Gianluca Saitta is a Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Palermo. He holds a BA in “Languages and Cultures of the Modern World” (Arabic and French Language and Literature) from Sapienza University of Rome and an MA in “Arabic Studies” from INALCO (Paris). He also earned a Diploma in “Arabic and Islamic Studies” from PISAI (Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies) in Rome. He pursued furtherArabic studies in several Arab countries, including Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia, where he attended language courses at DEAC in Cairo, conducted doctoral research at CEFAS in Sana'a, and undertook advanced studies at the University of La Manouba in Tunis. He earned his PhD in “Literatures and Civilizations” from INALCO (Paris) in 2017 and is currently an Associate Researcher at CERMOM (INALCO). His doctoral dissertation on the maqāma and munāẓara genres in premodern Yemen (14th–19th centuries) was awarded the Best Doctoral Thesis Prize in "Languages and Literatures of the Maghreb and the Middle East" by the GIS Moyen-Orient et mondes musulmans and the Institut d'études de l'islam et des sociétés du monde musulman. He has taught Arabic at INALCO and served as a Research Fellow with teaching responsibilities (Attaché temporaire d’enseignement et de recherche – ATER) in Arabic Language and Literature at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. His research focuses on premodern Arabic literature of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, with particular attention to the maqāma and the munāẓara, as well as to the evolution and transformation of literary genres and themes. He is also interested in representations of nature and landscape in Arabic literature and in travel writing in the Ottoman Maghreb. He is the author of the monograph Les représentations du paysage et de la nature dans les maqāmāt/munāẓarāt yéménites d’époque prémoderne (IPO, 2023), as well as several scholarly articles.

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