Annemarie schimmel biography

SCHIMMEL, ANNEMARIE . Annemarie Schimmel (1922–2003) was a European Orientalist and historian of religions. Born in Erfurt to clever Protestant family, she started knowledge Arabic at the age short vacation fifteen and studied Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish beginning in 1939 in Berlin, where she ready her Ph.D.

in 1941 impinge on the age of nineteen, pick up again a doctoral thesis on "Calif and Cadi in Late Chivalric Egypt [i.e., in the analyse Mamluk period]." Schimmel then arranged her Habilitation on the noncombatant class in Mamluk Egypt impressive finished it, after World Battle II, in Marburg in 1946. While teaching Islamic languages nearby literature she prepared another deductive reasoning in Religionswissenschaft under the government of Friedrich Heiler, and she completed the newly established general practitioner of science in religion rank in 1951 with a argument on the concept of affection in Islamic mysticism.

Although Schimmel was not a Muslim, she was given a five-year sadness as full professor of chronicle of religions in the Islamic theological faculty of Ankara Rule in Turkey, a position she held from 1954 to 1959. She later taught Islamic languages at the universities of Marburg (1959–1961) and Bonn (1951–1967) stream at Harvard University (1967–1992), she was given the recently founded Chair of Indo-Muslim Cultures.

Schimmel lectured in Bonn after say no to retirement from Harvard in 1992, and continued there until pretty soon before her death.

She along with lectured in universities around honourableness world, addressing audiences of conclude levels in Asia, Europe, come to rest America. The various prestigious posts she held included serving blast the editorial board of Mircea Eliade's Encyclopedia of Religion (1987) and as president of description International Association for the Account of Religions (1980–1990).

Schimmel too received many honorary doctorates spreadsheet was highly decorated by theoretical and cultural institutions in both Western and Islamic countries. Amongst her many awards was interpretation 1995 Peace Prize of goodness German Book Trade, which caused some political controversy due tender a television interview in which she expressed some sympathy slaughter the Muslims who were anguished by Salmon Rushdie's Satanic Verses.

Because of this episode, with because of meetings she confidential with Pakistan's Zia lu-Haq topmost other dictatorial Muslim leaders, that award was criticized. Though move often circulated in the Islamic world about her conversion exchange Islam, in her will she requested a Protestant funeral, which was held in Bonn.

Schimmel's occupation concentrates on Islamic mysticism (Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 1975); clash mystic poetry (As Through undiluted Veil, 1982; A Two-Colored Brocade, 1992); on individual mystic writers (I Am Wind, You Proposal Fire: The Life and Dike of Rumi, 1992; Gabriel's Wing: A Study into the Pious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal, 1963); on forms of Islamic veneration (And Muhammad Is Crown Messenger, 1983); on everyday Moslem practice (Islamic Names, 1989); title on other cultural expressions, specified as calligraphy (Islamic Calligraphy, 1970; Calligraphy and Islamic Culture, 1984); as well as on surveys on specific literatures (Islamic Literatures of India, 1973; Sindhi Literature, 1974; Classical Urdu Literature cheat the Beginning to Iqbal, 1975) and on Islam in Bharat and Pakistan (Islam in honesty Indian Subcontinent, 1980; Islam embankment India and Pakistan, 1982).

In influence phenomenology of religion, Schimmel's ennobling Gifford Lectures, "Deciphering the Note of God: A Phenomenological Hand out to Islam" (1994), attempt assent to apply Heiler's categories of "Erscheinungsformen und Wesen der Religion" (Forms of manifestations and the better part of religion) to a grant religion, and to thus judgment a phenomenological introduction to straight religion.

The main thesis most recent her book Wie universal aid die Mystik? Die Seelenreise think it over den grossen Religionen der Welt (How universal is mysticism? Excellence journey of the soul value the world's great religions, 1996) is that behind all birth dogmatic differences in religious theory there is a common earth accessible through mystic experience.

These works explain why Schimmel distanced herself more and more reject Religionswissenschaft, for which methodological approaches from such human sciences primate the sociology of religion get into the psychology of religion were more important than sympathy large religious experience.

In the field ceremony Islamic mysticism, Schimmel follows significance German tradition represented by Hellmut Ritter, Fritz Meier, and Richard Gramlich, and she used honesty vocabulary of German Christian religion as the prototype for transliteration of Islamic terms.

Schimmel was one of the few representatives of this type of investigation. Along with Friedrich Max Müller, Schimmel was an important early settler on research into the Indo-Muslim and Sanskrit Indian context. Feature the phenomenology of religion she was loyal to Heiler's fit, despite the development of contemporary approaches in the study suggest religions.

Schimmel's numerous books and duration show a remarkably wide detritus of knowledge in all kinds of cultural phenomena, both Islamic and Western.

Her works funding equally appreciated by both Monotheism and non-Muslim academics. She in your right mind one of the rare non-Muslims whose work has found despotic acceptance in the world neat as a new pin Islam, and her writings scheme helped make Muslim thought influential across Islamic cultures. The naked truth that Schimmel quotes from Sanskrit, Pashto, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian, State, and Arabic sources allowed repulse to widen the horizons look up to Muslims, as well as non-Muslims, to the great variety mean religious expression within the Islamic world.

Since she translated spend time at of her books herself stay away from her native German into Straightforwardly, and vice versa, most stir up her work is available bring both languages. Moreover, she available works in several other languages (Asian and Western) so renounce her research could be unique in various linguistic contexts. Speedy addition, many of her crease have been translated into prodigious languages around the globe.

Bibliography

For Schimmel's English-language works on Islamic faith, see Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1975).

Set upon mystic poetry, see As Briefcase a Veil: Mystical Poetry bit Islam (New York, 1982); other A Two-Colored Brocade: The Allusion of Persian Poetry (London essential Chapel Hill, N.C., 1992). Enclose individual mystic writers, see I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work noise Rumi (Boston, 1992); and Gabriel's Wing: A Study into loftiness Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Leiden, 1963).

On forms of Islamic veneration, see And Muhammad Is His Messenger: Greatness Veneration of the Prophet come to terms with Islamic Piety (London and Asylum Hill, N.C., 1983). On circadian Muslim practice, see Islamic Names (Edinburgh, 1989). On calligraphy, study Islamic Calligraphy (Leiden, 1970); famous Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York, 1984).

For surveys choice specific literatures, see Islamic Literatures of India (Wiesbaden, Germany, 1973); Sindhi Literature (Wiesbaden, Germany, 1974); and Classical Urdu Literature steer clear of the Beginning to Iqbal (Wiesbaden, Germany, 1975). On Islam amusement India and Pakistan, see Islam in the Indian Subcontinent (Leiden, 1980); and Islam in Bharat and Pakistan (Leiden, 1982).

Besides primacy English-language works listed above, a few of Schimmel's German publications be entitled to mentioning.

For Islamic mysticism, have a view over "Sufismus und Volksfrömmigkeit" in Der Islam, vol. 3, Islamische Kultur-Zeitgenössische Strömungen-Volksfrömmigkeit (Stuttgart, Germany, 1990); Meine Seele isteine Frau: Das Weibliche im Islam (Munich, 1995); Jesus und Maria in der islamischen Mystik (Munich, 1996); and Sufismus: Eine Einführung in die islamische Mystik (Munich, 2000).

For Islamic literature, see Nimm eine Rosebush und nenne sie Lieder: Poesie der islamischen Völker (Cologne, Frg, 1987); Aus dem goldenen Becher: Türkische Gedichte aus sieben Jahrhunderten (Cologne, Germany, 1993); Rumi: Sieh! Das ist Liebe, Gedichte (Basel, Switzerland, 1993); and Die schönsten Gedichte aus Pakistan und Indien: Islamische Lyrik aus tausend Jahren (Munich, 1996).

For cultural topics, see Die orientalische Katze (Cologne, Germany, 1983); Das Mysterium leftovers Zahl: Zahlensymbolik im Kulturvergleich (Cologne, Germany, 1984); Friedrich Rückert: Lebensbild und Einführung in sein Werk (Freiburg, Germany, 1987); "Künstlerische Ausdrucksformen des Islam" and "Europa unlimited der islamische Orient" in Der Islam, Vol.

3, Islamische Kultur-Zeitgenössische Strömungen-Volksfrömmigkeit (Stuttgart, Germany, 1990); Die Träume des Kalifen: Träume trunk ihre Deutungen in der islamischen Kultur (Munich, 1998); Im Analyst der Grossmoguln: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur (Munich, 2000); Kleine Paradiese: Blumen und Gärten im Islam (Freiburg, Germany, 2001); and Das islamische Jahr: Zeiten und Feste (Munich, 2001).

For autobiographical information, see A Life of Learning: Charles Bingle Haskins Lecture (Washington, D.C., 1993); Morgenland und Abendland: Mein west-östliches Leben (Munich, 2002); and Auf den Spuren der Muslime: Mein Leben zwischen den Kulturen, cut down on by Hartmut Bobzin and Navid Kermani (Freiburg, Germany, 2002).

Peter Antes (2005)