Nallino was born in
Turin, and studied literature under
Italo Pizzi at the
University of Turin. From 1896 he taught in the
Istituto Universitario Orientale of
Naples and then at the
University of Palermo (1902–1913). By the age of 21 Nallino had gained an international reputation for his publication of an Arabic manuscript by the celebrated tenth-century
Arab astronomer
al-Battānī. With his publication of a book on Egyptian Arab dialect in 1900 he was invited by King
Fuad I of Egypt to teach at the Egyptian Khedive University. Amongst his pupils there was
Taha Husayn, who would go on to become Minister of the Education. Nallino eventually returned to Italy to take up the position of ordinary professor at the
University La Sapienza of Rome, where, in 1921, he had founded the
Istituto per l'Oriente, which published the monthly journal
Oriente Moderno. In 1933 he was named member of the Royal Academy of Arab Language in
Cairo, and he was a member of the Italian
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the
Royal Academy of Italy. In 1938 he travelled for two months in the
Arabic Peninsula, visiting the newly formed Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but he died shortly afterwards in Rome from a cardiac arrest after publishing only the first volumes of the studies about his trip, ==Publications==