L’acqua tra Corano e tradizioni islamiche

In this paper, the nature of water is addressed from two different study perspectives: that of the Islamologist and that of the anthropologist. Water is analyzed in its recurrence in the Qur'an. It is then taken in consideration of its role in Islamic cosmogony, in prophetology, in otherworldly realities and in the prescriptions of purification but also as a metaphor for faith. The paper ends with an appendix in which the ritual and symbolic uses of water in religious practice in Egypt, in particular with reference to the historic Muslim cemetery of al-Qarāfa, are examined.