[Updated May 2022]

Mauro Maggi (Como, 1957) graduated magna cum laude from the Università degli Studi di Milano in 1986 with a dissertation in Comparative Linguistics. He worked as editor at Editrice Bibliografica, Milan, in 1987-1988. After admission, in 1988, to the doctoral programme in Iranian Studies at the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, he specialised in Iranian philology and especially in Khotanese language and literature with Ronald E. Emmerick at the Universität Hamburg, Seminar für Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients, in 1990-1991 and took his doctorate from the Istituto Universitario Orientale in 1992. From 1992 to 1999, he was head of the library of the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente from 1995). He taught Iranian Philology at the Sapienza University of Rome from 1995 to 1999 and was visiting professor of Iranian Studies at the Università degli Studi di Bologna in 1995-1996. He was associate professor of Indo-Iranian Philology at the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples (now Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale) from 1999 to 2008. From 2008 to 2019 he was associate professor and since 2019 he has been professor of Philology, religions, and history of Iran at the Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali dell’Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza.

His research activity is devoted to the study of the Iranian, especially Khotanese, Buddhist texts from Central Asia, and Early and sub-standard New Persian texts. He is the author of The Khotanese Karmavibhaṅga (Roma 1995), Pelliot Chinois 2928: A Khotanese love story (Roma 1997,) and numerous articles. He has edited, amongst others, the volumes Middle Iranian lexicography (Roma 2005, with Carlo G. Cereti), The Persian language in history (Wiesbaden 2011, with Paola Orsatti), Buddhism among the Iranian peoples of Central Asia (Wien 2013, with Matteo De Chiara and Giuliana Martini), and A turquoise coronet: studies in Persian language and literature in honour of Paola Orsatti (Reichert 2020, with Mohsen Ashtiany).

Scholarships: Fondazione Confalonieri, Milan, 1986-1987; Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples: 1988-1991; Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, Paris (Collège de France, Institut de civilisation indienne), 1993; Hirayama Scholarship for the Study of the Silk Routes, UNESCO, Paris, 1993-1994; Pacific Cultural Foundation, Taipei, 1998-1999.

Membership in learned societies: Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese, Milan, 1987-2002; Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Rome, 1988-1991; Societas Iranologica Europaea, Rome, 1991-2009; Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Cambridge, 1999-; Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Rome, 2000-2006.

Professional qualifications: member of the Council of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Cambridge, 1999-2017; founding member, vice-president (2003-2005) and president (2005-2006) of the Centre for Buddhist Studies of the Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale; visiting associate researcher at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, New Taipei City, 2015-2016; member of the editorial board of the Annual report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University, Tokyo.

Research: principal investigator of the research projects “Philology and lexicography of Indian, Iranian and Tibetan Buddhist texts” (PRIN 2005) and “Philology and lexicography of Indian and Iranian Buddhist texts” (PRIN 2007) funded by the Italian Ministry for Education and Research at the Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale; at La Sapienza, he has been principal investigator in local research groups (2012, 2014).

Administration: head of the second level programme in Linguistics of Asia and Africa, Università degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale, 2004-2008; head of the first level programme (2011-2014) and the first and second level programmes (2014-2015) in Oriental Languages and Civilisations, Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza.