Dr. Alba Fedeli

Current Project: InterSaME

My work primarily focuses on early Qur’anic manuscripts dating from the 7th century CE. My interest in Qur’anic manuscripts began while I was cooperating in publishing manuscript facsimiles with my late mentor, Sergio Noja Noseda, in Italy. Since then, I have had the chance to gain first-hand knowledge of collections of these fragments scattered all over the world, from Yemen to Ireland, from Russia to Qatar, Turkey and Egypt. After my undergraduate studies in Classical Philology and Arabic at the University of Milan, I was appointed as librarian and director of the Noja Noseda Foundation for Arabic and Islamic Studies from 2000 to 2008. As director of the Ferni Noja Noseda Foundation, I took part in activities as diverse as displaying printed books at the International Exhibition of the Qur’an in Tehran, organizing events as part of the Italian-Egyptian cooperation for Comparative Studies in Cairo, and the digitization project of the Sana’a palimpsest (MSS DaM 01-27.1) and other manuscripts that I selected (DaM 01-29.1 and DaM 01-25.1).

During my doctoral research at the University of Birmingham from 2011 to 2015, I highlighted the value of the so-called Birmingham Qur’an and the unexplored story of the Mingana collection, being involved in the media frenzy after the BBC announcement that the “Birmingham Qur’an” manuscript dates to Muhammad’s lifetime. During my stay at the University of Birmingham, I developed my digital humanities knowledge in terms of the post-processing of digital images for the virtual reconstruction of palimpsest manuscripts, the digital editing of texts using the TEI system and encoding for phylogenetic analysis in grouping manuscripts that I continued as a Research Fellow in Budapest, at the Central European University. From my interest in Qur’anic manuscripts, the research project on the Mingana-Lewis palimpsest emerged bringing to light its hidden story, leaves and texts.

I was a research fellow at the Centre for Religious Studies, CEU, in Budapest and at the John Rylands Research Institute in Manchester from 2015 to 2017 and at FSCIRE Foundation for Religious Studies from 2017 to 2018.

Since 2018, I am a Research Associate at the Asia Afrika Institut where I am the co-PI of InterSaME project, ‘The intertwined world of the oral and written transmission of sacred traditions in the Middle East’. It is a DFG-AHRC joint project in co-operation with Geoffrey Khan at the University of Cambridge.

Academic Positions

Oct 2018 to date. Research Associate at Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg

Feb 2018 – Aug 2019. Research Fellow, Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, University of Birmingham, UK (Codex Zacynthius Project)

Oct 2017 – Sept 2018. Senior Research Fellow, FSCIRE (Foundation for Religious Studies), Bologna, Italy

Jun 2017 – Oct 2018. Consultant for the Christian Arabic collection of the Museum of the Bible, Oklahoma City

Sept 2015 – Sept 2017. Researcher at Center for Religious Studies, Central European University, Budapest

Mar 2015. Instructor of Arabic Culture, Università Statale di Milano

Oct – Nov 2008. Consultant for the cataloguing and conservation project of the new findings of the Great Mosque of Sanaa, Yemen

Oct 2004 – Jun 2012. Adjunct Professor of Arabic, Università Statale di Milano

Apr 2003 – Jan 2008. Director of Ferni Noja Noseda Foundation for Islamic Arabic Studies, Lesa, Italy

Education and Academic Degrees

2015. PhD, University of Birmingham, UK. Thesis: Early Qur’ānic manuscripts, their text, and the Alphonse Mingana papers, held in the Department of Special Collections of the University of Birmingham

2000. Diploma di Laurea (MA) in Classical Philology. Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy

Fellowships, Honorary Fellowships, and Grants

Mar 2020 – Feb 2023. DFG-AHRC project: The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East (InterSaME), joint project with University of Cambridge (co-P.I.: Geoffrey Khan)

Jun – Sept 2015. Research Fellow at John Rylands Research Institute, Manchester UK: A reading of the Qur’ānic Manuscripts of the John Rylands University Library

Apr 2015 to date. Honorary Research Fellow of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing, University of Birmingham, UK

Sept 2012 – Aug 2014. PhD Scholarship, Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Birmingham (UK)

2010 – 2011, The Islamic Manuscript Association Research Grant for the Project The enhancement of the Mingana-Lewis palimpsest (CUL Or. 1287): reading between the lines of its post-processed images, Cambridge University Library

2009 – 2010. The Islamic Manuscript Association Research Grant for the Project Digitization of the Mingana-Lewis palimpsest, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge University Library

Feb – Mar 2010. Visiting Fellowship: Ancient Arabia (from the 1st Millennium BCE to the Emergence of Islam) and its Relations with the Surrounding Cultures, Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Organization of International Conferences, Membership in Steering and Programming Committees

2019 to date, Head of the Nominating Committee of the International Qur’anic Studies Association

2019 to date, Member of the Series Editorial Board of “Library of Arabic and Islamic Heritage” by Gorgias Press and King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies

2019 to date, Member of the Series Editorial Board of “Texts and Studies” by Gorgias Press

2019 to date, Member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the Alta Scuola Europea di Scienze Religiose “Giuseppe Alberigo” (Bologna)

2016 to date, Co-chairing the Research Unit Programming about The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism of the International Qur’anic Studies Association with Shady Nasser (and the late Keith Small)

2016 to date, Co-chairing the five-year Research Programme Textual Criticism of the New Testament, the Old Testament and the Qur’an of the European Association of Biblical Studies with Theodora Panella

Mar 2018, Organization of the panel conference In memoriam Sergio Noja: an Arabist per accidens, within the annual conference of the European Academy of Religion, Bologna

May 2017, Organization of the Conference Paleo-Qur’anic Manuscripts: State of the Field, Central European University, Budapest

2015 – 2018, Assistente Accademico of Arabic Studies Section, Ambrosiana Academy and Library, Milan

2015 – 2017, Member of the Nominating Committee of the International Qur’anic Studies Association

PhD Projects

Rami El-Halaseh, ‘The Problem of Multiple qira’at in the Topkapi Qur’an Manuscript’, (University of St Andrews, co-supervisor)