Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Toward an Ethospoetics of the Islamic Languages

Re-Reading Multilingualism Along the Silk Road According to Alessandro Bausani ‒ Part I

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Abstract

In 1966, Alessandro Bausani (1921-1988), a key scholar of Arabic and Persian studies, introduced the influential paradigm of ʻIslamic Languagesʼ, sparking both skepticism and interest to date. This article, the first of two, uses ideas from Bachelard and Deleuze-Guattari, along with historical sources, to re-read Bausani’s paradigm, focusing on space and mobility along the Silk Road. It argues that shared religious and moral values, more than language itself, drive the flow of ideas in the Muslim ʻdomestic spaceʼ. This ʻethospoeticʼ lens shows how shared imagination forms in multilingual literary contexts, crossing ethnic and linguistic lines.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Feb. 24, 2025 | Accepted: July 7, 2025 | Published July 31, 2025 | Language: en

Keywords Alessandro Bausani • Sufism • Multilingualism • Muslim domestic space • Ethospoetics • Theoretical studies

Copyright © 2025 Chiara Fontana. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2025/01/003