MARIE CURIE 2023 – Project TransIslam. Translating Islam
Title: Translating Islam. The European understanding of Islam and the influence of dragoman translations on the inter-religious dialogue between Christians and Muslims (1730-1750).
Acronyme: TransIslam
Researcher: Dr Angela De Maria
Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Saggioro.
Start date: 1 February 2025
End date: 31 January 2027
Call: HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
Project Number: 101155392
EU Funding: € 188,590.08
Partner institutions/supervisors
Hosting Institution: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, Department of History, Anthropology, Religions, Art History, and Performing Arts; Prof. Alessandro Saggioro.
Associated Partner for Secondment: Boğaziçi University of Istanbul, Turkey, Department of History.
Project summary:
The project aims to bring to light the only planned venture financed by a European country to explore Ottoman culture before the development of 19th century orientalism and colonialism. Through the analysis of the French translation of a high-value group of 10 religious-themed Ottoman manuscripts, I aim to contribute to the combat of today’s Islamophobic societal sentiments - still largely conditioned by outdated Christian stereotypes and generally unaware of peaceful Christian-Muslim relations documented in recent scientific studies - by encouraging widespread societal re-education initiatives designed to improve an objective and unprejudiced understanding of Islam. The body of texts, selected from a collection of around 120 translations on various topics (still completely unknown to the scientific community) commissioned in 1730-1750 by the French government to dragomans (the official interpreters of the embassy in Istanbul) and “jeunes de langues” (dragoman apprentices), and conserved at the Parisian Bibliothèque nationale de France since the first half of the 18th century, is the principal field of inquiry to examine whether, to what extent, and in what way dragoman translations contributed to the spread of such European perceptions of Islam, and eventually impacted the interreligious relations between Christians and Muslims.