James Kritzeck is a scholar of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 who specialises in Islamic literature

Islamic literature

Islamic literature is literature written with an Islamic perspective, in any language.The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , which was a compilation of many earlier folk tales told by the Persian Queen Scheherazade...

 and its translation.

He was educated at Saint John's Abbey

Saint John's Abbey

Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota is a Benedictine monastery affiliated with the American Cassinese Congregation. The Abbey was established following the arrival in the area of monks from Saint Vincent Abbey of Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1856. Saint John's is the second-largest...

 (1945-47), the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 (BA, 1949), Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 (MA, 1952), and 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...

 (PhD, 1954); he was elected to the Society of Fellows 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...

 in 1952. As well as travelling through much of the Islamic world in order to increase his knowledge of Islamic works, Kritzeck studied Islam through reading and teaching, with (among others) Henry Corbin

Henry Corbin

Henry Corbin was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.Corbin was born in Paris in April 1903. As a boy he revealed the profound sensitivity to music so evident in his work...

, Louis Massignon

Louis Massignon

Louis Massignon was a French scholar of Islam and its history. Although a Catholic himself, he tried to understand Islam from within and thus had a great influence on the way Islam was seen in the West; among other things, he paved the way for a greater openness inside the Catholic Church towards...

 and Herbert Mason. He edited Anthology of Islamic Literature, a collection of Islamic writings from the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

 up until the 18th century. Ironically a sceptic of translation, Kritzeck strove to include only the finest and most accurate interpretations of poetry and prose.

Kritzeck has been Professor of Oriental Studies at Princeton, and a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...

. A special collection in his honor has been established at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John's University

College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University

The College of Saint Benedict , for women, and Saint John's University , for men, are partnered liberal arts colleges respectively located in St. Joseph and Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. Students attend classes and activities together, and have access to the resources of both campuses...

in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Major publications

• Anthology of Islamic Literature: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times by James Kritzeck, ISBN 0452008794
• Islam in Africa by James Kritzeck and William Hubert Lewis ISBN 0442045026
• Modern Islamic Literature:from 1800 to the Present by James Kritzeck, Holt, Rinehart and Winston
• Sons of Abraham: Jews, Christians and Moslems, by James Kritzeck. Baltimore: Helicon, 1965 ISBN 0030536855
• Peter the Venerable and Islam. James Kritzeck, Princeton University Press, 1964
• The World of Islam: Studies in Honour of Philip K. Hitti, ed. by Philip Khuri Hitti and James Kritzeck and R. Bayly Winder, Ayer Co Pub, ISBN 0836992652