Suhrawardi

"Thus it was that one day - it was, I think, in the year 1927-28 - I spoke to [Louis Massignon] of the reasons that had led me as a philosopher to the study of Arabic, questions that posed themselves to me concerning the connections between philosophy and mysticism, and that I knew, through a scanty resume in German, of a certain Suhrawardi... Then Massignon had an inspiration from Heaven. He had brought back from a trip to Iran a lithographed edition of the major work of Suhrawardi, Hikmat al'Ishraq, 'The Oriental Theosophy.' With commentaries, it formed a large volume of more than 500 pages. 'Take it,' he said to me, 'I think there is in this book something for you.' This 'something' was the company of the young Shaykh al-Ishraq, who has not left me my whole life. I had always been a Platonist (in the broad sense of the term); I believe that one is born a Platonist as one is born an atheist, a materialist etc. Unfathomable mystery of pre-existential choices! The young Platonist that I was then could only take fire at contact with the one who was the 'Imam of the Platonists of Persia...' ...through my meeting with Suhrawardi, my spiritual destiny for the passage through this world was sealed. Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path that I was seeking."

in Christian Jambet, (ed.) 1981, Henry Corbin, Cahier de l'Herne, no. 39. Consacré à Henry Corbin, 40-41. English translation of the entire interview with Philip Nemo available here courtesy of Les Amis de Stella et Henry Corbin.

Circular Ornament: Iran, 16th-17th Century. The Freer Gallery of Art & the Arthur Sackler Gallery. "In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate."

Manuscript Page, Suhrawardi ms. given to Henry Corbin, from Henry Corbin, ed. Jambet.