Enrico Cerulli (15 February 1898 – 19 August 1988)[1] was an Italian scholar of Somali and Ethiopian studies, a governor and a diplomat.

At the same time, he studied Ethio-Semitic languages under Francesco Gallina, and Arabic and Islamic studies under Carlo Alfonso Nallino and Giorgio Levi Della Vida at the Regio Istituto Orientale (later Istituto Universitario Orientale, today Università di Napoli "L'Orientale").

[2] Cerulli is also renowned for his studies on the Latin and Old French translation of the Arabic Kitab al-Miraj, a famous Muslim book concerned with Muhammad's ascension into Heaven (known as the Mi'raj), following his miraculous one-night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (the Isra).

The book's Islamic depictions of Hell are believed by some scholars, including Cerulli, to have been a major influence on Dante's 14th century masterpiece, the Divine Comedy.

The Ethiopian government abandoned its case against him due to its inability to obtain extraditions, but barred him permanently from entering Ethiopia.