When, on the point of death, Goethe moved his index finger upward, the witnesses around him were surprised: for centuries this gesture remained emblematic and inexplicable. Today, thanks to Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Francesca Bocca-Aldaqre’s evocative reconstruction, we can grasp its meaning: it is a symbolic gesture of the shaha’da, the testimony of faith that every Muslim must make at the point of death to reaffirm their belief in the one God. Through extensive and in-depth research into Goethe’s archives and correspondence, following the testimonies of those closest to him, the authors recount the great German writer’s discovery and rapport with Islam, tracing its influence in his poetry, plays, and essays. An influence, however, experienced in an extremely distinctive and entirely contemporary way, and one that testifies to Goethe’s ability to blend philosophical and religious elements from Western, Arab, and Middle Eastern traditions into his reflections,
thus shaping a coherent and vital thought. In his footsteps, the flowers grow, offering the reader not only a reconstruction of Goethe’s life—from his first reading of the Quran in 1770 to his death in 1832—and a study of his works most inspired by the Muslim religion, but also the opportunity to reflect on the suggestion of a European future linked to “an Islam tempered by the skies of the Mediterranean,” a horizon of peace toward which, according to the authors, the poet directed his deepest personal and intellectual tensions.