Stefan Reichmuth (born 1950) is a German scholar of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. He was Professor at the Institute for Oriental and Islamic Studies at the Department of Philology,

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

Life

As a PhD student in the early 1980s, Reichmuth translated modern novels by Salah Abd as-Sabur and Tayyib Salih. He married a doctor, Gisela Reichmuth. He started his academic career researching the Arab dialects of the Shukriyya in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. Himself a Christian, he approached Islam from the perspective of

humanism Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

. His second major research project was the study of modern

Islam in Nigeria Islam is one of the largest religions in Nigeria and the country has the largest Muslim population in West Africa. In 2021, the CIA World Factbook estimated that 53.5% of Nigeria's population is Muslim. Islam is predominantly concentrated in th ...

for which he undertook sustained fieldwork and learnt several

African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

. There he became interested in

social network analysis Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of ''nodes'' (individual actors, people, or things within the network) ...

, and studied the Ansar-Ud Deen Society. His "2009 masterpiece" reconstructed the life, works and networks of

Murtada al-Zabidi Murtaza or Morteza or Mortaza, a Persianate form of the Arabic Murtada or Murtadha ( ar, مرتضى, translit=Murtaḍā, lit=One Pleasing to God, label=none), is a common Muslim name. Pronunciation varies with accent, from native Arabic speakers ...

, an 18th-century Indian scholar who studied in Yemen and settled in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. Reichmuth encouraged younger scholars at Bochum University, and established a research group Islamic Networks of Education in Local and Transnational Contexts. He contributed to the ''Enzyklopaedie der Neuzeit'', and was chief editor of ''

Die Welt des Islams ''Die Welt des Islams'' or the ''International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam'' is an academic journal on Islam and the Muslim world published by Brill. The journal publishes articles in three languages—English, French, and German—an ...

'' from 2002 to 2016.

Works

* ''Der arabische Dialekt der Šukriyya im Ostsudan''. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1983. * ''The world of Murtada al-Zabidi (1732-91) : life, networks and writings''. Cambridge: Gibb Memorial Trust, 2009. * (ed. with Michael Kemper, Raoul Motika) ''Islamic Education in the Soviet Union and Its Successor States''. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2009. * (ed. with Jörn Rüsen, Aladdin Sarhan) ''Humanism and Muslim culture : historical heritage and contemporary challenges''. Göttingen, Taipei: V&R unipress GmbH, 2012. * (ed. with Björn Bentlage, Marion Eggert, Hans Martin Krämer) ''Religious dynamics under the impact of imperialism and colonialism : a sourcebook''. Leiden: Brill, 2017. * (ed. with Denis Gril, Dilek Sarmis) ''The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam : Volume 1, The Prophet Between Doctrine, Literature and Arts: Historical Legacies and Their Unfolding''. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichmuth, Stefan 1950 births Living people Academic staff of Ruhr University Bochum German Islamic studies scholars 20th-century German translators Arabic–German translators