WILFERD MADELUNG

Abstract

The Arab Spring sprung a leak because no account was taken of the sectarian contours of the Middle East. The Houthies of Yemen are a case in point as they are Zaydis and not Twelvers like the majority in Iran. It was with researching the Zaydis that Wilferd Madelung began his academic sojourn. He edited ‘Arabic Texts Concerning the History of the Zaydi Imams of Tabaristan, Daylaman and Gilan in 1987.

Wilferd Madelung obtained his PhD in Islamic History from the University of Hamburg in 1957 in his native Germany. In the late 1950’s he spent time in Iraq which he left after the military revolution in 1958. From 1969 to 1978, Wilferd Madelung was Professor of Islamic History at the University of Oxford. For the next twenty years Wilferd Madelung served the University of Oxford as Laudian Professor of ‘Arabic. Thereafter, till his death Wilferd Madelung was associated with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He collaborated with Paul Walker in writing An Ismaili Heresiography, Leiden 1998 and The Advent of the Fatimids: A Contemporary Shi’i Witness, London, 2000. He shot to fame and influence with The Succession to Muhammad, (on whom, his progeny and companions be peace) Cambridge, 1997, a theme common to all Shi’a sub sects.