Wilferd Madelung Explained

Wilferd Madelung
Birth Date:1930 12, df=yes
Birth Place:Stuttgart, Germany
Nationality:German-American
Occupation:Author, scholar
Alma Mater:Georgetown University, University of Hamburg

Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung FBA (26 December 1930 – 9 May 2023) was a German author and scholar of Islamic history widely recognised for his contributions to the fields of Islamic and Iranian studies.[1] He was appreciated in Iran for his "knowledgeable and fair" treatment of the Shia perspective. In the obituary of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) where Madelung worked his last years, it reads:[2] "With particular reference to religious schools and movements in early Islam, his studies, based on a vast array of primary sources, have enriched the discipline’s understanding of almost every major Muslim movement and community – not only early Imami Shi‘ism and the later developments of Twelver, Ismaili and Zaydi Islam but also the lesser known aspects of Sunni, Khariji and the Mu‘tazili schools of theology and philosophy."

Early life and career

Madelung was born in Stuttgart on 26 December 1930.[3] [4] After World War II (in 1947[5]), as an adolescent, he accompanied his parents Georg Hans Madelung and Elisabeth Emma Madelung to the US where his father continued his career as an aeronautic engineer specialising in rockets.[6] Wilferd Madelung enrolled at Georgetown University in Washington DC before going to Cairo in 1951 to study Arabic literature and Islamic history;[7] there he was a student of "Muḥammad Kamil Ḥusayn (1901–1961), who edited numerous Ismaili texts of the Fatimid period".[8] From 1958 to 1960, he served as cultural attaché at the West German Embassy in Baghdad, before starting his scientific career.[7] Later, Madelung was apparently also holding British citizenship.[9]

Academic career

Madelung received his doctorate and habilitation at the University of Hamburg in Germany (lecturer for Islamic studies 1963–1966).[10] His PhD thesis from 1957 was titled "The Qarmatians and the Fatimids. Their mutual relations and their teachings on the Imamate".[11] He was a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1963, and assistant professor (1964–65), associate professor (1966–68) and professor of Islamic History from 1969 until 1978 at the University of Chicago.[7] [12] He was the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St John’s College there from 1978 to 1998.[13]

During this time, his 1997 book The Succession to Muhammad was celebrated as a landmark work in the equitable depiction of Shia views on the Islamic succession process following the death of Muhammad.[1] Madelung also wrote academic journal articles and lectures about Ibadism.[14] From 1999, he was a member of the British Academy,[15] and a senior research fellow at the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London.[16]

In 2013, he was awarded the Farabi International Award by the Iranian Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture for his significant contributions to the fields of Islamic and Iranian studies.[17] Later, Madelung was also involved in publishing early Arabic writings of spiritually oriented alchemy (see list of publications).

Personal life

He was married with Margaret Madelung.[18]

Death

Madelung died on 9 May 2023 at the age of 92.[19]

Works

Already 20 years before passing away he had produced some 15 books and edited volumes, 60 book chapters and papers in scientific journals, 130 encyclopaedia entries and about 160 book reviews.[20]

Award

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Tehran meeting to commemorate Islamic scholar Wilferd Madelung . Tehran Times.
  2. https://www.iis.ac.uk/news/2023/may/in-memoriam-professor-wilferd-madelung-1930-2023/, retrieved on July 21, 2023
  3. Web site: Madelung, Wilferd @ HPK .
  4. Book: BRILL. 978-90-04-46071-3. Dinars and Dirhams: Festschrift in Honor of Michael L. Bates. 2021-02-01. 13.
  5. http://hadith.net/en/post/49669/wilferd-madelung, retrieved on July 21, 2023
  6. Web site: Wilferd Madelung . 2022-07-25 . 2022-07-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220725144426/https://geneee.org/wilferd/madelung?lang=de . live .
  7. Web site: The Institute's Latest Publication Honours Wilferd Madelung's Contributions to Islamic Studies . 2022-07-25 . 2022-07-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220725144427/https://www.iis.ac.uk/news/2004/march/the-institute-s-latest-publication-honours-wilferd-madelung-s-contributions-to-islamic-studies/ . live .
  8. Farhad Daftary and Josef Meri (2003): Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam. Essays in Honour of Wilferd Madelung. London: Tauris. p. 5.
  9. http://www.eslam.de/begriffe/m/madelung_wilferd.htm, retrieved on July 21, 2023
  10. Web site: Madelung, Wilferd. 12 July 2022. University of Hamburg. de.
  11. "Quarmaten und Fatimiden. Ihre gegenseitigen Beziehungen und ihre Lehre vom Imamat." Doctoral certificate (dated 30th of August, 1957) with the signature: 364-13 Phil Fak Prom 1372 in the State Archives of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
  12. Web site: Professor Wilferd Madelung FBA . 2022-07-17 . 2022-07-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220717200317/https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/wilferd-madelung-FBA/ . live .
  13. Web site: Wilferd Madelung . 2022-07-17 . 2022-07-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220703141749/https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/wilferd-madelung/ . live .
  14. Book: Custers, Martin H.. Al-Ibāḍiyya: A Bibliography. Olms Publishing. 2016. 9783487153544. Second revised and enlarged . 3. Hildesheim-London-N.Y.. 442–444.
  15. Web site: Professor Wilferd Madelung FBA . 2022-07-17 . 2021-01-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210115183736/https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/wilferd-madelung-FBA/ . live .
  16. Web site: Our people . 2022-07-17 . 2022-07-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220717200318/https://www.iis.ac.uk/our-people/departments/academic-publications-and-research/professor-wilferd-madelung/ . live .
  17. Web site: IIS Senior Research Fellow Receives Farabi Award. 3 Jul 2013. 10 February 2023. 10 February 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230210110940/https://www.iis.ac.uk/news/2013/july/iis-senior-research-fellow-receives-farabi-award/. live.
  18. Farhad Daftary and Josef Meri (2003): Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam. Essays in Honour of Wilferd Madelung. London: Tauris. p. 3.
  19. News: ویلفرد مادلونگ دار فانی را وداع گفت . 10 May 2023 . Vista.ir.
  20. Farhad Daftary and Josef Meri (2003): Culture and Memory in Medieval Islam. Essays in Honour of Wilferd Madelung. London: Tauris. p. 6.
  21. Staif . Abdul-Nabi . 1994 . Book Review of Arabic Texts Concerning the History of the Zaydī Imāms of Tabaristān, Daylamān and Gīlān . . 5 . 1 . 10.1093/jis/5.1.125 . . 2023-05-10 . 2018-06-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180605043458/https://academic.oup.com/jis/article-abstract/5/1/125/659177?redirectedFrom=fulltext . live .
  22. Book: Madelung . Wilferd . An Ismaili Heresiography: The 'Bāb al-Shayṭān' from Abū Tammāms' Kitāb al-shajara . Walker . Paul . 1998 . . 978-90-04-45098-1 . en.
  23. Madelung . Wilferd . 2017 . Maslama al-Qurṭubī's Kitāb Rutbat al-ḥakīm and the History of Chemistry . Intellectual History of the Islamicate World . en . 5 . 1 . 118–126 . 10.1163/2212943X-00501005 . 2212-9421 . . 2023-05-10 . 2022-09-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220922093729/https://brill.com/view/journals/ihiw/5/1/article-p118_5.xml . live .
  24. Web site: IIS Senior Research Fellow Receives Farabi Award. 3 Jul 2013. 10 February 2023. 10 February 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230210110940/https://www.iis.ac.uk/news/2013/july/iis-senior-research-fellow-receives-farabi-award/. live.

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