Patricia Crone
Patricia Crone, whose pioneering and innovative approach to the history of Islam has brought about lasting change in the field, died at the age of 70 on July 11, 2015 in Princeton, New Jersey, after a courageous fight against cancer. She was Professor Emerita in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, where she served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor since 1997, before retiring in 2014.
Crone’s insightful work compellingly conveyed in her adventurous and unconventional style, shed important new light on the critical importance of the Near East — in particular on the cultural, religious, and intellectual history of Islam — in historical studies. Her influence is strongly felt at the Institute, where, along with Oleg Grabar (1929–2011), Crone helped to establish the Institute as a recognized center for the pursuit of the study of Islamic culture and history. Crone was succeeded in 2014 by Islamic intellectual historian Sabine Schmidtke, who is advancing important scholarship across Islamic culture and history.
Born in Kyndeløse, Denmark, on March 28, 1945, Crone studied at Copenhagen University before receiving both her undergraduate education (1969) and PhD (1974) from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Upon earning her PhD, Crone became Senior Research Fellow at the University of London’s Warburg Institute. In 1977, she accepted a position as a University Lecturer in Islamic History and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Oxford, where she taught for 13 years. Following her time at Oxford, Crone moved to the University of Cambridge and served as an Assistant university lecturer in Islamic Studies and was a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College from 1990-92, after which she was University Lecturer until 1994. Crone was then a University Reader at Cambridge until 1997, when she joined the faculty of the Institute.
Crone’s first book, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge University Press, 1977), written with Michael Cook, had a profound impact on the study of the early centuries of Islam.
This was followed by work that closely related to her doctoral thesis, resulting in two books — Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of Islamic Polity (Cambridge University Press, 1980) and Roman, Provincial and Islamic Law (Cambridge University Press, 1987) — in which Crone explored tribes and tribal culture in early Islam and investigated Roman, provincial, and Islamic law and its connections to Near Eastern legal systems. Crone’s Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Princeton University Press, 1987) challenged the widely accepted understanding of Mecca as a major trade center and presented a powerful perspective on the beginnings of Islam.
In addition to her book awards, Crone’s work has been acknowledged by many honors, including the Giorgio Levi Della Vida Medal for Excellence in Islamic Studies (2013) and the Middle East Medievalists Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), which recognizes scholars who have served the field of medieval Middle Eastern Studies with distinction. She was made an honorary member of Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge (2013) and received honorary doctorates from Leiden University (2013) and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2014). She was a member of the American Philosophical Society and Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, as well as the founder and editor of the book series Makers of the Muslim World, which highlights scholars, artists, politicians, and religious leaders who made the Muslim world what it is today.
Crone is survived by her siblings Camilla Castenskiold, Clarissa Crone, Diana Crone Frank, and Alexander Crone. The documentary, For the Life of Me: Between Science and the Law, created by Diana Crone Frank, depicts Crone’s diagnosis of cancer and follows her quest to research and employ marijuana’s potential cancer-fighting properties and to contextualize its longstanding legal prohibition.
There will be an event at the Institute this fall to celebrate Crone’s life and work, and details will be shared in the near future.
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Helena Tenev
Helena Tenev, 90, of Princeton, New Jersey, died Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
Born in Jedrzejów, Poland, she was a resident of Princeton for many years.
She attended schools in Jedrzejów and Warsaw and, during the period of Nazi occupation when Poland ceased to exist, secret schools organized by the Polish Underground. After the war, she attended the Hochschule für Welthandel (now Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) in Vienna, Austria.
During World War II, she became separated from her family and was conscripted into labor in Warsaw. A Polish patriot, she supported the Home Army, the Armija Krajowa; she survived the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, escaped deportation, and returned to her family.
In Poland, during the war, she met the late George Tenev, a medical corpsman serving in a Bulgarian Red Cross sanitary train. He returned to find her as hostilities were ending and in 1945, in Prague, they married and lived together for 70 years.
After the war, she moved to her husband’s native Bulgaria. An opponent of the communist regime, her husband was imprisoned periodically and tortured; her family was persecuted; her father-in-law was executed in 1955. In 1957, the couple illegally left Bulgaria with their children, a crime punishable by death. The family lived in a displaced persons camp in Vienna, Austria, and eventually came to the United States.
They settled in Yonkers, New York. She worked as a medical technician and became supervisor of the electrocardiogram department at Misericordia Hospital (now Our Lady of Mercy) in New York City. She worked closely with AIDS patients for many years.
She was a frequent visitor to New Suffolk, New York and Westerly, Rhode Island and, in retirement, to Menton, France and Cambridge, England. She traveled extensively throughout Europe and South America. She enjoyed music, art, nature, and reading, especially poetry; she was deeply religious. She played an active role in raising her grandchildren. She was devoted to friends and family.
Daughter of the late Jozef and Marianna Marzec, she is survived by a daughter, Marie Pepper of Cambridge, England; a son Jovi Tenev and daughter-in-law Nancy Hingston of Princeton Junction, New Jersey; a granddaughter Tara Pepper Goldsmith and her husband Charles Goldsmith of Cambridge, England; a grandson Sean Pepper of New York; a grandson Liam Pepper and his wife Bic Hoang Leu of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a grandson Nicholas Tenev of Madison, Wisconsin; grandchildren Christopher and Helena Tenev of Princeton Junction; great grandsons Charles, Thomas, and Jonathan Goldsmith of Cambridge, England; and sisters Janina Wachsberger Witkowski of Washington, D.C. and Danuta Wernik of Oceanside, California.
A choral funeral Mass will be celebrated 4:30 p.m. Saturday, July 25, 2015 at Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, with interment at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton.
In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested donations to the Red Cross, Trinity Church, Princeton, or the Church of the Holiest Saviour (Kosciół Najswietszego Zbawiciela) in Warsaw.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home,
Princeton.
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George Tenev
George Tenev, 95, of Princeton, New Jersey, died Sunday, February 22, 2015.
Born in Aitos, Bulgaria, he was a resident of Princeton for many years.
He attended schools in Aitos and Kotel, and Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, the University of Vienna, and the New School for Social Research in New York.
During World War II, he served as a medical corpsman in a Bulgarian Red Cross sanitary train operating across Europe; he was wounded twice and witnessed the firebombing of Dresden.
During the war, in Poland, he met the late Helena Marzec. He returned to find her as hostilities were ending and in 1945, in Prague, they married and lived together for 70 years.
After the war, he returned to Bulgaria with his wife. An opponent of the communist regime, he was imprisoned periodically and tortured; his family was persecuted; his father was executed in 1955. In 1957, he illegally left Bulgaria with his wife and children, a crime punishable by death. The family lived in a displaced persons camp in Vienna, Austria, and eventually came to the United States.
They settled in Yonkers, New York. He worked for Radio Free Europe for many years and, after its New York offices were wound down, for financial institutions in Manhattan. He was a frequent visitor to New Suffolk, New York and Westerly, Rhode Island and, in retirement, to Menton, France and Cambridge, England. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and South America. He enjoyed reading, gardening, music, art, nature, swimming and skiing, and was a keen student of the political scene. He played an active role in raising his grandchildren. He was devoted to family and friends.
Son of the late Jovi and Paraskeva Tenev, he is survived by a daughter Marie Pepper of Cambridge, England; a son Jovi Tenev and daughter-in-law Nancy Hingston of Princeton Junction, New Jersey; a granddaughter Tara Pepper Goldsmith and her husband Charles Goldsmith of Cambridge, England; a grandson Sean Pepper of New York; a grandson Liam Pepper and his wife Bic Hoang Leu of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a grandson Nicholas Tenev of Madison, Wisconsin; grandchildren Christopher and Helena Tenev of Princeton Junction; and great grandsons Charles, Thomas, and Jonathan Goldsmith of Cambridge, England.
A choral funeral Mass will be celebrated 4:30 p.m., Saturday, July 25, 2015 at Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, with interment at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton.
In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested donations to the Red Cross, Trinity Church, Princeton, or St Dimitri of Thessaloniki Church in Aitos.
Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home,
Princeton.
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Sharon Lynn Tash
Sharon Lynn (Davison) Tash, 68, of Felton, Delaware passed away on July 15, 2015.
Mrs. Tash is survived by her husband of 46 years Walter “Bud” Tash; three children: Jeffrey P. Tash and his wife Kathleen Meyers of Berwick, Maine; Kathleen L. Tash of Felton; Christopher W. Tash and his wife Michele of Hamilton, New Jersey; one brother: Robert Davison and his wife Polly of Princeton, New Jersey; one sister: Kim Allshouse and her husband Tim of Hopewell, New Jersey; and four grandchildren: Meghan, Ryan, Colin, and Ben. Mrs. Tash was predeceased by her sister Robyn McKee of Princeton, New Jersey.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, 40 Vandeventer Avenue, Princeton, where friends may visit with the family a half hour prior. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to the Bayhealth Foundation, 640 South State Street, Dover, DE 19901. The family wishes to extend their sincere gratitude to Bayhealth Kent General Hospital for their exceptional care.
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