Fuad Sezgin

Fuad Sezgin (1343–1439 AH / 1924–2018 CE) was a Turkish historian of Arabic-Islamic science and literature who served as a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, best known for his bio-bibliographical encyclopedia Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (History of Arabic Heritage) al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya+1.

Life and Academic Career

Fuad Muhammad Sezgin was born in Istanbul in 1924 CE Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. He entered Istanbul University in 1942, studying under the German Orientalist Hellmut Ritter until 1947, when he completed his master's degree across Oriental studies, mathematics, and Romance studies al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya+1. He obtained his doctorate in 1950 in Islamic studies, Iranian studies, and philosophy Riwayat al-Jami al-Sahih ….

Sezgin later moved to Germany, where he served for more than twenty years as a professor of Islamic history and the history of natural sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, directing its Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya+2. He died in 1439 AH al-Madkhal ila Sahih al-B….

Scholarly Focus and Methodology

Ritter directed Sezgin's attention to the abundance of uncatalogued Arabic manuscripts preserved in Istanbul libraries that were missing from Carl Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya. Sezgin initially set out to compose a supplement to Brockelmann's survey, but he subsequently expanded the scope into a comprehensive renewal and ultimately an independent history of Arabic sciences and written culture up to around 430 AH (1038 CE) Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. His multi-volume Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums chronicled Islamic religious disciplines, poetry, medicine, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and lexicography al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya+1.

Sezgin also addressed the early written transmission of Islamic texts. In his doctoral study Buhari’nin Kaynakları Hakkında Araştırmalar (Studies on the Sources of al-Bukhari), published in Ankara in 1956, he argued that early hadith transmission was fundamentally grounded in written records rather than solely oral reports, interpreting chains of transmission as indices of written source texts and their authorized transmitters al-Muallafat fi al-Hadith…+2. He also edited Abu Ubaydah Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna's philological work Majaz al-Qur'an Riwayat al-Jami al-Sahih ….

Recognition and Reception

Sezgin was the inaugural laureate of the King Faisal International Prize for Islamic Studies in 1399 AH (1979 CE), awarded for the first six volumes of his bibliographical history Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+2. His encyclopedia was translated into Arabic through joint efforts by Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University and King Saud University al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya.

While his bibliographic research was widely praised for its breadth, several of his assessments provoked scholarly debate Tarikh al-Turath al-Arabi…+1. Scholars such as Akram Diya' al-Umari and Sa'd al-Marsafi criticized his conclusions regarding al-Bukhari, rejecting Sezgin's assertion that the isnad system began to lose its status with al-Bukhari's compilation al-Mustashriqun wa al-Sun…+1. Other specialists, including Hikmat Bashir Yasin, published scholarly addenda and emendations to specific sections of his encyclopedia Majallat al-Jami'a al-Isl….