Annemarie Schimmel

Infobox Person
name = Annemarie Schimmel


image_size = 250px
caption = Glass plate in the Bonngasse; Bonn, Germany
birth_date = April 7, 1922
birth_place = Germany
death_date = January 26, 2003
death_place =
education = Doctorate of civilization and languages, doctorate of religious history.
occupation = Iranologist, Islamic studies, Sufism studies, Iqbal studies
spouse =
parents =
children =

Annemarie Schimmel, SI, HI, (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) in 1946, where she earned a second doctorate in the history of religions in 1954.

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 100 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 "Leopold Lucas Prize" of the "Evangelisch-Theologische" Faculty of the University of Tübingen and 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 in a TV-interview.

Works by Annemarie Schimmel

* As Through A Veil
* And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety
* A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib's Poetry
* A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry
* Deciphering the Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam (1991-1992 Gifford Lectures, [http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPDSOG&
] )
* Gabriel's Wing: Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal
* Mystical Dimensions of Islam
* Rumi's World : The Life and Works of the Greatest Sufi Poet
* Look! This Is Love
* The Triumphal Sun: A Study of the Works of Jalaloddinn Rumi
* Islam: An Introduction
* Islamic Calligraphy
* Make A Shield From Wisdom : Selected Verses from Nasir-i Khusraw's Divan
* Ernst Trumpp;: A brief account of his life and work
* The Mystery of Numbers
* Islam and the Wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom. (2003)

ee also

*Malamatiyya
*Iranology
*Famous Americans in Iran
*Allama Iqbal
*

External links

* [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html Harvard link]
* [http://www.naghed.net/Maghale_ha/Schimmel_farzane.htm Biography of Annemarie Schimmel (in Persian)]
* [http://www.naghed.net/Sokhanrani_ha/iqbale_Schimmel.htm Annemarie Schimmel and Muhammad Iqbal] Lecture of Khosro Naghed in Tehraner university. (in German/Persian)
* [http://www.allamaiqbal.com/schimmel.htm An Obituary]