Heinz Halm (born 21 February 1942 in Andernach, Rhine Province) is a German scholar of Islamic Studies, with a particular expertise on early Shia history, the Ismailites and other Shia sects.

Life

Born and raised in Andernach, Halm studied Islamic and Semitic studies, and medieval and modern history at the University of Bonn, where he was a scholar of Annemarie Schimmel. Following his Ph.D. and a traineeship in journalism at Hessischer Rundfunk, he joined the scholarly project of the Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients [de] (Tuebingen Atlas of the Near & Middle East), a bilingual (German/English) collection of geographical and historical maps. In 1980, he was appointed Professor for Islamic Studies at the University of Tübingen.

Work

Halm's book The Shiites was reviewed in the International Journal of Middle East Studies by Said Amir Arjomand who remarked that "Halm’s historical perspective is a welcome corrective to the ahistorical shallowness of the vast majority of the accounts of the Islamic Revolution." Arjomand recommends the book as "a short historical introduction to Shi`ism, it is serviceable to the general public and has no rival or substitute.”^[1]

• Halm, Heinz; Faroqhi, Suraiya; Gronke, Monika, eds. (2012). "The Arabs". History of the Middle East: A Compilation. Princeton Series on the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. ISBN 9781558765702.
• Die Araber: Von der vorislamischen Zeit bis zur Gegenwart (in German) (4th ed.). C.H. Beck. 2015. ISBN 978-3-406-68284-1.

• The Arabs: A Short History (with documents). Markus Wiener Publishers. 2012. ISBN 9781558765450.

• Die Schiiten (in German) (2nd ed.). C.H. Beck. 2015. ISBN 978-3-406-67716-8.

• The Shiites: A Short History. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. 2007. ISBN 9781558764378.

• Der Islam: Geschichte und Gegenwart (in German) (10th ed.). C.H. Beck. 2015. ISBN 978-3-406-62886-3.
• Kalifen und Assassinen. Ägypten und der Vordere Orient zur Zeit der ersten Kreuzzüge 1074-1171 (in German). C.H. Beck. 2014. ISBN 978-3-406-66163-1.
• Das Reich des Mahdi: Der Aufstieg der Fatimiden (875—973) (in German). Munchen: C.H.Beck. 1991. ISBN 978-3-406-35497-7.
  • The Empire of the Mahdi The Rise of the Fatimids. Translated by Bonner, Michael. Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill. 1996. ISBN 978-90-04-10056-5.
• Der Schiitische Islam: Von Der Religion Zur Revolution [Shi’a Islam: From Religion to Revolution] (in German). C.H. Beck. 1994. ISBN 978-3-406-37437-1.

• Shi'a Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Princeton Series on the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers. 1997 [1994]. ISBN 978-1558761346.