Henry Corbin

Henry Corbin (14 April 1903 – 7 October 1978)[1] was a French philosopher, theologian, and Iranologist, professor of Islamic studies at the École pratique des hautes études.

He was influential in extending the modern study of traditional Islamic philosophy from early falsafa to later and "mystical" figures such as Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi, and Mulla Sadra Shirazi.

"[3][4] He thus dedicated himself to understanding Iranian Islam, which he believed esoterically expressed older perennial insights related to Zoroastrianism and Platonism.

Corbin regularly spent time in Iran, working with Shia thinkers such as Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

He also became prominent in the European Eranos circle of scholars initiated by Carl Jung, whose theories (such as the collective unconscious and active imagination) he appreciated.

In 1954 he succeeded Louis Massignon in the Chair of Islam and the Religions of Arabia at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris.

The three major works upon which his reputation largely rests in the English speaking world were first published in French in the 1950s: Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi and Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth.

There he collaborated with western and non-western academics like William Chittick, Toshihiko Izutsu, Sayyed Jalal-ed-Din Ashtiani, Abbas Zaryab, Toshio Kuroda and others.

[14][15] The journal Temenos also published English translations of Corbin's work, specifically by Peter Russell, Liadain Sherrard, Kathleen Raine between 1981 and 1992.

[23][24][25][26] According to Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Michel Foucault’s Mystical understanding of Shia Islam which he utilised while reporting on the Iranian revolution was shaped by the scholarship of Louis Massignon and Henry Corbin.