Annemarie Schimmel
Encyclopedia
Annemarie Schimmel, SI
, HI
, (April 7, 1922 – January 26, 2003) was a well known and very influential German
Orientalist
and scholar, who wrote extensively on Islam
and Sufism
. She was a professor at Harvard University
from 1967 to 1992.
, Germany
. Her father, Paul, was a postal worker and her mother, Anna belonged to a family with connections to seafaring and international trade. Schimmel remembered her father as "a wonderful playmate full of fun", her mother made her feel she was the child of her dreams and her home as full of poetry and literature, though her family was not an academic one.
She began studying at the University of Berlin in 1939 at the age of 17, during the period of Nazi Germany
. She received a doctorate in Islamic languages and civilization at the age of 19. Following this, she was drafted by the German Foreign Office while continuing with her scholarly work in her free time. At the age of 23, she became a professor of Arabic
and Islamic studies at the University of Marburg, Germany in 1946, where she earned a second doctorate in the history of religions in 1954.
). There she spent five years teaching in Turkish
and immersing herself in the culture and mystical tradition of the country.
She was a faculty member at Harvard University
from 1967 to 1992 and became Professor Emerita of Indo-Muslim Culture upon her retirement. She was also an honorary professor at the University of Bonn
. She published more than 50 books on Islamic literature
, mysticism
and culture
, and translated Persian
, Urdu
, Arabic
, Sindhi
and Turkish
poetry
and literature into English and German.
For her work on Islam
, Sufism
or mysticism
and Muhammad Iqbal
, the government of Pakistan honored her with its highest civil awards known as Sitara-e-Imtiaz or 'Star of Excellence', and Hilal-e-Imtiaz or 'Crescent of Excellence'. She was conferred with many other awards from many countries of the world, including the Leopold Lucas Prize of the Evangelisch-Theologische Faculty of the University of Tübingen and the 1995 prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
. This award caused a controversy in Germany, as she had defended the outrage of the Islamic world against Salman Rushdie in a television interview. Schimmel's award speech is available here in translation entitled, A Good Word is like a Good Tree.
translation: The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture, [Paperback], Ed. Reaktion books Ltd, London, http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk, (2004), 352 pages, ISBN 1-86189-251-9
another edition (2006).
Sitara-i-Imtiaz
The Sitara-i-Imtiaz , is the third highest honour and civilian award in the State of Pakistan. It recognizes the individuals who made an "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of Pakistan, world peace, cultural or other significant public endeavors"...
, HI
Hilal-i-Imtiaz
The Hilal-i-Imtiaz, English: Crescent of Excellence, Urdu: هلال ا متيا ز , is the second highest civilian award and honor given to both civilians and military officers of the State of Pakistan|Pakistan armed forces by the Government of Pakistan...
, (April 7, 1922 – January 26, 2003) was a well known and very influential German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
and scholar, who wrote extensively on Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. She was a professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
from 1967 to 1992.
Early life
Schimmel was born to Protestant and highly cultured middle-class parents in ErfurtErfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Her father, Paul, was a postal worker and her mother, Anna belonged to a family with connections to seafaring and international trade. Schimmel remembered her father as "a wonderful playmate full of fun", her mother made her feel she was the child of her dreams and her home as full of poetry and literature, though her family was not an academic one.
She began studying at the University of Berlin in 1939 at the age of 17, during the period of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. She received a doctorate in Islamic languages and civilization at the age of 19. Following this, she was drafted by the German Foreign Office while continuing with her scholarly work in her free time. At the age of 23, she became a professor of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Islamic studies at the University of Marburg, Germany in 1946, where she earned a second doctorate in the history of religions in 1954.
Work
A turning point in her life came in 1954 when she was appointed Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Ankara (TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
). There she spent five years teaching in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and immersing herself in the culture and mystical tradition of the country.
She was a faculty member at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
from 1967 to 1992 and became Professor Emerita of Indo-Muslim Culture upon her retirement. She was also an honorary professor at the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
. She published more than 50 books on Islamic literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, and translated Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Sindhi
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and literature into English and German.
For her work on Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
or mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and Muhammad Iqbal
Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
, the government of Pakistan honored her with its highest civil awards known as Sitara-e-Imtiaz or 'Star of Excellence', and Hilal-e-Imtiaz or 'Crescent of Excellence'. She was conferred with many other awards from many countries of the world, including the Leopold Lucas Prize of the Evangelisch-Theologische Faculty of the University of Tübingen and the 1995 prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
The Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize given yearly at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main, Germany...
. This award caused a controversy in Germany, as she had defended the outrage of the Islamic world against Salman Rushdie in a television interview. Schimmel's award speech is available here in translation entitled, A Good Word is like a Good Tree.
Personal life
She was briefly married in 1955 in Ankara to a Turk, adopting Cemile as Muslim name. Although she had no immediate living family, she is survived by a well-loved son of a cousin and his family.Works by Annemarie Schimmel
- As Through A Veil : Mystical Poetry in Islam, New York : Columbia University Press, (1982)
- And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety, 367 pages, (1985), The of North Carolina Press,ISBN 0-8078-4128-5
- Anvari's Divan: A Pocket Book for Akbar, hardcover, Metropolitan Museum of Art (January 1994)
- A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib's Poetry
- A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry, University of North Carolina Press (November, (1992); ISBN 0-8078-2050-4
- Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (1991-1992 Gifford LecturesGifford LecturesThe Gifford Lectures were established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford . They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported...
, online), 302 pages, ISBN 0-7914-1982-7
- Gabriel's WingGabriel's WingBal-i-Jibril was a philosophical poetry book of Allama Iqbal, the great poet-philosopher of the Indian subcontinent.-Introduction:Iqbal's first book of poetry in Urdu, Bang-i-Dara , was followed by Bal-i-Jibril in 1935 and Zarb-i-Kalim in 1936. Bal-i-Jibril is the peak of Iqbal's Urdu poetry...
: Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad IqbalMuhammad IqbalSir Muhammad Iqbal , commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal , was a poet and philosopher born in Sialkot, then in the Punjab Province of British India, now in Pakistan...
- Mystical Dimensions of Islam. German Edition: English translation:, North Carlina Univ. Press, 512 pages, copyright 1975, (1986),ISBN 0-8078-1271-4 . Spanish translation: Las dimensiones místicas del Islam, trad. de A. López Tobajas y M. Tabuyo Ortega, Madrid, Trotta, (2002), ISBN 84-8164-486-2.
- Introducción al Sufismo", Spanish translation, Kairós Editorial, 152 pages (2007).
- Rumi's World : The Life and Works of the Greatest Sufi Poet
- Im Reich der Grossmoguls: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur, (2000), Verlag C. H. Beck, English
translation: The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture, [Paperback], Ed. Reaktion books Ltd, London, http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk, (2004), 352 pages, ISBN 1-86189-251-9
another edition (2006).
- Islamic literatures of India, Wiesbaden : O. Harrassowitz, (1973)
- Mohammad Iqbal, poet and philosopher: a collection of translations, essays and other articles; Karachi : Pakistan-German Forum, (1960).
- Classical Urdu literature from the beginning to Iqbal, Wiesbaden : O. Harrassowitz, (1975); (A history of Indian literature ; V. 8: modern Indo-Aryan literatures.
- Islam: An Introduction, Albany : State University of New York Press, (1992)
- We believe in one god : the experience of God in Christianity and Islam, edited by Annemarie Schimmel and Abdoldjavad Falaturi ; preface by Kenneth Cragg ; translated by Gerald Blaczszak and Annemarie Schimmel; London : Burns & Oates, (1979)
- Islamic Calligraphy
- Calligraphy and Islamic Culture, New York University Press, (1990).
- Islamic Names: An Introduction (Islamic Surveys), [Paperback], Edinburgh University Press, England, 134 pages, 81995),ISBN 0 85224 612 9 . Hardback edition, (1990),ISBN 0-85224-563-7
- Meine Seele ist eine Frau", copyright 1995, Kösel Verlaf GMBH, Mnich, English edition: My Soul is a Woman, The Feminine in Islam, (1997), 192 pages, Continuum, New York and London, http://www.continuumbooks.com . ISBN 9780826414441 .
- Make A Shield From Wisdom : Selected Verses from Nasir-i Khusraw's Divan, translated and introduced by Annemarie Schimmel; London : I. B. Tauris in association with the International Institute of Ismaili Studies, (2001).
- Ernst Trumpp;: A brief account of his life and work
- Das Mysterium der Zhal, ed. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich, (1983), English edition by Oxford University Press, (1993), 314 pages, titled The Mistery of Numbers, The Mystery of Numbers.
- Islam and the Wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom (2003)
See also
- MalamatiyyaMalamatiyyaThe Malāmatiyya or Malamatis are a Sufi group that was active in 8th-century Samanid Iran...
- Iranology
- Famous Americans in Iran
- Annemarie Schimmel Festschrift : essays presented to Annemarie Schimmel on the occasion of her retirement from Harvard University by her colleagues, students and friends / guest editor: Maria Eva Subtelny ; managing editor: Carolyn I. Cross; Cambridge, Mass. : Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, (1994); Journal of Turkish studies ; v. 018, 1994
External links
- Burzine K. Waghmar, Professor Annemarie Schimmel (April 7, 1922 to January 26, 2003), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 13 (2003): 377-79. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=201767
- M. Ikram Chaghatai and Burzine K. Waghmar, Bibliography of the works of the Scholar-Hermit Prof. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, ed. M. Suheyl Umar, Iqbal Academy, Lahore, 2004.http://www.amazon.com/dp/9694162645
- Burzine K. Waghmar, Annemarie Schimmel, The Guardian, Feb. 6, 2003, p. 24. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/feb/06/guardianobituaries.obituaries1
- Shusha Guppy, Professor Annemarie Schimmel, The Independent, Jan. 30, 2003.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-annemarie-schimmel-729997.html
- Stephen Kinzer, Annemarie Schimmel, Influential Scholar of Islam, Dies at 80, The New York Times, Feb. 2, 2003.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/nyregion/annemarie-schimmel-influential-scholar-of-islam-dies-at-80.html?pagewanted=1
- Leonard Lewisohn, Annemarie Schimmel, The Times, Feb. 6, 2003.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article865754.ece
- Annemarie Schimmel, A Life of Learning, autobiographical brochure, Charles Homer Haskins Lecture, American Council of Learned Societies, Williamsburg 1993.http://www.acls.org/Publications/OP/Haskins/1993_AnnemarieSchimmel.pdf
- Memorial Minute, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Harvard University http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html
- Biography of Annemarie Schimmel (in Persian)
- Annemarie Schimmel and Muhammad Iqbal Lecture of Khosro NaghedKhosro NaghedKhosro Naghed is a Persian scholar, Iranist and linguist.He wrote numerous books and articles on Iranian culture, Persian history, Persian language and literature and philosophy. His articles have appeared in international as well as Iranian journals inside Iran and has influence on Iranian...
at Tehran university. (in German/Persian) - Obituary notice, Iqbal Academy, Pakistan