"...the Imagination (or love, or sympathy, or any other sentiment) induces knowledge, and knowledge of an 'object' which is proper to it..."
Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a scholar, philosopher and theologian. He was a champion of the transformative power of the Imagination and of the transcendent reality of the individual in a world threatened by totalitarianisms of all kinds. One of the 20th century’s most prolific scholars of Islamic mysticism, Corbin was Professor of Islam & Islamic Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Teheran. He was a major figure at the Eranos Conferences in Switzerland. He introduced the concept of the mundus imaginalis into contemporary thought. His work has provided a foundation for archetypal psychology as developed by James Hillman and influenced countless poets and artists worldwide. But Corbin’s central project was to provide a framework for understanding the unity of the religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His great work Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi is a classic initiatory text of visionary spirituality that transcends the tragic divisions among the three great monotheisms. Corbin’s life was devoted to the struggle to free the religious imagination from fundamentalisms of every kind. His work marks a watershed in our understanding of the religions of the West and makes a profound contribution to the study of the place of the imagination in human life.

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Picturing the Shahnameh: Nov 11 2010




Picturing the Shahnameh:
Word and Image in Ferdowsi's
"Book of Kings"


In commemoration of the millennium anniversary of the Persian Book of Kings and its continued relevance to Iran today
Thursday, November 11, 2010, 6:30-8:00 pm
Massumeh Farhad
Chief Curator and Curator of Islamic Art
Freer Gallery of Art and the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery


Azar Nafisi

Executive Director
SAIS Cultural Conversations
SAIS Nitze Building, Kenney Auditorium
1740 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
RSVP requested but not required -
laustin@jhu.edu or (202) 663-5635
Image: Iskandar (Alexander the Great) at the Talking Tree, From a Shahnama (Book of Kings) by Firdawsi (d.1020), Tabriz, Iran. Il-Khanid period, circa 1330-1336. Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper. Freer Gallery of Art, Purchase F1935.23

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