Heinz Halm (born 21 February 1942 in Andernach, Rhine Province) is a German scholar of Islamic Studies, with a particular expertise on early Shia history, the Ismailites and other Shia sects.

Life

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Born and raised in Andernach, Halm studied Islamic and Semitic studies, and medieval and modern history at the University of Bonn, where he was a scholar of Annemarie Schimmel. Following his Ph.D. and a traineeship in journalism at Hessischer Rundfunk, he joined the scholarly project of the Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients [de] (Tuebingen Atlas of the Near & Middle East), a bilingual (German/English) collection of geographical and historical maps. In 1980, he was appointed Professor for Islamic Studies at the University of Tübingen.

Work

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Halm's book The Shiites was reviewed in the International Journal of Middle East Studies by Said Amir Arjomand who remarked that "Halm’s historical perspective is a welcome corrective to the ahistorical shallowness of the vast majority of the accounts of the Islamic Revolution." Arjomand recommends the book as "a short historical introduction to Shi`ism, it is serviceable to the general public and has no rival or substitute.”[1]

  • Halm, Heinz; Faroqhi, Suraiya; Gronke, Monika, eds. (2012). "The Arabs". History of the Middle East: A Compilation. Princeton Series on the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. ISBN 9781558765702.
  • Die Araber: Von der vorislamischen Zeit bis zur Gegenwart (in German) (4th ed.). C.H. Beck. 2015. ISBN 978-3-406-68284-1.
  • The Arabs: A Short History (with documents). Markus Wiener Publishers. 2012. ISBN 9781558765450.
  • The Shiites: A Short History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. 2007. ISBN 9781558764378.
  • Shi'a Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Princeton Series on the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. 1997 [1994]. ISBN 978-1558761346.

Further reading

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  • Hinrich Biesterfeldt; Verena Klemm, eds. (2012). Difference and Dynamism in Islam: Festschrift for Heinz Halm on his 70th Birthday. Ergon. ISBN 978-3899138856.

References

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  1. ^ Said Amir Arjomand (May 1999). "Review of "Shia Islam: From Religion to Revolution"". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 31 (2): 276–278. JSTOR 176298.
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