"I am happy and proud that we have succeeded in attracting such a prominent speaker from the Muslim world," says a delighted Catholic theology professor Klaus von Stosch, who has taken over the direction of the new International Center for Comparative Theology and Social Issues at Bonn University. The Schimmel Lecture is to inaugurate the centre‘s work.

With bin Muhammad, von Stosch is bringing to Bonn a prominent Muslim who has been mediating between cultures and religions for years. The cousin of the reigning King Abdullah II of Jordan was educated at an English boarding school, later at Princeton University in the USA, Trinity College in Cambridge and at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. At the University of Amman, the 56-year-old teaches Islamic philosophy and heads a think tank for Islamic thought funded by the royal family.

In 2007, bin Muhammad and 137 other Islamic clerics wrote a long letter to the Pope and the leaders of other Christian churches calling for dialogue on common ground. Since this first broad initiative, the Jordanian has repeatedly been considered a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Apology to the namesake

The extent to which Christians and Muslims are divided between coming together and rejecting each other is reflected not least in the name-giver of the lecture series, Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003). By naming the lecture series after her, the University of Bonn is apologising posthumously for having denied the highly talented Schimmel, who completed her doctorate at the age of 19 and her habilitation in Marburg at the age of 23, a full professorship because she was a woman.

Schimmel, who spoke fluent Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and Pashto, had worked for many years as a lecturer at the local Seminar for Oriental Languages. With no chance of academic advancement in Germany, she founded a seminar for Indo-Islamic culture at Harvard and was appointed professor there in 1970. She found her adopted home in Pakistan. She died in Bonn in 2003 at the age of 81.

In numerous publications, Schimmel advocated a better understanding between Christians and Muslims and peaceful coexistence. In 1995, she was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade). However, her views remained controversial throughout her life. Critics, especially feminist critics, accused her of a lack of distance from extremist currents in Islam until the very end.

The first lecture in the new series will be given by bin Muhammad on 12 June at 5 p.m. in Bonn Minster. The follow-up lectures on the next two days on the functional principle of love and the essence of beauty will take place from 4 p.m. in the Festsaal of the university (main building). Please register by e-mail to lwiesenh@uni-bonn.de. wmr

(Original text: Martin Wein; Translation: Jean Lennox)