ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL AND SUFISM

INTRODUCTION

Unlike considered-typical orientalist attitude toward Islam, Annemarie Schimmel’s life and works show a deep understanding and sympathy for Islamic world. Her life is filled with extraordinary productivity resulting in more than a hundred works on Islam and, especially, Islamic mysticism. This writing tries to briefly give an account on her life and, when possible, examine her writings to recognize both her so-called correct and wrong opinion, seen from Muslim’s perspective.

This article will be divided into three sections. First section will, very shortly, sketch Orientalism as Western scholarship toward Sufism. Second part of this article will deal with life of Annemarie Schimmel depicted from stories written by her students and colleagues.[1] The last section will be concerned with analyzing her view on Islam—reflected her view on Islamic mysticism—and based on her writings available.

ORIENTALIST AND SUFISM

This word, i.e. orientalism, was originally used for various meaning. For example, Samuel Johnson in 1755 defined this word as ‘idiom of the eastern languages: an eastern mode ofspeech’. In 1795, Warton identified the reference to dragons as ‘a sure sign of orientalism’.[2] What may be inferred from these two examples is that orientalism is everything associated with the East, in contrast the West where, geographically speaking, orientalists live.

Sufism has attracted Western scholarship from the middle age in the work of Ramon Lull whose writing has been inspired by Sufi’s literature. The first figure of Sufism to be introduced in the West is Rabi’a al-Adawiyya. However, Persian poetry played great role in shaping Western image of oriental spirituality.[3]

Discussion on the origin and early development of Sufism began in the nineteenth century when many Sufi’s literature came to light. Texts and sources available at that time was relatively of late origin. This availability makes many western readers of Sufism consider it to be external and attached to Islam afterward. Decades to follow soon saw some important developments about origin and influences on Sufism. Palmer held that Sufism develops from primeval religion of the Aryan race, which influenced, and still influences, theories on Sufism, up to modern time.[4]

Another theory offered is that it originates from neo-platonic tenets. This was primarily held by Britain scholars. Others maintain of Christianity’s influence upon Sufism. Another scholars support the view that it is Hindu’s influence that works upon Sufism. Some scholars even detected parallels between Sufism and Buddhism or Taoism. However, some orientalists did not fail to see that Sufism was born out of Islamic principles. As early as Tholuck in nineteenth century had stated that “The Sufi doctrine was both generated and must be illustrated out of Muhammad’s own mysticism”. Nicholson, also, admitted that Sufism is “native product of Islam itself”.[5]

SCHIMMEL’S LIFE

Annemarie Schimmel was a well known and very influential GermanOrientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism. Was born in Erfurt Germany at April Seventh 1922, as the only child of highly cultured middle-class parents, and died 26th of January 2003.[6]

Skipping two grades in secondary school, she began her studies at the University of Berlin in the fall of 1939 at the age of seventeen.[7] 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 awarded by the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Marburg, with a thesis on mystical love in Islam.[8]

At the University of Ankara, Turkey, 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.[9]

            Living in Turkey for five years (1954-59) gave her "obsession" with Rumi, whose mausoleum in Konya she frequently visited, a definite boost. But her other favorite subject, the Indo-Muslim thinker and poet Muhammad Iqbal, also emerged in her writings during this time. At the urging of her Turkish friends she produced an annotated translation of Iqbal's famous spiritual book, the Javednama. This led to an invitation in 1958 to visit Pakistan that was the starting-point of a new research interest that ultimately brought her to Harvard.[10]

            Before coming to Harvard in 1967, she was professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Bonn. She traveled widely, spending five years in Turkey teaching (in Turkish) at the University of Ankara. She visited Pakistan numerous times, receiving three honorary degrees from Pakistani universities. In 1982, a tree-lined street in Lahore was named after her.In 1970, she was named the first Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture, a chair endowed by A.K. OzaiDurrani, the inventor of Minute Rice. She retired from Harvard in 1992 and returned to Germany, accepting an honorary professorship from the University of Bonn.[11]

Upon retirement from Harvard, she remarked that she had enough scholarly projects planned to keep her busy for the next 10 years. A check of the catalog shows that her retirement years were not idle ones. No fewer than 40 works appeared under her name between 1993 to the present, including an autobiography. Schimmel maintained this level of productivity throughout her career. Graham remarked that “three new books published in a year was unremarkable for her, just as drafting an article in a few hours was commonplace.”[12]

In addition to translating works written in languages such as Persian, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, and Punjabi into both English and German, Schimmel was able to lecture in a wide variety of tongues. She once remarked that she could lecture unprepared and without notes in German, English, and Turkish, with notes in French, Arabic, and Persian, and from a manuscript in many other languages.[13]

She was also an expert on Islamic civilization in South Asia, inaugurating a unique program in Indo-Muslim studies at Harvard. She had a great love for Islamic music and art, especially calligraphy, and published profusely on this subject. A scholar of great mystical and literary sensitivity, she also composed her own poetry in several languages, including German and English.[14]

Schimmel also dedicated her life to fostering a better understanding of Islam and the Muslim world in the West. She served as an important bridge for interreligious and intercultural dialogue, a role that brought her much public recognition. In 1992, she received the Leopold Lucas Prize of the Evangelisch-Theologische Faculty of the University of Tübingen. The prize is given to persons who have striven to create better understanding among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Schimmel was the first woman to win the award.[15]On January 26, 2003, Annemarie died of complications following surgery.[16]

Schimmel had successfully published more than one hundred books on Islamic literature, mysticism and culture; she also had translated into English and German many of Persian poetry and literature, Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi, and Turkish. Some of her publications are:[17]

1. Mystical Dimension of Islam

2. As Through a Veil mystical Poetry in Islam

3. And Muhammad is His Messenger

4. A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib's Poetry

5. A Two Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian's Poetry[18]

6. Deciphering The Signs of God: A Phenomenological Approach to Islam

7. Gabriel's Wing: Study Into The Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal

8. Rumi's World: The Life And Works of The Greatest Sufi Poet

9. Look! This is love

10. The Triumphal Sun: A Study of The Work of Jalaloddin Rumi

11. Islam: an Introduction

12. Islamic Calligraphy

13. Make a Shield From Wisdom: Selected Verses From Nasir-I Kusraw's Divan[19]

14. Ernst Trump: a Brief Account of His Life and Work

15. Islam and The Wonders of Creation: The Animal Kingdom

16. The Mystery of Numbers

17. I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life And Works of Jalaloddin Rumi

SCHIMMEL AND ISLAMIC MYSTICISM

Schimmel’s acquaintance with Islam is by means of its mystical aspects. Her book on the subject Mystical Dimension of Islam is regarded as classic on this field. Though it is still debatable to decide whether this aspect is determinant in her sympathetic approach to Islam, she has even intuitive appreciation of spiritual feature of Islam, as is the case with her deep esteem of the Prophet’s spiritual significance discussed in many of her books.[20] She even maintains that it is imperative that “historians of religion still needed the admonition of the eighteenth-century German thinker Reimarus” who says “I am convinced that among those who accuse the Turkish religion of this or that fault, only a very few have read the Alcoran, and that also among those who indeed have read it, only a precious few have had the intention of giving the words the sound meaning of which they are capable”.[21] This clearly shows need of revision of many Western scholarship views.

In discussing religion in general, she assesses that though no religion can grow in a vacuum, “A religion takes into itself only those ideas, customs and tendencies, which are in one way or another compatible with its innermost essence”.[22]  To explain the aim of her study on Islam, she uses Quranic term that is “to try to decipher some of the signs, or ayat, which through their infinite variety point to the One Truth”.[23]

She disapproves her early fellow orientalists’ views on—for example—poetical exclamations of the Sufis. She writes “To be sure, some of the earliest students of Islamics were extremely critical of the poetical utterings of the Sufis (as they were critical of anything Islamic): we may think of Friedrich Tholuck's verdict in his thesis of 1821, sufismussivetheosophiapersarumpantheistica, which paved the way for the constantly repeated misunderstanding that Sufism was nothing but pantheism.”[24] This clearly reveals her evaluative attitude toward Western scholarship of Sufism and Islam as a whole.

When discussing mysticism in general, she obviously shows her inclination to mysticism, which makes her approach toward it positive. She sees that classic books in this field is that of Evelyn Underhill due to “her clear and sympathetic understanding”[25], which is uncommon in the West. She then marks that it is Underhill’s scheme that “certainly offers a fitting framework”[26].

Her favorite poet is surely Rumi. After writing two books on him, she confesses, “at every reading of the diwan new insights flash up so that I am constantly faced with the problem of how to organize this seemingly endless amount of material”.[27] Her acknowledging of the Prophet’s vital position to fully understand Islam indicates her respect to him. She says, “to understand Muslim piety in full, one has to take into account the poetry written in honor of the Prophet”.[28] Furthermore, she even marks the honor of the Prophet as measure by which to distinguish mystical poetry tradition in Islam from that of other religions.[29]

            Admitting the impossibility of complete understanding Islam, she, for example when discussing Islam in India, acknowledges that her work emphasizes certain aspects and that her aim in studying Islam in Indian sub-continent is to describe approximately correctly.[30]

Her intimacy with Sufism makes her seem to practice customary practice of Sufis. For example when she is telling story of Samiha Ayverdi, a Turkish mystic, she writes “A few weeks ago, in March 1993, she passed away on the eve of the Feast of Fastbreaking, three days after I had kissed her frail hands for the last time”.[31]

            As to her approach toward Islam, besides her visible sympathy, she clearly states that it is “the phenomenological approach to religion, which seems to facilitate the understanding of the external manifestations of religions and slowly guides the seeker into the heart of each religion, I was and still am convinced that such an approach can lead to much-needed tolerance without losing oneself in sweeping, dangerous “syncretistic” views that blur all differences”.[32]

CONCLUSION

            It can be concluded from her writings that, to classify orientalist into three categorizations—first those who finally embraces Islam, second those whose study of Islam is objective and without any preconceptions, and third those whose investigation into Islam is marked with biases and prejudices—she must belong to, at least, second category.

She deserves to be respected as one of those who introduce Islam to Western society. One of her student admitted “She inculcated in us her great love for the spiritual treasures of Islam with generosity and wisdom”[33]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Macfie, A.  L. Orientalism. London: Pearson Education. 2002.

Greenberg, Douglas and Stanley N. Katz (eds.), The Life of Learning Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1994.

Schimmel, Annemarie. AkulahAnginEngkaulahApi: Hidup dan Karya Jalaluddin Rumi. Translated from I Am Wind You Are Fire. Bandung: Mizan Media Utama. 2005.

---. A Two Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian’s Poetry. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1992.

---. As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam. New York: Columbia University Press. 1982.

---. Deciphering the Signs of God, a Phenomenological Approach to Islam. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1994.

---. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent.

---. Make a Shield From Wisdom: Selected Verses From Nasir-I Kusraw's Divan. London: I.B. Tauris& The Institute of Ismaili Studies. 2001.

---. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. New Delhi: Yoda Press.

Internet sources:

Ken Gewertz.Prolific Islamic Scholar Schimmel dies.Retrieved from http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/01.30/06-schimmel.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annemarie_Schimmel http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

---

[1] Annemarie Schimmel had written an autobiography, which, unfortunately, the present author could not attain. Her biographical information given here, therefore, is drawn largely from the Internet sources.

[2] A.  L. Macfie, Orientalism, (London: Pearson Education, 2002), pp. 19-20.

[3] Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, (New Delhi: Yoda Press), pp. 7-8.

[4] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., pp. 8-10.

[5] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., pp. 9-11.

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annemarie_Schimmel

[7] http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

[8] http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

[9] Biography of Annemarie Schimmel at Akulah Angin Engkaulah Api: Hidup dan Karya Jalaluddin Rumi, translated from I Am Wind You Are Fire, (Bandung: Mizan Media Utama, 2005), p.

[10] http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

[11] Ken Gewertz, Prolific Islamic Scholar Schimmel dies, retrieved from http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/01.30/06-schimmel.html

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

[17] Publications available to the present authors are indicated—otherwise quoted elsewhere—by footnote providing the publication information.

[18] Annemarie Schimmel, A Two Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian’s Poetry, (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992)

[19] Annemarie Schimmel, Make a Shield From Wisdom: Selected Verses From Nasir-I Kusraw's Divan, (London: I.B. Tauris & The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001).

[20] Carl W. Ernst, Foreword, in Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., p. xix

[21] Annemarie Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs of God, a Phenomenological Approach to Islam, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), p. x.

[22] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid. p. viii.

[23] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid. p. x.

[24] Annemarie Schimmel, As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), p. 1.

[25] Annemarie Schimmel, op. cit., p. 2.

[26] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., p. 3.

[27] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., p. 6.

[28] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid., p. 10.

[29] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid.

[30] Annemarie Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, (), p. 2.

[31] Annemarie Schimmel, Annemarie Schimmel in Douglas Greenberg and Stanley N. Katz (eds.), The Life of Learning, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 168.

[32] Annemarie Schimmel, ibid, p. 174.

[33] Ken Gewertz, op. cit..