When Alessandro Bausani passed away on 12 March 1988, he was Professor Emeritus and Director of the School of Oriental Studies and the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", and he was a member of the "Lincei" National Academy. He was well-known in academic and cultural circles for his unceasing search after knowledge, expressed through his publications, essays and articles. One only has to cite his books such as Persia religiosa da Zaratustra a Bahâ'u'llâh , I Persiani, his translation of the Qur'án into the Italian language, or his excellent translation of the mystical poems of Rumi, Poesie mistiche. Yet these titles and accomplishments cannot express his multi-faceted personality, his versatility and his spiritual knowledge.

Alessandro Bausani was born in Rome on 29 May 1921. He received religious education during his youth, and expressed a capacity for literary studies. His field of specialization was linguistics, and he studied many languages. But he also did research in other branches of human knowledge such as astronomy and mathematics.

His international reputation as a scholar of various disciplines was based on his extraordinary ability to express scientific and religious concepts with an academic meticulous precision. His paradoxes would leave his readers not only amazed at his originality, but also extremely interested in his perceptions.


Adapted from an article by GIOVANNI PAPPALETTERA
(published in The Bahá'í World (v.20)