Wensinck, A. J.

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WENSINCK, A. J.

WENSINCK, A. J. (1882–1939), was a Dutch Semiticist, historian of Syriac mystical theology, and Islamicist. Arent Jan Wensinck, born in Aarlanderveen, the Netherlands, began his scholarly career with a year's study of theology in Utrecht. He then changed to Semitic studies, including Arabic, working first in Utrecht under M. T. Houtsma (1850–1943) and then in Leiden under M. J. de Goeje (1835–1909) and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857–1936). He obtained his doctorate at the University of Leiden in 1908 and subsequently became privatdocent for Syriac and Aramaic at the University of Utrecht. In 1908 he became secretary of The Encyclopaedia of Islam. From 1912 until 1927 Wensinck was professor of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac at the University of Leiden, and in 1927 he succeeded Snouck Hurgronje as professor of Arabic and Islam at the same university, at which post he remained until his death.

Wensinck is best known as an Islamicist. He studied Muḥammad's life; he was familiar with the immense ḥadīth literature; and he wrote a masterly study on the development of Islamic creeds (ʿaqīdah s) and their theological background. Against the same background he described the rise of a distinct Islamic culture during the first centuries of Islam, paying much attention to the development of liturgy and ritual. Wensinck also contributed significantly to the accumulated the knowledge of Syrian mystical theology, after this field was opened by the works of Paul Bedjan and others.

Wensinck's major importance, however, seems to lie in his combination of various specializations within the historical study of religions. He was able not only to establish historical affiliations but also to reveal patterns within the Semitic religious world, patterns common to Israelite, Christian, and Islamic religious data. He explored areas as varied as cosmology, ritual behavior, ethics, mysticism, and folk religion, writing on such varied topics as New Year celebrations, the veneration of martyrs, and the notion of intention in law. Focusing on data relating to devotional and mystical life and thought, Wensinck showed the historical relationship between Muslim and Syriac Christian mysticism: Just as Isaac of Nineveh influenced Muslim mystics, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī influenced Bar Hebraeus in a later period. Wensinck contributed much to the understanding of al-Ghazālī as a mystic.

At the end of his life Wensinck provided an incentive to study the Aramaic background of the New Testament, which has proved to be a fruitful field of research. Thanks to his sharp, refined mind Wensinck was particularly suited for research in the field of religion, where he let the texts speak for themselves.

Bibliography

After his dissertation, Mohammed en de Joden te Medina (Leiden, 1908), Wensinck published two major studies on Syriac Christian mysticism: Bar Hebraeus's Book of the Dove (Leiden, 1919) and Mystic Treatises by Isaac of Niniveh (Amsterdam, 1923). There followed three important books in the field of Islamic studies. A Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition, Alphabetically Arranged (1927; reprint, Leiden, 1971) gives a broad classification in English of Islamic traditions (ḥadīth s) according to themes. In 1932 he published the excellent study The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Historical Development (reprint, New York, 1965). His La pensée de Ghazzali was published posthumously (Paris, 1940).

Wensinck was an editor of both The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 4 vols. with supplement (Leiden, 1913–1934), and the Handwörterbuch des Islam (Leiden, 1941); he contributed numerous articles to each. In 1916 Wensinck had initiated another international project, the Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane, 6 vols. (Leiden, 1936–1971), and he remained the supervisor of it until the end of his life. Semietische studiën uit de nalatenschap van Prof. Dr. A. J. Wensinck, 7 Augustus 1882–19 September 1939 (Leiden, 1941) contains a number of Wensinck's papers in English and French, as well as a bibliography of Wensinck's published work. For a study, in Dutch, of Wensinck's work, see W. C. van Unnik's essay "Professor A. J. Wensinck en de studie van de Oosterse Mystiek," in his Woorden gaan leven, 1910–1978 (Kampen, 1979), pp. 238–263.