My primary field of research is Indo-Persian literature and the interaction of Indic and Islamicate intellectual traditions in South Asia, with a focus on the Persian translations of Sanskrit religious and philosophical texts in Mughal India.
My research projects aim at investigating from different perspectives the reception of Hindu religious thought in Muslim India, and the diverse and multifaceted processes of adaptation, appropriation, refutation and criticism which took place between these two religious traditions during the age of Muslim domination over the Subcontinent (roughly 13th to 19th cent.).
My latest relevant publications include:
- Muḥammad Dārā Šikōh , La congiunzione dei due oceani, edited and translated by S. D'Onofrio & F. Speziale. Milano: Adelphi, 2011, 170 pp.
- A Persian Commentary to the Upaniṣads: Dārā Šikōh's «Sirr-i Akbar», in D. Hermann & F. Speziale (eds.), Muslim Cultures in the Indo-Iranian World during the Early-Modern and Modern Periods. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2010: 533-563.
My current researches include:
- The Sanskrit sources of the Hawd al-hayat / Amrtakunda;
- Critical edition and translation of Kalyanamalla's Sulaimaccaritra;
- Critical edition and translation of Dara Shikoh's Majma' al-Bahrayn / Samudrasangama;
- Critical edition and translation of 'Abd al-Rahman Chishti's Mir'at al-Makhluqat;
- The life and works of Shaykh Sufi Sharif Jhanjhanwi;
- A Critical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Traditions.
