With Sabine Schmidtke and SherAli K. Tareen The following conversation focuses on Scholar of Islam, Victim of the Holocaust: The Tragic Story of Hedwig Klein (De Gruyter, 2026), a new book by Sabine Schmidtke, Professor of Near Eastern and Islamic Studies in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Historical Studies. The book narrates the fascinating, powerful, and yet immensely tragic story of the… Continue reading A Conversation on “Scholar of Islam, Victim of the Holocaust: The Tragic Story of Hedwig Klein”
Without Each Other’s Knowledge: Muṣṭafā al-Qabbānī and Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Parallel Editorial Pursuits of al-Ghazālī’s al-Ḥikma fī makhlūqāt Allāh
By Sabine Schmidtke Al-Qabbānī’s editorial activities In his fine study of the evolving editorial and printing culture in the Arabo-Islamic world of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics, Ahmed El Shamsy discusses the case of Muṣṭafā al-Qabbānī al-Dimashqī, a prolific editor (muṣaḥḥiḥ) active in Cairo at the turn of the twentieth… Continue reading Without Each Other’s Knowledge: Muṣṭafā al-Qabbānī and Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Parallel Editorial Pursuits of al-Ghazālī’s al-Ḥikma fī makhlūqāt Allāh
Dating the Undated: Yahuda’s Draft Letter to Garrett Reconsidered through the Littmann Correspondence (1904–1906)
By Sabine Schmidtke An undated letter by A.S. Yahuda to Robert Garrett has long resisted precise dating. A fresh look at Yahuda’s correspondence with Enno Littmann now allows us to place it firmly in the years 1904–1906. The correspondence between scholar and manuscript collector Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877–1951) and Princeton benefactor Robert Garrett (1875–1961) is… Continue reading Dating the Undated: Yahuda’s Draft Letter to Garrett Reconsidered through the Littmann Correspondence (1904–1906)
Scholar of Islam, Victim of the Holocaust: The Tragic Story of Hedwig Klein
For details about the book that will be published in September 2026, see https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isbn/9783111705804/html#overview Hedwig Klein was a brilliant scholar of Islam whose life and career were tragically cut short by the Holocaust. Born in Antwerp in 1911 and raised in Hamburg, Klein studied at the University of Hamburg under Rudolf Strothmann, Walter Windfuhr, Arthur… Continue reading Scholar of Islam, Victim of the Holocaust: The Tragic Story of Hedwig Klein
Yemen and Arabia during the Interwar Period: The Correspondence of Carl Rathjens and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, 1927 through 1934
This paper has now been published — for additional details see https://albert.ias.edu/20.500.12111/8045
S.T. Lee Conference (IAS, 10-12 December 2025): One Century of “Oriental” and Semitic Studies, 1830 through 1933 (and beyond)–Opening Remarks
We would like to extend a warm welcome to all participants and guests, whether joining us in person or online. Dorothea Weltecke and I are thrilled that you accepted our invitation to participate in our conference, “One Century of ‘Oriental’ and Semitic Studies, 1830 through 1933 (and Beyond),” which aims to shed light on this… Continue reading S.T. Lee Conference (IAS, 10-12 December 2025): One Century of “Oriental” and Semitic Studies, 1830 through 1933 (and beyond)–Opening Remarks
Paul Kraus and Muhammad Hamidullah on the Contributions of European Jewish Scholars to the Study of Islam
Preface When in 2022 I published the correspondence between the two German scholars Paul Kahle (1875–1964) and Rudolf Strothmann (1877–1960), I included an appendix devoted to Kahle’s exchange with his former student, the Indian Islamic scholar Muhammad Hamidullah (1908–2002), revolving around the latter’s 1936 publication, “Islamic Studies and Modern Europe” that was based on a… Continue reading Paul Kraus and Muhammad Hamidullah on the Contributions of European Jewish Scholars to the Study of Islam
Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Publications
Compiled by Sabine Schmidtke This list aims to provide an overview of Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s (1877–1951) academic work and its reception. There are certainly gaps at this point, especially with regard to Yahuda’s writings and interviews that were published in newspapers, and I would be grateful for any additional titles missing from the list in… Continue reading Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Publications
A Preliminary catalogue of documents of the Ignaz Goldziher archive at the National Library of Israel, by Kinga Dévényi
The full catalogue, Dévényi, Kinga, “A Preliminary catalogue of documents of the Ignaz Goldziher archive at the National Library of Israel,” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, 2025. can be accessed at https://albert.ias.edu/20.500.12111/8378 For Kinga Dévényi’s catalog, see also Samuel Thrope, “The Goldziher Library: A Scholarly Treasure Revealed,” The Librarians (blog) (28 October 2024), https://blog.nli.org.il/en/goldziher_library/… Continue reading A Preliminary catalogue of documents of the Ignaz Goldziher archive at the National Library of Israel, by Kinga Dévényi
Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Failed Habilitation
By Sabine Schmidtke Soon after the Jerusalem-born cosmopolitan Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877–1951), who later became one of the most important sellers of Islamic manuscripts to Western collectors and libraries,1 had earned his doctoral degree at Strassburg University with a dissertation entitled “Prolegomena zu einer erstmaligen Herausgabe des Kitab al-Hidaja ‘ila fara’id al-qulub“, he was appointed… Continue reading Abraham Shalom Yahuda’s Failed Habilitation