A wondrous arabist . Studies in memory of Angelo Arioli

This introduction opens a special issue of Rivista degli Studi Orientali dedicated to the memory of Angelo Arioli (1947-2022), Arabist, writer, and musician. The volume collects contributions from a conference held in September 2024 honoring Arioli's multifaceted scholarly legacy and his profound impact on Italian Arabic and Islamic studies. After encountering Arabic almost by chance during the 1968 student movement, Arioli became a pioneering teacher at Sapienza University of Rome, revolutionizing the teaching of Arabic as a living language and co-founding the Faculty of Oriental Studies in 2001. His research spanned medieval Arabic onomastics and prosopography—including decades of work on the Onomasticon Arabicum project—linguistics, and the literary genre of mirabilia, culminating in acclaimed works on imaginary islands and wondrous cities. He also engaged deeply with modern Arab political movements and Palestinian poetry. The volume reflects the breadth of his interests through sections on Mirabilia, Arab and Islamic Peripli, and Labyrinths of Stories, gathering contributions from four generations of scholars. Beyond his erudition, Arioli's teaching emphasized the joy of study, philological rigor, and the understanding of language as a living essence—legacies that continue to inspire his former students across Italy.