran Corresponding fellows of the British Academy

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links