Annemarie Schimmel
Annemarie Schimmel (April 7, 1922 - January
26, 2003)
was a
well known and very influential German Iranologist and scholar who
wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism.
She received a doctorate in Islamic languages
and
civilization
from the University of Berlin at the age of nineteen. At twenty-three,
she became a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University
of Marburg (Germany), where she earned a second doctorate in the
history of religions.
A turning point in her life came in 1954 when
she was
appointed Professor of the History of Religion at the University of
Ankara (Turkey). 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 one of its highest civil
awards of known as Hilal-e-Imtiaz or 'Crescent of Excellence'. She was
showered with many other awards from many countries of the world,
including the prestigious Peace Prize of the German book trade.
Among other books, Annemarie Schimmel has
written Look!
This Is Love!, As
Through A Veil: Mystical Poems of Islam, and "Rumi's
World:
The Life and Work of the Great Sufi Poet"
Source: Wikipedia
