Ali Humayun Akhtar’s ‘Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini’ is particularly relevant against the backdrop of Giorgia Meloni’s rise as Italy’s first far-right leader since the Second World War, her fearmongering and discriminatory policies against Muslims
In October 2022, Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s first far-right prime minister since the Second World War, riding a wave of popularity drawn from messaging blending patriotism, Christianity, and motherhood. Her Brothers of Italy with roots in the post-World War neo-fascist Italian Social Movement maintained its popularity by winning a plurality of the votes (over 28%) in the June 2024 European parliamentary polls as far-right parties made significant gains across Europe.
Meloni and her fellow travelers have targeted Muslims by pushing conspiracy theories about Europe’s alleged Islamisation. Her party colleagues have opposed the construction of Muslim places of worship, claiming that they trigger social conflicts. The media fearmongering about mosques has then been used to legitimize discriminatory policies and legislation.
Italy’s ruling party has opposed the use of garages and industrial warehouses as mosques even as Muslims, who make up around 4.9% of the country’s population and have little material wealth, are unable to institutionalise their religious infrastructure in the absence of legal recognition. Italy recognises the Catholic Church as an independent and sovereign authority. It has contracts with 13 smaller religious communities including Hindus and Jews. Muslims have been denied a similar arrangement.
Meloni’s discriminatory policies have further marginalized Muslims, sullying Italy’s legacy as a bridge between Europe and Muslims of North Africa, and the Middle East. Italy developed a long and fruitful relationship with the Islamic world when the European nation was at a global crossroads for more than two millennia—from the Ancient Roman period and the Renaissance to the rise of the Italian Republic. The relationship has had an enduring impact.
Commerce linked Europe with the Middle East and North Africa when Italian cities were at the front and centre of international commerce. American academic Ali Humayun Akhtar‘s book Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini explores these linkages between the Italian peninsula and the Islamic world and how they survived the turmoil of Napoleon’s conquests and two World Wars.
Akhtar details accounts of European travellers and the contact between Italy and the Muslim world. He documents Venice and Florence’s commercial links with the Mamluks, who ruled Egypt and Syria (1250-1517), and the Ottomans, whose empire at its peak encompassed most of southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Akhtar shows how the interface enriched both cultures.
Engaging and accessible, Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini underscores the enduring impact of Italy’s long relationship with the Islamic world—from Imperial Rome to Fascist Italy and beyond. Akhtar, a Visiting Scholar of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, traces the stories of families from the Italian peninsula as they navigated culture and conflict in the joint pursuit of commercial exchange.
- Publisher : Edinburgh University Press; 1st edition (March 31, 2024)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1399519611
- ISBN-13 : 978-1399519618
- Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.75 x 0.75 x 9.75 inches
A transnational history, the book analyses the lives of the Pisans, Genoese, Venetians, Florentines, Livornans, the so-called Levantines, and the Risorgimento-era Italian citizens. The book sheds light on how present-day Europe, especially Italy, was coming to terms with its past connections with the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia in debates about EU trade agreements, borders, immigration, politics, and culture.
Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini shows how Italian cities have been centres of international exchange for centuries, linking Europe with the most storied marketplaces of the Middle East and North Africa. It paints a new picture of European history, citing debates about trade with its southern neighbours.
Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini evokes an earlier era of encounters and sheds light on where the EU is heading. It traces the stories of merchants and diplomats—beginning with Ancient Rome’s fall and the Papal State’s rise—among the peninsula’s Pisans, Genoese, Venetians, Florentines, and Livornans as they navigated cultural differences for commerce and adventure.
Through their stories, Akhtar, a Faculty member at the Hillary Clinton Center for Women’s Empowerment at Morocco’s Al Akhawayn University, offers a picture of the connections between the peninsula and the Islamic world. Livorno and Cairo became cultural centres of Italian-speaking Roman Catholic, Greek, and Jewish communities, who navigated democratic revolutions and new discourses around nationhood, by the 20th century, following the Italian Unification. The kaleidoscopic Italy and the Islamic World: From Caesar to Mussolini is based on documentation in Italian, French, Arabic, and Turkish and covers one and a half millennia (476–1952 AD).
