Henry Corbin (14 April 1903 – 7 October 1978)^[1] was a Frenchphilosopher,theologian, andIranologist, professor ofIslamic studies at theÉcole pratique des hautes études. He was influential in extending the modern study of traditionalIslamic philosophy fromearlyfalsafa to later and "mystical" figures such asSuhrawardi,Ibn Arabi, andMulla Sadra Shirazi. With works such asHistoire de la philosophie islamique (1964), he challenged the common European view that philosophy in the Islamic world declined afterAverroes^[2] andAvicenna.

Born into a Catholic family, he converted to Protestantism between 1927 and 1930.^[1] He received aCatholic education, obtaining a certificate inScholastic philosophy from theCatholic Institute of Paris at age 19. Three years later he took his"license de philosophie" under theThomist thinkerÉtienne Gilson. He studied modern philosophy, includinghermeneutics andphenomenology, becoming the first French translator ofMartin Heidegger. On 13 October 1929,Louis Massignon (director of Islamic studies at theSorbonne) introduced him to Suhrawardi, the 12th-century Persian Muslim thinker. In a late interview, Corbin said: "through my meeting withSuhrawardi, my spiritual destiny ... was sealed. Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrianangelology of ancientPersia, illuminated the path that I was seeking."^[3][4] He thus dedicated himself to understandingIranian Islam, which he believedesoterically expressed olderperennial insights related toZoroastrianism andPlatonism.

Corbin regularly spent time inIran, working withShia thinkers such asMuhammad Husayn Tabatabai andSeyyed Hossein Nasr. He also became prominent in the EuropeanEranos circle of scholars initiated byCarl Jung, whose theories (such as thecollective unconscious andactive imagination) he appreciated. Aside from Islamic thought, Corbin wrote onChristian mysticism, especiallyEmanuel Swedenborg and theHoly Grail.^[5]

The philosophical life and career of Corbin can be divided into three phases. The first is the 1920s and 1930s, when he was involved in learning and teachingwestern philosophy. The second is the years between 1939 and 1946, in which he studiedShahab al-Din Suhrawardi and theSchool of Illumination while living inIstanbul. The last phase begins in 1946 and lasts until his death, in which he studied and reintroducedeastern andIslamic philosophy.^[6]

In 1933 he marriedStella Leenhardt. In 1938, he completed the first translation of one ofHeidegger's works into French (Was ist Metaphysik?, asQu’est-ce que la metaphysique?).^[1] In 1939 they traveled toIstanbul, and in 1945 toTehran. They returned toParis one year later in July 1946. In 1949, Corbin first attended the annualEranos Conferences inAscona, Switzerland. In 1954 he succeededLouis Massignon in the Chair of Islam and the Religions ofArabia at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. From the 1950s on he spent autumn in Tehran, winter in Paris and spring inAscona.

The three major works upon which his reputation largely rests in theEnglish speaking world were first published in French in the 1950s:Avicenna and the Visionary Recital,Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi andSpiritual Body and Celestial Earth. His later major work on Central Asian and IranianSufism appears in English with an Introduction byZia Inayat Khan asThe Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Hismagnum opus is the four volumeEn Islam Iranien: Aspects spirituels et philosophiques which remains untranslated into English. It has been translated intoPersian twice by Dr Enshollah Rahmati and Reza Kuhkan from French (the 4th volume being still untranslated).^[7] He died on 7 October 1978.^[1][8]

There are several main themes which together form the core of thespirituality that Corbin defends. TheImagination is the primary means to engage with Creation.Prayer is the "supreme act of the creative imagination". He considered himself aProtestant Christian but he abandoned aChristocentric view of history. The grand sweep of histheology of theHoly Spirit embracesJudaism,Christianity andIslam. He defended the central role assigned in theology for the individual as the finite image of the UniqueDivine.

Hismysticism is no world-denyingasceticism but regards all of Creation as atheophany of the divine. This vision has much in common with what has become known asCreation Spirituality, and the figure of theAngelHoly Spirit is similar to what is sometimes called theCosmic Christ.^[9]

Corbin's ideas have continued through colleagues, students and others influenced by his work. Especially during his tenure at theImperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy founded in 1974 bySeyyed Hossein Nasr. There he collaborated with western and non-western academics likeWilliam Chittick,Toshihiko Izutsu,Sayyed Jalal-ed-Din Ashtiani,Abbas Zaryab,Toshio Kuroda and others.^[10] He also influencedPeter Lamborn Wilson^[11][12][13] who studied under Corbin whilst in Iran who would go on to publish reviews on Corbin's work in the first publication of the journalTemenos by theTemenos Academy in 1981.^[14][15] The journalTemenos also published English translations of Corbin's work, specifically byPeter Russell, Liadain Sherrard,Kathleen Raine between 1981 and 1992.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} The journal was revived in 1998 as theTemenos Academy Review and continued to have translations of Corbin's work between 1998 and 2009 by Kathleen Raine and Christine Rhone.^[22] Other scholars ofSufism andIslamic thought that were influenced by Corbin areChristian Jambet,Ali Amir-Moezzi,Hermann Landolt,Pierre Lory,James Cowan, James Morris, and Todd Lawson.

Corbin was an important source for thearchetypal psychology ofJames Hillman and others who have developed thepsychology ofCarl Jung. In addition, Corbin was good friends withJacques Lacan, the French reinterpreter ofSigmund Freud, which gaveLacan a familiarity with Islamic thought.^{[23][24][25][26]} According toBehrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi,Michel Foucault’s mystical understanding ofShia Islam which he utilised while reporting on theIranian revolution was shaped by the scholarship ofLouis Massignon and Henry Corbin.^[27] The American literary criticHarold Bloom claims Corbin as a significant influence on his ownconception ofGnosticism, and the American poetCharles Olson was a student of Corbin'sAvicenna and the Visionary Recital. Corbin's friends and colleagues in France have established L'Association des Amis de Henry et Stella Corbin^[28] for the dissemination of his work through meetings and colloquia, and the publication of his posthumous writings.^[29][30]

Corbin's work has been criticized by a number of writers, including Steven M. Wasserstrom. Corbin's scholarly objectivity has been questioned on the basis of both aShi'itebias, and histheological agenda; he has been accused of being both ahistoricallynaive and dangerously politicallyreactionary; and he has been charged with being both anIranian nationalist and anelitist in both his politics and hisspirituality. Other writers, such as Lory and Subtelny, have written to defend Corbin.^[31][32]

• Avicenna and the Visionary Recital. Princeton University Press, 1960.
• Histoire de la philosophie Islamique. Gallimard, 1964. (Re-issued by Kegan Paul in 1993 asHistory of Islamic PhilosophyISBN 0-7103-0416-1..)
• Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi. Princeton University Press, 1969. (Re-issued in 1998 asAlone with the Alone.)
• En Islam Iranien: Aspects spirituels et philosophiques (4 vols.). Gallimard, 1971–73.
• Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shi'ite Iran. Princeton University Press, 1977.
• Le Paradoxe du Monothéisme. l'Herne, 1981.
• Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis. KPI, 1983.
• L'Homme et Son Ange: Initiation et Chevalerie Spirituelle. Fayard, 1983.
• Face de Dieu, Face de l'homme: Hermeneutique et soufisme. Flammarion, 1983.
• Temple and Contemplation. KPI, 1986.
• The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Omega Publications, 1994.
• Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam. Swedenborg Foundation, 1995.

• The Seeker of Orient, directed by Masoud Taheri, 2019

• Ahmad Fardid
• Active imagination
• Barzakh
• Falsafa
• Hossein Nasr
• Iranistics
• Martin Heidegger
• Nader El-Bizri
• Sufi studies
• Temenos Academy Review

• Adams, Charles J. "The Hermeneutics of Henry Corbin," inApproaches to Islam in Religious Studies, Martin, Ed., University of Arizona Press, 1985.
• Addas, Claude.Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi. Trans.Peter Kingsley.Islamic Texts Society, 1993.
• Algar, Hamid. "The Study of Islam: The Work of Henry Corbin." Religious Studies Review 6(2) 1980: 85–91.
• Avens, Roberts. "The Subtle Realm: Corbin, Sufism and Swedenborg," inImmanuel Swedenborg: A Continuing Vision, Edited by Robin Larson. Swedenborg Foundation, 1988.
• Amir-Moezzi, M.,Christian Jambet andPierre Lory, (eds).Henry Corbin: Philosophies et Sagesses des Religions du Livre. Brepols, 2005.
• Bamford, Christopher. "Esotericism Today: The Example of Henry Corbin," in Henry Corbin,The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy. North Atlantic Books, 1998.
• Bloom, Harold.Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams and Resurrection. Riverhead Books, 1996.
• Brown, Norman O., "The Prophetic Tradition," and "The Apocalypse of Islam," inApocalypse and/or Metamorphosis. University of California Press, 1991.
• Camilleri, Sylvain and Proulx, Daniel. « Martin Heidegger et Henry Corbin : lettres et documents (1930-1941) », inBulletin heideggérien, vol. 4, 2014, p. 4-63.
• Cheetham, Tom.The World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism. Spring Journal Books, 2003.
• _____Green Man, Earth Angel: The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the Soul of the World. SUNY Press, 2005.
• _____After Prophecy: Imagination, Incarnation and the Unity of the Prophetic Tradition. Lectures for the Temenos Academy. Spring Journal Books, 2007.
• _____All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings, North Atlantic Books, 2012.
• _____Imaginal Love: The Meanings of Imagination in Henry Corbin and James Hillman, Spring Publications, 2015.
• Chittick, William.The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn 'Arabi's Metaphysics of the Imagination. SUNY Press, 1989.
• Chodkiewicz, Michel.An Ocean without Shore: Ibn 'Arabi, the Book and the Law. Trans. David Streight.Islamic Texts Society, 1993.
• ______Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn 'Arabi. Trans. Liadain Sherrard. Islamic Texts Society, 1993.
• Corbin, H. (1969).Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn `Arabi. (Trans. R. Manheim. Original French, 1958.) Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press.
• Corbin, H. (1972). "Mundus Imaginalis, the Imaginary and the Imaginal".Spring, 1972 pp. 1–19. New York: Analytical Psychology Club of New York, Inc.
• Elmore, Gerald.Islamic Sainthood in the Fullness of Time: Ibn al-'Arabi's Book of the Fabulous Gryphon. Brill, 1998.
• Jambet, Christian, (Editor).Henry Corbin. Cahier de l'Herne, no. 39. Consacré à Henry Corbin, 1981.
• _____La logique des Orientaux: Henry Corbin et la science des formes. Éditions du Seuil, 1983.
• Giuliano, Glauco.Il Pellegrinaggio in Oriente di Henry Corbin. Con una scelta di testi. Lavis (Trento-Italia), La Finestra editrice, 2003.
• Giuliano, Glauco.Nîtârtha. Saggi per un pensiero eurasiatico. Lavis (Trento-Italia), La Finestra editrice, 2004.
• Giuliano, Glauco.L'Immagine del Tempo in Henry Corbin. Verso un'idiochronia angelomorfica. Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2009.
• Landolt, Hermann. "Henry Corbin, 1903-1978: Between Philosophy and Orientalism,"Journal of the American Oriental Society, 119(3): 484-490, 1999.
• Morris, James.The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn 'Arabi's Meccan Illuminations. Fons Vitae, 2005.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “Henry Corbin: The Life and Works of the Occidental Exile in Quest of the Orient of Light,” ch. 17, in S.H. Nasr,Traditional Islam in the Modern World. KPI, 1987.
• Shayegan, Daryush.Henry Corbin penseur de l'Islam spirituel, Paris, Albin Michel, 2010, 428 p.
• Suhrawardi, Yahyá ibn Habash.The philosophy of illumination: A new critical edition of the text of Hikmat al-Ishraq, with English translation, notes, commentary, and introduction by John Walbridge and Hossein Ziai.Brigham Young University Press, 1999.

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• Varzi, Roxanne. "Iran's French Revolution: Religion, Philosophy, and Crowds",The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 637, issue 1, pp. 53 – 63, July 25, 2011

Official website

• Association des Amis de Henry et Stella Corbin (French/English)

Tom Cheetham's Corbin blog

• The Legacy of Henry Corbin

Articles

• Corbin, Henry (1903–1978).Encyclopedia of philosophy.
• From 'Heidegger to Suhrawardi': An Introduction to the thought of Henry Corbin
• Between Heidegger and the Hidden Imam: Reflections on Henry Corbin's approaches to mystical Islam

• 1903 births
• 1978 deaths
• Writers from Paris
• Catholic University of Paris alumni
• University of Paris alumni
• Academic staff of the University of Paris
• French esotericists
• French historians of philosophy
• French orientalists
• French former Christians
• French historians of religion
• French Iranologists
• French Islamic studies scholars
• 20th-century French philosophers
• Heidegger scholars
• 20th-century French translators
• Arabic–French translators
• Persian-French translators
• Scholars of Sufism
• Ibn Arabi scholars
• Traditionalist School
• Western esotericism scholars

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
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