Henry Corbin, 1903-1978: Between Philosophy and Orientalism

Author(s): Hermann Landolt

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 119, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1999), pp. 484-490

Published by: American Oriental Society

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 Henry Corbin, 1903-1978: Between Philosophy and Orientalism

Henry Corbin was a French engage "Orientalist"inspired by German philosophical phenomenol-

ogy and existential theology. His scholarly work on Islamic philosophy and Iranian culture implies
a fundamental critique of "Orientalism,"which reflects his philosophical background and differs in
naturefrom EdwardSaid's, although the reactions to both were sometimes similar.The article attempts
to highlight the connection between Corbin's philosophical thought and his prodigious scholarly
work, and to assess the impact of the latter in light of the former.

I It is partly as a reaction to this typically Western and

"Orientalist"perceptionof things that the work of Henry
The conventional way to study the Islamic philosoph- Corbin and his life-long concern to give "Oriental"phi-
ical tradition, in so far as one was recognized to exist, losophy its due place must be understood. As Muhsin
has been decidedly eurocentric. By and large, it was as- Mahdi has noted, "Corbin distinguished himself from
sumed that the only reason why so-called "Arabic phi- most of his contemporaries by the effort to think both
losophy" should be taken into consideration at all was a historically and philosophically when dealing with Is-
historical one: the fact that it was thanks to the Arabs lamic philosophy"-a distinction which has opened
that the Greek philosophical tradition had survived him, Professor Mahdi added, to "one of the strangest
through the Middle Ages; and it was taken for granted criticisms" from "some of the representatives of the
that this tradition had found its last major exponent in older, historical and philological tradition of Islamic
twelfth-centurySpain with Dante's"greatCommentator," studies in the West."2Now, in the case of Henry Corbin,
Averroes, i.e., Ibn Rushd. Once these "Arabs"(meaning "to think philosophically" about Islamic philosophers
Christian and Muslim Arabs, Turks like al-Farabi, and clearly meant something more than a simple method-
Iranians like Avicenna [Ibn Sina], all living under Is- ological device. It meant, to put it in a nutshell, that the
lamic rule and writing mainly in Arabic) had done their Muslim philosophical tradition,and specifically the post-
due, as it were, by transmittingthis traditionto the Jews Ghazalian variety, had something interesting to offer to
and Latin Christendom,they were no longer interesting. the West precisely because it was different,because, hav-
This eurocentric attitude among students of philosophy ing preserved vital elements of the Gnostic tradition, it
was, moreover, reinforced by Orientalism which, for did not go along with the radical separation between
reasons of its own, had appropriatedal-Ghazali as "the "reason and revelation" that had informed mainstream
most original thinker that Islam has produced and its Western thought at least since the Renaissance. Not un-
greatest theologian."' Accordingly, the verdict passed by like the Presocratics in the case of Martin Heidegger
al-Ghazali upon the Islamic philosophical tradition was (whom Corbin greatly admired, especially in his student
accepted as final. Whatever philosophy the Muslim East days), the oriental Gnostics offered Corbin a way lead-
continued to produce after Ghazali was generally either ing directly to the very sources of true philosophical
ignored, or dismissed as "Oriental syncretism,"or con- thinking. By the same token, Corbin's scholarly work
fused with some sort of degenerate Sufism. was to imply nothing less than a fundamentalcritique of
the Western academic tradition. Indeed, one might say
that the critique of "Orientalism"which we now owe to
Earlierversions of this paper were read at the 35th ICANAS, Edward Said's eloquence was in a sense already voiced
Budapest,July 1997,andat the 16thAnnualConferenceof the much earlier by Corbin; and although the reasons and
Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science, motivations for such challenging of habitual ways of
Binghamton, N.Y., October 1977. thinking about Islamic thought and culture were of
1 Duncan B. Macdonald, "al-Ghazali,"The course quite different in the two cases, if not opposite in
Encyclopaediaof
Islam, II (1927): 146; idem, "al-Ghazzali," Shorter Encyclo- some respects, the reactions to both, coming as they did
paedia of Islam (1961): 111. Note that this categorical assess-
ment has been significantly modified by W. Montgomery Watt,
2 Muhsin Mahdi, "Orientalismand the
"al-Ghazali," The Encyclopaedia of Islam: New Edition, II Study of Islamic Phi-
(1965): 1038. losophy," Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (1990): 93.

484

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 LANDOLT:
Henry Corbin: Between Philosophy and Orientalism 485

from the same academic profession, whose ethos was names as Karl Barth and MartinHeidegger to the French
thereby being called into question, were sometimes scene. His translationof a collection of essays by Martin
strikingly similar. To be sure, Corbin was himself an Heidegger, published in 1938, titled Qu'est-ce que la
"Orientalist"in the sense that his scholarly work deals metaphysique? is still a classic.4 Yet there was another
for the greater part with things "oriental." Like other philosopher whose originality and depth of thought had
"Orientalists,"too, he evidently was what Edward Said really touched Corbin before, and who was to remain
would probably call an "essentialist" since the "Ori- his true philosophical hero to the end of his life. That
ent"-though not necessarily the geographic "East"- philosopher was the Iranian contemporaryof Averroes,
meant something different to him than the "West." Yet Shihabuddin Yahya al-Suhrawardi, whose "Oriental-
he was clearly an outsider to the profession and made no illuminative" (ishriqi) interpretation of Avicenna's phi-
secret of the fact. He preferredto see himself as a "born losophy Corbin found so much more refreshing than
Platonist,"a philosopher at heart and a theologian in his Averroes'"Western-dualistic"reductionism.5This Suhra-
own way, a "desperatebeliever" fighting his lonely bat- wardi (not to be confused with the Sufi of the same
tle for the unity of philosophy and theology and against name) is generally referred to by Orientalists as al-
agnosticism, historicism, positivism, psychologism, and maqtil, the "one killed," because he was indeed exe-
sociologism-all being forms of reductionism deeply cuted in 1191 for having claimed allegedly that God can
rooted in the Western academic tradition. An excellent create prophets at any time. Corbin adopted him, on the
bibliography covering more than three hundredtitles as contrary, as the one whose ontology of the "rising
well as much pertinent information on Corbin's biogra- Light" (ishraq) was intended to bring the wisdom of the
phy and personality can be found in the volume Henry ancient Sages of Persia to new life in the "present."
Corbin of the series Les Cahiers de l'Herne, edited by According to Corbin's own account, it was actually
ChristianJambet, published in Paris, in 1981.3 Heidegger's phenomenology, the search for the logos of
the phainomenon that "shows itself," that gave him the
II hermeneutic key to his new understanding of Suhra-
wardi's"Orientof Light."6He also acknowledges that his
It was as a student of medieval philosophy under Eti- discovery of this spiritual Orient was greatly helped by
enne Gilson in the early twenties that Corbinfirst became his long experience of the geographic East, his personal
interested in learning oriental languages. While subse- encounter with many scholars and philosophers, first in
quently pursuingIslamic Studies underLouis Massignon, Turkey and then, for a period of more than thirty years,
he remained essentially a philosopher-soon to become in Iran, where scholars such as Mohammad Mo'in and
a noted avant-garde intellectual who introduced such Seyyed Hossein Nasr and eminent representatives of the
hikmat-traditionsuch as CAllamahTabataba'i and Jala-
3 The followingare also of interest:ChristianJambet,La luddin Ashtiyani offered him their precious friendship
and collaboration until the end in 1978.
Logique des orientaux: Henry Corbin et la science des formes
(Paris, 1983); Melanges offerts a Henry Corbin, ed. Seyyed
Hossein Nasr, Wisdom of Persia Series, vol. 9 (Teheran, 4 Corbin's1937 lectureson Johann
Georg Hamann,pub-
1397/2536/1977); Darius Shayegan, Henry Corbin: La topog- lished with an introduction by Jean Brun (Paris, 1985) under
raphie spirituelle de l'islam iranien (Paris, 1990); Thomas the title Hamann philosophe du lutheranisme, should also be
Widmer, "Der franzosische Philosoph und IranistHenry Corbin mentioned in this context.
(1903 bis 1978): Eine kritische Lektire seines Werks vor dem 5
See, e.g., Henry Corbin,'En Orient,apres Averroes,"in Mul-
Hintergrundder Orientalismus-Debatte"(thesis, University of tiple Averroes: Actes du Colloque internationalorganise a l'oc-
Berne, 1990); Egbert Meyer, "Tendenzen der Schiaforschung: casion du 850e anniversaire de la naissance d'Averroes, Paris
Corbins Auffassung von der Schia," Zeitschrift der Deutschen 20-23 septembre 1976, ed. Jean Jolivet (Paris, 1978), 323-32.
Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, suppl. III.1 (1977): 551-58; 6 See Henry Corbin, "De Heidegger a Sohravardi, Entretien
Hamid Algar, "The Study of Islam: The Work of Henry avec Philippe N6mo," Cahiers de l'Herne: Henry Corbin, ed.
Corbin," Religious Studies Review 6 (April 1980): 85-91; C. Jambet (Paris, 1981): 23-37. Also see Martin Heidegger,
Charles J. Adams, "The Hermeneutics of Henry Corbin," in Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs (Frankfurt am
Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, ed. Richard C. Mar- Main, 1979), 110ff. Note, however, that Corbin'sphenomenol-
tin (Tucson, Ariz., 1985), 129-50; Roxanne Marcotte, "Phe- ogy may be understood as closer to Husserl's than to Heideg-
nomenology Throughthe Eyes of an Iranologist: Henry Corbin ger's, as was suggested by C. Jambet in his introduction to
(1903-1978)," The Bulletin of The Henry Martyn Institute of Itineraire d'un enseignement, Bibliotheque iranienne, vol. 38
Islamic Studies 14 (January-June 1995): 55-70. (Teheranand Louvain, 1993), 26 ff.

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486 Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3 (1999)

To begin with, Corbin was commissioned in 1939 by less than the existence of a whole, virtually unknown
the Bibliotheque nationale to catalogue and photograph continent of philosophical thought and spirituality, a
manuscripts in Istanbul for a period of three months specifically Iranian Islamic tradition that had not only
starting in September of that memorable year; he even- survived Ghazali's attacks but actually developed a dis-
tually found himself as the sole guardianof the French tinct and culturally significant character of its own, a
Institute there during World War II. As a result of this movement that culminated perhaps in the magnificent
prolonged residence in Istanbul, which provided an structuresof the "Shicite Renaissance" of seventeenth-
excellent opportunity for Corbin to make good use of century Isfahan, although it continues to exercise a
that city's marvelous manuscript libraries, the first vol- certain influence even up to our day.
ume of Suhrawardi'sOpera metaphysica et mystica was While establishing the first critical edition of Suhra-
published in 1945 as part of the series Bibliotheca wardi'sHikmat al-ishraq for the Bibliotheque iranienne,
Islamica, directed by Hellmut Ritter.The second volume Corbin also translated its most important metaphysical
of the Opera, containing Suhrawardi'sfamous Hikmat section, together with QutbuddinShirazi's helpful com-
al-ishraq plus two shorter treatises, followed in 1952 mentaryand the extremely interestingyet difficultglosses
from Teheranas part of the Bibliotheque iranienne, the by the great seventeenth-century Shi'ite philosopher,
important series of texts on Islamic philosophy and Mulla Sadra Shirazi, which were (and still are) available
mysticism which Corbin himself had founded in the only in the scarcely legible margin of the traditional
meantime, and which he directed for many years. lithographedition. This difficult translationwork, which
Corbin moved to Teheran for the first time directly Corbin himself revised several times before his death,
from Istanbul in September 1945 to "meet Suhrawardi was published posthumouslyin France, thanksto the me-
in his own homeland," as he put it, returning to Paris ticulous editorial work of Christian Jambet, one of his
only in 1946. One year later, the Departement d'Irano- students,underthe title Le Livre de la sagesse orientale.8
logie of the newly founded Franco-IranianInstitute was The perhaps somewhat old-fashioned term sagesse,
officially inaugurated,with Corbin as its director. From "wisdom,"was deliberately chosen in order to avoid all-
that time on until his death, Corbin returnedalmost ev- too-frequent misunderstandingof Corbin's own prefer-
ery year to Teheranfor a term or so, while also lecturing, ence for the term theosophie, although Corbin himself
from 1949, at the yearly Eranos Conferences in Ascona, had already made it abundantly clear that he used this
Switzerland, and teaching, from 1954, as successor to term in an etymological sense only, corresponding liter-
Louis Massignon at the Ecole pratiquedes hautes 6tudes ally to hikma ildhiya and meaning a peculiar type of
in Paris. After his administrative retirement from the philosophy that is both rational and inspired. There can
French university system, he continued for the last four be no doubt that this work on Suhrawardi,Qutb Shirfzi,
years of his life to teach both in Paris and Teheran, re- and Mulla Sadra together occupied a central place in
turning there as before, but now as a guest of the then Corbin'sown thinking, for, as we shall see, Mulla Sadra's
Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy. The most critical yet admiring attitude towards Suhrawardi, his
tangible result of this activity is, of course, the series existential interpretation of ishrdq, his philosophy of
Bibliotheque iranienne, of which twenty-three volumes, permanent upwards "resurrection"rather than down-
many of them by Corbin himself, were published during wards emanation, his original concept of "substantial
his lifetime.7 These critical editions with detailed ana- motion" culminating in a new eschatology-all this
lytical introductionsand sometimes translationsof hith- played a decisive role in leading Corbin to his own crit-
erto unpublished philosophical, Gnostic and mystical ical stance vis-a-vis Heidegger's version of existential
texts certainly reflect Corbin'sconcept of Irano-Islamic philosophy.
philosophy in a most direct and concrete way. Focusing Equally decisive for Corbin was still anotheraspect of
from the beginning on the "oriental" interpretationof Suhrawardi'sthought, which was actually developed and
Avicenna, Corbin in due course was to discover nothing brought to full philosophical and theological relevance
by Mulla Sadra as well, namely, the notion of the imag-
7 First editions of inal world as a fundamental reality between mind and
twenty-twovolumes were published matter. On the one hand, this
basically anti-Cartesian,
jointlyby the D6partementd'Iranologieof the Franco-Iranian or rathertrans-Cartesian, led Corbin directly to
et d'OrientAdrien- position
Institute,Teheran,andLibrairied'Amerique Sufism and especially to Ibn CArabi.In this regard, I
Maisonneuve,Paris.Vol. 23 appearedas partof a new series
publishedby the IranianAcademyof Philosophy(see also
below,note20). 8 Lagrasse:Verdier,1986.

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 LANDOLT:Henry Corbin: Between Philosophy and Orientalism 487

should at least mention his L'Imagination creatrice dans translation of the Avicennian Recital of the Bird, ap-
le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi,9 first published in Paris in peared separately in Paris under the title L'Archange
1958-a work which not only clarified, for the first time empourprel3-a title which sounds perhapsdisturbingto
in "Orientalist"literature,the fundamentaloriginality of those who realize that the corresponding Persian title
Ibn CArabi'snotion of "theophany,"that is, his central (Caql-isurkh) of one of the fifteen texts means literally
notion of tajalli, in contrastto a thoughtless usage of the "red intellect," but which very well illustrates Corbin's
term "incarnation,"but also highlighted the "situationof art of rendering Suhrawardi'strue intentions, for the
esotericism" in general, as opposed to "unilateralmono- "Red Intellect" of this tale is at once Gabriel, the Angel
theism."'0On the other hand, Corbin was also the first to of Revelation, the Active Intellect of the philosopher,
realize fully the esoteric and Gnostic significance of and the archetypal figure of the initiatory guide of the
Suhrawardi'sown creative writing, his symbolic tales or Gnostic. Besides, this title also alludes to one of the most
narratives,which were written mostly in Persian. Corbin intimate themes of Corbin's own spiritual quest, that
coined the technical term recits d'initiation or "tales of of the "heavenly partner,"which is the subject of his
initiation" for this genre, signaling thereby his outspo- phenomenological study on L'Homme de lumiere dans
ken refusal to regard such tales as mere allegories to be le soufisme iranien.'4 Given that Corbin'srelationship to
simply decoded and reduced to popular versions of so- Carl Gustav Jung was one of friendship and mutual re-
called systematic philosophy-a point which, as is well spect, it should perhaps be pointed out that Corbin there
known, stirredup much debate, particularlysince Corbin emphasizes the difference between this "heavenly part-
applied it not only to Suhrawardibut also to Avicenna's ner"and Jung'snotion of the "collective unconscious."15
"Visionary Recitals,"1'and to the Ismacili "Book of the Despite his friendship with Jung, Corbin did not share
Sage and the Disciple" (Kitab al-'clim wa al-ghulam).12 what he used to refer to as "l'optimisme zurichois."
The Suhrawardian"tales" were eventually published in Corbin's profound attraction to Suhrawardi'sesoteri-
1970 as a collection of fourteen treatises forming the cism may also explain the fact that his researchfrom the
third part of the Suhrawardian Opera, thus being the earliest times turned decidedly towards Shicism. After
second volume devoted to Suhrawardi in the Biblio- all, it was Shicism, and particularly Ism'cilism, which
theque iranienne (vol. 17), edited by Seyyed Hossein best representedwithin Islam the traditionknown in late
Nasr, with Corbin'sintroductions.Still a few years later, Antiquity as gnosis. The transformationprocess of an-
in 1976, Corbin's own fully annotated translation of cient Gnostic, hermetic and Neoplatonic wisdom into an
this volume, including in addition Suhrawardi'sPersian original form of Islamic thought through Ismacilism
was, in fact, the major focus of the very first volumes of
9 the Bibliotheque iranienne. During the early years from
English by Ralph Mannheim as The Creative Imagination
1949 onwards, a numberof importanttexts documenting
in the Sufism of Ibn CArabi,Bollingen Series, vol. 91 (Prince-
the existence of classical Ismacili Gnosis were in this
ton, 1969).
10 Corbin's"apparentdistaste for monotheism"has been crit- way made available for the first time (vols. 1 [1949];
3 [1953]; 6 [1955]; 9 [1961]), besides, of course, Suhra-
ically examined by Lenn Evan Goodman in his review in In-
wardi's Hikmat al-ishraq (vol. 2 [1952]) and Avicenna's
ternational Journal of Middle East Studies 2 (1971): 278-90.
Corbin himself later redefined his position in Le Paradoxe du "Visionary Recital." Corbin's broadly conceived study
of the Avicennian narratives and their respective desti-
monotheisme (Paris, 1981), first published in Eranos-Jahrbuch
nies in the East and West also included, in the version
45 (1976) [Leiden, 1980]: 69-133.
11 For a relatively recent, refreshingly un-polemical discus- published in the Bibliotheque iranienne (vols. 4 and 5
sion of this issue see SarahStroumsa,"Avicenna'sPhilosophical
Stories: Aristotle'sPoetics Re-interpreted,"Arabica 39.2 (1992): 13 Shihdboddin Yahyd Sohravardi, L'Archange empourpre:
183-206. Also see Peter Heath, Allegory and Philosophy in Quinzetraitdsmystiquestraduitsdu persan et de l'arabe,annotes
Avicenna (Ibn Sind), with a Translation of the Book of the et pr6sentesparH. Corbin(Paris,1976).
Prophet Muhammad'sAscent to Heaven (Philadelphia, 1992). 14 First
published as "Physiologie de l'Homme de lumiere
Note that Corbin did not regardthe Micraj-ndmaas an authentic dans le soufisme iranien,"in Ombre et lumiere, Academie sep-
work of Avicenna's, mainly because it seems to contradict Avi- tentrionale, Paris (1962): 135-257. Subsequently published in
cenna's true position regardingthe role of the Active Intellect. book form as L'homme de lumiere dans le soufisme iranien
12 Discussed and partly translatedby Corbin in "L'initiation (Paris, 1971; and Sisteron, 1984). English by Nancy Pearson as
ismaelienne ou l'esoterisme et le Verbe,"Eranos-Jahrbuch 39 The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (Boulder, 1978).
(1970) [Leiden, 1973]: 41-142. 15 Formoredetails, see my review in JAOS102 (1982): 213-14.

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488 Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3 (1999)

[1954]), an edition of the Arabic text of, and an ancient fundamentally as the ultimately religious idea of "pres-
Persian commentary upon, the famous Avicennian tale ence" differs from the German philosopher's notion of
depicting the figure of the philosopher'sguide, the Active das Sein zum Tode.19Last but certainly not least, I
Intellect, .Hayyb. Yaqzan.16 A little later, Corbin turned should mention Corbin's projected six-volume Antholo-
more towardsSufism. In two volumes of the Bibliotheque gie des philosophes iraniens depuis le XVIIe siecle
iranienne (vols. 8 [1958] and 12 [1966]), he presented jusqu'a nos jours, to be carried out in collaboration with
the Sunni Sufi Ruzbihan Baqli (d. 1209), analyzing in JalaluddinAshtiyani. Four parts of this Anthologie were
particularthe latter's subtle theory of the ambiguity or actually published, but Corbin himself was able to
"amphiboly" (iltibas)17 of Love and of divine/human write introductions only to the first three.20However,
Speech (shath); two other volumes, on Sayyed Haydar his introductions and notes, revised by himself and
Amuli, done in collaboration with Osman [cUthman] published posthumously as La philosophie iranienne
Yahya (vols. 16 [1969] and 22 [1975]) documented the islamique aux XVIIe et XVIIle siecles21 constitute a
all-important reception of Ibn CArabiin the Iranian unique source work and an indispensable supplementary
Shicite milieu of the fourteenth century and beyond. volume to his well-known major works, En Islam
Among other things, the discovery of this historical iranien22and Histoire de la philosophie islamique.23
reception process led Corbin to his unconventional,
phenomenological view of the history of Sufism in gen- III
eral, about which I shall say a word shortly. But the later
volumes of the Bibliotheque also include those which, To be fair, it should perhapsbe pointed out that Corbin
from a strictly philosophical point of view, are perhaps was not, in fact, the first European scholar to recognize
the most important, especially Mulla Sadra's Kitab al- the philosophical importance of both Suhrawardi and
mashacir or Le Livre des penetrations metaphysiques Mulla Sadra.In the firsttwo decades of this century,Max
(vol. 10), published in 1964 with the original Arabic Horten, another philosopher finding himself somehow
text, a Persiantranslationand commentarywrittenby that lonely among the Orientalists, first attempted to make
remarkable Qajar philosopher-prince, Badic ul-Mulk this Easternphilosophy available to his colleagues.24Yet
Mirza CImaduddawla,8 a fully annotatedFrench transla- unlike Corbin'sstrongly text-oriented and in-depth anal-
tion of the main text, and a long bibliographical and yses, Horten's supposedly systematic presentations of
philosophical introduction. In the latter, Corbin reveals Suhrawardi'sand Mulla Sadra'sphilosophies were quite
much of his own thinking on "Being and Time" and also summaryindeed. His Philosophische Systemvon Schirdzi
explains in what way the seventeenth-century Iranian gives, contrary to expectations raised by the words added
classic of the philosophy of pure existence differed on the title page, iibersetzt und erldutert, a mere indica-
fundamentally from Heidegger's "existentialism"-as tion of some of the contents of Sadra'smagnumopus, the
Four Journeys. Moreover, Horten's approachto Iranian
16 philosophy and mysticism in general was still marred by
English(withoutthe Arabicand Persiantexts) by W. R.
Trask,BollingenSeries,vol. 66 (New York,1960).A separate
editionof the Frenchtranslationof the Arabictext of Hayyb. 19 See also "De
Heidegger a Sohravardi"(above, note 6).
20 Vols. 18
Yaqzdnand the Persian commentary was published in 1953 by (1972) and 19 (1975). Part 3 was originally
the Societe des monuments nationaux de l'Iran (UNESCO, planned to appearas vol. 23. Published by the IranianAcademy
(Euvres representatives, serie persane). of Philosophy in 1976, according to the title page, it has only a
17 Iam aware of the strictures on Corbin's understandingof brief introductionby Henry Corbin, dated December 1977.
this term that have been made by Carl W. Ernst,Rizbihan Baqli: 21
Paris, 1981.
22 Four volumes (Paris, 1971-72).
Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism
23
(Richmond,Surrey,1996). English, by Liadain Sherrard,with the assistance of Philip
18 The same man who also wrote a commentary on Jami's Sherrard,as History of Islamic Philosophy (London and New
Durra al-fakhira (MSMajlis 100, fols. 79b-121b, dated 1308 York, 1993), from the complete second French edition (Paris,
A.H. as described by Corbin, Penetrations, French introduction, 1986). The first French edition (Paris, 1964) contained only the
pp. 53 and 58). An apparentlylater and incomplete version of first part, which was written in collaboration with Seyyed
this commentary has been published by A. Mfsavi Behbahani Hossein Nasr and Osman Yahya.
under the title Hikmat-i Clmadiyya,on the basis of another 24 Cf. Max Horten, Die Philosophie der Erleuchtung nach
manuscript written in 1316 A.H., as an appendix to N. Heer's Suhrawardi (1191) (Halle, 1912; reprint Hildesheim, 1981);
edition of the Durra, Wisdom of Persia Series, vol. 19 (Teheran SystemvonSchirdzi(1640),ibersetzt
idem,Dasphilosophische
[1980], 115-222; see ibid., pp. lxv ff. and 219, note). und erliutert (StraBburg,1913).

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 LANDOLT:
Henry Corbin: Between Philosophy and Orientalism 489

a typical nineteenth-century flirtation with Indo-Aryan itance as transmittedby the imams belongs to the very
theories-a temptation which Corbin was definitely too essence of Shicism in the first place. From this perspec-
Massignonian, or Christian, to fall for. Corbin'sperhaps tive, it remains significant that Ibn CArabi,despite his
somewhat romantic idea of a continuity "from Mazdean occasional unkind remarks about Shicites, should
Iran to Shl'ite Iran"was to be understood, in a musical choose to single out CAlib. Abi Talib as the "closest of
sense, as a "harmonicprogression,"as he made clear in all people" to the prophet Muhammadand to place him,
Terreceleste et corps de resurrection:De l'Iran mazdeen in terms of closeness to the "Light of God,"on the same
a l'Iran shiite.25 Despite appearances, this idea had no level as "the secrets of the prophets altogether,"that is,
inner affinity whatsoever with a political program that second only to the "Reality of Muhammad."28
could be perceived as aiming to cast fourteen centuries One of the criticisms frequently made of Corbin's
of Islamic history into oblivion. Quite to the contrary, phenomenological vision of the history of Islamic phi-
the existence of a specifically Iranian Islam proved to losophy is that he spiritualized or "re-mythologized"it,
Corbin the validity of Islam as a universal religion, as it were, at the expense of its very strong rational side.
which he simply refused to confuse with Arabism. True It is of course true that this rational side, the one almost
to his personalist thinking about religion, he also refused exclusively taken into consideration in most other pre-
to derive monistic trends in Islamic mysticism from sentations, is not the one which caught Corbin'sinterest.
Indian monism, as is evident from one of his latest lec- It is also clear that certain pages in his History of
tures, Le Paradoxe du monotheisme.26Like Massignon's, Islamic Philosophy, for example those on al-Farabi,who
his generous concept of "monotheism"was based on the is presented essentially along traditional, Neoplatoniz-
Islamic notion of the "Abrahamicreligion," although he ing lines, may have to be revised, particularlyin view of
undoubtedly included Zarathustrain this spiritualfamily the fact that there appear to be more serious grounds to
and never interpretedthis in a historical sense. Most im- question the authenticity of some famous Farabiana
portantwas what he used to call "the phenomenon of the than Corbin would allow.29While Corbin's rather brief
Sacred Book" and its necessary counterpart,the person dismissal of any "political" interpretationof Farabi as a
of a prophetic figure, the presumed source of spiritual "modem" misunderstandingadmittedly does not really
hermeneutics. In the final analysis, I think, it is Corbin's go to the crux of the question, one does not quite see, on
conviction that this personal source can never be "incar- the other hand, why the "political" thinker Farabi could
nated"once and for all in history, which also explains his not also have been a mystic in his own way, provided
profound sympathy for Shicism. one accepts the definition of "mysticism" Corbin him-
Of course, Corbin's well-known thesis that Sufism is self gives in those very pages. In the case of Avicenna,
really an extension of Shicism in partibus Sunnitarum- where the evidence is, of course, much stronger, Cor-
and an incomplete one at that-is highly problematic; bin's enthusiasmfor the "Visionary Recital,"and perhaps
indeed it is hardly tenable as a historical statementabout also his style of writing, seem to have had the para-
the origin of Sufism.27However, if it is held against the doxical effect that more recent "Orientalist"literatureon
backgroundof those generalizing theories in the History the subject shows some disturbing symptoms of acute
of Religions which would claim that a propheticreligion "Corbinophobia."To set the record straight,allow me to
is by essence incapable of generating genuine mysti- point out that while much of what Avicenna wrote may
cism, then Corbin's Shicite thesis simply reflects the
powerful counter-example provided by the existence of 28 Futiihat(Cairo,
Islam itself-the fact that Sufism cannot be understood 1329/1911),I: 119. Formoredetails,see
without the notion of prophetic inheritance as transmit- my review of Michel Chodkiewicz, Le Sceau des saints:
ted by a shaykh, and that the notion of prophetic inher- Prophetie et saintete dans la doctrine d'Ibn Arabf (Paris,
1986), in Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques 4 (1987):
83-85.
25 Paris, 1961. The second (revised)Frenchedition,titled 29 See especially the recent study by J. Lameer, Al-Fdrdbi
Corps spirituel et terre celeste: De l'Iran mazdeen a l'Iran and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek Theory and Islamic Prac-
shicite,was publishedin 1979. Englishby N. Pearson,Bol- tice (Leiden and New York, 1994). However, even assuming
lingenSeries,vol. 91 (Princeton,1977),as SpiritualBodyand that Farabi himself wrote neither the Gems of Wisdomnor the
Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shicite Iran. Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Philosophers, a
26 See
above,note 10. point which is still a matterof some debate, Corbin'sview may
27 Forcriticalreviewsof this see the
thesis, notably articles neverthelessfind supportin such unquestionablyauthentic
by EgbertMeyer, HamidAlgar, and CharlesAdams,cited worksas the De Intellectu,whichcontainsnumerousPlotinian
above,note3. elements,despiteits Aristotelianoutlook.

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490 Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3 (1999)

perhapsappearto be "intrinsicallyalien to the principles Suhrwardi, which is diametrically opposed to Corbin's,

of Sufism as it had developed until his time" and "free would seem to imply nothing less than the presumption
of any other mystical or esoteric aspect,"30the fact that any philosophy worthy of that name must reflect
remains that his famous chapter on maqimdt al-'arifin, the concerns of Westernempiricist philosophy, and more
which begins with an explicit reference to the tale of particularly, its Anglo-American variety; otherwise, it
"Salaman wa-Absal," not only has little if anything to falls into the category of "mysticism." To this, it might
do with Aristotelian syllogistics, it does in fact give an be suggested in reply that the validity of the presup-
excellent description and analysis of Sufi experience, posed alternative "philosophy or mysticism" remains
which may be corroboratedwith other crucial passages itself unproven, and that there is no good reason to be-
from the Ishdrat and other Avicennian works. Moreover, lieve that reason is not itself culturally conditioned, as
there are reasons to think thatAvicenna may have learned anthropologists would say. Corbin himself would have
something about the Sufism of his own time from one said that the modus cognoscendi depends on the modus
of its most reputed teachers, Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi essendi, not the other way round.
(d. 385/995 in Bukhara), as I have argued elsewhere.31 Finally, there is, of course, the criticism of those who
As for recent criticisms of Corbin'sSuhrawardi,there is feel that Islam is completely misrepresented if the im-
no real basis in my view for the claim that his ishraqi portance of the Sharica and the impact of its political
metaphysics must be reduced to purely epistemological ramifications are neglected or underestimated. Well,
concerns, and that he should therefore be seen as a pre- Corbin certainly did not think that it was his task to
cursor of Ibn Taymiyya and David Hume rather than "represent Islam" from that angle. He was not a phe-
Mulla Sadra, as was oddly suggested in a recent study nomenologist in the derived sense in which this term is
published by HarvardUniversity.32Such an approachto used in what is called "Religionswissenschaft,"but in its
primary meaning. Being deeply aware of the timeless
conflict between the "esoteric"and the "exoteric,"or the
30 Dimitri
Gutas, "Avicenna, V: Mysticism," Encyclopaedia spirit and the letter, he created a monument to the
Iranica,I: 79-83. A.-M.Goichon,certainlyno "Corbinophile" former, which stands by itself. Besides, it remains to be
herself, was somewhat less categorical. See also the more recent seen whether the Iranian tradition of spirituality he did
discussion in Shams Inati, Ibn Sind and Mysticism: Remarks consider it his task to render "present,"has spoken its
andAdmonitions, pt. 4 (LondonandNew York,1996). last word.
31 "Ghazali and 'Religionswissenschaft':Some Notes on the
Mishkdt al-Anwdr for Professor Charles J. Adams,"Asiatische
HERMANNLANDOLT
Studien/Etudes asiatiques 45 (1991): 51, n. 125.
McGILL UNIVERSITY
32 John Walbridge,The Science of Mystic Lights: Qutbal-Din
Shirazi and the Illuminationist Traditionin Islamic Philosophy
Mass.,1992),94. Cf.myreviewin Bulletincritique
(Cambridge,
des Annales islamologiques 11 (1994): 123-25 [Persianversion
of the samein Iran-shenasi(Chicago)6.4 (1995):873-76].

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