مكتبة مجالس آل محمد

Wilferd Madelung is a historian of early Islam. His research has focused on the rise of the caliphate, sectarian schisms, religious movements, and theological schools in medieval Islam. He is a leading contemporary Islamicist who has made significant contributions to modern scholarship on mediaeval Islamic communities and movements, including Twelver Shi’ism, Zaydism and Ismailism. Educated at the Universities of Cairo and Hamburg, he became Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago in 1969 and the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1978. Professor Madelung is at present Senior Research Fellow with The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Among his recent publications are Religious Schools and Sects in Mediaeval Islam (London, 1985), Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran (Albany, NY, 1988), Religious and Ethnic Movements in Mediaeval Islam (Hampshire, 1992), The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate (Cambridge, 1997), and with Paul E. Walker An Ismaili Heresiography (Leiden, 1998). He has contributed extensively to The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Encycopaedia Iranica of which he is also a Consulting Editor, and learned journals.

Life and Education
Professor Wilferd Madelung was born on December 26th, 1930 in Stuttgart, Germany. After finishing primary and secondary educations, he went to the University of Cairo and received B.A. in Islamic History and Literature in 1953.

He then continued his higher education in his country and in 1957, received his PhD in Islamic Studies from University of Hamburg. Madelung finished his thesis under German Islamic scholars R. Strothmann and B. Spuler. He was the cultural agent of Western Germany in Baghdad for three years (1958 – 1960) and then continued his scientific life in Islamic Studies.

Scientific Records
1963: Professor’s assistant in Islamic Studies in University of Texas in Austin.
1964 – 1969: Professor’s assistant and associate professor in Islamic Studies in University of Chicago.
1969 – 1978: Professor of Islamic Studies in University of Chicago.
1978 – 1998: Professor of Laudian chair in Arabic and Islamic Studies in University of Oxford. Laudian chair is the highest chair of Islamic studies in the UK and one of the most important chairs of its kind in the world. Teaching Arabic in highest levels is among the conditions of this chair.
Madelung taught in University of Colombia and many other universities in the United States and Europe as a guest lecturer. He is a member of many international communities of Islamic studies.
Methodology
He had a very accurate method in research and writing including usage of authentic and first hand references, distinguishing between Shia and Sunni sources, distinguishing between Twelver Shia sources and sources of other Shia branches, thematic classification of sources (theological, exegetic, hadith) and also using many references. Accurate knowledge of distinguished Shia scholars and theologians, comprehensive and organized look to Shia and using orientalists’ references has added to the importance of his researches.

Works
By writing and correcting about 200 books and articles in research journals and encyclopedias and reviewing and introduction of 160 books, he has had a great role in achievement of knowledge about thought and history of Islam and especially Shia in medieval period. His works are a collection of researches in theology, history, fiqh, schools and sects, biographies and bibliographies.

The succession to Muhammad, his most famous work.

Books
Arabic Texts Concerning The History of The Zaydi Imams of Tabaristan, Daylaman And Gilan, Franz Steiner, 1987
Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran, 1988
Religious and Ethnic Movements in Medieval Islam, 1992
The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997
An Ismaili Heresiography, Leiden, 1998
The Advent of the Fatimids: A Contemporary Shi’i Witness, I.B. Tauris, 2000
Der Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen, Walter De Gruyter Incorporated, 2002
Religious school and sects in medieval Islam
The Book of the Rank of the Sage. Rutbat al-Ḥakīm by Maslama al-Qurṭubī. Arabic Text edited with an English Introduction by Wilferd Madelung. Corpus Alchemicum Arabicum IV. Living Human Heritage Publications, Zurich 2016.
Articles
Imamism and Mu’tazilite Theology