A Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, he obtained a PhD in Anthropology at the University of Siena with a dissertation on the Shi‘i theological colleges (hawza) in Syria. His research interests are focused on Shi‘i Sufism in early modern, modern and contemporary times, the intellectual and religious history of Iran and Qur’anic exegesis. His publications include La scuola degli Imam: l’Iran e l’educazione religiosa nell'Islam sciita (2016) and Approaches to the Qur’an in Contemporary Iran (2019). A perfumer in his spare time, he is translating a treatise on Shi ‘ism and perfumery written by a nineteenth-century sheikh.
