Timsca - TransIslam on Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

18/02/2026

🌙✝️ Did you know? Ramadan and Lent begin at the same time this year.

Today marks a truly exceptional moment, one that occurs only every few generations. Both Christians and Muslims begin their sacred seasons of fasting: Lent and Ramadan.

Two different traditions. Two distinct theological frameworks. Yet strikingly similar practices.

In both Lent and Ramadan, the cornerstones are prayer, fasting, and charity. It is a powerful time of self-examination, discipline, and spiritual renewal in the lives of the faithful.

This convergence is more than a coincidence of the calendar; it is an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and foster genuine dialogue.

17/01/2026

📍 TransIslam in the Most Serene Republic of Venice

The TransIslam project has entered a new phase with a secondment at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, under the supervision of Vera Costantini. With its long-standing tradition in Ottoman language and literature, Ca’ Foscari is a key academic hub for Ottoman studies.

Historically, Venice has been a crossroads between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. For centuries, the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire were closely connected through diplomacy, trade, and cultural exchange.

Today, Venice’s rich archival heritage related to the Ottoman world offers a unique setting for exploring Ottoman–Mediterranean connections within TransIslam.

10/11/2025

Bahrain’s Sacred Heart Church Declared a Sanctuary: A New Symbol of Dialogue in the Gulf.

We join the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia and Bishop Aldo Berardi in celebrating the historic declaration of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Manama as a Sanctuary — a milestone for dialogue and peaceful coexistence in the Arabian Peninsula. This event highlights Bahrain’s commitment to hospitality and mutual respect among faiths, offering a living example of interreligious understanding in a Muslim country.

At TransIslam, this resonates deeply with our study of the dragomans — those remarkable interpreters and cultural mediators of early modern Istanbul’s Galata-Pera district. Rooted in their Catholic faith yet fluent in the Ottoman world, they embodied how language, diplomacy, and faith could intertwine to build bridges between diverse peoples.

From the dragomans’ Istanbul to today’s Bahrain, history reminds us that only through dialogue can bridges of peace be built. 🌍

28/10/2025

🕊️ 60 Years of Nostra Aetate 🕊️

Today marks the anniversary of "Nostra Aetate" ("In Our Time"), the 1965 declaration that opened a new chapter in relations with Jews, Muslims, and people of all faiths.
Though not widely known, it was a real turning point: it taught that respect and dialogue between religions are essential for peace.

Sixty years later, its message still speaks to our world — one where misunderstanding and stereotypes too often divide us. "Nostra Aetate" reminds us that education remains the key to building peace: learning about others, learning with others, and seeing diversity as a source of shared growth.

This anniversary should not pass unnoticed. Every act of understanding is, still today, an act of peace!

Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-christian religions - Nostra aetate

08/09/2025

👉 Did you know that in early 1700s Paris, very young apprentices — sometimes as young as 9 years old — were already learning Ottoman Turkish and translating Islamic manuscripts? ✍️
Their work, commissioned by the French crown, was meant to better understand the Muslim world, and it shows how curiosity and knowledge have always been used as bridges between cultures.

📚 Today, as students across Europe return to school, it’s worth remembering that cultural understanding is one of the most powerful tools for peaceful coexistence, it is a way to dismantle prejudice, and the key to building a future where diversity is a strength rather than a threat.

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