Heinz Halm

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinz Halm (born February 21, 1942 in Andernach ) is a German scholar of Islam . His research areas are the history of the Islamic Middle East, especially Egypt , North Africa and Syria and the Ismailites (Seventh Shia), the Imamites (Twelve Shia) and other Shiite denominations.

Life

Halm did his Abitur in 1961 at the Kurfürst-Salentin-Gymnasium in Andernach. From 1962 he studied Islamic studies, history and Semitic studies at the University of Bonn , where he received his doctorate in philosophy. His teacher at the University of Bonn was Annemarie Schimmel . In 1969 he worked on the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East , in 1975 he completed his habilitation in cultural studies and in 1980 became professor of Islamic studies in Tübingen . After 1987 he was a brief professeur associé at the Sorbonne in Paris . He lives in Ammerbuch .

Islam and secularization

Halm proves, among other things, that the states of the Arab world that emerged after the fall of the Ottoman Empire were all more or less secular states.

“Syria and Iraq were never different; also Tunisia under Bourguiba , Egypt under Nasser ( Arab socialism ) that Turkey under Ataturk ( Kemalism ) and the Iran of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979) and the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union have all experienced strong secularization relapses. Even the Islamic Revolution in Iran established a republican form of government - albeit initially only a formal one - with a president and parliament (forms which, however, still have to be filled with democratic content). The Islamist movements, which have grown stronger in most Islamic countries since the 1970s, are, according to Halm, a reaction to this advancing process of secularization, which they are trying to reverse, if necessary by force, in order to establish allegedly theocratic, in reality totalitarian regimes . Your slogan is the quoted at the beginning: Islam is religion and state "

- Heinz Halm: Islamic understanding of law and state. Islam and state authority. P. 4

“(Are) Muslims unable to recognize one of the foundations of modern democracy : the separation between religion and state , the secular state as a neutral mediator between different religious beliefs and world views? The slogan is used with preference by representatives of those political currents in modern Islam that we call " Islamist ", that is, those directions of political Islam that reject or even hostile to Western democracy and demand an "Islamic" state who do not have democratic, but theocratic traits and should realize the divine order on earth, revealed in the prophetic mission of Muhammad. But the ... slogan "al-Islam din wa daula" cannot be substantiated before the 19th century. It is itself a product of modernity, and the question must be asked whether it is actually historically founded and not just an ideal or the postulate of a certain modern ideology . It is indisputable that the connection between religion and political power in Islam was older and closer than in Christianity. While Christianity had to assert itself against the state power of the Roman Empire for three centuries before it could take over and penetrate it itself, Islam has already been poured into forms by its founder, the Prophet Mohammed, with the features of a political community. The ancient community ( Umma ) of Medina (622 - 632), led by Mohammed until his death, was something new on the Arabian Peninsula: for the first time, the Arab tribes, living in tribal fragmentation, entangled in endless feuds and blood feuds, sedentary and nomadic, became a superior , subject to central authority based on law, justice and morality, a political order which also included the collection of taxes and a "foreign policy" operated by the central office; All of these are at least approaches to state-like structures that had not previously existed on the Arabian Peninsula. And after the death of Muhammad this community began to expand warily and - following the model of its neighbors Byzantium and Persia - to develop imperial features. Because of this development, which differs significantly from the early history of Christianity, Islam was not forced to develop church-like organizational structures: the community itself was the external form in which the new religion manifested itself. The question now is whether this close historical connection is actually indissoluble; whether Islam really, as some of its followers claim, could not exist without its close ties with state authority. There are doubts about this thesis. First of all, the Koran itself does not contain any regulation about a form of government that God willed. Even Mohammed did not prescribe such; he did not even name a successor, at least not according to the Sunni majority opinion, so that after his death his community experienced a series of crises similar to civil wars , internal disputes of the umma, which the pious understood as God-willed "trials". In addition, according to the general Islamic view, prophecy in general and with it theocracy ends with the death of the prophet. Mohammed is regarded as the "seal of the prophets", the Koranic revelation brought by him as the final certification and final line under all divine expressions of will that have so far been given to people; According to the Islamic view of Mohammed, there can therefore no longer be any prophet directly inspired by God. But how should the community created by Muhammad be directed if his successors, for that is the Arabic word caliph ( khalîfa ), were not directly inspired by God? The four first caliphs were from his closest circle of followers determined by consensus, but as early as 661 the Umayyad family came to power with the governor of Syria, Muʿāwiya I , who were able to establish themselves as a dynasty and from their capital Damascus until 750 ruled from the new Arab Empire. This shifted the political focus of Medina and away from the Arabian Peninsula to Damascus. From there the Umayyads ruled the new Arab empire until 750. The Omaiyyads of Damascus appeared to pious critics as purely secular monarchs, as "kings", as one said somewhat contemptuously, although they too, of course, bore the title of caliphate. Their palaces, lavishly furnished with mosaics, murals and statues, their hunts and feasts and the poetry cultivated in their courts, which celebrates wine, women and song, aroused the indignation of the pious. "

- Heinz Halm, Islamic Legal and State Understanding. Islam and state authority. Back then , issue 3, March 2002

Publications

  • The expansion of the Sāfi'ite school of law from its beginnings to the 8th and 14th centuries. Century (= supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. Series B: Geisteswissenschaften. No. 4). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1974, ISBN 3-920153-30-8 .
  • Cosmology and salvation doctrine of the early Ismāʿīlīya. A study on Islamic Gnosis (= treatises for the customer of the Orient. Vol. 44, 1). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1978, ISBN 3-515-02675-4 .
  • Egypt according to the Mamluk fiefdoms. (= Supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. Series B: Geisteswissenschaften. No. 38). 2 volumes. Reichert, Wiesbaden.
  1. Upper Egypt and the Fayyūm. 1979 ISBN 3-88226-046-7 .
  2. The delta. 1982 ISBN 3-88226-121-8 .
  • The Islamic Gnosis. The extreme Schia and the 'Alawites. Artemis, Zurich 1982, ISBN 3-7608-4530-4 .
  • The Schia. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-534-03136-9 .
    • English: Shi'ism (= Islamic Survey. Vol. 18). Translated by Janet Watson. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1991, ISBN 0-7486-0268-2 .
    • French: Le chiisme. Translated by Hubert Hougue. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-13-047020-3 .
  • The realm of the Mahdi. The rise of the Fatimids 875–973. CH Beck, Munich 1991 ISBN 3-406-35497-1 .
    • English: The Empire of the Mahdi. The Rise of the Fatimids (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. Department 1: The Near and Middle East. Vol. 26). Translated from the German by Michael Bonner. Brill, Leiden et al. 1996, ISBN 90-04-10056-3 .
  • Shiite Islam. From religion to revolution . Beck'sche Reihe, 1047. Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37437-9 .
    • English: Shi'a Islam. From religion to revolution. Translator Allison Brown. Wiener, Princeton NJ 1997, ISBN 1-55876-135-7 .
  • The Fatimids and Their Traditions of Learning (= Ismaili Heritage Series. Vol. 2). Tauris, London 1997, ISBN 1-85043-920-6 (In Arabic: Al fatemeyun wa taqaliduhum fil taaliem. Al Mada, Damascus 1999).
  • The islam. Past and present Beck'sche Reihe, 2145. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44745-7 .
    • Italian: L'Islam. Storia e presente. Translated by Ugo Marelli. GLF editori Laterza, Roma 2003, ISBN 88-420-6725-3 .
  • The caliphs of Cairo. The Fatimids in Egypt 973-1074. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48654-1 .
  • The Arabs. From the pre-Islamic period to the present Beck'sche Reihe, 2343. CH Beck, Munich 2004 ISBN 3-406-50843-X .
    • Italian: Gli arabi. Dall'epoca preislamica ai giorni nostri. Il mulino, Bologna 2006 ISBN 88-15-10963-3 .
  • The Shiites . Beck'sche Reihe, 2358. CH Beck, Munich 2005 ISBN 3-406-50858-8 ; actual New edition 2015 (Febr.) ISBN 3-406-67716-9 .
  • as Hg .: History of the Arab World . Beck's historical library, o. No. First ed. by Ulrich Haarmann . CH Beck, Munich 2004 ISBN 3-406-47486-1 Bibliography Pp. 680-736.
  • The assassins. History of an Islamic secret society . Beck'sche Reihe, 2868. CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-70414-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Halm, Islam . Archived from the original on May 4, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 4, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.salentinerandernach.de
  2. ↑ Islam is religion and state
personal data
SURNAME Halm, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scholar of Islam and Schia expert
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Then after