Fritz Meier (10 June, 1912- 10 June, 1998) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

Orientalist with a focus on

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Life

Fritz Meier was born on 10 June 1912 in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. He grew up in the Canton of

Basel-Landschaft Canton of Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country, informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; ; ; ; ), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditional ...

and attended the Humanistisches Gymnasium. Beginning in 1932 he studied Greek philology, Semitics, and

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...

at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

. He soon switched to Islamic studies and became a student of the Ottomanist and historian Rudolf Tschudi (1884-1960), under whose supervision he earned his doctorate, with a thesis on the life of the

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Abu Ishaq al-Kazaruni. In 1935 he followed Hellmut Ritter (1892-1971) to Istanbul, where he made his way to academic work. In 1963 he was

habilitated Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellen ...

. Meier was granted an honorary doctorate by the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

in 1974 and by the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

in 1992. From 1986 on he was a corresponding member of the

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: ''Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften''), established in 1909 in Heidelberg, Germany, is an assembly of scholars and scientists in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The acade ...

. His writings exerted a great deal of influence on the academic world. He wrote about the many forms of Islamic mysticism, Islamic manuscripts of the Persian and Arabic languages, the relationship between the Middle East and European cultural history, the history of religion in general, and popular culture. His works on the great Persian mystic

Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr Abū Saʿīd Abū'l-Khayr or Abusa'id Abolkhayr () , also known as Sheikh Abusaeid or Abu Sa'eed, was a famous Persian Sufi and poet who contributed extensively to the evolution of Sufi tradition. The majority of what is known from his life c ...

and the Persian poet Mahsati are considered some of the most comprehensive research available on the subjects. He died in Dornach on 10 June 1998.

Works

* ''Die Vita des Scheich Abū Isḥāq al-Kāzarūnī''. (Diss.) Bibliotheca Islamica, Leipzig 1948. * ''Vom Wesen der islamischen Mystik''. Basel 1943. * ''Die Fawāʾiḥ al-ǧamāl wa-fawātiḥ al-ǧalāl des Naǧm ad-dīn al-Kubrā.'' Eine Darstellung mystischer Erfahrungen im Islam aus der Zeit um 1200 n. Chr. Wiesbaden 1957. * ''Die schöne Mahsatī.'' Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des persischen Vierzeilers. Wiesbaden 1963. * ''Abū Saʿīd-i Abū l-Ḫayr. Wirklichkeit und Legende.'' Acta Iranica 11, Leiden 1976. * ''Bahāʾ-i Walad. Grundzüge seines Lebens und seiner Mystik.'' Acta Iranica 27, Leiden 1989. * ''Meister und Schüler im Orden der Naqšbandiyya.'' Universitatsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg 1995. * ''Bemerkungen zur Mohammedverehrung. Teil 1: Die Segenssprechung über Mohammed.'' Nachgelassene Schriften I, 1, Leiden 2002.

References

* *
MEIER, Fritz
in the

İslâm Ansiklopedisi The (İA) () is a Turkish academic encyclopedia for Islamic studies published by Presidency of Religious Affairs. History The decision to begin the encyclopedia project was made at the 1st Turkish Publications Congress in Ankara on 2–5 Ma ...

(Turkish)

Notes

1912 births 1998 deaths Academics from Basel-Stadt Swiss orientalists Iranologists Islamic studies scholars {{Switzerland-academic-bio-stub