The Legacy of Henry Corbin: The New Galleries for the Department of Islamic Art in Focus

"...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.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The New Galleries for the Department of Islamic Art in Focus

Encounter the exquisite world of religious painting from the fourteenth century to the present day and hear classical music from Cairo, Aleppo, and Baghdad. Presented with the opening of the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.

The Praiseworthy One: Devotional Images of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Traditions Christiane Gruber, associate professor of Islamic Art, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

A Performance by Alwan Arab Music Ensemble

This program is generously supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.