Medietà e facilitazione. Note a margine di alcune fonti arabe islamiche contemporanee (Some comments on the Golden Mean and Enabling from selected Arabic and Islamic contemporary sources)

slamic culture, from its earliest foundational texts, has demonstrated an aversion to all forms of excess, going hand in hand with an appreciation of the Golden Mean. This latter concept has recently come to occupy a central place in the concerns of scholars and commentators of the Islamic and of the Western world. The present paper aims at making its own small contribution to the issue, examining the work of two major symposia held in the Saudi cities of Mecca (2003) and Riyadh (2004) in response to the events of 9/11: we will attempt to highlight the relationship linking the Koranic ideal of wasaṭiyya or the Golden Mean with the concepts of facilitating and enabling (yusr, taysīr).