Wilferd Ferdinand Madelung
FBA (b. December 26, 1930 in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
) is a German-British author and
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
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 ...
ic history.
Life
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the adolescent Wilferd accompanied his parents to the USA where his father
Georg Hans Madelung
Georg Hans Madelung (31 July 1889 in Rostock – 17 August 1972 in Uffing) was a Germans, German academic and aeronautical engineer.
Madelung studied at several German Technical University, Technical Universities before his service as a pilot ...
continued his career as an
aeronautic engineer specialized on rockets. Wilferd Madelung enrolled at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
in
Washington DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
before going to
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 ...
in 1951 to study
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
and
Islamic history
The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...
.
From 1958 to 1960 he served as
Cultural attaché
A cultural attaché is a diplomat with varying responsibilities, depending on the sending state of the attaché. Historically, such posts were filled by writers and artists, giving them a steady income, and allowing them to develop their own creat ...
at the
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
Embassy in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, before starting his scientific career.
Academic career
Madelung received his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
and
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
in Germany (lecturer for
Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
1963‒1966). His PhD thesis was about "The
Qarmatians
The Qarmatians ( ar, قرامطة, Qarāmiṭa; ) were a militant Isma'ilism, Isma'ili Shia Islam, Shia movement centred in Al-Ahsa Oasis, al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a Utopia#Religious utopias, religious-utopian Socialis ...
and the
Fatimids
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
. Their mutual relations and their teachings on the
Imamate
{{expand Arabic, date=April 2021
The term imamate or ''imamah'' ( ar, إمامة, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an ''imam'' or a state ruled by an ''imam''.
Theology
*Imamate, in Sunni doctrine the caliphate
:* Naqshb ...
." He was Visiting Professor at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1963; then he was Assistant Professor (1964–65), Associate Professor (1966–68) and then Professor of Islamic History from 1969 until 1978 at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
.
He was
Laudian Professor of Arabic
The position of Laudian Professor of Arabic, now known as the Abdulaziz Saud AlBabtain Laudian Professor, at the University of Oxford was established in 1636 by William Laud, who at the time was Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Archbish ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
from 1978 to 1998.
Wilferd Madelung has written academic journal articles and lectures about
Ibadism
The Ibadi movement or Ibadism ( ar, الإباضية, al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a school of Islam. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis.
Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in 632 AD as a moderate sc ...
. He is a member of the
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...
since 1999 and currently a senior research fellow at the
Institute for Ismaili Studies
The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) is a research institute in London, United Kingdom. It aims to promote the study of Muslim cultures and societies, both historical and contemporary, in order to foster a greater understanding of their relat ...
in London.
Works
* Madelung, W. (editor) - ''Arabic Texts Concerning The History of The Zaydī Imāms of Tabaristān, Daylamān And Gīlān'', collected and edited by Wilferd Madelung. Franz Steiner Verlag, Beirut and Wiesbaden, 1987.
* Madelung, W. - ''Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran''. Columbia Letters of Iranian Studies no. 4, The Persian Heritage Foundation, 1988. ISBN 0-88706-700-X / 0-88706-701-8 (pbk.).
* Madelung, W. - ''Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam'', Ashgate Publishing, 1992. (New editions from 2016 on by Routlege, Oxon and New York, ISBN 978-086078-310-7
* Madelung, W. - ''
The Succession to Muhammad
''The Succession to Muhammad'' is a book by Wilferd Madelung published by the Cambridge University Press in 1997. Madelung investigates the events after the death of Muhammad, where there was a battle to see who would control the Muslim community ...
'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0521646960.
* Madelung, W. and Walker, P. - ''An Ismaili Heresiography: The 'Bāb al-Shayṭān' from Abū Tammāms' Kitāb al-shajara'', Leiden, 1998.
* Madelung, W. and Walker, P. - ''The Advent of the Fatimids: A Contemporary Shi'i Witness''. An Edition and English Translation of Ibn al-Haytham’s Kitab al-Munazarat, by Wilferd Madelung and Paul E. Walker. I.B. Tauris, London, 2000, ISBN 1-86064-551-8. (Published online by Cambridge University Press in 2016.)
* Madelung, W. - ''Der Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen'', Walter De Gruyter Incorporated, 2002 (first edition 1966), ISBN 9783110826548.
* Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balāḏurī
Ansāb al-Ašrāf(Part 2). Edited by Wilferd Madelung. Beirut, 2003.
*
Muhammad Ibn Umail: ''Book of the Explanation of the Symbols. Kitāb Ḥall ar-Rumūz'' (''Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum.'' Vol. I). Edited by Theodor Abt, Wilferd Madelung, Thomas Hofmeier, with Introduction by Theodor Abt. Living Human Heritage Publications, Zurich, 2003; ISBN 3-9522608-1-9.
* Madelung, W. - ''Religious school and sects in medieval Islam'', Variorum Reprints, 1985.
* Madelung, W. (editor) - ''The Book of the Rank of the Sage. Rutbat al-Ḥakīm by Maslama al-Qurṭubī.'' Arabic Text edited with an English Introduction by Wilferd Madelung. Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum IV. Living Human Heritage Publications, Zurich 2016.
*
Muhammad Ibn Umail: ''The Pure Pearl and other texts by Muhammad Ibn Umail. Ad-Durra an-naqīya, As-Sīra an-naqīya, Al-Qașīda al-Mīmīya, Al-Mabāqil as-sab'a'' (''Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum.'' Vol. V). Arabic Edition by Wilferd Madelung with an Introduction by Theodor Abt. Translation by Salwa Fuad and Theodor Abt. Living Human Heritage Publications, Zurich, 2019; ISBN 978-3-9524468-3-6.
See also
*
List of Islamic scholars
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
External links
Institute for Ismaili Studies- Culture and Memory in Early and Medieval Islam: A Festschrift in honour of Wilferd Madelung, ed. F. Daftary and J. Meri. London: I.B. Taurus, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madelung, Wilferd
1930 births
Living people
German Islamic studies scholars
German Arabists
Laudian Professors of Arabic
Fellows of St John's College, Oxford
Ismailism
Ibadi Islam
Ibadi studies
University of Hamburg faculty