Merlin Swartz (July 31, 1933 – February 21, 2022) was an American scholar of religion. Swartz attended

Eastern Mennonite University Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU is known for its Center f ...

(BA, 1955),

Goshen College Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a ...

(BD, 1960), and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(PhD, 1967). He was Professor Emeritus of Religion (Islamic Studies) at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, having taught previously at the

American University in Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs lead ...

and Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research and teaching focused primarily on the religious and intellectual history of medieval Islam.

Books

*Ibn al-Jawzi, ''Kitab al-Qussas wa'l-Mudhakkirin'' (tr., intro.) (Institut de Lettres Orientales, Beirut 1971). *''A Seventh-Century Sunni Creed: The 'Aqida Wasitiya of Ibn Taymiya'' (Mouton 1974). *''Studies on Islam'' (Oxford 1981). *''Humaniora Islamica'', co-editor (Mouton 1973-1974). *''A Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism: Ibn al-Jawzi's Kitab Akhbar as-Sifat: A Critical Edition of the Arabic Text with Translation, Introduction and Notes'' (E.J. Brill, 2002).

References

Boston University ProfileObituary
1933 births 2022 deaths Academic staff of the American University of Beirut Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Boston University faculty {{US-theologian-stub