The scholarship was founded in 1988 in honour of AnneMarie Schimmel , the great woman scholar who has dedicated her life to the study of Islamic culture. Many will be familiar with her name and some will know her works. Few, perhaps will be aware of the details of her extraordinary life. AnneMarie Schimmel was born in Erfurt, a town in central Germany in 1922. An only child, she grew up in a loving home steeped in the German classics, especially poetry. She seems at an early age to have been conscious of her destiny. She writes: “It was absolutely clear to me when I was seven years old that I had to study something that had to do with Eastern languages and cultures. I have never even thought of doing anything else”. At fifteen she abandoned piano lessons for the study of Arabic that opened the door to a new world. She received a doctorate in Islamic Languages and Civilization from the University of Berlin when she was only nineteen. At twenty three, she became the Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Marburg where she went on to earn a second doctorate in the History of Religions.A turning point in her life came in 1954 when she was appointed Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Ankara. There she spent five years teaching in Turkish and immersing herself in the culture and mystical tradition of the country. AnneMarie Schimmel was an early admirer of Muhammad Iqbal and translated the Javidnama into German verse.

In 1958 she made the first of many visits to Pakistan, a country that became central to her work. It is not too much to say that she is venerated there. The government has honoured her with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, its highest civil award, and a fine tree-lined avenue in Lahore is named after her.The recipient of many international distinctions and honorary degrees, AnneMarie Schimmel ended her academic career as Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture at Harvard, where she taught from 1970 to 1992. Following her retirement, she was elected Honorary Professor at the University of Bonn. Today she is recognized as one of the world’s greatest authorities on Islam. The range of her knowledge is legendary, spanning religion, literature and art. Her command of languages is prodigious: fluent in German, English and French, she can make her way in Swedish and Italian. To the classic Eastern languages, Arabic, Persian and Turkish, she has added Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi and Pushto. In her seventies, the steady flow of books, translations and lectures continues. As do her journeys that seem to grow longer and more frequent: over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, to Iran and Uzbekistan, always returning to Pakistan, where she hopes to be buried at Makli among her beloved Sufis. As a person, her deceptively frail appearance conceals an iron resolve. Her teasing humour and childlike enthusiasm for new experiences make her an endearing companion. Cat lover and poet, she wears her profound learning lightly. It would be hard to imagine a finer exemplar for aspiring young women scholars. It took two to create the Scholarship: the inspirer and the inspired.Zoë Hersov’s academic background includes degrees in history (in the US and France) and theology (in England). In her twenties, when she was at home with small children, she did research on women and work and contributed to a number of books on the subject. Later, as a mature student of theology, she became interested in Islam and pursued further studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies. When her last child left for university in 1984, her husband accepted a professorship at a medical school in the US where they lived for seven years. As a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, Zoë Hersov had the opportunity to attend AnneMarie Schimmel’s lectures. They became friends and had long talks about Islam and Pakistan. At the same time, Zoë Hersov was invited to join the Commission on Women and Work in Asia and came to know Dr. Mira Phailbus, the representative from Pakistan. Her invitation to visit Kinnaird College for Women brought a new dimension to Ms Hersov’s life. She stayed in Kinnaird on numerous occasions, conducting workshops and speaking to girls about their futures. She met parents too, who gave her insight into how women’s higher education and careers could fit in with the conventions of family life. In 1986, Zoë Hersov’s mother died and she came into an inheritance. As a girl her mother had been unable to take up a scholarship at a prestigious school in London because her family was so poor. Her mother’s love of learning, the unforgettable encounter with Anne Marie Schimmel and her own experience of intelligent, able young women in Pakistan, came together to inspire the creation of the AnneMarie Schimmel Scholarship. Over the years, we have been fortunate to send a wide variety of scholars to the United Kingdom. They will go on, God willing, to make a significant contribution to their fields in Pakistan in the future.                      
  “All work is seed sown; it grows and spreads, and sows itself anew”.