2nd year of licentiate (60 ECTS)

The 2nd Year programme presupposes that students will have already acquired a facility in reading and in understanding Arabic. The aim, therefore, is to deepen and enrich their knowledge of certain fundamental aspects of Islamic culture and religious thought. The programme comprises the study of fundamental topics and the completion of the concluding thesis:

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
The 2nd Year of the Licentiate attempts to build specific theoretical and practical skills which are evidenced by the achievement of educational objectives. Expressed in terms of learning outcomes, these are the following:
- to be able to deal directly with Arabic texts representative of fundamental areas of Islamic culture and religious thought; 
- to acquire the specific vocabulary and expressions of the most important Islamic sciences;
- to be able to carry out an adequate analysis of the complexity of the classical and contemporary Islamic world;
- to be able to operate with competence in the field of Muslim-Christian dialogue;
- to compose a thesis, based on an Arabic text, that shows methodologically and scientifically the mastery acquired at the end of the course of study.

Arabic Language (9 ECTS)

Islamic Studies (Third level) (27 ECTS)
The courses in Islamic Studies in the 2nd Year, given in seminar format, help the student to tackle directly texts from original sources in Arabic. The students familiarize themselves with the forms of expression in the different Islamic sciences, each with its specific vocabulary. The programme also includes a course of Arab-Christian apologetics, literature related to Islam insofar as it often responds to questions posed by Muslims to Christians in territories marked by a strong presence of Islam.
Teaching languages: Arabic, English, Italian

Methodology

Licentiate Thesis (24 ECTS)
The thesis concludes the two-year course of study for obtaining the Licentiate. It consists of a scientific monograph on an original topic of Islamic Studies. Such a scientific monograph should make a real contribution, however modest, to furthering knowledge in the Islamic science studied. This, therefore, excludes the repeating of subjects already studied by others or the simple reviewing of studies already conducted on the chosen topic. This ‘original topic’ indicates a new subject or the updating of a subject already studied by others.
The requirements of PISAI state that the thesis must include the annotated translation of an Arabic text, that has not yet been translated. In this way, Students will demonstrate their ability to understand and translate an Arabic text and to produce a piece of work conducted scientifically with regard to content, methodology and style. The Student will then choose to translate a classical or contemporary Arabic text of 15-20 pages. This translated and annotated text, placed in its context and provided with an index and bibliography, will form the thesis, which will not normally exceed 100 pages.
The choice of the Arabic text will be made in dialogue with an advisor who will closely follow the development of the writing of the thesis. The defence will take place in the presence of and with the adjudication of the advisor and a reader.
For the final assessment of the thesis, the written work counts for 75% and the defence for 25%.