Muhammad Nafi Chelebi

Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi (Hadj Mohammed Abdul Nafi Tschelebi) (born December 17, 1901 in Aleppo ; † summer 1933 in Berlin ) was a Syrian student of engineering at the Technical University of Berlin (today Technical University of Berlin ), founder of the Central Institute for Islam Archive Germany and an outstanding Muslim personality in the Weimar Republic . His death at the beginning of the National Socialist era has not been clarified.

Working in Berlin

Tschelebi came to Berlin in 1923 and soon played an important role in Berlin's international student movement.

Tschelebi founded the Central Institute Islam Archive Germany on November 4, 1927 as the "Islam Institute" in Berlin in the "Humboldt House" on Fasanenstrasse . This institute was created at a time when, in Chelebi's words, the alienation between Europe and the Islamic world had become “open enmity”, and Chelebi saw himself as an “ honest broker ” in his unifying mission . The institute should “become an intellectual center for cultural exchange between Germany and the Islamic world and stimulate both sides through its mediation work.” Under his leadership, the Islam Institute developed extensive activities in and around Berlin.

Tschelebi published several magazines, held various offices and was the most important figure in integrating Berlin's Muslims in his time . At his suggestion, the "German-Muslim Society eV" was founded on May 30, 1930. Tschelebi also sat on the board of directors when the German section of the Islamic World Congress was founded in Berlin in 1932. Through his mediation, the relationship between the “Islamic Community of Berlin” with its 1500 members at times and the Ahmadiyya community normalized .

Death and aftermath

In the summer of 1933, strollers discovered his body on the banks of a lake in Grunewald. The circumstances of his death remained unexplained, allegedly he had drowned. It is also unknown what happened to his body and where it was buried. With him, the Muslims in the German Reich lost their most outstanding personality.

After the death of Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi, the "German-Muslim Society" only led a shadowy existence.

Today's Islam Archive has donated the Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi Prize in memory of its founder .

swell

Gerhard Höpp : Muslims under the swastika. On the genesis of the Islamic Central Institute in Berlin e. V. A text at the Islam Archive Germany
- ders .: Elaboration "Only Orient for Europeans?" About Mohammed Essad Bey and his connections to Tschelebi and the Islamic Community of Berlin, 1922 and later (passim)

notes

↑ See The Islam Institute. An Islamic research and teaching facility on German soil. In: Die Islamische Gegenwart , Berlin l (1927) 2, p. 25.
↑ Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi in December 1927 at the opening in the Humboldt House.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Burkhard Schröder: "Leader among themselves", Berlin city magazine tip on May 29, 1996; s. a. Nasir Ahmad: The Berlin mosque and mission of the Ahmadiyya movement to spread Islam (Lahore) (PDF; 597 kB), June 2006, p. 57 f. (translated and edited by Manfred Backhausen).
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personal data
SURNAME	Tschelebi, Muhammad Nafi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Syrian student in Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH	December 17, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Aleppo
DATE OF DEATH	1933
Place of death	Berlin

[1] See The Islam Institute. An Islamic research and teaching facility on German soil. In: Die Islamische Gegenwart , Berlin l (1927) 2, p. 25.

[2] Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi in December 1927 at the opening in the Humboldt House.

[burkhard-3] Burkhard Schröder: "Leader among themselves", Berlin city magazine tip on May 29, 1996; s. a. Nasir Ahmad: The Berlin mosque and mission of the Ahmadiyya movement to spread Islam (Lahore) (PDF; 597 kB), June 2006, p. 57 f. (translated and edited by Manfred Backhausen).

[4] Access to data and texts only for registered users or personally