Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti

Biancamaria Amoretti was born on 26 November 1938, in Aosta.^[1][2] She earned her doctorate in 1963 from the University of Naples - L'Orientale with a dissertation titled Hagiography, Popular Devotion, and Pilgrimages Dedicated to the Eighth Imam, ʿAlī al-Riḍā.^[2] Her thesis director was Laura Veccia Vaglieri.^[2]

After completing her university studies, she began teaching at the Sapienza University of Rome^[1] in 1967 as an assistant.^[2] In 1971, she was promoted to adjunct professor, and in 1976, she received tenure.^[2] Finally, in 1985, Amoretti was appointed to the chair of Islamology at the university.^[2] Her primary research interests were the history of medieval Islam, particularly the relationships between religion and politics.^[1]

She was also interested in Shia Islam and issues related to female expressiveness and representation in this history.^[1][3][4] Throughout her research and travels, the historian described herself as a feminist and wrote about the condition of women in the Muslim world.^[2][4] She contributed to the feminist journal DWF from its inception in 1976.^[4]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Amoretti frequently traveled to Iran for her research.^[5]

She married Gianroberto Scarcia, one of her fellow Islamologists.^[1][3] Starting in 1992, Amoretti served as a juror for the Pozzale Luigi Russo Prize.^[1] In 1998, she organized the first international meeting of scholars on the theme of the ashraf and wrote a significant portion of the scientific outputs for the conference.^[6]

She died in Rome on 19 September 2020.^[1][3]

The Iranian Cultural Institute in Italy quickly organized a webinar on 29 September 2020, in her honor.^[7] The journal DWF paid tribute to her.^[4] In 2023, the University of Trieste held a conference in her memory titled "Study days in memory of Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti: the role of women in the Muslim world and Palestine".^[8]