Annemarie Schimmel SI HI TCLN (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003) was an influential German scholar of Islamic studies who wrote extensively on Islam, especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.

Early life and education

thumb|left|Glass plate in the [[Bonngasse, Bonn, Germany ]]

Schimmel was born to Protestant and highly cultured middle-class parents in Erfurt, 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," and she recalled that her mother made her feel that she was the child of her dreams. She also remembered her childhood home as being full of poetry and literature, though her family was not an academic one.

Having finished high school at age 15, she worked voluntarily for half a year in the Reich Labour Service. She then began studying at the University of Berlin in 1939, at the age of 17, during the Third Reich (1933–1945). At the university, she was deeply influenced by her teacher Hans Heinrich Schaeder, who suggested that she study the Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizi, one of the major works of Rumi.

Religion

She was often asked by both Muslims and non-Muslims whether she was a Muslim. In such cases, she preferred to give an evasive answer, saying, for example, that only those who are not sure whether they are good Muslims or not can really be good Muslims.

Languages, interests and expertise

She was multilingual—besides German, English, and Turkish, she spoke Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi—and her interests ranged across the Muslim landscape. She published more than fifty books and hundreds of articles on Islamic literature, mysticism, and culture, and she translated Persian, Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi, and Turkish poetry and literature into English and German.

Awards and honors

For her works on Islam, Sufism, and Muhammad Iqbal, a prominent philosopher and national poet of Pakistan, the government of Pakistan honored Schimmel with its highest civil awards,

  • Sitara-e-Imtiaz, or Star of Excellence, by Government of Pakistan
  • Hilal-e-Imtiaz, or Crescent of Excellence, by Government of Pakistan

She was given other awards from many countries of the world, including 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, author of The Satanic Verses (1988), in a television interview. Schimmel's award speech is available online in translation, entitled "A Good Word Is Like a Good Tree."

Among other awards and honors are the following:

  • 1965 Friedrich Rückert Prize of the City of Schweinfurt, Germany
  • 1978 Foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1980 Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation from the German Academy for Language and Literature
  • 1989 Grand Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1990 Golden Owl award of the German Socratic Society, for outstanding scholarship
  • 1992 Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the University of Tübingen
  • 25 October 1996, Order of Merit of the Republic of Turkey
  • 1996 Egyptian Order of Merit for Art and Science, First Class
  • 1997 Honorary membership in the Central Council of Muslims in Germany
  • 2001 Reuchlin Prize of the City of Pforzheim, Germany, for outstanding contributions in the humanities
  • 2002 Do'stlik Order of the Republic of Uzbekistan, for the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between nations
  • 2002 Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi Peace Prize of the Central Islamic Archive Institute of Germany, Soen, a prestigious award for Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue
  • 2005 Name engraved in the "Walk of Fame" street in the City of Bonn

Schimmel also received honorary degrees from three Pakistani universities (Sind, Quaid-i-Azam, and Peshawar), from the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden (1986), and from Selçuk University in Turkey.

Selected works

  • Mohammad Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher: A Collection of Translations, Essays, and Other Articles. Karachi: Pakistan-German Forum, 1960.
  • Islamic Calligraphy. Evanston, Ill.: Adler's Foreign Books, 1970.
  • Islamic Literatures of India. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1973. .
  • Mystical Dimensions of Islam (512 pages). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. .
  • Classical Urdu Literature: From the Beginning to Iqbal. A History of Indian Literature, v. 8. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1975. .
  • Pain and Grace: A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth-Century Muslim India. Leiden: Brill, 1976. .
  • Foreword by Annemarie Schimmel. The 'Ilāhī-nāma is a 12th-century Persian poem.
  • A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib's Poetry. New Delhi: Ghalib Academy, 1979.
  • We Believe in One God: The Experience of God in Christianity and Islam, edited by Annemarie Schimmel and Abdoldjavad Falaturi; translated by Gerald Blaczszak and Annemarie Schimmel. London: Burns & Oates, 1979.
  • The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddinn Rumi. London: East-West Publications, 1980.
  • As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam (376 pages). New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. .
  • Das Mysterium der Zahl (310 pages). Munich: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1983. English edition, The Mystery of Numbers (314 pages). New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. .
  • And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (367 pages). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. .
  • Gabriel's Wing: Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal. Karachi: Iqbal Academy, 1989. .
  • Calligraphy and Islamic Culture. New York University Press, 1990. .
  • Islamic Names: An Introduction (134 pages). Edinburgh University Press, 1990. .
  • Islam: An Introduction (166 pages). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. .
  • A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. .
  • Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (314 pages). The 1991–1992 Gifford Lectures. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. .
  • Nightingales under the Snow: Poems. London and New York : Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1994. .
  • Anvari's Divan: A Pocket Book for Akbar. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.
  • Introduction to Cats of Cairo: Egypt's Enduring Legacy, with photographs by Lorraine Chittock. New York: Abbeville Press, 1995. Reissued as Cairo Cats: Egypt's Enduring Legacy (96 pages). American University in Cairo Press, 2005. .
  • Meine Seele ist eine Frau. Munich: Kosel Verlag, 1995. English translation: My Soul Is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam (192 pages). New York and London: Continuum, 1997. .
  • Look! This Is Love. Boston: Shambhala Centaur Editions, 1996. .
  • I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1997. Reissued as Rumi's World : The Life and Works of the Great Sufi Poet. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2001. .
  • Im Reich der Grossmoguls: Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur. Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2000. English translation: The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art, and Culture (352 pages). London: Reaktion Books, 2004. .
  • Make a Shield from Wisdom: Selected Verses from Nasir-I Khusraw's Divan (112 pages), translated and introduced by Annemarie Schimmel. London: I.B. Tauris, in association with the International Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001. .
  • Islam and the Wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom. London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation 2003. .

See also

  • Malamatiyya
  • Iranology
  • Famous Americans in Iran

References

Further reading

  • Annemarie Schimmel Festschrift: Essays Presented to Annemarie Schimmel on the Occasion of Her Retirement from Harvard University by Her Colleagues, Students, and Friends (334 pages), edited by Maria Eva Subtelny. Journal of Turkish Studies 18 (1994). Published by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.
  • Burzine Waghmar, Professor Annemarie Schimmel (April 7, 1922 to January 26, 2003), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 13 (2003): 377–79.
  • Burzine Waghmar, Annemarie Schimmel, The Guardian, 6 February 2003, p. 24.
  • Burzine Waghmar and M. Ikram Chaghatai, Bibliography of the Works of the Scholar-Hermit Prof. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel, ed. M. Suheyl Umar, 3rd ed., Lahore: Iqbal Academy, 2004.
  • Burzine Waghmar, Annemarie Schimmel: Iqbal and Indo-Muslim Studies, Encyclopædia Iranica, New York: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, published online, 16 April 2018.
  • Burzine Waghmar, Annemarie Schimmel: Bibliography, Encyclopædia Iranica, New York: Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation, published online, 4 May 2018.
  • Shusha Guppy, Professor Annemarie Schimmel, The Independent, 30 January 2003.
  • Leonard Lewisohn, Annemarie Schimmel, The Times, 6 February 2003.