Annemarie Schimmel

Annemarie Schimmel (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003) was an influential German scholar of Islamic studies who wrote extensively on Islam, especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.

Quotes

• ...Even the most stupid question of an untutored journalist or an inquisitive high school student may tell you that you could have tackled a certain problem more skillfully, or defined a formulation more lucidly. To be sure, the constantly repeated question: "How is it that you as a woman became interested in Islam, of all things?" makes me increasingly impatient and even angry!
• A village girl who never had been to high school but was completely self-taught, my mother read the manuscripts and proofs of all my German books and articles and acted, as she loved to say, as the "people's voice" and thus taught me to write with non-specialist readers in mind. But she also tried to check my tendency to enter too deeply into dreams of mystical love for, being supersensitive herself, she was afraid lest I lose my sobriety and my critical mind.