Annemarie Schimmel Memorial Lecture
Awhad al-Din
Kirmani is a controversial figure among the pantheon of great Sufi masters from the medieval period. He occupied perhaps the most prestigious position to which a Sufi could aspire, for the caliph appointed him the shaykh al-shuyukh of the Marzubiyya convent in Baghdad. Yet within a generation, he was vilified by the most prestigious Sufis of the age, including Rumi, and by others who cited the opinions of Suhrawardi and Shams-i Tabrizi. This presentation re-opens the case of Kirmani and attempts to make sense of the controversy in light of the development of Sufism in the medieval period.
The Annemarie Schimmel Fellowship, inaugurated in 2004, is awarded every three years to a scholar working in the fields of interest to the late Professor Schimmel such as Islamic mysticism, Arabic, Persian and South Asian literatures and literary and artistic expressions of Muslim devotional life.
This lecture will be introduced by Professor Ali Asani - Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religions and Cultures, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, Harvard University.