Around the Great Mosque of Rome (2023, 2024)
Between September 2023 and June 2024, fieldwork conducted around the Great Mosque of Rome brought together many of us to study this architectural masterpiece from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Designed by Paolo Portoghesi, Sami Moussawi, and Vittorio Gigliotti, the mosque has been extensively studied in the context of architectural history and beyond. Nevertheless, with the Great Mosque as the central object of inquiry, SHARP Lab sought to propose a novel, transdisciplinary approach: discussions and exchanges across disciplines, conducted both online and offline over the past months, raised epistemological questions and methodological doubts that might not have surfaced otherwise. This experiment culminated in the Historia Religionum special issue, History and Heritage of the Great Mosque of Rome , edited by Maria Chiara Giorda. The collaborative effort evolved at different paces and employed a variety of methods, ranging from those typical of ethnographic research (such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews) to archival analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping techniques.

View of the Great Mosque. Ph. Luca Bossi
Integrating perspectives from history, anthropology, architecture, geography, sociology, and digital humanities, this comprehensive special issue includes the following articles:
- Valeria Fabretti and Massimo Leone: Preface
- Maria Chiara Giorda: History and Heritage of the Great Mosque of Rome: Interdisciplinary Approaches through the Space
- Daniele Campobenedetto and Giulia Massenz: When Geopolitics and Architecture Touch: The Micropolitics Surrounding Architectural Negotiations in the Great Mosque of Rome
- Eleonora D’Alessandro and Angelica Federici: The Great Mosque of Rome: Cultural Memory and Architectural Synthesis through Warburg’s Comparative Method
- Luca Bossi and Luca Patrizi: A Unique Experience? The Great Mosque of Rome as a Peculiar Case in the Italian Religious Field
- Silvia Omenetto: GIS Analysis of the Location of the Great Mosque of Rome
- Gianfranco Bria and Carmelo Russo: The Authority of Imam in Italian Islam and Beyond: The Case of Guided Tours at the Great Mosque in Rome
We hope this special issue will serve as a valuable resource for those researching urban religion, religious heritage, and interdisciplinary approaches in the study of religious spaces.
