Giuseppe Cappello (PhD, Un. L’Orientale, 2019) works on Hindu-Muslim intellectual interactions and Christian-Muslim polemical dialogues. His dissertation focused on the Gulzār-i ḥāl by Banwālīdās (1662-63), a Persian adaptation of the Sanskrit drama Prabodhacandrodaya. In 2019, Giuseppe was awarded a Gonda Fellowship to do research at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden.
In 2021, Giuseppe collaborated with the Institute for Missiology and the Study of Theologies beyond Europe (University of Münster) on the project “Indo–Persian History of Missions and Religions”. In this framework, Giuseppe wrote a critical edition of the Māsiḥ-i Miṣqal-i Āina-yi ḥaqnumā (vol. 2) by Jesuit Father Aimé Chézaud (1656). The Māsiḥ is a Persian polemical text that confutes Muslim theological perspectives also through Arabic quotations of the Qur’ān.
As part of the EuQu Project, Giuseppe will analyse the role played by Qur’ānic quotations in the polemical strategy of Aimé Chézaud, and identify the Arabic edition of the Qur’ān used by the author. Giuseppe is also interested in investigating the transmission and reception of the Māsiḥ in Persia and Italy through the analysis of textual and paratextual sources.