Hämeen-Anttila was 60 years old when he died.
of Edinburgh professor of Arabic and Islamic culture at the university Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila has died of a sudden attack of illness on December 18th. The matter is confirmed to HS by his spouse Virpi Hämeen-Anttila.
“The incident came as a complete surprise and shock to our family. That's why we have kept the information only to those closest to us until now. Our personal loss is very heavy, and Finland and the whole world have lost a great researcher”, he says.
Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila was 60 years old when he died. The internationally known top researcher was also a well-known media commentator and popularizer of scientific knowledge.
Hämeen-Anttila was born in Oulu in 1963. He has an extensive literary output, which includes translations and dozens of non-fiction books. He has written a lot about, among other things, Islam and Middle Eastern literature, as well as translated into Finnish, for example of the Koran and Tales of the Thousand and One Nights.
Before University of Edinburgh Hämeen-Anttila was a professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of Helsinki.
In the summer of 2016, he moved to Edinburgh as a professor of Arabic language and Islamic studies, as he was disappointed with the education cuts made by the then government.
Hämeen-Anttila was often referred to as the first high-profile academic refugee to leave Finland for surgery, although in reality he had been lured to Edinburgh even before the surgery.
“I've never bothered to straighten it… because it got easier with the surgeries. I also wanted to give the protest a face if the government continues this line,” Hämeen-Anttila said In an interview with HS in 2017.
Hämeen-Anttila's latest books include, among others The Sword of Islam: A History of East-West Conflict (Otava, 2012) and A trip to wonderland: The cultural history of drugs (Otava, 2013).
Otavan nonfiction publishing manager Mari Mikkola says that Hämeen-Anttila was one of the few scientists who mastered popular information writing.
“He knew how to write for a large audience and find interesting perspectives that way. He sometimes also had a twinkle in the corner of his eye, and humor was one of the methods he also used in his non-fiction books,” Mikkola describes to HS.
Hämeen-Anttila was a very prolific non-fiction writer. He published his first non-fiction book in Otava in 2004. That one Handbook of Islam won the state information disclosure award. Since then, he published a non-fiction book in Otava almost every year. His most recent non-fiction book for the publishing house was Handbook of Islam revised edition in 2017.
Mikkola, who has worked with Hämeen-Anttila for a long time, says that Hämeen-Anttila were the best and most trusted experts in their field in Finland. He knew how to open Islamic culture to Finns in a down-to-earth manner and in a way that dispels prejudices and fears.
Mikkola also published some of Hämeen-Anttila's works himself.
“It was a great pleasure because he could write so well.”
For Mikkola, the news of Hämeen-Anttila's death came as a big shock.
“This is a big loss. He was by no means elderly, and he would have had much more to give in the field of science and science popularization. He was also always a fun companion. I remember many dinners and conversations that we will miss.”
Ilkka Lindstedt met Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila at the University of Helsinki. Lindstedt is a university lecturer in Islamic theology and a docent of Arabic language and Islamic studies.
Hämeen-Anttila acted as his dissertation supervisor. The contact continued after the completion of the dissertation.
“He was always encouraging. He was very motivated to teach us”, Lindstedt describes to HS.
Director of the Finnish Middle East Institute Susanna Dahlgren on the other hand, describes Hämeen-Anttila as being socially capable.
“Jaakko was cheerful and a really fun companion. He always had different stories to tell. He had an excellent sense of humor,” Dahlgren tells HS.
Hämeen-Anttila was awarded several times during his career. For example, he received the Eino Leino award for promoting a multicultural understanding of literature together with his wife, writer-translator Virpi Hämeen-Anttila in 2002.
Read more: Disgusted by the government's actions, Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila does not intend to return to Finland – “I'm still shocked”
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