ANNE MARIE SCHIMMEL (1922-2003)

Prof Annemarie Schimmel, the renowned German scholar of Islam, died on late Monday night. She was 80. A specialist on Islamic mysticism, Schimmel published over 50 books, lectured at various universities including Harvard (where she was Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture from 1970-1992), Bonn, London and Ankara. She was fluent in the Eastern languages of Farsi, Turkish, Urdu and Dari.

Her life-long mission was 'to awake understanding for Islam', arguing that 'Islam was among the most misunderstood religions'.  The German scholar was seen as a bridge-builder with the Islamic world. Her works on Islamic mysticism are popular in the West (see list below).

Schimmel was born in Erfurt, a town in central Germany in 1922. By the age of fifteen she turned to the study of Arabic. At age nineteen she received a doctorate in Islamic Languages and Civilisation from the University of Berlin. At 23 she became the Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Marburg where she went on to earn a second doctorate in the History of Religions. In 1954 she became Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Ankara. There she spent five years teaching in Turkish and immersing herself in the culture and mystical tradition of the country.

An admirer of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Schimmel translated his 'Javidnama' into German verse. In 1958 she made the first of many visits to Pakistan, a country that became central to her work. Pakistan honoured her with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, its highest civil award, and a fine tree-lined avenue in Lahore is named after her. A scholarship for women was set up in her name in 1988. Based in Lahore, the scholarship is for postgraduate study in the UK.

The death of Annemarie Schimmel is a great loss for the world, a world which is ever more in need of bridge-building between 'East' and 'West'. This extraordinary researcher is no more, but her works remain. Read!

Her works include Gabriel's Wing: A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1963), Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975), Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddin Rumi (1978), Islam in the Indian Subcontinent (Leiden, 1980), And Muhammad is His Messenger (1985), Islamic Names (1989; Edinburgh Univ), A Two-Coloured Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry (1992), and Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (1994), Look! This is Love: Poems of Rumi, Make a Shield From Wisdom, The Mystery of Numbers, As Through A Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam Info from various web sources.

Sir Cam
Cambridge, England

For more information on Annemarie Schimmel:

http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/awardswin2002/index.php?page=schimmel